Waughop, John W.

Born: 1823-04-28 Virginia

Died: 1901-11-24 Chicago, Illinois

Flourished: Chicago, Illinois

Waughop spent his early life in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 1835, he and his family moved to Illinois, settling in Tazewell County. Waughop moved to Chicago in 1843 to further his education, and in 1846, he commenced reading law in the law office of Spring & Goodrich. In 1848, he earned admittance to the Chicago bar and commenced a law practice. That same year he married Ellen Bigelow, daughter of Arnold Bigelow, with whom he had five children. In 1854, Cook County voters elected Waughop superintendent of schools, and he won re-election in 1856. In 1856, Waughop was a delegate to the Bloomington (Anti-Nebraska) Convention that led to the formation of the Republican Party in Illinois. He became a prominent figure in the Republican Party of Chicago. A devoted Methodist, Waughop became a trustee of the First Methodist Church in 1856. In 1860, he was living in Chicago's First Ward and practicing law and had a personal estate of $10,000.

Gravestone, Arnold Bigelow, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL; A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1886), 3:249; The Bench and Bar of Chicago: Biographical Sketches (Chicago: American Biographical, [1883]), 395-96; J. Seymour Curry, Chicago: Its History and Its Builders: A Century of Marvelous Growth (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1918), 2:25; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 1, Chicago, Cook County, IL, 36; The Albany Law Journal 64 (January 1902), 24.