Spring, Giles

Born: 1809-XX-XX Massachusetts

Died: 1851-05-15 Chicago, Illinois

Giles Spring was a lawyer, city attorney, and judge. After moving to Ohio, he studied law in Ashtabula alongside Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua R. Giddings. He relocated to Chicago in June 1833 and established a law practice on the corner of Franklin and South Water streets. In February 1836, he partnered with Grant Goodrich to form the law firm Spring & Goodrich. Later that year, he married Loventia Budlong, with whom he eventually had three children. He was successful enough that he was able to purchase more than $6,500 worth of land in Cook and Will counties between 1835 and 1836 alone. He was also an earnest and lifelong Whig. He ran for Congress in 1843, but was defeated by his Democratic opponent, John Wentworth. In 1848, however, he won election to the position of city attorney of Chicago. The next year, he was elected judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, which he presided over until his death. He died wealthy, owning $15,000 in real estate in the year just prior to his death.

John Moses and Joseph Kirkland, eds., The History of Chicago Illinois (Chicago: Munsell, 1895), 2:153; The Past and Present of Kane County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1878), 253; Usher F. Linder, Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: The Chicago Legal News, 1879), 387; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Cook County, 3 August 1836, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Cook County, 687:59, 291, L5A:15, 27; Will County, 686:21, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 1, Chicago, Cook County, IL, 148; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 21 May 1851, 3:1; Gravestone, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL.