Richard J. Oglesby
Governor of Illinois

Edited By Carol C. Reynolds
Taken From
History of Macon Co., IL, 1880
 

This distinguished soldier and statesman was born on the twenty-fifth of July, St. James’ day^[1], 1824, in Oldham County, Kentucky. His parents, Jacob and Isabella Watson Oglesby, both of Scottish descent, came to Kentucky from Virginia.
 
After following other pursuits, Jacob Oglesby [father] became a farmer in Kentucky where he was a man of some influence, representing his county two terms in the legislature of the state. The profit of his farm enabled him to live comfortably with his large family of eight children until 1833, when the cholera, which swept through the country at that time, bereft the young family of both father and mother, a brother Woodford and a sister Isabella. Afterward, in 1836, the youngest daughter, Sarah, died at the age of six years, in Illinois. Robert, the youngest son, six years old at the time of his parents’ death, died at the age of twenty-one, after a year’s service in the Mexican War. The death of the parents in early maturity left the young family, two sons and four daughters, totally unprovided for.
 
Kind relatives, however, came to their relief, and assumed their care. Richard, the fifth child, and the elder of the surviving brothers, was but eight years old at the time of his father’s death, and was taken in charge by an uncle, Willis Oglesby, who in 1836, moved to Decatur, Illinois, and afterward lived in Kentucky and Indiana. Richard remained with his uncle until the age of fourteen, when he started out in the world alone. His first journey was on foot, with only a small bundle, from Terre Haute, Indiana, back to his favorite home, Decatur, Illinois, where he sought and found the protection of two devoted sisters, Mrs. Henry Prather and Mrs. J. J. Peddecord. In Decatur, therefore, in November, 1838, Richard J. Oglesby, at the age of fourteen, fairly entered upon the struggle of life; for a while he had friends and relations who always took a deep interest in his welfare, and pointed out to him, by suggestions and advices, the best course to pursue. He felt, and it was true, that he must rely chiefly on his own will and resources for all the future yet to be revealed and developed. The financial crash of 1837 was then being felt throughout the country; every one was poor. From the age of fourteen to seventeen years, his life was very similar to that of other boys, working on the farm, and about town at such employment as could be found, by the day, week, or month.
 
The usual amusements of those days, he says, were hunting, fishing and “Burgooing,”^[2] and on Saturday afternoon in all county seat towns, horse-racing, ball-playing and occasionally a fistfight in the street to settle up old differences, clear up the atmosphere and get ready for church next day. Richard had his full share in the sports and pastimes of the day, but managed to keep clear of the sterner tussles in the street.
 
At seventeen he went to Kentucky, still the home of his eldest sister, Mrs. James F. Wilson, where he learned the trade of a house carpenter under James Rankim. Returning after a year to Decatur, he worked for Major E. O. Smith at the same trade, for six dollars a month and board. Times steadily grew harder, and work at any trade more difficult to obtain; besides farming and merchandizing there was little life in any trade or industry in the West. In 1843 farming was next undertaken, in company with Lemuel Allen, a teacher of some repute, whose school Richard had attended for three months the previous winter. They farmed on rented ground one mile east of Decatur, and raised oats, corn and twelve acres of hemp. The last was duly cut and cured, and the machine was spun, the two large cables used in launching the first flat-boat sent out on the Sangamon River from Decatur. If was laden with corn and other produce of Macon county. The whole population turned out to see the boat take its departure on its long journey down the Sangamon to the Illinois River and thence down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Many of the older and wiser heads of the great company assembled on that occasion regarded the auspicious event as the fulfillment of a prophecy made by “Abe Lincoln” in a speech near a little corner grocery at Decatur in 1830: “That the Sangamon would some day be declared a navigable stream open to the commerce of the world.” The sympathizing crown followed the course of the “flat-boat” for many miles, cheering vociferously as it swept the various and abrupt curves of the sluggish Sangamon, somewhat perilous to navigation on account of the drift-wood, which had caught and collected into large and compact masses, clogging the stream, in many places, from bank to bank.
 
In 1840 Mr. Oglesby first heard, in the way of public speaking, the very able debate between Lincoln and Douglas in the old courtroom in Decatur. Though he was but sixteen, he had developed an admiration and attachment for Mr. Lincoln. . . . The example Mr. Lincoln’s life afforded, having begun the study of law with a limited education at the age of twenty-seven, became an inspiration to many young men in the West. Mr. Oglesby like others felt its influence, and finally resolved, as soon as he could, the means to follow in the path illuminated by the genius and talent of this noble man.
 
Therefore in 1844, at the age of twenty, he began the study of law with Silas W. Robbins, in Springfield. In November, 1845, after the usual examinations he was admitted to the bar. It is due to the truth of biography to state that the education of Mr. Oglesby had been limited. His opportunities had been of the poorest kind. At the period when he began the study of law, he could read and write, had a slight knowledge of arithmetic and a brief acquaintance with geography; but this was all he could claim in the way of an education.

In the spring of 1846, the war between the United States and Mexico opened a new field of action; and we find Mr. Oglesby in that service for one year as First Lieut. Of Company C, 4th Illinois volunteers, commanded by Col. E. D. Baker of Illinois. Lieut. Oglesby marched with the regiment on foot over seven hundred miles through the interior of Mexico, and was in the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo; in the latter, he commanded the company. Captain Pugh having been placed by Colonel Baker, in command of the left wing of the regiment, and out of forty-one, rank and file, lost ten, killed and wounded. It was in this battle General Shields fell wounded, at the head of the Fourth Illinois regiment, near Colonel Baker.

Lieutenant Oglesby was left in charge of the wounded general for two days on the battle-field, as a mark of respect to the company. On his return, at the close of the war, to his home he at once resumed the practice of law, giving it his whole attention.
 
But in 1849, catching the gold fever, he made one of a party of eight, which left Decatur for California. The trip was made in ninety-five days, and was one of uninterrupted interest and pleasure. As an evidence of the wisdom of the venture, he states, that on the evening of the third day after his arrival in Sacramento City he repaid the two hundred and fifty dollars borrowed, to make the journey, and had four hundred and seventy dollars in cash left.
 
His career as a miner was so successful that at the end of two years and six months, though he had lost three thousand dollars deposited in a Sacramento bank, and two thousand five hundred dollars by the burning of Nevada City, he returned to Decatur with four thousand five hundred dollars in gold, and had more cash for a few weeks than any other man in Decatur, then a town of five hundred inhabitants, including many promising young men.
 
Shortly after his return from California, the law firm of “Oglesby and Waite” was established, which continued until the spring of 1856.
 
At the time of the great contest between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, Mr. Oglesby became the Republican candidate for Congress in the Congressional district as then arranged. But, unhappily for his rising ambition, the district had been created to return a Democratic majority, and the Hon. James C. Robinson went to Congress while Mr. Oglesby still continued to practice law. In 1860 Mr. Oglesby was requested by the Republican party to become a candidate for the State Senate, and, though the district had before been largely Democratic, was elected in November at the same time that Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the United States. He served one term in the senate, but in 1861 was elected Colonel of the eighth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, and resigned his seat to go to the field as a soldier in the great civil war. Mr. Oglesby served for one year as Colonel and led the right of Gen. Grant’s army in his advance on Fort Donelson, and was on the field of battle for three days in attacking that rebel stronghold, which finally yielded, with its fourteen thousand prisoners, after a severe battle on the fourteenth of February, 1862. This was the first substantial union victory up to that time. In 1861 Colonel Oglesby had been appointed by President Lincoln Brigadier General for gallantry at the battle of Fort Donelson, taking rank as such from April the first, 1862. In the autumn of 1862, [October 3 – 4] the great battle of Corinth [Mississippi] was fought, on the third and fourth days of October. Gen. Oglesby commanded a brigade in that fight, and on the afternoon of the first day fell upon the field of battle, as was then thought, mortally wounded, the ball having passed under the left arm, through the lungs and lodged near his spine. He passed six months of intense suffering and danger before he was able to leave his home, and still carried in his body the enemy’s ball which brought him so near the gates of death.

Still suffering from his wound, although on duty in the field, he tendered his resignation in July, 1863; but it was not accepted. He was, however, granted a leave of absence and returned home, where he was detailed as president of a general court-martial which sat in Washington from December, 1863, until May, 1864. Upon Gen. Oglesby’s return to Illinois, he was unanimously nominated as the Republican candidate for Governor, and although the state had gone democratic at the last election, was elected by a thirty-one thousand majority.
 
On his nomination for Governor on May 25th, 1864, the President accepted his resignation as Major-General, and he left the field of active hostilities, for which his severe wound had long unfitted him, to enter the arena of political life, where at that time the strife was as bitter as in the fields of war.
 
Being at Washington when that awful national calamity, the assassination of President Lincoln occurred, it was Gov. Oglesby’s painful privilege to be present at the bedside of his beloved friend, within an hour after the fatal shot was given; he watched over him until the end, and saw him yield up his noble life in the cause of the country he loved and served so well. Afterward he remained close beside the precious remains, following in the mournful journey back to Illinois, until they were placed in the silent tomb amid the lamentations of a great nation.
 
At the end of his first term he retired to private life, but again, in 1872, his party required his services, and he was nominated and again elected governor in November of that year by a forty-one thousand majority. On the tenth day after his inaugural he was chosen by the legislature United States Senator for the term of six years, from March 4th, 1873.
 
In private life is was the same sound and unswerving Republican he ever has been – the same patriot – and has the same high sense of public honor which ought to fill the breast of every man who accepts the public confidence.
 
He was twice married; first in 1859, to Anna E., daughter of Joseph White, of Decatur; and afterwards, in 1873, to Emma, daughter of John D. Gillett, of Elkhart. He has children by both marriages. His son by Emma, John Gillett Oglesby, served as Lt. Gov. of Illinois for two terms (1909-1913 & 1917-1921).
 
Gov. Oglesby retired to his farm, “Oglehurst,” at Elkhart, Illinois, where he died on April 24, 1899 and was interred in the Elkhart Cemetery.

 

 

[1] St. James was the patron saint of pilgrims.
 
[2] Burgooing was a political rally or a community gathering in which Burgoo was served. Burgoo was a thick stew made of meat and vegetables.