Linder, Usher Ferguson

Life Span
to
Full name
Usher Ferguson Linder
Place of Birth
Elizabethtown, KY
Burial Place
Chicago, IL
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Slave State
Family
Daniel Linder (son)
Occupation
Politician
Attorney or Judge
Relation to Slavery
White non-slaveholder
Political Parties
Democratic
Whig
Government
State legislature
Other state government
Slaveholding in 1860
0
Household Size in 1860
11
Occupation in 1860
Lawyer
Political Party in 1860
Democrat
Residence in 1860
Chicago, IL
Wealth in 1860
17000
Marital status in 1860
Married

Usher Ferguson Linder (Bateman, 1907)

Reference
LINDER, Usher F., lawyer and politician, was born in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Ky. (ten miles from the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln), March 20, 1809; came to Illinois in 1835, finally locating at Charleston, Coles County; after traveling the circuit a few months was elected Representative in the Tenth General Assembly (1836), but resigned before the close of the session to accept the office of Attorney-General, which he held less than a year and a half, when he resigned that also. Again, in 1846, he was elected to the Fifteenth General Assembly and re-elected to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth, afterwards giving his attention to the practice of his profession. Mr. Linder, in his best days, was a fluent speaker with some elements of eloquence which gave him a wide popularity as a campaign orator. Originally a Whig, on the dissolution of that party he became a Democrat, and, in 1860, was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, S C., and at Baltimore. During the last four years of his life he wrote a series of articles under the title of "Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois," which was published in book form in 1876. Died in Chicago, June 5, 1876.
Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, 1905), 338-339.

Usher Ferguson Linder (Chicago Tribune)

Obituary

GEN. U. F. LINDER.

The announcement of the death in this city yesterday of Gen. U. F. LINDER will be received with wide-spread interest and regret throughout the State of Illinois by a large circle of friends and acquaintances gained after a residence in this State of forty-six years. He was born in Elizabethtown, Ky., March 23, 1809, and came to Illinois in 1820, his people settling in Charleston, Coles County, where he studied law, was admitted to the Bar, and practiced successfully until 1859. He came to Chicago in 1860, and has remained a resident of this city ever since. Gen. LINDER was originally a Whig in politics, but joined the Democratic party when STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS was at the zenith of his fame, and was Attorney-General of the State under Govs. FORD and BISSELL. He was one of the most popular and effective stump-speakers in the State, his services being highly valued and frequently called into requisition in heated political campaigns. In the famous joint caucus of LINCOLN and DOUGLAS in 1858 for the United States Senatorship, Gen. LINDER received from DOUGLAS at Mattoon a telegram which read: “For God’s sake, LINDER, come!” The fact was, the Little Giant was getting worsted by “Old ABE,” and wanted LINDER’S help. DOUGLAS’ frantic telegram was exhibited with pardonable pride by its recipient, and from it came the sobriquet, “For-God’s-Sake LINDER,” which stuck to him through life.

Gen. LINDER was ardently devoted to the railway interest of Illinois, and took a prominent part in obtaining many of the earlier charters. The death of STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, his warm personal and political friend, was a severe blow to him, and the reward he so confidently counted upon for his zealous services never came in consequence. Hard work, old age, and discouragement together hastened the close of a busy and useful life, and many an honest tear will drop at the recollection of what Gen. LINDER was in his strength and prime.

“Gen. U. F. Linder,” Chicago (IL) Tribune, June 6, 1876, p. 4: 6.
Date Event
Usher Ferguson Linder is born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky
Usher Ferguson Linder dies in Chicago, Illinois
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Date Title
Recollection by Usher F. Linder, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858
Date Title
Springfield Illinois Journal, "Fusion," August 31, 1854
How to Cite This Page: "Linder, Usher Ferguson," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/24009.