Image of Skinner, Onias C.

Skinner, Onias C.

b. 1817, in Floyd, New York; d. February 4, 1877, in Quincy, Illinois. Onias Skinner moved to Peoria, Illinois in 1836, but soon moved to Ohio where he studied law and was admitted to the Ohio bar. In 1840, he moved to Carthage, Illinois, and then to Quincy. Skinner served a term in the state legislature from 1848-50. In 1851, Skinner was elected judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which was composed of Adams, Brown, McDonough, Hancock, Henderson, and Mercer counties. In 1854, he was elected a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, after the resignation of Samuel H. Treat. Skinner served on the bench until his resignation in April 1858. Abraham Lincoln appeared before Skinner in the Illinois Supreme Court in thirty-eight legal cases. Skinner served as a member of the 1870 state constitutional convention. He practiced law until his death.
Biographical Encyclopaedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1875), 216; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 76 vols. (New York: James T. White, 1893-1984), 5:515; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1899), 1:54, 2:876; David F. Wilcox, ed., Quincy and Adams County: History and Representative Men (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company), 149. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.