Image of Beckwith, Hiram W.

Beckwith, Hiram W.

b. March 5, 1833, in Danville, Illinois; d. December 22, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. Beckwith studied law in the office of Ward Hill Lamon in Danville. He was admitted to the bar on May 27, 1854, after being examined by a committee that included Abraham Lincoln and Leonard Swett. Beckwith retired from the law in 1876. Afterwards, Beckwith became an Illinois historian and published various works on local and state history. He was a member of trustees for the Illinois State Historical Library, and in 1897, he became president of the board of trustees.
John J. Duff, A. Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer (New York: Bramhall House, 1960), 294; Edmund James, "The Life and Work of Hiram Williams Beckwith," Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1904 (January, 1904), 9:25-26; E. R. Pritchard, ed., Illinois Today and its Progressive Cities (Chicago: First National Bank, 1897), 88; George Washington Smith, History of Illinois and Her People (Chicago & New York: American Historical Society, 1927), 4:383. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.