Representative William I. Gilchrist View All Years
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William I. Gilchrist
Clayton County
Born September 16, 1802. He was educated in the common schools of the town and subsequently aided by a celebrated Scotch teacher, and acquired a partial knowledge of the Spanish language, intending to go to South America, but these plans were frustrated by his marriage to a lady of his own name, in May, 1824. He remained a farmer until 1854 when he sold his farm and possessions and removed to Elgin, and afterward to Rockford, Ill. While in New York he possessed the confidence of many of the prominent statesmen of the Empire State, Silas Wright, John Cramer, Samuel Young, Eli M. Todd, John Van Buren, and others, and was nominated as a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention to amend the Constitution of the State, in 1844, in opposition to John K. Porter, but was defeated on account of his temperance and free-soil proclivities. He was also a delegate to the Free-Soil Convention that nominated Martin Van Buren for the Presidency, in opposition to General Cass; and during the administration of Governor Wright, and subsequently, he was a commissioner to loan out the United States Deposit fund on improved farms, the interest of which went to the support of common schools. After coming to Illinois, he invested his funds in farm mortgages and entered lands in Iowa, and finally came to McGregor, in 1857, and organized the old reliable produce firm of Gilchrist & Co. In 1863 he assisted Ex-Governor Samuel Merrill in the organization of the First National Bank of McGregor, of which he was a Director and Vice-President, and subsequently; with others organized the Clayton County Savings Bank, of McGregor, and was President for several years. He was nominated as a candidate for Representative to the General Assembly of Iowa, in 1861, but on account of the multiplicity of his engagements, was compelled to decline, but in 1863 was nominated and elected, and actively participated in the legislation of that session as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and means in the House.
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