Somers, James W.

Born: 1833-01-18 North Carolina

Died: 1904-06-06 California

Born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, James W. Somers moved to Urbana, Illinois as a child with his family. He studied law in the office of his uncle, William D. Somers, with whom he became a law partner after being admitted to the bar in 1856. Originally a Whig, Somers helped to organize the state Republican Party and actively campaigned for both John C. Fremont in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and 1860. By 1860, Somers owned $300 in real estate and was still working in Urbana as a lawyer. In 1861, President Lincoln appointed Somers to a position in the U.S. Department of the Interior, in which he worked for many years. In January 1863, he married Elizabeth J. “Jennie” Eddy. He died in Hollywood, California.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Champaign County, ed. by Joseph O. Cunningham (Chicago: Munsell, 1905), 2:1029-31; Milton W. Matthews and Lewis A. McLean, Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County (Urbana: Champaign County Herald, 1896), 36-37; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Urbana, Champaign County, IL, 318; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Cook County, 5 January 1863, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; The Evening Star (Washington, DC), 9 June 1924, 5:6; Gravestone, Hollywood Forever, Hollywood, CA. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.