Achilles Morris
Seven years later in 1839 Morris served as the Vice President of the Democratic-Republican Party of Illinois, and in 1840, Lincoln authored a bill for an Act to Establish a State Road from Petersburg in Menard County to Waverly in Morgan County where he appointed Achilles Morris as Commissioner.
The chairman of the convention was Samuel H. Treat, and the delegates elected were Nathaniel Pope, David J. Baker, John J. Hardin, Josiah Lamborn, Thomas Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, and Achilles Morris.
In 1846, Achilles Morris returned to military service to lead a volunteer company from Sangamon County in the Mexican American War.
He was born in England in 1722, worked alongside George Hume in Orange County, Virginia, who Washington served under as deputy surveyor in 1748.
[3] William later served as a Lieutenant in the French and Indian War, and purchased a tract of land in Culpeper, Virginia in the 1750s from Hume that bordered House of Burgesses member, Henry Field.
In 1822, Morris married his cousin Leah Jarrett and initially moved to Cabell County, Virginia.
Jarrett owned the Salt mine on the Burning Springs tract, which George Washington attempted unsuccessfully to secure the rights to.
Jarrett's Salt mine was sold for $12,500 and directed the proceeds be distributed among his 18 heirs for the purpose of purchasing land out west.
Five days later, the Black Hawks signed a treaty stating that they would not return to the east side of the river except by express permission of the government.
In 1832 at the start of the Black Hawk War, Morris served as the captain of his own company under Colonel Samuel M. Thompson in the Fourth Regiment,[5] and was elected by his unit as their major.
Four days later, due to a vacancy in the unit, Morris was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Illinois Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, overseeing the troops from Sangamon County.
Colonel, Whiteside was discharged as General, and Lincoln as Captain; however, with the threat of potential Native American attacks still looming, the Governor authorized an "odd" company in Sangamon County led by Capt.
[7] On March 22, 1832, the Sangamon County Journal published the names of the men running for Representatives of Sangamon County, including John Dawson, Archer Herndon, Thomas Neale, John T. Stuart, Achilles Morris, and Abraham Lincoln.
Ninian Wirt Edwards, the former Attorney General of Illinois drew a pistol on the "prominent democrat"[12] Achilles Morris, during the Congressional race between John T. Stuart and S. A. Douglas.
On February 6, 1846, Morris was nominated and elected as a delegate for the Gubernatorial race at the State Democratic Convention for Sangamon County.
His funeral was described in the journal of his former soldier John Nevin King, “He was buried today in the Honors of war.
