WILLIAM ARTHUR GRIMSHAW
William Arthur Grimshaw, of Pittsfield, now numbered among the honored dead
of Pike county, was born June 1, 1813, at Navin-on-the-Boyne, County Meath,
Ireland. His father was of English parentage but was born near Belfast, Ireland.
He emigrated to the United States in 1815 and landed from a neutral vessel,
bringing to the city of Charleston, South Carolina, the first news of the treaty
of Ghent. Charleston was the birthplace of Harriet Milligan, who was the mother
of William A. Grimshaw. Her father was Captain Milligan, a native of Ireland,
who was residing in South Carolina at the beginning of the American Revolution.
Espousing the cause of the colonies, he entered the American army to aid in the
struggle for independence and served in the Pennsylvania line throughout the
war. The mother of William A. Grimshaw was educated in the city of Chester,
England, and for many years after her marriage she was the principal of a large
female seminary in the city of Philadelphia. The father of William A. Grimshaw
was a member of the Philadelphia bar, made his home in that city and also spent
considerable time at Harrisburg. For thirty years he was recognized as an author
of much celebrity. His histories of United States and England and his
Etymological Dictionary – a work of much erudition – were in high repute and
proved a gratifying source of remuneration to the author. Captain Milligan the
maternal grandfather of Mr. Grimshaw, was an original member the Cincinnati
Society, of which General George Washington was the president.
William A Grimshaw was educated in the city of Philadelphia and read law in
the office of the eminent attorney, David Paul Brown. He belonged to a family of
patriots and educators. His grandfather was a Revolutionary officer; his
brother, Dr. James Grimshaw, was a surgeon in the Mexican war, being
commissioned by James K in 1848, after which he went to Mexico with General
Scott; his brother, Dr. Arthur Grimshaw, was a colonel of the ___ war; and his
son, William A. Grimshaw, Jr., then a lad of eighteen years, served as a private
soldier in the Fifth Illinois Infantry Regiment in the Spanish-American war. His
father was author of many textbooks and other literary works and his mother was
principal of a seminary for young ladies at Philadelphia, while his sisters,
Charlotte and Isabella, with their brother, Dr. Arthur Grimshaw as lecturer and
business manager, owned and conducted – until the breaking our of the war of
the Rebellion – the Hannah Moore Seminary for Young Ladies at Wilmington,
Delaware, Dr, Arthur was county superintendent of New Castle county, Delaware,
and served on the board of of which he also acted as president. He was intensely
interested in educational matters and did everything in his power for
advancement along such lines, although he had a large medical practice. William
A. Grimshaw was an active member of the Pittsfield school board and was in
office when the beautiful East school building was, erected in 1864-5,
continuing on the school board for many years. He has a brother, Robert
Grimshaw, a scientific ingenteur and critique, now and for a number of years
residing in Germany, and a sister living in Kentucky.
At the early age of nineteen years Mr. Grimshaw was admitted to the bar and
was licensed as attorney at law by the district court for the city and county of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1832. He then came to Illinois, then the far
west, upon the responsible errand of locating and paying taxes on the large body
of land owned by his father, comprising many quarter sections of the bounty
lands in the northern counties of the military tract. He lived at Atlas for a
time and was adjutant of the Seventeenth Regiment of the Illinois Militia under
the old military system, Colonel Benjamin Barney, commanding. On the 25th of
November, 1833, he was licensed to practice as all attorney and counselor at law
in all the Courts of law and equity in the state of Illinois by Samuel D.
Lockwood and William Wilson, justices of the supreme court of the state of
Illinois. He was, licensed to practice in the circuit court of the United States
for the district of Illinois on he 19th day of December, 1839. He removed to
Pittsfield, Pike county, in 1833 and here resided until his death. He was
commissioned public administrator of Pike county by Governor Reynolds and was a
member of the bar of the county for sixty years in active practice. In a history
of Pike county that was published ill 1880, is the following: "William A.
Grimshaw, the oldest practicing attorney of the county, ranked as One of the
leading lawyers of the state, was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. at the age of nineteen years. In 1833 he came to this county,
since which time he has been actively identified with every public interest of
the county." He was always a willing and full tax-payer. His property,
under one continuous ownership by taxation and his purse by donation for over a
half century have contributed generously to every improvement that Pittsfield
has ever enjoyed. With characteristic zeal and energy he at once took an active
and substantial interest in establishing schools, churches and Sunday schools.
He was also instrumental in starting a library association and became one of
its stockholders. In 1847 he was chosen a member of the constitutional
convention of Illinois and aided in framing the organic law of the state. The
Daily Illinois State Journal of November 7, 1883, has the following under the
heading, The Real Old Timers; Survivors of 1847; Proposed Reunion of the Members
of the Constitutional Convention; Promise of an Interesting Event. A
praiseworthy movement has been set on foot for holding a reunion of the
surviving members of the constitutional convention of 1847 of the state of
Illinois. This movement appears to have had its immediate beginning in the
following letter from two old Pike county members:
Pittsfield, Pike County, Ill., Oct. 10, 1883
To the Hons. Ninian W. Edwards and James H. Matheny, Springfield, III,
The undersigned desire to call your attention to the number of years that
have elapsed since they had the honor and pleasure to meet and serve with you,
as members thereof, in the constitutional convention of 1847. Mote than
thirty-six years have passed away since the organization, deliberations and
adjournment of that convention and the first Monday of March next will be the
thirty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of its work by the people of the state
of Illinois. Probably all the members of the convention who assisted in the
framing of the constitution of 1848 survived long enough to be gratified and
honored by its adoption by the people. Some of them (ourselves among the number)
have had the honor to see it last as the organic law until the adoption of the
present constitution in 1870. But few of us remain. We can not call to mind more
than twenty-five or thirty who are now living We need hardly add that a reunion
of the few survivors could not fail to be a meeting of great interest and
pleasure to each and all of them. In this view we beg leave to suggest to you a
reunion of the survivors of the convention of 1847 at the circuit courtroom in
Springfield (where the convention was held) on some day, to be suggested by you,
during, the ensuing winter. Please let us hear from you as soon as convenient
and give us some suggestions as to the ways and means of notifying the survivors
and securing their reunion at the time and place indicated.
Yours truly,
Wm. R. Archer.
Wm. A. Grimshaw,
The editor says, "In some respects the convention here referred to was
one of the most important bodies ever assembled in the state and its work
practically started the march of steady civil progress which has resulted in the
greatness to which the state has attained."
Under the caption of "Pioneers of Progress," the Daily Illinois
State Register of Springfield, January 3, 1884, gives a history of the
convention with short historical sketches of the survivors. It says:
"William A. Grimshaw, one of the three surviving delegates from Pike
county, was born in Ireland in 1813. His father, William Grimshaw, was a
distinguished historian, and his mother, Harriet Milligan Grimshaw, a daughter
of James Milligan, a captain of the Pennsylvania line in the Revolutionary war.
Mr. Grimshaw was educated in Philadelphia and admitted to the bar at the early
age of nineteen years. He came to Illinois in May 1833, where he has since
resided. In 1840 he made in unsuccessful candidacy for the legislature on the
whig ticket, but the vigorous campaign which he made in August resulted in
giving the county to Harrison in November. When in convention, although his
party was in the minority, he took a prominent part in its deliberations and was
the author of the anti-deuling clause incorporated iii the constitution. In 1848
he carried his own county for the le, legislature, but the vote of Cahoun county
defeated him. He was in the Decatur convention in 1860, also in the state
convention of 1864 and was a delegate from the ninth Illinois district to the
Baltimore national convention of 1864, which nominated Lincoln. the second time
for president. He has been in the active practice of his profession (the law)
for over fifty years and enjoys the confidence and respect of a large and
lucrative clientage. he is at the present time attorney for the Wabash Railroad
and the Sny levee commissioners. He has held numerous trusteeships in various
public institutions. He has been for several years a member of the state board
of charities, In 1880 he was on the Republican electoral ticket and was the
messenger to take the vote to Washington.
"In accordance with the recommendation of the senate and house of
representatives of the United States of America for the proper observance and
celebration of the first centennial of our national independence on July 4,
1876, at a public meeting at the courthouse in Pittsfield the following
committee of arrangements and programme was appointed by the action of the
meeting: C. L. Higbee, chairman; William A. Grimshaw, James G. Erwin, William R.
Archer, Strother Griggsby, J. M. Bush. Richard M. Atkinson."
The following paragraph is copied from the printed “Address of the
Centennial Committee of Invitation": "In pursuance of the power of the
power of the committee they have chosen as the historian of the county for the
4th of July, 1876 the Hon. William A. Grimshaw, himself one of the earlest
settlers in the county and who, by reason thereof and his eminent ability, is
most fully qualified for the position." Mr. Grimshaw wrote and delivered a
centenial (sic) address at the Fourth of July celebration of 1876 a brief
history of Pike county. In closing he said, "It is my anticipation, in the
march of events, that the next centennial history of Pike will be offered by a
lady." By his consent extracts from his centennial history are incorporated
in "The History of Pike County" published in 1880. A copy of his
centennial history is in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
at Philadelphia.
This is from the pen of Hon. J. M. Bush. the able editor and proprietor of
the Pike County Democrat and the publisher of Mr. Grimshaw's centennial history:
“TO THE PUBLIC.
"In presenting the foregoing able and exhaustive centennial! address it.
is to the author and ourself to say that circumstances beyond our control have
prevented its publication until the present time, but as it is a work of that
character which will become the more valuable as time shall elapse, little harm
can arise from the delay. And in this connection we deem it but just to the
distinguished author to append a notice of one who has been so prominently
identified with the history of Illinois and especially of Pike county since, its
earliest days – the Hon. William A. Grimshaw. He is a son of William Grimshaw,
who was an early and distinguished historian of the United States and whose
mother was Harriet Milligan Grimshaw, a native of Charleston, South Carolina,
and a daughter of James Milligan, a captain in the Pennsylvania line in the
American Revolution, and an original member of the Society of Cincinnati, of
which society General George Washington was the president. The subject of this
sketch was admitted to the bar at nineteen years of age in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. In May, 1833, he arrived in Pike county, Illinois, and in November
of the same year received a license from the supreme court of the state to
practice law. In the same year he was appointed adjutant of the Seventeenth
Illinois Militia, then as other regiments, mustering regularly, and as adjutant,
equipped and uniformed, was ready for service with his regiment and often held
with his Colonel, Benjamin Barney, regimental and battalion trainings in Pike.
Governor John Reynolds, unsolicited, commissioned Mr. Grimshaw as public
administrator of Pike county. In 1840 he ran as a whig candidate for the
legislature ahead of his ticket at the August election. The vigorous campaign
that he made secured to Harrison for president at the November election a county
majority of one hundred and twelve votes. At his next candidacy he was elected
as a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1847 and sat in that body, in
whose deliberations and actions he took a prominent part. He was the author of
the anti-dueling clause incorporated into the constitution then adopted. The
next year, 1848, his own county gave him a majority as a candidate for the
legislature, but he was defeated by the vote of Calhoun county, which then voted
with Pike county. On several subsequent occasions, as a candidate for the senate
and constitutional convention, he has run largely ahead of his ticket, but
opposition having substantial majorities, he was defeated. In politics a whig
and then a republican, he has at the solicitation of others been put forward as
a representative of the views of his party, but has always manifested a personal
independence. rarely. if ever, to be found in the party politician. As a Union
man he was very pronounced in his views and devoted his time and energies freely
in support of the federal government. In 1860, as a delegate to the Decatur
convention, he was for Lincoln for president and in 1864 took part in the
Illinois state convention and was also sent as a delegate of the old ninth
congressional district to the Baltimore republican convention which re-nominated
Lincoln. As a personal friend of Douglas, in war speeches he lauded him for his
hold and emphatic support of the Union cause. At the bar of Pike and other
counties and also in the supreme court of Illinois and in the United States
court at Springfield and Chicago he has tried many causes and is yet in very
active practice: and as attorney for the Sny levee commissioners has from the
first steps, as to legal proceedings in the state courts upheld the acts of the
commissioners, but the supreme court of Illinois has decided adversely on the
constitutionality of the state laws as to levees, etc, He is attorney for the
Toledo, Wabash & Western and Chicago & Alton Railroad Companies and
Mississippi River Bridge Company at Louisiana, Missouri. During fourteen years
the late Jackson Grimshaw was in partnership with his brother, William A., that
partnership ceasing in 1857. He is the owner of fine farms and takes pride in
agriculture and has raised fine horses, cattle and sheep. He is a life member of
the Pike County Agricultural Society and has several times been president
thereof and has taken many premiums on fine stock. In the promotion of railroads
and other interests in Pike he has always actively participated. As a trustee of
the State Institution for the Blind at Jacksonville he served twelve years and
in the last year of his service the institution was rebuilt, the first edifice
having been destroyed lay fire. This service was without emolument. He takes
pride in having served many years as a trustee of Pittsfield and also as a
school director of Pittsfield when the large and handsome East school building
was erected it 1863-4, and for many years thereafter.
"J. M. Bush, Publisher,
"February 17, 1877."
On Monday at four o'clock in the afternoon the bar of Pike county assembled
to pay tribute to the memory of the gentleman whose name heads this article and
there was a full attendance. The chairman of the committee, appointed at a
former meeting to prepare proper resolutions, submitted the following:
“The committee, to whom at a farmer term of this court was assigned the
duty of preparing and presenting to it suitable resolutions touching the death
of Hon. William A. Grimshaw, one of the earliest and most honored members of the
Pike county bar respectfully report the following preamble and
"Whereas, on the morning of January 7, A.D. 1895, Hon. William A,
Grimshaw, who became a member of this bar in 1833 and for more than half a
century was prominent in the practice of his profession not only at it, but in
the courts of what is known as the military tract as well as it the supreme
court of the state and the federal courts passed at a ripe old age and and full
of honors to that bourne from whence no traveler returns and is no longer one of
our number, therefore be it
"Resolved. That by his death the Pike county bar has lost one who in his
mature manhood through a long and useful life was an ornament to his profession
and in its practice commanded the esteem and confidence of the entire community
one who by his energy and zeal in behalf of his clients, his study honesty,
integrity and fidelity to all trusts assumed by or imposed upon him added lustre
to a profession which from the earliest ages has been foremost in the conduct of
all matters tending to the well-being of a common humanity one who imbued with a
high sense of honor and regard for the majesty of the law, waged his legal
battles in an open field and so conducted them as to be a foreman worthy of the
steel of the highest in the profession. In fine, one the record of whose life as
a lawyer stands out fair and untarnished and presents in him a bright exemplar
for the emulation of the younger members of a profession he so well adorned.
"Resolved, That not alone in his chosen walk of life, the law, was he
distinguished and prominent, but in all the relations of life he was ever
foremost in good works. As a member of the constitutional convention of 1847 he
took high rank among the ablest in that distinguished body and rendered
invaluable service in the framing of an instrument which in the wisdom of its
provisions was far ahead of the general spirit of the age and became a model for
years for many of the new states admitted into the Union. He was the author of
the anti-dueling provision which met with much opposition in a day when the code
duello was largely in vogue for the settlement of personal difficulties and was
urgent in the support of the levy of the two mill tax, by which the credit of he
state was restored and its debt of twelve or fourteen million dollars eventually
paid. When the dark and troublous times that preceded the breaking out of the
internecine strife for the perpetuity of the Union first appeared Its patriotic
spirit was deeply stirred and With that zeal and ardor which were among his
marked characteristics he engaged earnestly and vigorously in the upholding of
the flag of his country and rendered services in private life that would have
won him distinction if performed upon the tented field, and ever during the
pendency of that terrible struggle was the trusted friend and confidant of the
federal authorities. As a member of the State Board of Charities for many years
his work as such became a labor of love and he was pre-eminently conspicuous in
making the various chartable institutions of the state carry out most fully and
economically the noble purposes for which they were established. Into this work
he entered with all his soul and that energy of purpose so characteristic of him
in all that he undertook and after his retirement as a member he manifested by
word and deed up to the very last the warmest interest in a matter in which all
the better feelings of his nature had become involved. In local matters he was
in full sympathy with whatever tended to the upbuilding and prosperity of this
county and community, as is evidenced by his having been one of the
incorporators of the Louisiana & Pike County Railroad, a member of the
school board that erected our costly East school building in 1863-4, president
and director of the Pike County Agricultural Society, one of the originators of
the Old Settlers' Society, and in the promotion of these and other projects of
like character he was ever active, efficient and zealous. Your committee
respectfully ask that this preamble and resolutions be spread upon the records
of this court and a copy presented to the family of the deceased and furnished
to the county papers for publication.
“J.M. Bush, Chairman,
“A. C. Matthews,
“J. D. Hess
“Committee”
Mr. Grimshaw was a member of the Episcopal church, a sincere, conscientious,
consistent and active Christian. His prayer was always: "Heavenly Father
give me wisdom and strength faithfully to perform my whole duty in every
relation of life.” His motto was "Candide et Constanter" and
it exemplified it in his life. He was very literary in his tastes, a great
reader, took an interest in a wide range of subjects and was well informed upon
them. He collected a large and valuable library of miscellaneous books and was
very liberal minded and generous, no worthy person or cause ever appealing to
him for aid in vain. Although firm and unyielding where a principle was
involved, giving forth no uncertain sound, in matters of mere will or pleasure
he conceded much, But it was in his home that his superior qualities of heart
and mind shone brightest. He was a most affectionate and tender husband and
father and a true friend.
