Vandeveer, Horatio M.

Born: 1816-03-01 Washington County, Indiana

Died: 1894-03-12 Taylorville, Illinois

As a child, Horatio M. Vandeveer moved with his family to Kentucky and Indiana before they established a farm on Clear Creek in Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1829. He received his basic education at a subscription school and his legal training by reading law books from John T. Stuart's library. After his admission to the bar, Vandeveer practiced law in Sangamon County. When the Illinois General Assembly organized Dane (Christian) County in 1839, he held several county offices there, including recorder, school commissioner, circuit court clerk, justice of the peace, and member of the Illinois House of Representatives. President James K. Polk appointed Vandeveer as an assistant quartermaster in the U.S. Army with the rank of captain, and Vandeveer served in the Mexican War. County residents elected Vandeveer judge of the Christian County Court in 1849 and again in 1853. In 1860 Vandeveer was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, and in 1862, he was elected to the Illinois Senate.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Christian County (Chicago: Munsell, 1918), 2:999-1001; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:156, 577-79. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.