McConnel, Murray (McConnell)
b. in Vermont; d. February 8, 1869, in Jacksonville, Illinois. McConnel moved to Morgan County, Illinois, sometime around
1820. He was one of Morgan County’s first lawyers and was a Democratic
member of the state legislature. He served as the Commissioner of the Internal Improvement Act, and in 1839, he was responsible
for the construction of the Northern Cross Railroad, which connected Jacksonville to Meredosia, Illinois. In 1869, William
A.
Robinson, one of McConnel’s former clients, allegedly shot McConnel, but an ensuing trial failed to convict Robinson.
Roy P. Basler et al., eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers
University Press, 1953), 2:12-13; Robert L. Conn, Illinois Bar Journal (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Bar
Association, April 1938), 282; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent
(Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1899), 1:337, 342-47. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library,
Springfield, IL.