Sweeney, Joseph W.

Born: 1831-11-28 Kentucky

Died: 1863-10-01 Rushville, Illinois

Flourished: Rushville, Illinois

Joseph W. Sweeney, one of the leading attorneys in Rushville, Illinois, introduced Abraham Lincoln when he spoke in that town on October 20, 1858. In 1861, he was appointed postmaster of Rushville, serving until his death in October 1863. Sweeney married Anna R. Housekeeper in October 1857 in Cass County, Illinois. The couple had two children in 1860. Sweeney died at the age of thirty-one of tuberculosis.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Cass County, 29 October 1857, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Rushville, Schuyler County, IL, 339; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1855-1865, Volume 20a:126, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Howard F. Dyson, "Lincoln in Rushville," Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society 8 (1904), 230; Report of Speech at Rushville, Illinois; Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA), 13 October 1863, 2:4; Gravestone, Rushville City Cemetery, Rushville, IL.