Page 116

WILLIAM H. HERNDON was born in Greensburg, Kentucky, December 25, 1818, and came to Illinois in 1820, and Sangamon County in 1821, in company with his parents. The schools of Springfield he attended, as the opportunity offered, until 1836, when he entered Illinois College, at Jacksonville, but only attended one year, being removed by his father in consequence of the Abolition excitement then pending, and which resulted in the death of Lovejoy at Alton. The elder Herndon was inclined to be pro-slavery in his views, and did not care to have his son have Abolition sentiments instilled in his mind by the professors in the Jacksonville institution. It is probable, judging from later events, that the removal was accomplished when it was too late. After his removal from the college, he clerked in a store for several years, and in 1842 entered the law office of Lincoln & Logan, where he read two years and was admitted to the Bar in 1844. The partnership of Lincoln & Logan now being dissolved, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Herndon became partners, a relation which was never formally dissolved, and which existed until the death of Mr. Lincoln, though other temporary arrangements were effected by Mr. Herndon after Mr. Lincoln entered upon the duties of the Presidency. The first arrangement was a partnership with Chas. S. Zane, which continued until Mr. Zane's elevation to the Bench, when a partnership was entered into with A. Orendorff, which continued until Mr. Herndon's removal to the country in March, 1867. Before he left the city, he wrote and delivered four lectures on the character and life of Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Herndon has always been a great reader, and the questions of political economy and the science of mind have ever been with him favorite studies. The science of law has also been an interesting study to him. He always desires to go to the bottom of every subject, and wishes to reach it the quickest way possible. The little quibbles of the shyster disgusts him, and the red tapeism of the law affords him no pleasure.

In the days of the old Whig party, Mr. Herndon was an advocate of its principles, and the "hard cider campaign" of 1840, was the first in which he participated. He was always an opponent of slavery, and on the organization of the Republican party he became one of its strongest advocates.

Mr. Herndon has never been an office seeker, and the public positions that he has held have come to him unsought. He has held the offices of City Attorney, Mayor of Springfield, Bank Commissioner for the State, under Governors Bissell, Yates and Oglesby, besides other minor offices.

William H. Herndon and Mary J. Maxey was married in Sangamon County March 26, 1840. They have had six children. Mrs. Herndon died August 18, 1860, and Mr. Herndon was married July 31, 1861, to Anna Miles, by whom he has had two children.