My Genealogy Hound

TILLSON, GENERAL JOHN, was born at Hillsboro, Ill., Oct. 12, 1825. He is the second son of John and Christiana Holmes Tillson, the former a native of Halifax, the latter of Kingston, Plymouth county, Mass. Mr. Tillson, the elder, was one of the most prominent men of the State during its first thirty years, and came to Illinois, in 1819, landing at Shawneetown, at the same time with Governor John Wood, whose daughter is now the wife of General Tillson. He settled in Hillsboro, and came to Quincy in 1843, where his business interests had long been. Mr. Tillson was noted for his high business sagacity, and his philanthropic character. He early acquired a fortune, the largest in the State, which was generously bestowed. To religious and educational interests he was a munificent, and yet unpretentious patron. He built “Hillsboro Academy”; was one of the founders of the Illinois and Shurtleff Colleges, and erected the “Quincy House” in 1836, then the finest hotel west of Pittsburgh, at a cost of over $100,000. He died in 1853, at Peoria, instantly, of heart disease, as had his father and grandfather before him. General Tillson, his son, was educated, first by private tuition at home, and after ward at South Reading, Mass., and Hillsboro Academies, and Illinois College. The subject of this sketch read law, and attended two courses at the Transylvania Law School in Lexington, Ky., and graduated there in 1847, having been chosen speaker for the class. He practiced law at Quincy, the latter part of the time being in partnership with the late A. Jonas. In 1851, himself and “Uncle” Smith organized the land agency firm of Tillson & Kingman. In 1856, he was the Republican candidate for State Representative and in 1858 for State Senator. When the rebellion rose, he, with other Lieutenants, and B. M. Prentiss, Orderly Sergeant of the Quincy City Guards, offered the company to Governor Yates; two companies were at once raised, which were the first to be present, and mustered in at Springfield, and Captain Prentiss and Captain Tillson received the first commissions issued by Governor Yates. The 10th Regt, Ill. Inf., to which these companies were attached, after the organization at Cairo, in April, 1861, elected Captain Tillson, successively Major, Lieut. Colonel, and Colonel and the 10th Ill. Regt. remained under his command, either as regimental or brigade commander, from the time it left Illinois, until the final muster-out, on July 4, 1865. Twice, during the earlier part of the war, General Tillson declined the offer of promotion to the Colonelcy of another regiment, preferring to remain with the 10th Regt. to the close. His regiment participated in the movements against New Madrid, Island No. 10, Corinth, Mission Ridge, and in the Sherman battles toward Atlanta. On the fall of the last-named city, General Tillson commanded a brigade in the 17th Army Corps. He received the “star” as a Brigadier while on the march to the sea, and was mustered out of the volunteer service July 21, 1865; remained in the regular army as Captain (to which he had been appointed in 1861), and was Brevet Lieutenant Colonel in the regular army, on recruiting duty, until February, 1866, when he resigned. Not long afterward he took a partnership in the Quincy Whig, after which the presidency of the railroad being built from Quincy to Keokuk; and in 1873, was elected a State Representative, to fill a vacancy, having the comfortable distinction of being the only Republican ever chosen to the House of Representatives (except under the minority system); resigned, to become United States Revenue Collector, in June, 1873. He was elected City Alderman, in 1867, for two years, and again in 1869 and 1871; was a member and President of the Board of Trustees of the Jacksonville Insane Asylum for several years. In 1851, General Tillson married Ann E., eldest daughter of Governor John Wood. They have three children; two daughters and one son. General Tillson’s tastes have been mainly literary—not political, or business. He has the largest miscellaneous private library in the city of Quincy, much of which existed before there was any “Gem City,” and to that his interests are greatly directed. In “old-time matters” he is a reference, on authority, and a chronicler.