Lorenzo Dow Hartwell Jr. was born May 6, 1843, in Williamson County, Illinois, and reared on the paternal farm five miles northeast of Marion, Illinois. He was the eighth in order of birth and the seventh boy in a family of twelve children born to Lorenzo Dow Hartwell Sr. and Sicily Hodge. Lorenzo Sr. emigrated from Virginia with his family in 1839.
At the time of the inception of the Civil war Lorenzo D. Hartwell gave evidence of his intrinsic loyalty to the cause of the Union by enlisting as a soldier on September 2, 1861 in Company F of the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
He was a lad of but seventeen years of age at the time of his enlistment. He participated in the battle of Belmont, Missouri, November 7, 1861, then the battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee on February 15 and 16, 1862 in which another Marion man by the name of Col. John H. White was killed and became the first Marion citizen to die in the Civil War.
From there he was at the battle at Thompson Hill, Mississippi, May 1, 1863; Raymond, Mississippi, May 16, 1863; Champion Hill, Mississippi, May 17, 1863, and was with his regiment during the entire siege of Vicksburg, which city surrendered July 4, 1863.
He was on the march with his regiment to Meridian, Mississippi, in 1863 and he also took part in the battles in that vicinity on the 21st and 22nd of July, 1864. He was a participant in the skirmishes around Atlanta, Georgia, and was in the march with Sherman to the sea, arriving at Savannah December 24, 1864.
At the close of hostilities he went to Washington, where he took part in the Grand Review. He was twice wounded, first at Vicksburg on June 27, 1863, and later near Atlanta, Georgia losing a part of one leg.
For meritorious conduct at and during the siege of Vicksburg and in the battles around Atlanta he was awarded a gold medal by order of General M. D. Leggett, division commander of the Seventeenth Army Corps.
On the 18th of July 1865, he was promoted to full Sergeant and on the 19th of July, 1865, Dow received his honorable discharge from the service at Springfield, Illinois.
Concerning the brothers and sisters of Lorenzo D. Hartwell the following brief data are here incorporated,—John, Riley, Joseph W., George and Frank were all valiant soldiers in the Union army during the Rebellion and all served in the same regiment as did Lorenzo D., with the exception of George, who was with Fitzpatrick’s cavalry. All were in the thick of actual fighting and all came home with deep scars as evidences of their exposure to the enemy.
Joseph W. lost an arm and Lorenzo D. parted with a portion of one leg, yet all six returned home and were permitted by divine providence to take part in the civic affairs of their state for many years. The other children in this large family were William, Elizabeth, James, Harriet, Polly and Sallie.
After being mustered out of the army Lorenzo D. Hartwell returned to his home at Marion, where he again entered public school. He studied law under Judge Duff, at Benton, Illinois and was admitted to the bar of Illinois in March, 1869. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Marion as a member of the Williamson County Bar Association.
He entered politics in 1866, as a Republican and was chosen to fill a number of public offices of important trust and responsibility. He began his public service as justice of the peace by serving from 1866 to 1874.
Dow was admitted to the I.O.O.F. Lodge #392 in Marion on July 3, 1869.
Attorney George Young opened up a law office in the city of Marion for the practice of law in partnership with Judge L. D. Hartwell in July of 1870.
In August of 1870, Hartwell applied for a Civil War Pension for wounds received and got it.
On the 30th of April, 1871, Mr. Hartwell married Miss Cynthia Eola Calvert, daughter of Napoleon B. Calvert, to whom a son, Edward E. Hartwell, was born in 1872. The couple’s relationship ended in divorce after the birth of their first and only child.
Mr. Hartwell was again united in marriage on August 18, 1878 to Miss Cora E. Simmons, a daughter of Levi Simmons, who came into Williamson County at the outbreak of the Civil war. The Simmons family was originally from Tennessee, where Mrs. Hartwell was born. To the latter union were born six children with three who survived childhood, DeWitt T., Fannie and Morrill Hartwell.
In the 1880 census, the family was living inside Marion city limits. Lorenzo was age 36 and Cora was 20. The couple had two children in the home, Edward Everett, aged 8, from Lorenzo’s previous marriage and DeWitte, born the previous year in July 1879 by his current wife. They had a servant present in the home, a 23 year old white female named Alice Wolf. Lorenzo listed his occupation as lawyer.
Marion Post, No. 319, of the Grand Army of the Republic was chartered August 2, 1883, with L. D. Hartwell, P. M. Parker, William Rex, J. P. Copeland and others to the number of fifteen as charter members.
Lorenzo served as city attorney of Marion for four years including the year 1887.
In 1890, Harwell was elected Williamson County judge and was re-elected for a second term serving until 1898.
On January 10, 1898, by appointment of the late President McKinley, Mr. Hartwell served three years as Postmaster of Marion.
His son DeWitte T. Hartwell studied law at Valparaiso, Indiana for the years 1896 and 1897. In 1898, after leaving school, he and George Stone, who had also just completed law school, studied law under his father Lorenzo for two years.
When the 1900 census was taken, Lorenzo was just completing his term as Marion’s Postmaster. He was then 56 years old and listed postmaster as his occupation. The couple owned the home they lived in but it was mortgaged. The location was not listed. There were now three children in the home, DeWitte 20, Fannie Hartwell, born in 1890, and a young son named Morrill Hartwell, born in 1898.
Later in 1900, he was elected State’s Attorney and during his four-year term of office in that capacity, along with his son DeWitte Hartwell, prosecuted Jerry Graves and Calvin Price for the March 16th 1903 murder of Nellie Reichelderfer. These two men were tried by a jury and a death sentence followed. They were later executed in Marion. This is the only case in Williamson County in which a death sentence was the result of a jury trial, the only other man hanged in Marion being Marshal Crain, who was executed in 1876 upon a plea of guilty bringing the “Bloody Vendetta” period to an end.
During his term of States Attorney he broke the record for efficiency as a public officer by turning into the public school fund and county treasury two thousand two hundred dollars, besides paying the expenses of his office. He sent 42 criminals to the penitentiary, 10 to the reform school and 2 to the gallows.
He served for two years as Williamson County’s Master in Chancery in 1907. A directory listing from that year listed him as such with an office at 201 Public Square and a residence at 400 W. Union Street.
By the 1910 census, the family had bought a new home. William H. Bundy, a Marion druggist, banker and businessman was retiring and moved out of their spacious home at 403 S. Market Street. Lorenzo purchased the home between 1907 and 1910. Lorenzo was then aged 66, Cora was 50. Their three children still resided at home. Their son DeWitte Hartwell, 30, was now the Williamson County State’s Attorney, just like his father had been. Their daughter Fannie Hartwell, 19, was working as a stenographer in a railroad office and young son Morrill was 12 and still attending public school.
In 1913, daughter Fannie Hartwell married Dr. Ralph Burkhart, a dentist and son of J.M. Burkhart and in 1914, son DeWitte T. Hartwell married Francis Freeman.
By the time the federal census of 1920 was taken, their son Morrill Hartwell had died at age 21 for reasons unknown at this time; however his 1918 draft record hints at medical conditions.
Lorenzo and his wife were finally “empty nesters” in their spacious S. Market home. Lorenzo was now aged 76 and Cora 60. He still listed himself as a self-employed lawyer and working.
A 1922 Marion city directory listed the couple at 403 S. Market Street and he was noted as “retired”.
Death occurred for Lorenzo on June 29, 1925 in Marion at the age of 82 years old. He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery on July 1, 1925.
He was an active member and trustee in Dr. Thompson’s church, the Methodist Episcopal, and also active in fraternal work, being a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge 392, Fellowship Lodge # 89, A. F. & A. M. at Marion; a Charter Member of Monitor Lodge, No. 236, Knights of Pythias, G.A.R. Post #319 and McKinley Regiment.
On July 17, 1925, his wife Cora applied for Lorenzo’s civil war pension.
After his death, wife Cora continued living in the large home. Fannie and Ralph Burkhart moved into the family home to care for her. Cora died in 1933.
Sam’s Notes:
Edward Everett Hartwell, only son by first wife Cynthia Calvert. Born January 13, 1872. Married Myrtle Howard on June 20, 1897 in Williamson County. Early in life he worked as coal miner and lived in Carterville. He moved back to Marion around 1921 and lived at 600 S. Virginia St. In 1930, he lived at 604 S. Virginia and was working as a painter and decorator. The coupled had four daughters named Myrtle, Ruth, Roxie and Bella Hartwell. He died on June 7, 1938 and was buried in Maplewood Cemetery.
DeWitte Talmadge Hartwell, born July 8, 1879. Graduated from Marion Township High School in the class of 1896. He died in 1933. For more information see, DeWitt T. Hartwell.
Fannie S. Hartwell, born in 1890. Graduated from Marion Township High School in the class of 1908. Married Dr. Ralph Burkhart. Died in Sept. 1967. For more information see the notes on Ralph Burkhart under J.M. Burkhart. See also, 403 S. Market St.
Morrill Burke Hartwell, born September 14, 1898. His 1918 draft record indicated he wasn’t working due to medical treatment and that he was under doctor’s advice. He worked as a telephone inspector at the time of his death in Marion on February 9, 1920 at age 21. Burial was in Rose Hill.
(Data from Goodspeed’s History of Williamson County, 1894; 1905 Souvenir History, WCHS; History of Southern Illinois; Federal Census Records; Marion City Directories; Marion City Cemetery Records; Illinois Death Records; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 08/21/2013)