Weatherford, Jefferson

Born: 1810 Alabama

Died: 1867 Texas

Flourished: 1831- Macoupin County, Illinois

Weatherford moved to Illinois sometime prior to 1830 and by 1832 he had settled in Macoupin County, where he built one of the first mills in the county. After serving as a second lieutenant during the Black Hawk War, Weatherford returned to Macoupin County, where he served as sheriff from 1834 to 1836. He was later elected door-keeper for the Illinois House of Representatives, serving from 1836 to 1837, while Abraham Lincoln was a member of the body. In 1836, Weatherford sold his grocery store in Carlinville and received the bid to construct the county's new courthouse. He was also one of the proprietors of the village of Scottville in western Macoupin County. In 1846, he moved his family to Dallas County, Texas, where he lived for the remainder of his life, and which he represented in the Texas State Senate several times throughout the 1850s and 1860s. A staunch secessionist, he fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Charles A. Walker, ed., History of Macoupin County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1911), 1:106, 115, 117, 152, 372, 398; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Macoupin County, 343:44, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:164; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Morgan County, IL, 80; Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 9-10; Illinois House Journal. 1837. 10th G. A., special sess., 5; L. B. Hill, ed., A History of Greater Dallas and Vicinity (Chicago: Lewis, 1909), 2:198; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Dallas County, TX, 93.