Title: Whitney, Henry Clay. Legal Papers, 1854-1860
Collection identifier: 393
Primary Creator: Whitney, Henry Clay
Extent: 60.0 items
Subjects: Champaign County (Ill.), Champaign County--Urbana (Ill.), Courts, Law, Vermilion County (Ill.), Whitney, Henry Clay, 1831-1905
Forms of Material: Legal records, Professional papers
Henry Clay Whitney was an Illinois Lawyer on the 8th Circuit. The collection relates to civil litigation handled by Whitney, illustrating routine legal procedures in his day.
Henry Clay Whitney (1831-1905) was an Illinois lawyer, who made the rounds on the 8th Circuit at the same time as Lincoln did. He was highly regarded by Lincoln as a young lawyer. He was born in Detroit, Maine, but settled in Urbana, IL. Whitney supported Lincoln’s campaign for president, and successfully petitioned Lincoln for a government office during the Civil War, after which he moved to Chicago. After being shot by the wife of a client, Whitney retired from the courtroom, and published a book, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, which sold poorly.
This collection relates to civil litigation handled by Whitney and illustrates routine legal procedures of his day. Many of the items were endorsed by one of the clerks of the Champaign or Vermilion county circuit courts. There are no documents to or from Abraham Lincoln in the collection, although it contains ten items that were part of cases in which he was involved. Those documents are available in The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition (2000).
The library purchased the collection in 1985 from Charles Apfelbaum, a dealer in Valley Stream, New York. He had in turn acquired the collection at the King Hostick auction in Chicago.
Champaign County (Ill.)
Champaign County--Urbana (Ill.)
Courts
Law
Vermilion County (Ill.)
Whitney, Henry Clay, 1831-1905
Repository: Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/ihlcsfa/whitney-henry-clay.pdf
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