Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Somers, William D.

Born: 1812-01-21 Rockford, North Carolina

William D. Somers was a lawyer, county government official, and city government official. He grew up on the family farm, working in the summer and attending school in the winter until he was fourteen. After working four years as clerk in local and county courts, he studied medicine, commencing practice in 1836. In November 1840, Somers arrived in Urbana, Illinois, where he practiced medicine. In October 1841, he married Catharine P. Carson, with whom he would have several children. He began to study law under Judge David Davis and was eventually admitted to the bar by Judge Samuel Treat in Springfield, Illinois, in 1846. Somers became Urbana's first licensed lawyer. Active in the Whig Party but never an office seeker, Somers introduced Abraham Lincoln to the audience at Lincoln's first Champaign County political address. When the Whig Party disbanded in 1854, Somers became affiliated with the Democrats. In 1855, Somers was appointed the local county lawyer for the Illinois Central Railroad, and he served in that capacity for many years. His legal practice proved lucrative, and by 1860, he owned real property valued at $10,000 and a personal estate of $1,000. During the Civil War, he served as supervisor for Urbana.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Champaign County, 17 October 1841, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Urbana, Champaign County, IL, 306; The Biographical Record of Champaign County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1900), 13-14; The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy, 1875), 115; Milton W. Matthews, ed., Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County (Urbana, IL: Champaign County Herald, 1886), 41-42; Portrait and Biographical Album of Champaign County, Illinois (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1887), 977-78. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.