Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Shaw, George W.

Born: 1831-12-06 Providence, Rhode Island

Died: 1912-02-20 Geneseo, Illinois

George W. Shaw, lawyer, moved with his family to Tremont, Illinois as a boy. He graduated from Brown University in 1852 then returned to Illinois and read law in Springfield at the firm of John T. Stuart and Ninian W. Edwards beginning in 1854. Shaw was admitted to the bar that same year and practiced law in Pekin and Springfield before settling in Geneseo in 1857, where he enjoyed a long career as an attorney. During the 1860 election campaign, he worked as an editor for the short-lived Republican Geneseo Journal. By 1860, Shaw possessed $800 in real estate and $900 in personal wealth. Shaw married Lucy Andrews in 1855 and at the time of his death, five children survived him.

George W. Shaw, Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln (Moline, IL: Carlson, 1924), [7], 14; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 1, Providence, Providence County, RI, 24; Historical Catalogue of Brown University 1764–1914 (Springfield, MA: F. A. Bassette, 1914), 176-77; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Tazewell County, 1 May 1855, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; The History of Henry County, Illinois, Its Tax-Payers and Voters (Chicago: H. F. Kett, 1877), 212, 514; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Geneseo, Henry County, IL, 11; Moline Daily Dispatch (IL), 20 February 1912, 3:4; The Rock Island Argus (IL), 21 February 1912, 5:3-4; Gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery, Geneseo, Illinois.