SHELBY M. CULLOM
Shelby M. Cullom, of Springfield, was born in Wayne County, Ky., November 22, 1829; his father removed to Tazewell County, Ill., the following year. He received an academic and university education; went to Springfield in the fall of 1853 to study law and has since resided there; immediately upon receiving license to practice was elected city attorney; continued to practice law until he took his seat in the House of Representatives in 1865; was a presidential elector in 1856 on the Fillmore ticket; was elected a member of the house of representatives of the Illinois legislature in 1856, 1860, 1872, and 1874, and was elected speaker in 1861 and in 1873; was elected a Representative from Illinois in the Thirty-Ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-First Congresses, serving from December 4, 1865, to March 3, 1871; was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Philadelphia in 1872, and chairman of the Illinois delegation, and placed General Grant in nomination; was a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1884 and chairman of the Illinois delegation; was elected governor of Illinois in 1876 and succeeded himself in 1880, serving from January 8, 1877, until February 5, 1883, when he resigned, having been elected to the United States Senate as a Republican, to succeed David Davis, Independent Democrat; took his seat December 4, 1883, and was reëlected in 1888 and again in 1894; was a member of the commission appointed to prepare a system of laws for the Hawaiian Islands. His term of service will expire March 3, 1901.
