Williamson, Chapman

Born: 1813-10-12 Barren County, Kentucky

Died: 1874-07-31 Tazewell County, Illinois

Flourished: 1832 to 1874 Tazewell County, Illinois

Chapman Williamson, cooper, farmer, and public official, settled in Tazewell County before the Black Hawk War, when he volunteered for service in the Illinois State Militia as a private in John G. Adams’ company of mounted volunteers. He was subsequently a constable or marshal in Tazewell County, then deputy sheriff, and ultimately served as sheriff of Tazewell County from 1856 to 1858 and again from 1860 to 1862. At the time of his 1860 election as sheriff, Williamson ran as a Republican. In his official capacities he was involved in several of Abraham Lincoln’s cases in Tazewell County Circuit Court. At the time of the 1860 census, he owned real estate valued at $3,000 and possessed $1,000 in personal property. Williamson was a Freemason. He married Mary Sargent in 1834 and Lucy Ann Judy in 1845; both marriages produced children.

Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, The Monthly, 43 (September 2021), 181; 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), 1:183, 185; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Tazewell County, 24 May 1834, 6 July 1845, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Tazewell County, 68:181; 825:39, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Tazewell County, IL, 29; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Tazewell County, IL, 79; For legal cases involving Lincoln, search Participant, “Williamson, Chapman,” Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; History of Tazewell County Illinois (Chicago: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 713, 714; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Tazewell County, IL, 195-96; The Press and Tribune (Chicago, IL), 17 September 1860, 2:4; Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of the State of Illinois (Peoria, IL: Thomas J. Pickett, 1855), 116; Bloomington Pantagraph (IL), 14 August 1874, 2:1, 2; Gravestone, Mackinaw Township Cemetery, Mackinaw, Tazewell County, IL.