Shelby County is surrounded on the north by Christian, Macon, and Moultrie; the east by Moultrie,Coles & Cumberland; the south by Effingham and Fayette; and the west by Montgomery and Christian counties.

Shelby County Biographies Samuel W. Moulton In spite of the stellar legacy he left behind, Moulton also left an intriguing documentary on life in Shelby County in late 1800's. It was a time of great confusion over the slavery question spanning the free soil issue, and the American Colonization Society along with the lack of consistent, quality education on the frontier, which Illinois was at that time.     HON. SAMUEL W. MOULTON was born in Hamilton, Mass. in 1823, and after receiving a common school and academic education, he went in 1843, to Mississippi, where he remained until the fall of 1845, when he removed to Illinois.     After acquiring a legal education in law offices, he was admitted to the bar in 1847, and commenced the practice of law in Moultrie county.     In January, 1850, Mr. Moulton established his residence in Shelby county, and is still in full practice as a member of the firm of Moulton, Chafee and Headen, Shelbyville. He has always had a very large practice, and has been engaged in some of the most important cases in this part of the state. He held the office of school commissioner of Shelby county for eight years, was elected a member of the legislature in 1853, and for three successive terms. During his first term he was chairman of the committee on education, drafted and introduced the first bill for free schools in the State of Illinois.         Also during his term in office, Moulton made a little history back home among his constituents in Shelbyville.     It is essential to look back at the following events with a comprehension of the times.         In 1856, (Moulton) was a Buchanan presidential elector, and in 1860, supported Douglas for the presidency.         On June 9th, 1856, Samuel W. Moulton joined Anthony Thornton in a debate against Abraham Lincoln – and in     defense of slavery. Today, a monument in front of the courthouse commemorates the debate. For some reason, no     reporter transcribed this particular speech although newspapers covered the event.         The Lincoln-Thornton/Moulton debates preceded the now-famous Lincoln-Douglas debates by two years.     Lincoln probably chose Shelbyville because it was part of the circuit of courthouses where he provided     legal services. It was also a community not especially in agreement with his politics.         Moulton and Abraham Lincoln shared a few inches in the press a year later, but under much different circumstances.     Moulton was in the process of giving birth to the Illinois State Board of Education. Abraham Lincoln, Esq., served as     legal council to the committee that created the SBE. Later, a Moulton Hall on the Illinois State University campus (then     known as the Normal University) was named in honor of Moulton.                 Pantagraph, June 30, 1857, vol XI No. 30 p1 c 2                 Proceedings of the State Board of Education                 Bloomington, Ill., June 23, 1857                     The Board met, pursuant to adjournment, at the City of Bloomington, on the 23d of June, 1857,                 and was called to order by the President, Hon. N. W. (Ninian W.) Edwards.  On motion, the minutes                 of the last meeting were read by the Secretary and adopted.                     The reports of committees being called for, the chairmen of the standing committees asked for                 further time to report, which was granted.                     Dr. Rex, Chairman of the Executive Committee, made the following report, which, on motion, was                 concurred in:                     The Executive Committee met at Bloomington on May 15, and would respectfully report, that they                 have endeavored to discharge the responsible duties assigned to them, and have secured by a                 guarantee, the McLean County subscription, according to a bond drawn by A. (Abraham) Lincoln, Esq.,                 of Springfield, who acted as counsel for the committee.                     In regard to the individual subscription, they adopted the following resolution:                     Resolved.  That John E. McClun, Esq. Treasurer of the Boards be instructed to carefully                 examine the list of individual subscriptions for the location of the Normal University near                 Bloomington, and take notes for all money subscriptions, and in all cases which he shall deem                 necessary take such additional security as he shall consider sufficient to insure the payment of                 the sums and that he report on the subject to the Board at their meeting, June 23d.                     They would also report that the titles and deeds for the lands would be perfected and made out                 as soon as they may be wanted.                     Messrs. Powell and Wilkins were appointed a subcommittee to examine materials and contract for                 brick and stone, if they deem necessary.                     All of which is respectfully submitted.                     Geo. P. Rex, Chairman                     On motion of Mr. Moulton, the Board then took a recess till 11 o’clock, for the purpose of                 allowing the standing committees time to make up their respective reports.                     11 O’clock, A. M. – The Board met, pursuant to adjournment.  The reports of                 committees appointed to visit the various Normal and High School of the Eastern States,                 submitted the following report, which, on motion of Mr. Moulton, was laid upon the table.                  See report in another column.                     The Committee upon Officers being called upon, Mr. Moulton, the Chairman, submitted a majority                 report, as follows:                     The majority of the Committee to select Officers for Normal University, have considered the                 subject and recommend C. E. Hovey to the Board as a proper and suitable person as Principal of                 the Normal University.  All of which is respectfully submitted.                     S. W. Moulton,                     John R. Eden,                     S. Wright                         On motion of Mr. Moulton the report was laid upon the election of Principal of the State Normal                 University.  A ballot having been taken, C. E. Hovey, of Peoria, received six votes, and                 Wm. F. Phelps, of New Jersey, five votes.  On motion the election of Mr. Hovey was made                 unanimous.                     The Board then adjourned to two o’clock, P.M.                     Two O’Clock, P.M. – The Board having convened pursuant to adjournment was called to                 order by the President.  Mr. Hovey offered the following resolutions which were adopted.                     Resolved.  That a building large enough to accommodate form three to five hundred normal                 students, three stories high exclusive of basement, be erected for the use of the Normal                 University, the basement to be of stone, the remainder of brick-faced with cherry-red pressed                 bricks.                     Resolved that S. W. Moulton, C. B. Denio, George P. Rex, N. W. Edwards, W. H. Powell, D. Wilkins                 and C. E. Hovey be a Building Committee with full power to carry the above resolution into effect.                     On motion the citizens of Bloomington were requested to appoint a committee to confer with the                 building committee appointed by this board, in regard to the plan and construction of the                 building for he State Normal University.                     Mr. Moseley moved that the salary of the Principal of the State Normal University be fixed at                 $2500 per annum, and that the salary commence when the committee on officers of the institution                 shall notify the Principal of their desire for him to enter upon the discharge of his duties.                     On motion the Secretary, W. H. Powell, was granted leave of absence, and D. Wilkins was appointed                 Secretary pro tem.                     On motion the Treasurer of the Board, J. E. McClun, Esq., made the following report, (the                 substance of this report will be found in our local columns. Ed. Pantagraph).                     On motion the guarantee marked A., given by the citizens of Bloomington as a safety of the McLean county                 appropriation was accepted.                     The bond of the Treasurer, J. E. McClun was read and approved by the Board, and ordered to be filed                 with the Secretary.                     On motion, Mr. Edwards was served from serving on the committee on building, and Mr. Eden was                 selected to fill his place.                     On motion the following resolution was adopted:                     Resolved, That the building committee last appointed be directed to announce the commencement of                 the first term of the Normal University at such time as they shall think proper, and take all                 necessary steps for securing the appointment of students for the various counties.                     A motion prevailed that when we adjourn to meet on the third Tuesday (the 18th) of August.                     On motion,                     Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to give notice to all members of the Board of the  time of the next meeting.                     Resolved.  That the Committee on Officers, in connection with the Principal, have power to                 select the Teachers and determine their salaries.                     Prof. C. E. Hovey then informed the Board that he accepted the office of Principal of the University.                     The Board then adjourned.                     N. W. Edwards, President.                     D. Wilkins, Secretary Pro Tem.     This bill became a law. On the establishment of the board of education in 1857, Mr. Moulton was appointed one of the original trustees of the board, and has been continued in said trust until the present time, he being the only original member now remain ing. For sixteen consecutive years he was president of the board, and was one of the most active advocates of the free school system.    During the Rebellion he took strong grounds in favor of the government, and acted with the Union party. In 1872, he returned to the Democratic party. In 1864, he was elected to Congress from the state at large, by about forty thousand majority, over his competitor, Hon. J.C. Allen. On November 2, 1880, he was again elected to Congress from the fifteenth district, by a handsome majority. He has one of the finest law libraries in this part of the state; it contains all the reports of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Massachusetts, the United States and part of the reports of Ohio; also, all of East's reports; all of the American reports; all of Moak's reports; all of the United States digests; Bacon's Abridgements of Common Law, and many other miscellaneous law books.     History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, page 77. S. W. MOULTON     The subject of this biographical sketch was born in Hamilton, Mass., in 1823. He received his education in the public schools and academies of his native town. Before he was twenty years of age he left Massachusetts and followed the stream of emigr ation to the great west, which was just then being developed and rapidly settling up. He spent one year in Kentucky, teaching school, and at the same time read the text-books upon law. In the latter part of 1843 he went down the Ohio and Mississippi river s, and spent some time in Mississippi, engaged in teaching school. While a resident of that state he cast his first presidential vote for James K. Polk in the city of Yazoo. In the fall of 1845 he came to Illinois, and spent a year or two in the northern part of Coles county. In 1847 he was admitted to the bar. From Coles county be removed to Sullivan, county seat of Moultrie, where he commenced the practice of the law, and remained there until the winter of 1850, when he removed to Shelbyville, Shelby county, where he has remained ever since. During all the years since he has been a resident of Shelby county, and has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in this and adjoining counties, and in the Federal and Supreme courts. He has been retained in all, or nearly all, of the cases of great importance in this section of the state. He has been very successful, and his practice correspondingly lucrative. He is still in active business and vigorous health. His erect and elastic form shows no sign of decay, while his mental vigor and activity keep pace with the physical, and mark him as a man in the full prime of manhood and mental power.     A man of Mr. Moulton's ability and aggressiveness could not be long in a community without making his presence felt. It was not long until he was tendered and accepted responsible and honorable positions. In 1853 he was elected a member of the legislature , and was continued and returned for three successive terms. In the legislature of 1853 ex-Governor John Reynolds was speaker of the house. While a member of the legislature, Mr. Moulton was appointed chairman of the Committee on Education. He framed and introduced the first original free-school bill, establishing free-schools in the state. The bill became a law, and from time to time the law has been improved, and now the great State of Illinois has one of the most perfect systems of free-schools in the Union. He may be justly regarded as the father and projector of the free-school system of the state.     While all his other public acts may be forgotten and time efface them from the memory of man, yet this one will live and be an enduring monument erected in the hearts and memories of the poor youth of this state, who will kindly remember him as opening up the fountains of knowledge and making education accessible to the poor and rich alike. Mr. Moulton, during his term in the legislature, supported the bill for the establishment of the Normal University at Bloomington, and very much is due to his exertion for the passage and success of the measure. He was one of the original trustees of the State Board of Education, and for sixteen years successively was the president of the board, devoting much of his time and expending a vast amount of labor in the inte rest of the institution. That the University has become a grand success and has exerted a very marked influence upon the educational interests of the state is well known to all.     Mr. Moulton was always a democrat in politics, and since becoming a voter has taken an active part in political matters. In 1856 he was a presidential elector on the democratic ticket, and voted for James Buchanan for President of the United States. In the spring of 1861 he was a Douglas democrat, and espoused the cause of the Union against the secession movement and rebellion of t he south. He never hesitated a moment as to his course and duty in the premises, and in the very beginning of the secession of the states, took strong grounds in favor of coercion and the preservation of the Union. During the rebellion he became identifie d with the republican party, and supported Abraham Lincoln for his second term, and Gen. Grant for his first term. He abandoned the Republican party in 1872, and has since been fully identified and in full communion with the democratic party.     In 1864 Mr. Moulton was elected to Congress from the state at large over his able competitor, the Hon. James C. Allen, by a very large majority.     While a member of the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. Moulton was a member of the Committees on Territories and Expenditures of the Navy. He also took an active part in most of the measures before the Thirty-ninth Congress. In 1880 he was elected a member to the Forty-seventh Congress from the Fifteenth Congressional District, by the democratic party, over the combined opposition of the republican and national greenback parties, by a majority of about three thousand. He will take his seat in the Forty-seventh Congress. It is scarcely necessary to speak of Mr. Moulton's characteristics as a lawyer. His name has long been familiar to the bar of central Illinois and to the state. His great industry has made him thoroughly acquainted with the learning of the law, and his natural abilities and indomitable energy long since gave him a commanding position in the profession. In his public character, any position he has occupied has been filled with fidelity and ability. His personal traits of character and long reside nce in the county have made him many warm personal and devoted friends.     While a resident of Mississippi, in 1844, he married Miss Mary H. Affleck.     History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, page 158ff. The autobiography of Shelby County preacher/publisher, Jasper Douthit, puts Moulton's inconsistencies into better perspective.     "In the spring of 1863, I got into trouble with the "Knights of the Golden Circle." The real object of that order was to resist the draft, and secretly help the rebellion, but it appeared before the public in the guise of a "Peace Democracy." Thus it misled many well-meaning people and gave a chance for bushwhackers and other emissaries of the confederacy to come into southern Illinois. One of these came from Missouri into our district. He called himself a preacher. He held meetings at Liberty Meeting-house. This house had been built for the double purpose of school and church, in fact all sorts of meetings, for it was the only house where public meetings could be held in thqat district; and I had stiuplated when soliciting funds to build it, that it should always be open to the community and sacred to free speech. A lodge of the "Knights of the Golden Circle," was organized there by the missouri bushwhacker, and a score or more of my neighbors joined in. Besides secret sessions, the lodge held open meetings, to which everybody was welcome. in these meetings peace and union were talked.     "I went to a meeting of the Circle and begged for the privilege of speaking in behalf of peace and good-will among neighbors. The Missouri man was presiding. I arose and said: "Mr. Chairman: I am glad to hear that this is a true democracy. Therefore, I beg leave to occupy ten minutes or less in reading a letter from a brave and patriotic Democrat, Major General Rosecrans, and also a short article from the "Chicago Times," the leading Democratic organ of Illinois," these authorities both condemned the Gold Circle organizations, "Can I have the privilege?"     The chairman replied that the meeting was a Democratic love feast and a private affair for the purpose of reorganizing the good old Democratic party, that I could not be allowed to speak or ready anything, and that if I was keen to exercise free speech I could "go out to the brush and bellow forth." TO the credit of the majority in that meeting, be it said, the chaiman was censured for the summary way in which I was refused a hearing. Then after I was put out, was held the secret session in wihch the so-called preacher and bushwhacker made a rousing speech. He said: "Had it not been for such weak-kneed cowardly traitors (The Douglas Democrats) we should have had the tyrant Lincoln dethroned long ago, yea, verily, and beheaded. I tell you we must prepare to fight. Clean out your old guns and get ready. IF you have no gun, go up north and press one, and while you are there press a horse and ammunition. If we can't fight on a large scale, we can bushwhack it. If you don't know how, I can teach you. I have had some experience in bushwhacking myself."     My younger brother, George, who was not known to the chairman and was so very quiet and sleepy looking that night that he was scarecely noticed in the noisy crowd, was not put out. This brohter had an excellent memory, and reported that speech word for word. I wrote out an account of this meeting and extgract from the speeches, and I took it to the only newsppaer then printed in the county. It was rejected, not because its correctness was questioned, but because the press of the county was then intensely partisan, and the editor said it would never do to publish such a report. It would create discored int he party and make votes for the "black Republicans." I then sent the report to the "St. Louis Democrat," the Repbulican daily most widely read in this part of Illinois at that time. On Thursday, March 19, 1863, it appeared in that paper on the first page under flaming headlines that startled the country. Here at home the excistement was intense. It was as if a bombshell had burst, and somebody must surely bet hurt or leave for other parts in a hurry. Several of those who head the speech fo the confessed bushwhacker acknowledged that it was correctly reported. I learned years afterwards that all concenred in that "Knights of the Golden Circle" meeting held a council over my report. They all agreed that I had "got it mighty korect"; but the question was how I got it. Some suspected a traitor in my camp, but most of them thought that after they had voted me "down and out" that night, I had climbed through the house roof and witnessed the whole proceedings through the scuttle-hole in the loft. They never suspected my young bother.     "It was hot times for me for a while. Resolutions were passed and vigilance committees were appointed to warn me, and as a last resort to threaten that if I did not desist reporting names and speeches for public print I should be treated as a spy.     ".... As for the bushwhacker and his victims, it seemed that the only way they could remain, in the locality and save themselves from arrest by government officials was to deny my report and publish a libel on me. The bushwhacker therefore prepared a manifesto, vindicating himself as a very honorable and peaceable gentleman, stating that he had never uttered the words reported of him in ' the daily papaers, and that the secret conference, held at Libery Meeting-house, was in the interest of peace and harmony among neighbors; and adding that Jasper Douthit was a notorious blood-thirsty Abolitionist, a stirrer up of strife among otherwise peacable neighbors. Then, to induce others to sign that manifesto, the bushwhacker told them he knew that the "black-hearted Abe Lincoln" had sent me a lot of government arms and ammunication which I had secrted in my house on the prairie, eight miles from Sehblyvilel. He induced nine of my nieghbors to sign this statment and it was published in the Okaw Patriot of June 12, 1863.     "The Knights of the Golden Circle" were drilling in sight of my home on the prairie, to resist the "tyrant Lincoln," as they called him....     " ... I was appointed to take the enrollment in the eastern half of the county. ... I was offered a company or regiment of soldiers, to be stationed in the county, but I objected to their presence, because I knew that in the counties where soldiers were present there had been riot and bloodshed. I was advised to start well armed, but I declined to do this. I determined to do the work peacably, or die in the attempt. However, I took the precaution to change my hat and coat and to ride a different horse, from day to day, as I went about the work. This expeience, with the prudent co-operation of friends in both parties probably saved one enrolling officer from assassination. Years afterwards some persons confessed to me that they, with others, had resolved on shooting me if I were seen near their homes. "I shall always be thankful," said one man to me, "that we did not know that you were around until you had done the work and gone."     "One night ... there were a dozen shots fired through the open door of my house about midnight. "     ... It shows how partisan demagoguery, working on ignorance and prejudice, and well-meaning citizens to shed each other's blood." "Jasper Douthit's Story: The Autobiography of a Pioneer with an Introduction by Jenkin Lloyd Jones," American Unitarian Association: Boston. More information about Moulton is online at the Political Graveyard. The Library of Congress has archived some of Moulton's correspondence with Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln to Samuel W. Moulton, July 31, 1863 asking him to  Resign as provost marshal Samuel W. Moulton to Abraham Lincoln, August 11, 1863 Resignation Jesse K. Dubois to Abraham Lincoln, November 14, 1864 Telegram reporting Illinois election results

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