Broadwell, Norman M.
b. August 1, 1825, in Morgan County, Illinois; d. February 28, 1893, in Springfield, Illinois. n 1850, Broadwell studied law
in the office of Lincoln and Herndon in Springfield, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar the
following year. Broadwell moved to Pekin, Illinois, to practice law but returned to Springfield in 1854. He had several law
partners including Shelby M. Cullom, John A. McClernand, William M. Springer, and W. L. Gross, who was his partner at the
time of
his death. In his first law case, he was opposed in counsel by Abraham Lincoln. Active in Democratic politics, Broadwell was
elected to the state legislature in 1860. In 1862, he replaced George Power as county judge, and in 1867, he was elected mayor
of
Springfield.
John J. Duff, A. Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer (New York: Bramhall House, 1960), 287; Illinois State
Register (Springfield, Illinois), March 1, 1893, 1; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical
and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1899), 1:193; Portrait and Biographical Album of Sangamon
County, Illinois (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891), 217-18; Joseph Wallace, Past and Present of the City of
Springfield and Sangamon County (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1904), 2:930-34. Illustration courtesy
of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.