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 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY 
 
 17 86-1839 
 
 An Illinois Pioneer 
 
 BY 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 
 
 Privately Printed 
 1941
 
 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY 
 
 17 86-1839 
 
 An Illinois Pioneer 
 
 BY 
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 
 
 Privately Printed 
 1941
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 This booklet is an amplification of a biographical 
 sketch of Charles Reynolds Matheny which ap>peared 
 in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society for 
 December, 1940. Its author, Mr. T. Walter Johnson, 
 is an instructor in the History Department at the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago. 
 
 Charles Reynolds Matheny was a true pioneer, first 
 in Kentucky, then in southern Illinois, and finally in 
 the region that later became the state's capital. Born 
 and reared in a state where slaves were held, he became 
 an outspoken opponent of human bondage, and his 
 frequent attacks on that institution probably barred the 
 way of political preferment as far as he was concerned. 
 Except for the courage of men of his kind, the new state 
 of Illinois, peopled largely by settlers from Kentucky 
 and Tennessee, might have followed the course of the 
 South. If it had, who can calculate the effect upon the 
 nation a generation later? 
 
 This sketch was prepared at the suggestion of Mr. 
 Willard Reynolds Matheny and Mr. Albert Reynolds 
 Matheny, each a resident of Chicago, each a great- 
 grandson of the subject of the article, each a member 
 of the Illinois State Historical Society. Their participa- 
 tion in a venture of this kind is gratifying evidence of 
 the interest of busy men in things historical. 
 
 Paul M. Angle 
 Springfield, Illinois. 
 January 1, 1941.
 
 \ \ 1 (^^ 
 
 "^ 
 
 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY 
 
 PIONEER SETTLER OF ILLINOIS 
 
 (1786-1839) 
 
 BY T. WALTER JOHNSON 
 
 American development has exhibited not merely advance along 
 a single line, but a return to primitive conditions on a continually 
 advancing frontier line, and a new development for that area, 
 American social development has been continually beginning over 
 again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of Amer- 
 ican life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its 
 continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish 
 the forces dominating American character. 
 
 FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, 
 
 The Frontier in American History. 
 
 THE career of Charles R. Matheny, commencing in 
 upland Virginia and extending through Kentucky 
 to the prairies of Illinois, illustrates the fluidity of 
 American life, the expansion westward, and the return 
 to primitive conditions of an advancing frontier line. 
 It also demonstrates the change in Illinois from fron- 
 tier conditions to a more stable social order. In the 
 process of evolution from a primitive society, there was 
 conflict within Illinois among the settlers as a result 
 of the different backgrounds from which they came. 
 Different points of view, different customs, and dif- 
 ferent institutions produced in older sections — the 
 Lowland South, the Upland South, the Middle States, 
 and New England — merged in the Old Northwest to
 
 4 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 create a new section and a new sectional culture.' Mr. 
 Matheny's career is representative of the importance 
 of the Upland South to the Territory and State of Illi- 
 nois. 
 
 Charles, son of James and Diana Beasley Matheny, 
 was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, on March 6, 
 1786. Sometime previous to this date, James Matheny 
 and his family had moved from Stafford County in the 
 Tidewater to Loudoun County, in the Piedmont region. ^ 
 Three years after the birth of Charles, James Matheny, 
 his wife, and two other sons journeyed to Kentucky 
 in search of better farming country. They crossed the 
 Allegheny Mountains from the Shenandoah Valley 
 through the Cumberland Gap and settled down in the 
 neighborhood of Harrodsburg, Kentucky.^ The tor- 
 menting difficulties which beset the Matheny family 
 on this journey have not been recorded for posterity, 
 but Peter Cartwright has described a similar journey 
 in the following words: 
 
 It was an almost unbroken wilderness from Virginia to Ken- 
 tucky at that early day, and this wilderness was filled with thou- 
 sands of hostile Indians, and many thousands of the emigrants 
 to Kentucky lost their lives by these savages. There were no roads 
 for carriages at that time, and although the emigrants moved by 
 thousands, they had to move on pack horses. . . . The fall my 
 father moved, there were a great many families who joined to- 
 gether for mutual safety, and started for Kentucky. Besides the two 
 
 1 JohnD. Barnhart, "The Southern Influence in the Formation oi Illinois," Journal 
 of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. XXXI, no. 3 (Sept., 1939), 35S-59. 
 
 2 Overwharton Parish Record (Stafford County, Va.), 123; I have made no attempt 
 to trace the background of the Matheny family. Apparently they came originally to 
 Virginia as indentured servants. In the possession of Willard R. Matheny, 33 N. 
 LaSalle St., Chicago, there are two genealogical charts. One traces the family back 
 to Kent County, England, and the other to an ancient French family, which emigrated 
 to England before coming to the colony of Virginia in the seventeenth century. The 
 latter account was published in the Boston Evening Transcript, March 22, 1937. Newton 
 Batcman and Paul Selby, eds.. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (Chicago, 1920), 355- 
 
 ' Bateman and Selby, Hist. Ency. of III. and Hist, of Sangamon County (Chicago, 
 l912), II: pt. II, p. 1,421.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 5 
 
 hundred families thus united, there were one hundred young men, 
 well armed, who agreed to guard these families through, and, as 
 a compensation, they were to be supported for their services. After 
 we struck the wilderness we rarely travelled a day but we passed 
 some white persons, murdered and scalped by the Indians going 
 to or returning from Kentucky.^ 
 
 From the date of this journey to Kentucky (1789) to 
 the year 1805, there is no information about Charles R. 
 Matheny or his family. In 1805, at the western con- 
 ference held in Scott County, Kentucky, he was received 
 into the Methodist Episcopal Church as a circuit rider, 
 and was appointed to the Illinois Circuit in the Cumber- 
 land District. The Illinois Circuit, embracing the few 
 scattered settlements within the bounds of the present 
 counties of Madison, St. Clair, and Monroe, had been 
 organized in 1804. When Matheny took charge of the 
 Illinois Circuit, there were 120 members.^ At the con- 
 clusion of one year's service as a circuit rider Matheny 
 was retired at his own request.® The reason for this 
 decision is not known, but it was likely a result of 
 Matheny's desire to rear a family, a difficult task on a 
 circuit rider's salary. 
 
 Although he resigned as a circuit rider, he retained 
 his interest in the Methodist Church in St. Clair County 
 and later in Sangamon County, after he moved there in 
 1821. His status permitted him to preach in his own 
 and neighboring communities and to organize new 
 class meetings until the regular circuit rider could ap- 
 pear on the scene. In 1807, William McKendree, the 
 
 ^ W. p. Strickland, ed.. Autobiography of Peter Cartwright (London, 1859), 1. 
 
 ^Minutes of the Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, I: 134, 137, 319. J. 
 Scripps, writing in the Western Christian Advocate, Dec. 20, 1842, states that there were 
 187 member.'; in 1806, and that Matheny added 110 new members. 
 
 •^ James Leaton, History of Methodism in Illinois from 1793 to 1832 ([Cincinnati], 
 1883), 45. Matheny's name does not appear in the Minutes of the Conferences of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church after his retirement in 1806.
 
 6 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 presiding elder of the Cumberland District, Jesse Wal- 
 ker, the circuit rider for the Illinois Circuit of this dis- 
 trict, Charles Matheny, and a number of other preachers 
 conducted a three-day revival at a camp meeting ground 
 known as Three Springs. There were tents and log-pens 
 covered with clapboards to accommodate some fifty 
 families. One of the preachers, in describing this camp 
 meeting, has left a record of the religious enthusiasm 
 engendered by the frontier preachers: 
 
 At three o'clock, while Brother Goddard and I were singing a 
 hymn, an awful sense of the divine power fell on the congrega- 
 tion. . . . Looking around upon the scene, and listening to the 
 sobs, groans, and cries of the penitents, reminded me of a battle- 
 field after a heavy battle. All night the struggle went on. Victory 
 was on the Lord's side; many were converted, and by sunrise next 
 morning there was the shout of a king in the camp.^ 
 
 Matheny was a leader in the organization of the 
 Methodist Church at Shiloh in St. Clair County. In 
 1806, a log house was erected to serve as a church build- 
 ing. He contributed $10 toward the cost of constructing 
 a brick church, built in 1817. This Shiloh Church is the 
 oldest Methodist Church in Illinois from the stand- 
 point of continuous operation.^ 
 
 On retiring from riding the Methodist Circuit in 
 1806, Matheny settled down at Ridge Prairie, Illinois, 
 and married Jemima Ogle, daughter of Captain Joseph 
 Ogle. Captain Ogle had commanded a Virginia regi- 
 ment in the Revolutionary War and had migrated to 
 
 ' Robert Paine, Life and Ttmes of William McKendrei (Nashville, 1893), 158-60; 
 S. R. Beggs, Pages from the Early History of the West and Northwest (Cincinnati, 1868), 
 140-42. Beggs places this camp meeting at Eunice instead of at Three Springs. 
 
 ^ Clarence O. Kimball, "The Earliest Methodism in Illinois," American Illustrated 
 Methodist Magazine, Vol IV (Sept., 1900), 56-57. The Methodist Church at Bethel 
 was built in 1805, but for ten years it merged with the Center Grove Church. History 
 of St. Clair County, Illinois, Brink, McDonough, pub. (Philadelphia, 1881), 172-73. The 
 early records of the Shiloh Church have disappeared. Letter from pastor of Shiloh- 
 O'Fallon Church to Willard R. Matheny, Chicago, April, 1940.
 
 T . WALTER JOHNSON 7 
 
 Illinois in 1785, settling in what is now Monroe County. 
 In 1802, he made one of the pioneer locations on Ridge 
 Prairie near the present town of O'Fallon.^ J. M. Peck 
 in 1837 described Ridge Prairie in the following words: 
 
 Ridge Prairie is situated in Madison county, commencing near 
 Edwardsville, and extending south to St. Clair county. 
 
 It is on the dividing ridge between the waters that fall into the 
 Mississippi west, and those that flow to the Kaskaskia east. Origi- 
 nally this prairie extended into St. Clair county as far south as Belle- 
 ville [this was the case when the Ogles settled in the prairie in 
 1802], but long since, where farms have not been made, it has been 
 intersected by a luxuriant growth of timber. Its surface is gently 
 undulating, the soil rich, and is surrounded and indented with 
 many fine farms. ^^ 
 
 Charles R. Matheny turned to farming on this prairie 
 in order to support his wife and a growing family, 
 which subsequently included eleven children. ^^ Al- 
 though he devoted much attention to agricultural pur- 
 suits, he did not relinquish his interest in the Metho- 
 dist Church nor did he dissociate himself from the affairs 
 of Illinois Territory. In 1809, companies of rangers were 
 organized to check the depredations of Indians stirred 
 up by British agents. From July 27, 1812, to August 
 11, 1812, Matheny played the role of a fighting preacher 
 by joining Captain John B. Moore's volunteer com- 
 pany of cavalry from St. Clair County. Further service 
 in the War of 1812 is not indicated, but it is evident 
 
 5 Brink, McDonough, pub., St. Clair County, 50-51, 173. 
 
 1° J. M. Peck, A Ga-ctteer of Illinois (Philadelphia, 1837), 281. 
 
 ^' Matheny's wife survived him many years, aying at a ripe old age in 1858. John 
 Reynolds, The Pioneer History of Illinois (Chicago, 1887), 261. Matheny's children 
 bulked large in the future of Illinois. Noah W., James H., Charles \V., and Elijah Cook 
 Matheny had an important part in the political, professional and business affairs of 
 Springfield and Sangamon County. Bateman and Selby, Sangamon County, II: pt. II, p. 
 1,422. James H. was a close friend and political adviser of Abraham Lincoln, a judge 
 in Sangamon County, and a lieutenant-colonel during the Civil War. United States 
 Biographical Dictionary, III. Vol., (Chicago, 1876), 171-72; E. E. Sparks, ed., The Lin- 
 coln-Douglas Debates of 1858 (Illinois Historical Collections, III, Springfield, 1908), 88, 
 92, 232, 296.
 
 8 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 from his participation in the work of this company that 
 he was willing to make his religion a practical affair. 
 On December 14, 1811, Matheny was appointed a 
 justice of the peace for St. Clair County, thus inaugurat- 
 ing a long career as a public servant. He was reappointed 
 by Governor Ninian Edwards to this office on May 28, 
 1812.^^ In addition, he held two other county offices 
 while residing in St. Clair County. On April 24, 1814, 
 Governor Edwards appointed him treasurer of the 
 county to take the place of William Whiteside who 
 had died in office. ^^ Three years later, March 3, 1817, 
 Governor Edwards named Matheny to the position of 
 circuit attorney for the first judicial district, presided 
 over by Judge Jesse B. Thomas. He had acquired his 
 knowledge of law from private study interspersed with 
 his active life as a farmer, preacher, and county official.^* 
 
 Mr. Matheny' s work as a county official centered at 
 Belleville, the county seat. In 1814, the county seat had 
 been shifted from Cahokia to the more central location 
 at Belleville. He prosecuted cases for the county in a 
 newly erected two-story frame courthouse. His circuit 
 was one of the three legal circuits into which Illinois 
 had been divided, and it included Randolph County as 
 well as St. Clair County. He was succeeded in office by 
 Daniel Pope Cook, beginning at the fall term, 1819; the 
 latter became the first prosecuting attorney under the 
 new state organization.^^ 
 
 Matheny's horizon was not limited to service in 
 purely county activities. In 1816, he was elected to the 
 
 1" "Executive Record, 1809-1818," Vol. B: 35, 42 (Archives Division, III. State 
 Library, Springfield). 
 'Ubid., 58. 
 " Ibid., 42. 
 " Reynolds, Pioneer Hist, of III., 261n.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 9 
 
 third territorial legislature, meeting at Kaskaskia, as a 
 representative from St. Clair County. ^"^ There his most 
 important work was done on the reform of the judiciary 
 system. In 1815, the territorial legislature and Governor 
 Edwards had petitioned the Congress of the United 
 States to pass an act ordering the United States judges 
 to conduct circuit courts. Congress had carried out this 
 request and had ordered the judges to hold circuit courts 
 in each county. However, this law had proved unsatis- 
 factory, and the first session of the third territorial legis- 
 lature attempted to provide a solution. A committee of 
 the house reported a bill "to establish circuit courts of 
 their own creation; to give a salary of about $800 — to 
 have two judges; and to hold three courts in each 
 county. "^^ The members of the legislature felt that the 
 people of the territory should not be called upon to pay 
 for a service which the United States judges should 
 have performed, and another bill was substituted which 
 practically continued the system then in force under the 
 United States law of 1815- Two of the United States 
 judges, Thomas and Towles, held court under the act, 
 but Thomas felt that the law was not valid. One judge, 
 William Sprigg, refused to recognize this act on the 
 ground that the United States law had expired and that 
 the territorial act was a violation of the Northwest 
 Ordinance. At the time when he should have been rid- 
 ing his circuit, he was on a trip to Maryland. 
 
 When the third territorial assembly met for its second 
 session in December, 1817, something had to be done 
 
 1* "Journal of the Territorial Legislature," 1816-1817 (Archives Division, State 
 Library, Springfield), 4. Miss Margaret Norton, archivist, has prepared a helpful in- 
 dex to the Journal. 
 
 '' Solon J. Buck, Illinois in 1818 (Springfield, 1917), 204. The United States Con- 
 gress had given the territorial legislature the povper to change the law of 1815.
 
 10 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 to assure the trying of lawsuits and criminals in Judge 
 Sprigg's circuit. Representatives Bradsby and Matheny 
 of St. Clair County opposed any concession to the judge, 
 and favored "an appeal to that tribunal [Congress] 
 which is competent for that purpose." This appeal 
 would have required too much time, and the legislature 
 adopted a measure similar to the one which failed to 
 pass in the first session. This provided for two circuit 
 judges appointed by the Governor, with salaries of 
 $1,000 a year. The United States judges were relieved of 
 all circuit duty and were required to hold only four gen- 
 eral courts a year. Although the legislature had made 
 more concessions to the judges than Matheny desired, 
 it did adopt resolutions requesting its delegate in Con- 
 gress to lay before the House of Representatives charges 
 against Judge Sprigg for his refusal to hold courts as 
 required by the territorial law and for absenting him- 
 self from the territory for an unreasonable time.^^ 
 
 Mr. Matheny' s stand in favoring no concession to 
 the United States judges on relieving them of circuit 
 court duty would seem to have been the result of his ex- 
 perience in the court affairs of his county. His work as 
 circuit attorney for the first judicial district, presided 
 over by Judge Thomas, apparently had not convinced 
 him that the judges should be freed from the circuit 
 court work.^^ His opposition to the judges also demon- 
 strated that he was a member of the Ninian Edwards, 
 Daniel Cook, and Nathaniel Pope faction of the terri- 
 tory. The Edwards group had opposed the judges, and 
 
 " Buck, Illinois in ISIS, 197-200, 203-205; "Journals of the Territorial Legisla- 
 ture," 1816-1817, 1817-1818, passim. 
 
 19 Buck, Illinois in ISIS, 197 seems to agree with Matheny. Buck states that the 
 judges had very little to do, and were absent from the territory for long periods of 
 time, much to the dissatisfaction of the people.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 11 
 
 the Other faction, led by Shadrach Bond, Jesse B. 
 Thomas, and Elias Kane, had supported the judges.^" 
 
 A very significant phase of the work of this terri- 
 torial assembly was the drawing up of a memorandum 
 to Congress asking for statehood for Illinois. Charles 
 R. Matheny was one of the committee of four which 
 prepared this memorial. The day before its final passage, 
 Mr. Matheny introduced a bill calling for the repeal of 
 the law establishing the indenture system. This bill also 
 contained a preamble which declared that the indenture 
 law was in contravention to the paramount law of the 
 land. Through the indenture system, negro slavery was 
 maintained in the Northwest Territory. The indenture 
 act of Indiana (1807) had continued in effect in Illinois 
 in 1809 when the Governor and judges of Illinois Terri- 
 tory had stated that "the laws of Indiana Territory of 
 a general nature. . . . are still in force in this Terri- 
 tory."^^ During the territorial period, there had been 
 a growing sentiment against the institution which cul- 
 minated in the bill introduced by Matheny in December, 
 1818. 
 
 Probably Matheny introduced the bill at the time of 
 the discussion of the memorandum on statehood in 
 order to prevent the constitutional convention from 
 continuing indefinitely the system of iiidentured servi- 
 tude. He hoped to establish the invalidity of the law 
 in such a way as to make it impossible for this conven- 
 tion to ignore the action. The introduction of the bill 
 
 ^^ That Edwards and Cook were not entirely sure of Matheny's support, how- 
 ever, was revealed by a letter from Cook to Edwards during the larter's campaign for 
 Congress in 1819 against McLean of the opposing group. "I believe it will require 
 some exertions to succeed against these jugglers. They have been trying to take 
 Matheny from me by offering him an ofhce; they may have succeeded, I cannot tell." 
 E. B. Washburne, ed., The Edwards Papers (Chicago Historical Society Collections, III, 
 Chicago, 1884), 159-61. 
 
 21 Duck, Illinois in 1818, 214-15-
 
 12 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 in the territorial assembly "gave rise to some warmth 
 and animation of argument on both sides." Bradsby, 
 also a representative from St. Clair County, supported 
 Matheny and agreed that the action of a slave in in- 
 denturing himself to his master could not be considered 
 as voluntary and consequently the system was involun- 
 tary servitude and a violation of the Ordinance of 1787. 
 Matheny took the position that if the bill passed, al- 
 though it declared the indenture act a violation of the 
 Ordinance, it would "have no influence on contracts 
 that have been heretofore made, if such were its intended 
 operation, it would be an ex post facto law, and there- 
 fore unconstitutional . ' ' 
 
 The bill passed the House and Council, but Governor 
 Edwards vetoed it. He declared himself to be no advo- 
 cate of slavery, but thought that the validity of the in- 
 denture law should be left to the judiciary to decide 
 rather than have the legislature invade a field of juris- 
 diction not in its power. ^^ The result of this anti-slavery 
 movement started by Charles R. Matheny was to es- 
 tablish slavery as the dominant issue in the forthcom- 
 ing campaign for delegates to the constitutional conven- 
 tion. Matheny was not sent as a delegate from St. Clair 
 County, and it is possible that his strong stand against 
 slavery may have alienated many of his earlier suppor- 
 ters.^^ Although he was not a member of the conven- 
 tion, Matheny did not lose interest in the slavery ques- 
 tion. While the convention was in session he and a group 
 
 22 Buck, Illinois in 1818, 215-18; '"Journal of the Territorial Legislature," 1817- 
 1818, passim. 
 
 23 Buck, Illinois in 1818, 218-19 points out; "The pro-slavery men had the advan- 
 tage, for the extreme antislavery men by declaring themselves so positively at the very 
 beginning, left the whole of the middle ground to their opponents. They made it 
 necessary for those who sought only to keep conditions as they were to work together 
 with advocates of unrestricted slavery."
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 13 
 
 of Other anti-slavery men drew up an address "to friends 
 of Freedom in the State of Illinois." The leaders of this 
 extreme anti-slavery party acknowledged their defeat in 
 the election by the following plea: 
 
 We are informed that strong exertions will be made in the Con- 
 vention to give sanction to that deplorable evil in our state; and 
 least such should be the result at too late a period for any thing 
 like concert to take place among the friends of freedom in trying 
 to defeat it; we therefore, earnestly solicit all true friends to free- 
 dom in every section of the territory, to unite in opposing it, both 
 by the election of a Delegate to Congress who will oppose it, and 
 by forming meetings and preparing remonstrances to Congress 
 against it. Indeed, so important is this question considered, that 
 no exertion of a fair character should be omitted to defeat the plan 
 of those who either wish a temporary or unlimited slavery. Let us 
 also select men to the Legislature who will unite in remonstrating 
 to the general government against ratifying such a constitution. 
 At a crisis like this, thinking will not do, acting is necessary.-* 
 
 That slavery played a part in the campaign for state- 
 hood and the election of delegates has been noted. In 
 the convention, however, there is no evidence to show 
 that anyone proposed to make Illinois a slave state. The 
 influence of the Northwest Ordinance and the fear of 
 congressional opposition caused a postponement of the 
 slavery controversy until after statehood had been ob- 
 tained. The prohibition of slavery and indentured servi- 
 tude was changed from an unqualified prohibition in an 
 earlier draft of the constitution to a ban against the 
 further introduction of slaves and servants. Indentured 
 servants were required to fulfill their contracts strictly, 
 and existing relationships between master and slave or 
 servant were protected, but no further contracts of this 
 kind were to be made.^^ 
 
 2* Illinois Intelligencer (Kaskaskia), Aug. 5, 1818; Buck, Illinois in 1818, 260-61 
 reprints the address. 
 
 " See E.J. Verlie, ed., Illinois Constitutions QUI- Hist. Col., XIII, Springfield, 1919),
 
 14 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 The struggle in Illinois in these years between the 
 pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces was largely a struggle 
 among southerners. The official class of the territory was 
 embroiled with slavery and indentured servitude. These 
 lowland southerners were aided in their pro-slavery 
 cause by the population about the salt works and the 
 native French who usually held slaves. The opposition 
 to this group came from the upland southerners who 
 had sought to escape the evils of slavery by removal to 
 a free territory. There were some lowland southerners 
 however, who joined in the anti-slavery cause — notably 
 Edward Coles, Ninian Edwards, and Nathaniel Pope. 
 The anti-slavery cause was also aided by emigrants 
 from the Middle States and the few New Englanders 
 who had come to Illinois. Although each group re- 
 ceived aid from others, the contest was usually between 
 two groups of southerners with Charles R. Matheny 
 playing a leading role for the upland southerners.^^ 
 
 Mr. Matheny concluded his career as a member of 
 the legislative body of Illinois by serving in the second 
 assembly of the state, meeting from 1820 to 1821.^^ He 
 served on a committee of three to draw up plans for a 
 seat of government for the state and for the erection of 
 a temporary statehouse, courthouse, and a state prison. ^^ 
 His vote on one issue serves as an interesting commen- 
 
 38-39; Buck, Illinois in 1818, 282 states: "The action of the convention has usually been 
 represented as an antislavery victory but the members who are known to have favored 
 slavery were on the winning side in all three of the record votes. It has also been called 
 a compromise between the opponents and the advocates of slavery but it would prob- 
 ably be more accurate to consider it a victory for those who occupied middle ground 
 on the subject. The solution may well have embodied the views of a majority of the 
 convention and also of a majority of the people of the state as well." 
 
 2^ See Barnhart, Jour. III. State Hist. Soc, Sept., 1939, pp. 371-74 for discussion 
 of these two groups. 
 
 " "Election Returns, 1818-1820," I: no. 2,269 (Archives Division, State Library, 
 Springfield). 
 
 ^» Journal of the III. House of Representatives, 1820-1821, pp. 5, 41-42, 54-59.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 15 
 
 tary on his life. A bill for the opening, improving, and 
 repairing of roads and highways was amended by add- 
 ing, "That hereafter all licensed ministers of the gospel 
 shall be exempt from working on roads and highways." 
 This amendment received his negative vote.^^ As ap- 
 parent from his own career, he felt that it was beneficial 
 for ministers to render public service. 
 
 This state assembly was concerned with the prob- 
 lems created by the Panic of 1819 which swept through 
 the country. A major cause of this Panic, according to 
 many westerners, had been the work of the Bank of the 
 United States in forcing local banks to close their doors 
 because of the lack of specie in their vaults to back up 
 the paper currency they had issued. The creation and 
 operation of the bank were also considered to be an in- 
 fringement upon state rights. On Matheny's motion, 
 the Illinois legislature voted to accept a proposed amend- 
 ment to the federal Constitution, which would have re- 
 quired that "Congress shall make no law to erect or in- 
 corporate any bank. . . except within the district of 
 Columbia; and every bank . . . shall, together with its 
 branches ... be confined to the district of Columbia."^" 
 Although opposed to the Bank of the United States, 
 he was not against banks as such. He favored a state 
 bank and voted to create one with a capital stock of 
 $300,000 in the hope that this institution would re- 
 lieve some of the suffering caused by the lack of money. ^^ 
 The legislature took other steps to aid the people suffer- 
 ing from the Panic. Many settlers had acquired too 
 much land from the federal government on credit, and 
 now with money scarce, they were unable to meet the 
 
 29 ///. House Journal, 1810-1811, 348-50. 
 
 30 Ibid., 196-99. 
 
 " Ibid., 144-45, 161.
 
 16 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 payments due on their land. Matheny was appointed 
 to a committee to draft a memorial to Congress "pray- 
 ing further relief to be granted to the purchasers of pub- 
 lic lands. "^^ He also voted for a stay law that aided in- 
 solvent debtors during this trying period. ^^ 
 
 Two of his votes in this second assembly centered 
 about moral questions. He was back of a move to pre- 
 vent the representatives' hall in the Statehouse from 
 being used for balls. This may have been the result of a 
 feeling that it was undignified to open the hall for such 
 an affair or, more likely, it was because of the prevalent 
 feeling, entertained by ministers at that period, that 
 balls, plays, and circuses were activities of Satan. ^* The 
 second vote was on a petition from a citizen asking for 
 a divorce from his wife. Matheny moved that this peti- 
 tion be not countenanced, and the House concurred in 
 his request. ^^ 
 
 In 1821, Charles R. Matheny moved his family to the 
 recently organized Sangamon County where he was 
 offered the positions of county clerk, clerk of the circuit 
 court, county auditor, and other prospective advan- 
 tages.^^ Apparently he had not been able to earn enough 
 money from his farming and official activities to support 
 his large family. The conditions facing a settler in St. 
 Clair County have been described by John Reynolds, and 
 one can see why Matheny was willing to leave: 
 
 From 1818 to about 1826, Belleville was almost stationary, and 
 increased in wealth and buildings but little. During part of this 
 
 32 ///. House Journal, 1820-1821, 13- 
 
 33///. House Journal, 1820-1821, 204-205. 
 
 34 ///. House Journal, 1820-1821, 255- SeeT. Walter Johnson, "Peter Akers: Metho- 
 dist Circuit Rider and Educator (1790-1886)," >«'"• I^^- ■^f^f' ^"f- ^o^:-' XXXII, no. 4 
 (Dec, 1939), 436 for Peter Akers' views on such affairs. 
 
 3^ ///. House Journal, 1820-1821, 51. 
 
 38 History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Inter-state Pub. Co., Chicago, 1881), 74.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 17 
 
 time business was measurably suspended, and weeds sprouted and 
 grew upon the public square. Different means were resorted to by 
 the legislature to free the people from embarrassment. In these hard 
 times cows and calves sold for five dollars. Stay laws, bankrupt 
 acts, state banks and many other remedies were adopted, but I 
 believe they injured more than they benefited the people.*^ 
 
 In contrast to this lament about the hard times in 
 St. Clair County, there was high acclaim for Sangamon 
 County. As early as 1819, Ferdinand Ernst, a German 
 traveler, stated: "In the vicinity of this town [Van- 
 dalia] is a large amount of fine lands, but every one is 
 full of praise for those which lie about sixty or eighty 
 miles northward upon the river Sangamon." With his 
 interest aroused he traveled to see this land, and when 
 he reached it his enthusiasm led him to remark: "I do 
 not believe that any other State in all America is so 
 highly favored by nature, in every respect, as the State 
 of Illinois." ^^ 
 
 Descriptions like this echoing throughout Illinois, 
 plus the tender of county positions, apparently induced 
 Charles R. Matheny to move his family to this new 
 county in order to obtain a more favorable standard of 
 living. That the level of living he had maintained in 
 St. Clair County must have been low is evident, for he 
 would have been reluctant to give up a comfortable sit- 
 uation in order to face the difficulties that would beset 
 him in pioneering a new area such as Sangamon County. 
 
 The pioneer status of this new country has been re- 
 corded for us by Elijah lies who set out from Boone's 
 Lick, Missouri, to investigate the reports about the 
 Sangamon region that he had heard on his trip across 
 
 " Cited in Belleville Advocate, Oct. 25, 1939 (Centennial Edition). 
 
 ** Helen Van Cleave Biankmeyer, "The Sangamon Country, "' Illinois State Reg- 
 ister, Sept. 18-Nov. 28, 1934; Bateman and Selby, Sangamon County, Vol. II, pt. I, p. 
 638.
 
 18 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 Illinois. He described his first view of the present town 
 of Springfield, which was the temporary county seat, 
 in the following words: 
 
 I crossed the prairie [from the present-day Jacksonville] without 
 a trail, found no one in the grove [Island Grove] and kept on the 
 west side until I struck a trail running east to where it was said a 
 temporary county seat was located. Following this trail I found 
 the place, on the east side of Spring creek timber. Charles R. Math- 
 eny had just moved to the place, and had erected a cabin of one 
 room, in which he was residing with a large family of little children. 
 He had been appointed clerk of the circuit and county court, judge 
 of the probate, clerk of his own court, and county recorder, although 
 there were no deeds yet to be recorded. All of these offices heaped 
 upon him did not give him a bare support. ^^ 
 
 lies apparently felt that the glowing reports had not 
 been an exaggeration, for he contracted for the erection 
 of a store near the stake that had been struck for the 
 beginning of the town of Springfield. 
 
 Springfield had been selected as the temporary county 
 seat because it was the only place in the region where 
 enough farmers could be found to house the judges and 
 lawyers of the county court. The county commissioners 
 held their first meeting on April 3, 1821, at Kelly's 
 settlement on Spring Creek, where they appointed 
 Charles R. Matheny as clerk. Seven days later, the court 
 met and hired John Kelly to build them a courthouse in 
 the prevailing style, the logs to be twenty feet long, the 
 house one story high, with a plank floor, a good cabin 
 roof, and a door and window cut out. The next term of 
 the court, meeting on June 4, 1821, was held in this 
 newly constructed courthouse. ^° 
 
 ^^ Elijah lies. Sketches of Early Life and Times tn Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois 
 (Springfield, 1883), 27-28. 
 
 '"' "Sangamon County Commissioners Court Records," Vol. A: 1, 3, 9 (MS, 111. 
 State Hist. Lib., Springfield); H. Douglas Giger, comp., Tfie Story of the Sangamon 
 County Court House (Springfield, [1901]), 5-6.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 19 
 
 Under the Constitution of 1818, the county com- 
 missioners' court acted as a county board with general 
 administrative control over county business. The court's 
 activities were co-ordinated by the clerk, who was 
 chosen by the county commissioners until the office was 
 made elective in 1837. 
 
 Charles R. Matheny held this office from 1821 until 
 his death in 1839- He received a salary from the court 
 in proportion to the number of days required for each 
 session. For instance, in December, 1825, he was paid 
 $100; in October, 1826, $16 for a short term; and in 
 March, 1827, he received $15 for five days' services. He 
 was able to piece out his income through charging fees 
 for services rendered. In 1824 he was allowed to charge 
 373^c for every process and seal; 6c for filing a paper; 
 123/^c for entering orders of court; $1.00 for each mar- 
 riage, ferry, or tavern license; 25c for affixing the seal; 
 and 25c for copying the rates of bridges and taverns.'*^ 
 In April, 1833, as clerk of the court he sent Salome Enos 
 a bill, which reveals how important a source of income 
 these fees were to him. This bill called for 123^c for fil- 
 ing a petition; 25c for bringing the record to court; 
 $2.75 for entering a decree and copying it; 50c for enter- 
 ing the return; and $4.50 for entering three deeds. 
 
 As clerk of the court, Matheny had, in addition to 
 legal work, the task of ordering firewood and supplies 
 like books and stationery. On October 12, 1826, the 
 county commissioners ordered: 
 
 That Charles R. Matheny be authorized to contract for and pro- 
 cure a good substantial convenient Table for the use of the bar & 
 
 ■•^ Laws of 111., 1824-1825, 140-41. An interesting license he issued as clerk was one 
 to Berry and Lincoln on March 6, 1833 to keep a tavern in New Salem, for which they 
 paid $7.00. Some of the rates of their tavern as established by court were 12?'2C for 
 lodging overnight a man or horse; 12J/2C for a pint of whiskey. "Sangamon County 
 Court Records," Vol. D: 6.
 
 20 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 the Clerk in the court house, and that an appropriation shall be 
 made at the next Term to pay for said Table at such price as said 
 Matheny may agree on, and also two seats for the use of the Table — 
 to be procured as above. ^^ 
 
 Matheny also had charge of the assessor's books and 
 the books covering delinquent taxes. An important phase 
 of his work was arranging for the sale of property for 
 failure to pay taxes. On March 3, 1834, for example, he 
 sold eighty acres in Township 15 of the North Range 
 for $2.90, the amount of taxes for the year 1833, plus 
 interest. He also seems to have been the source of in- 
 formation on the property of the county. On April 1, 
 1828, Hooper Warren wrote to Ninian Edwards, "I 
 have just returned from a search for information con- 
 cerning the Cox property. I found no one that knew 
 anything about it until I met Mr. Matheny. "^^ 
 
 In the same years that he was clerk of the county 
 commissoners' court, he served as clerk of the circuit 
 court. The first term of the Sangamon circuit court was 
 held on May 7, 1821 at the home of John Kelly. The 
 court consisted of John Reynolds as presiding justice, 
 Charles R. Matheny as clerk, John Taylor as sheriff, 
 and Henry Starr as the prosecuting attorney. ^'^ As clerk 
 of the circuit court he received a salary that varied with 
 the number of days the court was in session. ^^ In addi- 
 tion to the salary, he received fees for legal work per- 
 formed. According to the laws of 1824, he received 50c 
 
 ^2 "Sangamon Counry Commissioners Court Records," Vol. A: 53; Vol. B: 20 
 These examples of his activities and fees charged as clerk are taken at random from the 
 records and are only a few typical selections that might be made. 
 
 " Washburne, ed., Edwards Papers, 335-38. 
 
 ** Bateman and Selby, Sangamon County, Vol. II, pt. I, p. 682. The court docket 
 of all the cases he presided on as clerk is in the circuit clerk's office at Springfield. 
 Matheny wrote out the cases from 1821 to 1839. 
 
 ^5 For instance, for the year 1821 he received $87.50 for salary and stationery fur- 
 nished that year. See "Circuit Court Records of Sangamon County," entry for the 
 first Monday in September, 1821.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 21 
 
 for issuing executions; ll^^c for docketing them; 123/^c 
 for entering sheriff's returns; 50c for summons, subpoena, 
 and other processes not specifically stated; 634c for 
 swearing in witnesses; 123^c for entering the verdict of 
 the jury; and 123/^c for drawing up the list of jurors.'*^ 
 The average fee he seems to have earned in each case be- 
 fore the court ranged between $4.00 and $6.00.*^ 
 
 An important phase of his work as circuit clerk was 
 the writing of estray notices. Any person who found a 
 strayed animal had to inform the clerk of the court, and 
 the clerk received a fee for issuing a public notice about 
 the animal. The notice was sent to a newspaper and pub- 
 lished . If the clerk was a Whig, as Matheny was, a Whig 
 paper would receive the notice and the money from the 
 county for publishing it.^^ 
 
 The office of circuit clerk was appointive through- 
 out Matheny's life. He had first been named to the office 
 by Judge John Reynolds of the Illinois Supreme Court 
 on February 8, 1821. In 1835, Stephen T. Logan was 
 elected judge of this circuit, and he appointed Mordecai 
 Mobley to serve as clerk. On May 4, 1835, Mobley went 
 into Matheny's office, ousted him, and took control. 
 Matheny felt that he was the legal clerk with the law- 
 ful right to hold office until the legislature fixed the 
 limit of tenure. Stephen A. Douglas, the people's at- 
 torney for the State of Illinois in this district, brought 
 a quo warranto proceeding to try Mobley's right to office. 
 
 « Laws of III., 1S24-1S25, 139, 172. These fees have been selected at random. 
 
 " "Fee Book of the Circuit Court of Sangamon County" (Circuit Clerk's office, 
 Springfield). This average is based on a study of these cases over the years. For example, 
 in April, 1833 (p. 8), he earned $4.40 on a case. I am indebted to Dr. Harry Pratt of 
 the Abraham Lincoln Association of Springfield, for aid in looking through these 
 county records. 
 
 *^ See the Sangamon Journal, ]zn. 5 and 26, 1832, for samples of estray notices; the 
 clerk of the circuit court (Springfield) has the original notices in Matheny's hand- 
 writing.
 
 22 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 Douglas won his case in the December term of the Su- 
 preme Court. The Supreme Court held that Charles R. 
 Matheny was the legal holder of the office until the 
 tenure was fixed by the legislature. According to the 
 Supreme Court, Judge Logan did not have the power to 
 appoint Mobley. By taking this position, the Supreme 
 Court reversed a decision of a county court which had 
 held that the judge had the right to select his own 
 clerk. ^9 
 
 It should not be inferred, in view of the fees and sal- 
 ary derived from holding the clerkship in two courts, 
 that Charles R. Matheny received a munificent stipend 
 for his services to the people of Sangamon County. In 
 1821, for instance, there were few people in the region. 
 Paul M. Angle writes of Springfield: 
 
 So far as an increase of population was concerned, the location 
 of the temporary county seat had attracted only one settler. He was 
 Charles R. Matheny, who had been induced to locate there by the 
 offer of all of the county offices except that of sheriff. Even he was 
 finding it difficult to live on the fees of his combined offices. It was 
 at least an even chance that the little village, thus prematurely 
 born, would live out a listless existence of a year or two, and grad- 
 ually disappear. ^"^ 
 
 That Matheny's income in the remaining years of 
 county service was not great is revealed by an action of 
 Abraham Lincoln after Matheny's death. A woman 
 client of Lincoln's had him survey a piece of land she 
 owned near the Springfield city limits. Lincoln found 
 that by mistake the woman had become the owner of 
 three more acres than she was entitled to, and Charles 
 R. Matheny, the former owner, was the loser. Lincoln 
 
 *^ People of the State of Illinois ex rel Charles K. Matheny v. Mordecai Mobley, I Scam' 
 mon (2 111.), 215. The reason for Logan's action is not clear. Matheny and Logan 
 were both Whigs. It may have been Logan's personal desire to have his own clerk. 
 
 " Paul M. Angle, "Here I Have Lived" (Springfield, 1935), 6-7.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 23 
 
 notified the woman that she ought to pay the heirs of 
 Matheny for this land. It took a second letter, in which 
 Lincoln pointed out that the Matheny heirs were poor, 
 before she made the payment. ^^ 
 
 Charles R. Matheny served Sangamon County in vari- 
 ous offices in addition to his work as clerk of the two 
 courts. From February 14, 1821, to his resignation on 
 July 5, 1827, he was the county recorder, from February 
 14, 1821, until his resignation on October 19, 1838, he 
 was a notary public, and on August 15, 1822, he was 
 commissioned judge of probate. He was later elected to 
 this position on February 13, 1823. On January 5, 1827, 
 he was commissioned as justice of the peace, and on 
 August 12, 1835, he received a commission for the same 
 post, from which he resigned on March 15, 1836. In the 
 last year of his life, he was appointed as commissioner 
 to locate the seat of justice in Logan County. 
 
 In his years of service in Sangamon County, he 
 watched the county grow from a wilderness region into 
 one of the leading counties of the state. A considerable 
 boost was given the county by the laying out of the town 
 of Springfield in 1823 by Elijah lies and Pascal P. Enos, 
 and its selection as the permanent county seat in 1825- 
 
 Peter Cartwright visited Springfield in 1824 and has 
 left a description of the town which well sets forth its 
 pioneer status : 
 
 There were in this place, now the seat of government, a few 
 smoky, hastily-built cabins, and one or two very little shanties, 
 called "stores," and, with the exception of a few articles of heavy 
 ware, I could have carried at a few loads all they had for sale on 
 my back.^- 
 
 " Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, The Pratrie Years (New York, 1926), II: 47; 
 Emanuel Hertz, The Hidden Lincoln (New York, 1938), 105-106. 
 ** W. P. Strickland, ed., Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, 106.
 
 24 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 Charles R. Matheny played as large a role in the his- 
 tory of the village as he did in county activities. The 
 town of Springfield was incorporated on April 2, 1832, 
 and Matheny was elected president of the board of 
 trustees. During this year, William Cullen Bryant jour- 
 neyed to Illinois from the East. His description of Jack- 
 sonville and Springfield, reflecting the attitude of an 
 "effete" easterner accustomed to older ways of life, was 
 not commendable. According to Bryant, Springfield was 
 worse than Jacksonville : 
 
 It [Jacksonville] was a horridly ugly village, composed of little 
 shops and dwellings stuck close together around a dingy square, in 
 the middle of which stands the ugliest of possible brick court- 
 houses, with a spire and weathercock on its top. The surrounding 
 country is a bare, green plain, with gentle undulations of surface, 
 unenlivened by a single tree save what you see at a distance on the 
 edge of the prairie, in the center of which the village stands. . . . 
 The first day brought us to Springfield, the capital of Sangamon 
 County, where the land office for this district is kept, and where 
 I was desirous of making some inquiries as to the land in the mar- 
 ket. Springfield is thirty-five miles east of Jacksonville, situated 
 just on the edge of a large prairie, on ground somewhat more 
 uneven than Jacksonville, but the houses are not so good, a con- 
 siderable portion of them being log-cabins, and the whole town 
 having an appearance of dirt and discomfort. The night was spent 
 in a filthy tavern. ^^ 
 
 From 1832 until his death, Charles R. Matheny 
 served as president of the board of trustees of the village 
 of Springfield, and his ability to retain this post re- 
 flected the influence the man must have had over 
 his fellow townsmen in Springfield.^^ Among his as- 
 sociates on the board were Stephen T. Logan, most dis- 
 
 = ' "Illinois Fifty Years Ago," Prose Writings ofWtlltam Cullen Bryant (New York, 
 1889), II: 11-16; Frank J. Heinl, "The Bryants of Jacksonville," >«''• HI- State Hist. 
 Soc'- XVIII, no. 1 (April, 1925), 218. 
 
 ** In the annual election of 1838, for example, he received 201 votes to his op- 
 ponents' 77 votes. Sangamon Journal, April 7, 1838.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 25 
 
 tinguished lawyer of his day in Illinois; Samuel H. 
 Treat, later judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois; and 
 Abraham Lincoln. During the first year, the board con- 
 sisted of Matheny, Cyrus Anderson, John Taylor, 
 Elisha Tabor, Mordecai Mobley, and William Carpen- 
 ter. As president of the board, Charles R. Matheny had 
 a wide range of activities under his control. He was in 
 charge of contracting for the construction of town build- 
 ings, bridges, and sidewalks. The duty of supervising 
 the public health fell upon his shoulders, and the board 
 directed him to publish to the inhabitants a notice that 
 they must remove all nuisances from the premises such 
 as sinkholes, gutters and decaying matter. Four years 
 later, the board directed him to publish an ordinance 
 that "no swine shall be suffered to run at large in the 
 town of Springfield." Nor could dogs run loose unless 
 a license had been secured for them. 
 
 In 1838, Mr. Matheny was instrumental in obtaining 
 a loan from the State Bank of Illinois for the town of 
 Springfield. Among the signers pledging payment, in 
 case the town became unable to pay, were Matheny, 
 John Hay, Washington lies, and Abraham Lincoln. ^^ 
 The last year of Mr. Matheny's life witnessed Abraham 
 Lincoln's appointment to the board of trustees. On 
 August 7, 1839, Lincoln was chosen president pro tem, 
 an honor passed around in Matheny's absence. ^^ Spring- 
 field received great impetus in 1837 when it was selected 
 to be the site of the capital of Illinois. In order to raise 
 the $50,000 to help construct the Statehouse, the town 
 of Springfield was obliged to borrow the money from 
 the State Bank of Illinois. 
 
 ^* Bond Book of Springfield, March 22, 1838 (MS, Abraham Lincoln Association, 
 Springfield). 
 
 ** Bulletin of the Abraham Lincoln Association, no. 48 (June, 1937), 4-5-
 
 26 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 Earlier in this article, it was mentioned that polit- 
 ical factions and cliques existed in Illinois throughout 
 the territorial period. Local rather than national issues 
 determined the lines of cleavage. The bone of conten- 
 tion prior to 1817 was the judiciary. One party sup- 
 ported, another opposed, the system as it existed. 
 Charles R. Matheny lined up with the Ninian Edwards 
 group in opposing the system. When the slavery and 
 indentured servant question became prominent in 1818, 
 the anti-judiciary party opposed any extension of the 
 system. The pro-judiciary party, on the other hand, was 
 more favorable to slavery and indentured servants. 
 These factions, with some variations, persisted down 
 to the time of emergence of the Whig Party in 1834. In 
 1822, there was a movement to call a constitutional 
 convention to legalize slavery in the state, which met 
 the opposition of the Edwards group, and in 1824, the 
 proposal was defeated. The anti-conventionists were 
 largely made up of the Edwards faction plus the new- 
 comers in the northern counties, while the pro-conven- 
 tionists were led by the anti-Edwards faction. The 
 convention issue played a more important part in the 
 election of 1824 than did the candidates for the presi- 
 dency. The bulk of the anti-conventionists supported 
 John Quincy Adams' candidacy, and their opponents 
 favored General Jackson." Charles R. Matheny sup- 
 ported Adams and was a delegate from Sangamon County 
 to an Adams meeting at Alton on September 11.^^ 
 
 ^^ Charles Manfred Thompson, The Illinois Whigs Before 1846 QJniv. of III. Studies 
 in the Social Sciences, V o\.lV , no. 1, March, 1915), 27-28. The anti-Edwards group sup- 
 ported Jackson rather than Crawford because Crawford was not a popular candidate. 
 "Edwards and his close political friends were Calhoun men and bitterly opposed to 
 Crawford, but they appear to have been unable to unite on any one of the other three 
 candidates. For instance, Cook was for x\dams, and Eddy for Jackson; while Edwards 
 himself was non-committal with a leaning toward Adams." 
 
 *« Angle, "Here I Have Lived," 31.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 27 
 
 After the election, the old factional alignments were 
 split by the corrupt bargain charge levied by Jackson 
 men against the Adams-Clay groups. Three distinct 
 elements now appeared in the state. One opposed Jack- 
 son's desires for the presidency; a second favored Jack- 
 son, but was unwilling to go the "whole hog" for the 
 Jackson candidacy; and the third was willing to go to 
 any extreme for Jackson. 
 
 We have no record of where Mr. Matheny stood in 
 this three-fold division, but it seems likely that he was 
 a member of the opposition to Jackson. During the 
 1830's, Matheny was an out and out Whig. In 1837, 
 when the office of clerk of the county commissioners 
 became elective, he ran as the Whig candidate. The 
 Sangamo Journal supported him and called for the defeat 
 of the Loco Foco or Fanny Wright party. ^^ General 
 Adams, running for the office of probate judge, made an 
 address in which he said, "Mr. Matheny and myself 
 are among the oldest citizens of Sangamon County, and 
 have both held our offices in times when they were 
 neither an object worth holding. We are both advanced 
 in years with families to support." Matheny did not 
 wish to back Adams, so he supported the Whig candi- 
 date, Dr. A. G. Henry. 60 
 
 The following year Mr. Matheny was the chairman 
 in charge of the committee on arrangements for a Whig 
 barbecue for the state. Among the other individuals 
 
 ^'^ Sangamo Journal, Aug. 5, 1837. This terming the Democratic Party, the Loco 
 Foco or Fanny Wright party was an attempt to confuse the issue between the Whigs 
 and Democrats. The Loco Focos and Fanny Wright were considered to be the "lunatic 
 fringe" of American politics. 
 
 ^^ Sangamo Journal, Aug. 5, 1S37. "Mr. Matheny does not consider himself under 
 any obligations to carry General Adams on his back. It is a load he is not ambitious 
 to tote." The paper has a cartoon of Matheny climbing a ladder, and General Adams 
 srying to catch his coat-tails saying, "Hallo, Squire! I thought to hang on your 
 tkirts." Matheny's reply is, "Yes, but man, you're sucked, for I wear a round-about.' '
 
 28 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 influential in this celebration were William D. Herndon, 
 William Herndon, Noah Matheny, Simeon Francis, and 
 Elijah Iles.^^ Abraham Lincoln, supporting the straight 
 Whig ticket, voted for Charles R. Matheny as county 
 clerk in 1837 and 1839. When Mr. Matheny died in 
 office, his son Noah ran as a candidate to fill the un- 
 expired term. On November 14, 1839, Lincoln wrote 
 J. T. Stuart, who was in Washington, "There is no 
 news here; Noah, I still think, will be elected easily." 
 Lincoln's prediction was correct, for two days later 
 Noah ran far ahead of his Democratic opponent. ^^ That 
 Abraham Lincoln and Charles R. Matheny were per- 
 sonal and political friends seems evident. They served 
 together on the board of trustees of Springfield in 1839; 
 the law firm of Stuart and Lincoln defended Mr. Math- 
 eny in a court case in 1838;^^ and Mr. Lincoln supported 
 Matheny's candidacy for county clerk in 1837 and 1839. 
 Mr. Lincoln was probably a closer friend to Charles's 
 son James, however, than he was to the father. 
 
 Closely connected with Mr. Matheny's work as 
 county and town official was his interest in land specu- 
 lation. Matheny acquired a good deal of land in the 
 town and county, owning at one time the entire city 
 block between First and Second and Washington and 
 Adams streets.^* That he did not acquire great wealth 
 
 " Sangamo Journal, Sept. 22, 1838. 
 
 *2 Bulletin of the Abraham Lincoln Association, no. 36 (Sept., 1934), 9; no. 37 (Dec, 
 1934), 4. 
 
 «3 "Circuit Court Records," 1838-1839, Vol. D; 98, 182, 334. Andrew Heredith 
 sued Matheny for a debt of $6.00. The suit was dismissed, Mr. Matheny only appeared 
 in one other case (in addition to the Supreme Court case described earlier) during his 
 career, somewhat surprising in that frontiersmen seemed to be very fond of litigation 
 over land claims. This other case was to secure full title from the Enos heirs for 
 land he had bought from Pascal P. Enos. His right to the title was not questioned. 
 "Circuit Court Records," 1835, pp. 471, 533- 
 
 *^ "Record of the Deeds of Sangamon County," Grantor Index, 178. All the lands 
 he bought and sold are listed in the index. His home was in the north\\ est corner of the 
 block mentioned in the text. (I am indebted to Dr. Harry Pratt for aid in making up a 
 ist of the lands owned by Mr. Matheny.)
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 29 
 
 through his land dealings is attested to by the fact that 
 after his death, all his lands and belongings, except 
 household furnishings worth $325, were sold to pay 
 off his debts. ^^ 
 
 Charles R. Matheny's duties as a public official did 
 not abate his enthusiasm for the Methodist Church. In 
 1821, with the aid of John Glanville, the circuit rider, 
 he organized all the Springfield Methodists into a 
 society. For several years the society met in his hos- 
 pitable home.^^ Peter Cartwright, who rode the Sanga- 
 mon Circuit in 1825-1826, wrote: "We had a respectable 
 society in point of members and religious moral char- 
 acter, but they were generally very poor."" The Math- 
 eny home, in addition to serving as a preaching place, 
 was the home in which the Methodist itinerants stayed 
 while in Springfield. In the latter years of Matheny's 
 life, according to the Reverend James Leaton, he was 
 an invalid and seldom preached. "He was but a moderate 
 preacher, but was highly esteemed as an honorable, 
 upright Christian gentleman. "^^ Mr. Matheny served 
 the church as a local deacon, steward, and trustee until 
 his death on October 10, 1839. In these years at Spring- 
 field, while Mr. Matheny was serving as a local preach- 
 er, such figures as Peter Cartwright, Peter Akers, and 
 James McKean were riding the Sangamon Circuit. That 
 the Methodist Church was increasing its membership 
 under their guidance is revealed by a letter from the 
 Reverend Mr. McKean reported in the Christian Advo- 
 cate, "The Reverend James McKean . . . states that 
 
 " Estate no. 396 (Probate Clerk's office, Springfield). The property worth $352 
 went to his widow. 
 
 ^' Nelson Allvn, "First Methodist Church, Springfield, Illinois; Historical 
 Data. 1821-1933" '(MS, 111. State Hist. Lib., Springfield), 3- 
 
 ''' Strickland, ed.. Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, 135. 
 
 ^ Leaton, Methodism in Illinois, 45-46.
 
 30 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 God is gloriously reviving his work in that western 
 region of country, and that many sinners are bowing 
 their necks to the yoke of Christ." ^^ When Peter Akers 
 was in charge of the Springfield station in 1837, there 
 were 191 white members in the church 7° 
 
 Mr. Matheny's work in the Methodist Church was 
 not limited to Springfield alone. In 1829, he was present 
 at a quarterly meeting of the Sangamon Circuit, attended 
 by Peter Cartwright, James McKean, and eleven other 
 preachers. Matheny was chosen secretary for this con- 
 ference. This particular gathering expelled Riddock 
 Home, a local preacher, from the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church for "lying and slander. "^^ Matheny and Peter 
 Cartwright appear to have been close personal friends. 
 In 1829, Cartwright pledged himself as security on a 
 loan that Matheny negotiated in order to buy some 
 land. Three years later, Matheny and four friends in- 
 serted a political notice in the Sangamo Journal asking 
 the people of the county to elect "our old friend" Peter 
 Cartwright to the General Assembly of the State. ^^ 
 
 Growing out of Matheny's religious enthusiasm 
 were his interests in colonization, temperance and Bible 
 societies, and in education. The decade of the 1830's 
 witnessed a great desire on the part of revivalists to 
 free mankind of the various evils holding it in bondage. 
 The enthusiasm engendered by the revivals of Charles 
 G. Finney and Theodore Dwight Weld carried over 
 into a crusade for reforms such as temperance reform, 
 prison reform, and the abolition of slavery. To Illinois 
 
 ^^ Christian Advocate, Oct. 2, 1829. 
 
 '" Records of the First Methodist Church, Springfield. 
 
 ^1 Minutes of the Illinois Conference, 1829 (MS, library of Illinois Wesleyan 
 University). I am indebted to Allan R. Laursen, librarian, for sending me this informa- 
 tion. 
 
 '* Sangamo Journal, Feb. 2, 1832.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 31 
 
 came preachers like the famed "Illinois Band," led by 
 Edward Beecher, who did yeoman work in trying to 
 free society from its chains. Matheny seems to have 
 been receptive to the same emotional feeling which 
 influenced other revivalists of the day. In 1833, he was 
 instrumental in founding a branch of the Colonization 
 Society, which sought to solve the slavery question by 
 purchasing the freedom of slaves and sending them to 
 settle in Liberia. Mr. Matheny served as president of 
 the local unit, and John G. Bergen, E. Roberts and John 
 T. Stuart were vice-presidents.^^ His enthusiasm for 
 the cause of mankind led him to participate in the 
 formation of the Sangamon County Temperance Society 
 in 1831. In four years' time, this society grew from 34 
 to 157 members. Mr. Matheny was an active figure in 
 the society serving as its manager and president.^* 
 
 In July, 1824, he was instrumental in organizing the 
 Springfield branch of the American Bible Society, and 
 this group chose him to serve as its corresponding sec- 
 retary. The national organization sent this branch 150 
 Bibles for distribution to the destitute of Sangamon 
 County.'^ The history of the Springfield Bible Society 
 is obscure. From 1824 to 1831, there is no mention of 
 it in the Annual Reports of the American Bible Society. 
 In 1831, the Society appears in the records when the 
 national society sent it 800 Bibles for distribution.^^ 
 The following year, the Reverend Neill Johnson, Illi- 
 
 " Angle, "Here I Have Lived," 52. 
 
 '^ S an gamo Journal, March 7, 1835; Hist, oj Sangamon County (Inter-state Pub. Co.), 
 298. There was also a juvenile temperance society. James H. Matheny took the pledge 
 not to use ardent spirits except as medicine. "Early Juvenile Temperance Society, 
 Springfield, Illinois," Jour. III. State Hist. Soc, XIII, no. 3 (Oct., 1920), 396-97. See 
 Report of the Executive Committee of the American Temperance Union, 1839 (New York, 1839), 
 20-21 for mention of the work in Illinois. 
 
 " Annual Reports of the American Bible Society, 1817-1838, I: 302, 309. 
 
 ''^ Ann. Rep. Amer. Bible Soc, 1817-1838, I: 558.
 
 32 CHARLES REYNOLDS MATHENY (1786-1839) 
 
 nois agent for the American Bible Society, called a 
 meeting in Springfield at which he, J. G. Bergen, and 
 Charles R. Matheny spoke at some length on the sub- 
 ject of Bible societies. At this meeting, Mr. Matheny 
 was elected vice-president of the board of directors of 
 the Springfield chapter. '^^ From this date until Mr. 
 Matheny's death, there is no further mention of the 
 chapter in the records. 
 
 Although Mr. Matheny had had little formal edu- 
 cation himself, he was interested in establishing institu- 
 tions of learning in order that subsequent generations 
 might benefit. In 1837, as a member of the board of 
 trustees of the Springfield Seminary, he announced to 
 the citizens of Springfield the founding of an institution 
 of learning to prepare their children for college, and to 
 educate them as their "parents desire." The tuition was 
 to be $10 per term of twenty-two weeks for primary 
 training, and $12 for secondary instruction.'^^ This 
 school apparently flourished, for two years later Mr. 
 Matheny as president of the board of trustees inserted 
 the following notice in the Illinois State Register : 
 
 The President and Trustees of the Springfield Academy have 
 the satisfaction to announce to the pubHc that they have erected, 
 in a pleasant and convenient situation in this place, a large and 
 commodious two-story brick schoolhouse, capable of accomodat- 
 ing advantageously one hundred and fifty pupils, and that they 
 have made an arrangement with Mr. S. M. Sill of this place, by 
 which he has opened in it a High School for boys, and is now pre- 
 pared to receive scholars.''^ 
 
 Mr. Matheny's interest in education also encom- 
 passed the need and desirability of collegiate training. 
 
 " Sangamo Journal, Jan. 19, 1832. 
 
 " Ibid., Jan. 6, 1837. 
 
 " llltnois State Register, Sept. 28, Nov. 9, 23, 1839.
 
 T. WALTER JOHNSON 33 
 
 On November 8, 1828, he was elected a member of the 
 board of managers of the proposed Lebanon Seminary. 
 Two years later, the board of managers changed the 
 name to McKendree College and chose Peter Akers as 
 its first president. ^^ By January, 1839, when McKendree 
 College was incorporated, Matheny's name no longer 
 appeared on the board of managers. 
 
 In spite of Charles R. Matheny's prominent position 
 in the political, religious, and social life of early Illi- 
 nois, he has, on the whole, been a neglected figure. No 
 picture of the man has survived for posterity, and very 
 few of his contemporaries have left any description of 
 his physical appearance or character. To Major John T. 
 Stuart, who served in the Colonization Society with 
 him, we owe the following eulogy: "He was a good 
 and useful man, had a pleasant smiling countenance 
 beaming with benevolence as if the light of Heaven was 
 shining on him, singling him out from the others." 
 John Reynolds, governor of Illinois, and the judge of 
 the circuit court who appointed him clerk in 1821, wrote 
 that he "settled in Springfield, where he sustained an 
 honorable and upright character as a citizen and a 
 faithful and devout Christian, and died a few years 
 since, beloved and revered by all his acquaintances."^^ 
 His work in so many important facets of Illinois life 
 reflects the strategic role one upland southerner played 
 in the formation and development of Illinois and should 
 assure him a place in the front rank of significant 
 figures in the history of this frontier state. 
 
 80 W. C. Walton, Centennial History of McKendree College (Lebanon, 111., [1928]), 
 112-99. According to President M. H. Chamberlain of McKendree College in "His- 
 torical Sketch of McKendree College," ///. State Hist. Lib. Pub., no. 9 (Springfield, 
 1904), 330, "The managers were chosen from a wide area of territory and embraced 
 some of the most conspicuous persons connected with the early history of the State." 
 
 " Reynolds, Pioneer Hist, of 111., 261-62.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 ELECTION OF ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT JUSTICES IN 1818* 
 
 October 8, 1818 
 The senate and house of representatives then proceeded to ballot 
 for three associate justices, and on counting the same, there were 
 for William P. Foster, twenty-six, for Thomas C. Browne, thirty, 
 for Henry S. Dodge, eighteen, for William Wilson, fifteen, for 
 Charles R. Matheny, nine, for John Warnock, one, for James W. 
 Whitney, one, and for Joseph Kitchell, seven. Thomas C. Browne 
 and William P. Foster, having a majority of the votes present, they 
 were declared to be duly elected. Neither of the other persons hav- 
 ing a majority of the votes present, the senate and house of repre- 
 sentatives proceeded to another ballot for one associate justice, and 
 on counting the same, there were for John Reynolds, eleven, for 
 Henry S. Dodge, fifteen, for William Wilson, ten, for Charles R. 
 Matheny, three, and for Joseph Kitchell, two. Neither of the per- 
 sons having a majority of all the votes present, the senate and house 
 of representatives proceeded to another ballot, and on counting the 
 same, there were for John Reynolds, twenty two, and for Henry S. 
 Dodge, nineteen. John Reynolds having a majority of all the votes 
 present, he was declared to be duly elected. 
 
 Illinois Senate Journal, 1818, 18-19. 
 
 On October 8, [1818] the legislature again met in joint session, 
 this time for the election of justices of the supreme court. The 
 Intelligencer of the preceding day contained an open letter to the 
 general assembly from "A friend to an able judiciary" in which the 
 importance of "the selection of proper Judges" was emphasized. 
 Unfortunately, however, the salaries fixed by the constitution were 
 not such as to attract "the best talents of the state" which this 
 
 * While Matheny may very likely have moved from St. Clair County to Sanga- 
 mon County because it was to his financial interest to do so, as stztcdante,p. 16-17, it is 
 quite possible that his decision was al.so influenced by his defeat in the election for 
 Supreme Court justices in 1818. The sources quoted below give an account of that 
 election.
 
 APPENDIX 35 
 
 writer thought "should be called into the service." According to 
 Reynolds, "the material for the bench was not as good as it might 
 be. Human nature is easier persuaded to mount upwards than to 
 remain on the common level." The candidates for supreme judge 
 were Joseph Phillips, secretary under the territorial government, 
 Thomas Browne, a Shawneetown lawyer belonging to the Edwards 
 party, and Henry S. Dodge, a Kaskaskia lawyer and real estate 
 dealer. Phillips received thirty-four of the forty-one votes cast. 
 The assembly then proceeded to elect three associate judges. There 
 were nine candidates. . . . 
 
 The other candidates were Thomas C. Browne; William P. 
 Foster, a man "of winning, polished manners" who had been in 
 the state about two months; Henry S. Dodge; William Wilson, 
 clerk and recorder of Jackson county; C. R. Matheny, the anti- 
 slavery advocate of the last territorial legislature, and circuit at- 
 torney of the first district; Joseph Kitchell, senator from Crawford 
 county; John Warnock, whom Edwards had appointed in June as 
 judge of the western circuit in place of Cook; and J. W. Whitney, 
 of whom nothing is known except that he lived in St. Clair county. 
 Browne and Foster were elected on the first ballot, Reynolds on the 
 third. The choice of Foster proved an unfortunate one. The fol- 
 lowing May, A. F. Hubbard wrote to Kane, "I have just been in 
 the upper Country of Fosters Circuit [White, Edwards, and Craw- 
 ford counties]. He did not hold any Court. The people are much 
 enranged [sic\ at him indeed and every man all most has made it his 
 own case and have joined in complaint. I saw Judge Foster in Vin- 
 cennes he told me the water was too high that he was too unwell to 
 get to Palestine on time, and that his Son was to unwell to stay 
 from him till after Edwards Court[?]." This confirms what Ford 
 wrote of him: "he was no lawyer, never having either studied or 
 practiced law; but .... withal a very gentlemanly swindler. . . . 
 He was believed to be a clever fellow, in the American sense of the 
 phrase, and a good-hearted soul. He was assigned to hold courts 
 in the circuit on the Wabash; but being fearful of exposing his utter 
 incompetency, he never went near any of them. In the course of 
 one year he resigned his high office, but took care first to pocket 
 his salary, and then removed out of the State. 
 
 SOLON J. BUCK, Illinois in 1818, 304-305.
 
 36 APPENDIX 
 
 Governor Reynolds also says, apparently referring to them [the 
 Supreme Court judges] "the material for the bench was not as good 
 as it might be." This was preeminently true of William P. Foster, 
 who had never studied law, never held his court, was a swindler and 
 worse, and disappeared after collecting his first year's salary. 
 
 FRANCIS s. PHiLBRicK, Pope' s Digest, I: xxii. 
 
 UNITED STATES VS MOLL A BLACK WOMAN. INDICT- 
 MENT FOR LARCENY— A TRUE BILL. THEO BROWN- 
 FIELD, FORMAN. WITNESS: ALEXANDER JIMMOSON 
 SEBASTIAN SHAN AN. 
 
 Illinois Territory, Monroe County. In the Circuit Court for the 
 County of Monroe. April Term 1818. 
 
 The Grand Jurors of the United States of America empannelled 
 and sworn to inquire for the body of the County of Monroe afore 
 said upon their oaths do present and say that Moll a black woman 
 of the County afore said unlawfully with force and arms on the 
 seventh day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight 
 hundred and Eighteen in the county aforesaid and within the juris- 
 diction of this court filoniously did steal take and carry away three 
 hundred and Twenty Dollars in silver the personal goods or money 
 of Jacob Trout contrary to the form of the statute of this Territory 
 in such case made and provided to the evil example of all others in 
 like cases offending and against the peace and dignity of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 C. R. Matheny 
 
 Circuit attorney 
 
 APPOINTMENT OF CHARLES R. MATHENY AS CIRCUIT 
 CLERK 
 
 State of Illinois 
 
 The County of Sangamon being established and made a part of 
 the first Judicial Circuit of this State wherein I preside, I do hereby 
 constitute and appoint Charles R. Matheny Esq. Clerk of the Cir-
 
 APPENDIX 37 
 
 cuit Court of said Sangamon County To have and to hold Said 
 office during his good behavior. 
 
 Done in Said State this 8th 
 Feby 1821 
 
 John Reynolds 
 
 Asst. Just. Sup. Court. 
 
 OATH AS CIRCUIT CLERK 
 
 I Charles R. Matheny being appointed clerk of the Circuit Court 
 for Sangamon County do solemly swear that I will truly and faith- 
 fully enter and record all orders decrees Judgments and proceedings, 
 of the said court and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge 
 and perform all the duties of my said office — according to the best 
 of my abilities and understanding according to law 
 
 State of Illinois 
 
 Present the above named Ch. R. Matheny Esq. before me 
 one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of said State and took the 
 above Oath this 15th Feby. 1821— 
 
 John Reynolds 
 
 MATHENY'S BOND AS NOTARY PUBLIC 
 
 Know all men by these presents that we Charles R. Matheny 
 and John Taylor are held and firmly bound unto the governor of 
 the State of Illinois in the Sum of five hundred dollars which pay- 
 ment well and truly to be made we bind ourselves our heirs, Exe- 
 cutors and administrators Jointly and firmly by these presents. 
 Sealed with our Seals and Noted this Twenty fourth day of December 
 in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and twenty 
 three — 
 
 The condition of the above obligation is Such that whereas the 
 above bounden Charles R. Matheny is appointed and Commissioned 
 Notary Public for Sangamon County in the State of Illinois. Now if 
 the Said Charles R. Matheny shall faithfully discharge the duties 
 of Said Office according to the law and Statutes of this State then
 
 38 APPENDIX 
 
 the above obligation to be void or else to remain in full force — 
 
 Charles R. Matheny 
 John Taylor 
 
 Signed Sealed & delivered 
 
 In presence of 
 
 Jos. Pickett 
 
 COUNTY RECORDER'S FEE 
 
 P. P. Enos Dr 
 
 To C. R. Matheny 
 1 April 1825 
 
 recording deed $1.00 
 
 Please send the amount by the boy in small change — ^I have an 
 old man working whom I wish to pay — 
 
 C. R. Matheny 
 
 REMUNERATION AS COUNTY CLERK 
 
 Thursday October 12th 1826 
 Ordered that Charles R. Matheny be allowed Sixteen dollar? for 
 his services as Clerk at the present Term — 
 
 Ordered that Charles R. Matheny be authorized to contract for 
 and procure a good Substantial convenient Table for the use of the 
 bar & the Clerk in the court house, and that an appropriation shall 
 be made at the next Term to pay for Said Table at such price as said 
 Matheny may agree on, and also Two seats for the use of the Table — 
 To be procured as above 
 
 Ordered that this Court^ adjourn until court in course- 
 Samuel Lee 
 Wm. Strawbridge 
 Bowling Green 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF REAL ESTATE BELONGING TO THE 
 HEIR OF D. P. COOK IN AND ADJOINING THE TOWN OF 
 SPRINGFIELD WITH THEIR SUPPOSED PROBABLE VALUE 
 
 LOT BLOCK GENERAL REMARKS 
 
 "6 "15 This is a corner lot one Block & one Street west 
 
 of the public Square worth $ 400 
 
 The County Commissioners Court of Sangamon County,
 
 APPENDIX 39 
 
 2 & 4 16 Lot 4 is a corner lot. This is worth Say $400. 
 
 Lot 2 is worth $200 *150 600 
 
 1 18 This is a corner lot But is Some distance from 
 
 the Square 150 
 
 2 20 This lot is worth Say 200 
 
 3 21 Worth about 300 
 
 6 14 Worth about 400 
 
 1&6 2 Worth " 500 
 
 5 11 This is a corner Lot on the NW of Square 
 
 worth 3000 
 
 Out lots SW of Square containing 16/4 acres worth 5000 
 
 Out lots NW of Square containing 16/4 out of this I find a 
 deed from Cook to Mobley for 6/2 acres. If Mr. Cook's 
 
 Heirs own the Ball being 9/4 acres it is worth 1500 
 
 Out lots NW of Square containing 26 acres worth 20 per acre 620 
 
 $12670 
 
 I am a very incompetant Judge of the value of unimproved prop- 
 erty Those persons who trade are so much better able to Judge of 
 the value of the lots & out lots named above than I am But the 
 above estimate is Respectfully Submitted by the devoted friend of 
 the departed Honble D. P. Cook for the benefit of whose infant heir 
 you have requested this Statement 
 
 I Remain Verry Respectfully 
 Dear Madam Your Obediant Servant 
 C. R. Matheny clerk 
 To Mrs. L. L. Edwards 
 
 MATHENY'S ACCOUNT WITH THE COUNTY 
 COMMISSIONERS COURT 
 
 Sangamon County Dr 
 
 To C. R. Matheny 
 1836 
 
 Mar. 21st one load of wood for office a 3-00 
 
 * having reexamined the map I was mistaken in Lot 2 & 4 in Block 16. I ihink 
 them worth about $150. which will reduce the agregate to the sum of $12220. 
 
 C. R. Matheny.
 
 40 APPENDIX 
 
 23rd 2 Loads of wood for Do a 3. each 6.00 
 
 24 4 Blk Book Small Bot at 12 1/2 each 50 
 
 28 One Load of Wood for office 1.50 
 
 Presented to court, June term 1836 11.00 
 
 July Copy of order for Bridge on Sangamon 50 
 
 3 notices to committee each 50 1.50 
 
 Copy of order for Publication 2 50 each 1.00 
 
 2 Blk Book for Tax Book Bot of 1.50 3-00 
 
 Ink Stand of Ginsutt a 1.00 1.00 
 
 Lot of Personal property 30.00 
 
 Bal due on Land list for 1834 26.00 
 
 Alphebetacal Book for Sheriff 80.00 
 
 Allowed Sept Term 1836 
 
 C. R. Matheny 
 
 Sangamon County Road Tax 
 
 To C. R. Matheny Dr 
 
 1836 
 
 Mar. 17 To 40 notices to Supervisors a 50 20.00 
 
 Notices to R. Harrison H. Penny & Bone 50 
 
 Notice to R. Harrison M. Young & I Berry 50 
 
 Notices to W. Bracker I Bants & C. Montgomery . .50 
 Notice to R. Cownoun W. G. Getty & A. Lincoln .50 
 
 Notice to L. Beam L Whaley & R. Short 50 
 
 copy of Road Districts for assessor 40 a 50 each. . 20.00 
 
 June 10 N. Kates A. Sinnard S. M. Thompson & Wm. 
 
 Stephenson 50 
 
 Notice to Sol Wood Wm Wright & Robt Musick .50 
 
 to 3 notices to Supervisors a 50 1.50 
 
 11 to 1 notice to Supervisor a 50 
 
 to 1 notice to Supervisor a 50 
 
 40 Lists of Savings Tax for Road 40 a 100 40.00 
 
 Copy of Record for Bridge 50 
 
 Sept. 9 To 10 Road notices to Means a 50 ct 5-00 
 
 Nov. 18 To 1 Road notices to Supervisor a 50 
 
 advertising 412 tracts of Land for a 10 each — 412.00
 
 APPENDIX 41 
 
 Dec. 10 To 5 Road notices 50 2.50 
 
 To 2 Road notices 50 ct 1.00 
 
 Feb. 14, 1837 To 1 Road notice 50ct 50 
 
 137.20 
 TAX DEED EXECUTED BY MATHENY 
 
 Charles R. Matheny. Clerk of the County Commissioners Court of 
 the County of Sangamon and State of Illinois. To all whom these 
 presents shall come. Greeting. 
 
 Know Ye that Whereas I did on the third day of March A.D. 
 1834 at the Town of Springfield in conformity with all the requisi- 
 tions of the several acts in such cases made and provided expose to 
 public sale a certain tract of land being the W 3^ of the NE 3^ of 
 Section 18. Town 15 North Range 4 West containing Eighty acres 
 for the sum of two dollars and ninety cents being the amount of Tax 
 for the year 1833 with Interest and cost chargeable on said tract of 
 land. And whereas at the time and place aforesaid James Woods 
 offered to pay the aforesaid Sum of money for the whole of Said 
 part or tract of Land which was the least quantity bid for and did 
 pay the said sum of money into the Treasury of the State. I have 
 granted Bargained and sold and by these presents as clerk of the 
 County Commissioners Court as aforesaid do grant bargain and sell 
 the whole of said tract of land above described to the said James 
 Woods his heirs and assigns to have and to hold said tract of land 
 to the said James Woods and his heirs forever subject however to 
 all the rights of redemption provided by law. 
 
 In testimony where of I have hereunto set 
 my hand and seal of said County Commis- 
 sioners Court at Springfield this thirty first 
 day of October 1836 
 
 C. R. Matheny Clerk 
 
 LINCOLN ONE OF MATHENY'S BONDSMEN 
 
 Know all men by these presents that we Charles R. Matheny 
 William Butler Abner Y. Ellis, A. Lincoln
 
 42 APPENDIX 
 
 Are held and firmly bound unto the County Commissioners of 
 the County of Sangamon and State of Illinois jfor the use of any 
 person or persons injured or for the use of the said County if in- 
 jured in the penal sum of one thousand dollars the payment of 
 which will and truly to be made we bind ourselves, our heirs and 
 assigns, jointly severally' and firmly by these presents. Signed, 
 Sealed and dated this 18 day of June AD 1838 
 
 The Condition of the above obligation is such that whereas the 
 above bounden Charles R. Matheny has been duly elected Clerk of 
 the said County Commissioners Court, Now if he the said Charles 
 R. Matheny shall faithfully perform the duties of said office as re- 
 quired by Law, then the above obligation to be void otherwise to 
 remain in full force and effect. 
 
 C. R. Matheny 
 William Butler 
 Abner Y. Ellis 
 A. Lincoln 
 State of Illinois 
 Sangamon County 
 
 LINCOLN'S CERTIFICATE OF ELECTION 
 
 State of Illinois 
 Sangamon County 
 
 I Charles R. Matheny, Clerk of the County Commissioners Court 
 of said County do hereby Certify that Abraham Lincoln is duly 
 elected Representative from Sangamon County at the General Elec- 
 tion held on Monday the 4th day of August AD 1839 as appears from 
 the Returns filed in this office. 
 
 Given under my hand and Seal 
 of office at Springfield this 20th 
 day of August AD 1839 
 
 C. R. Matheny Clerk 
 
 JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF 
 TRUSTEES OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 On motion, C. R. Matheny was chosen President of the Board-
 
 APPENDIX 43 
 
 On motion, Simeon Francis was elected Clerk of the Board. 
 
 Adjourned. 
 
 C. R. Matheny 
 
 April 7, 1838. Present— C. R. Matheny, I. Klein, P. C. Canedy, 
 and P. C. Latham. 
 
 On motion, P. C. Latham was chosen Clerk pro tempore. 
 
 The President laid before the Board a communication from Wm. 
 Butler, resigning his office as Trustee. Said communication was 
 ordered to be filed. 
 
 On motion. Resolved, That Samuel H. Treat be appointed Trus- 
 tee in the place of Wm. Butler, resigned. 
 
 Samuel H. Treat appeared and was qualified as a Trustee of the 
 town of Springfield. 
 
 On motion, the Board adjourned. 
 
 C. R. Matheny 
 
 April 13, 1838. Present— C. R. Matheny, P. C. Latham, P. C. 
 Canedy, L Klein, S. H. Treat. 
 
 On motion, S. H. Treat and the President were appointed a com- 
 mittee to revise the ordinances of the corporation in relation to the 
 office and duties of Street Commissioner; and that they report by 
 bill at the next meeting of the Board. 
 
 On motion. Resolved, That Josiah Wickersham be appointed 
 Street Commissioner of the town of Springfield, to hold his office 
 during the pleasure of the Board. 
 
 On motion, Resolved, That Charles B. Francis, be appointed 
 town treasurer. 
 
 On motion, Resolved, That Lemuel Higby be appointed Assessor 
 of the town of Springfield. 
 
 On motion. Resolved, That Lemuel Higby be appointed Col- 
 lector of the town of Springfield. 
 
 On motion. Resolved, That James Maxy be appointed Consta- 
 ble of the town of Springfield. 
 
 On motion. Resolved, that Lemuel Higby be appointed Market 
 Master. 
 
 On motion. Resolved, That the Treasurer of the Corporation 
 be requested to report to this Board at the next regular meeting of
 
 44 APPENDIX 
 
 the Board, the balance that was remaining in the Treasury on the 
 1st Monday of April, 1837, and the amount of the subsequent rev- 
 enue received, and the expenditures in detail, up to the first Monday 
 of the present month. Also to exhibit in a separate statement, a 
 general estimate of expenditures for the coming year, and the neces- 
 sary revenue to be relied upon to meet the same without defalcation. 
 
 Adjourned. 
 
 C. R. Matheny.