Witt, Franklin

Born: 1804-11-23 Tennessee

Died: 1851-08-27 Greene County, Illinois

Witt settled in Pope County, Illinois, in 1814. He married Melinda Perry, daughter of Captain Franklin Perry, in 1823. The couple had four children. They settled in Kane Township in Greene County in 1826. He served as justice of the peace before being elected as a Democrat to the Illinois House of Representatives for one term, 1836 to 1838, representing Greene county. Voters elected him to the Illinois Senate for four terms. He represented Calhoun and Greene counties from 1838 to 1840; Calhoun, Jersey, and Greene counties from 1840 to 1842; Greene County from 1849 to 1850; and Greene County again from 1851 to his death. Witt also took part in the convention that drafted a new Illinois State Constitution in 1847. In 1850, he owned $18,000 in real estate.

History of Greene and Jersey Counties, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Continental Historical Co., 1885), 575, 672, 685; History of Greene County, Illinois (Chicago: Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd, 1879), 765-66; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 206-8, 216-17; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Greene County, IL, 118; Gravestone, Jalappa Cemetery, Kane, IL.