JOHN JUDD

FROM: The History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887).  P. 712-713.

          John Judd, county clerk of Hamilton County, Ill, born in Burlington, Ohio, September 3, 1839, is the son of Chester and Mary (Burch) Judd, natives respectively of New York and Ohio.  The father came to Illinois in 1854 locating on Moore’s Prairie in the western part of the county, where he now resides with his wife.  (See sketch).  Our subject was educated at McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill., and Jones’ Commercial College, of St. Louis.  For two years he followed teaching, and from seventeen to twenty-six he was a wool-carder in his father’s mill, except while at and teaching school.  His father established the first steam flouring-mill in the county.  Confinement not agreeing with our subject, he settled on the farm, and in 1867 was elected county surveyor, an office which he filled for seventeen consecutive years.  In 1886 he was elected county clerk, and is now filling the office in an efficient manner.  September 25, 1862, he married Lucy S. Bennett of Athens County, Ohio.  Their four children are Burch J., Chester C., Lydia B. and Giles G.  His party, the Democratic, elected him to his various offices, notwithstanding they were at times in the minority.  He is a Master Mason, and justly recognized as a reliable citizen and popular official.