Shannon, Thomas J.

Born: 1821-12-29 Pennsylvania

Died: 1880-09-13 Mount Carmel, Illinois

Flourished: Mount Carmel, Illinois

Born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, Thomas J. Shannon was a teacher, lawyer, merchant, and public servant. Around the year 1837, he accompanied his father out West while his father worked on railroad construction between Mount Carmel and Albion, Illinois. After attending school in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, he began teaching while also studying law. He gained admittance to the bar in 1844. In 1845, he married Laura Beall, with whom he had at least two children. In 1848, he relocated to Mount Carmel and opened a successful and respected mercantile business. Laura died in 1855, and, in June 1857, he married Mary B. Hughes. Together they had at least two children. In 1864, voters elected him town trustee. He continued working and prospering as a merchant in Mount Carmel until after the Civil War. In 1850, he owned $3,000 in real estate. By 1860, he owned $8,500 in real estate and another $15,000 in personal property.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Mount Carmel, Wabash County, IL, 386; Indiana, U.S., Marriage Index, 1800-1941, 2 June 1857, (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2005); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Mount Carmel, Wabash County, IL, 78; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Mount Carmel, Wabash County, IL, 12; Public Press (Northumberland, PA), 1 October 1880, 2:3; Gravestone, Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Carmel, IL.