Person

Richard Yates (Morgan County, Illinois, governor, attorney, representative, and senator)

b. 1815-01-18 d. 1873-11-27

Morgan County, Illinois, attorney, governor, and legislator. Gallatin County, Kentucky, native. Son of Henry Yates. Married to Catherine Geers Yates in Morgan County, Illinois, on July 11, 1839. Father of William Yates, Henry Yates, Mary Yates, Catherine Yates, and Richard Yates. Graduate of Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1835. Graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1837. Attorney in Morgan County, Illinois, in 1850. Member of the United States House of Representatives from the Seventh Congressional District of Illinois from 1851 to 1855. Attorney in Morgan County in 1860. Employed Martha Murphy as a servant in Morgan County in 1860. Governor of Illinois from January 14, 1861, to January 16, 1865. Member of the United States Senate from Illinois from 1865 to 1871.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Illinois, Morgan County, Jacksonville, p. 170A.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Illinois, Morgan County, Jacksonville, p. 404.

Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Illinois, Morgan County, Jacksonville, p. 460A.

Illinois Marriage Records, Morgan County Courthouse, Jacksonville, Illinois, Morgan County Marriages, Film 007619742.

"Richard Yates,” Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Carroll County, vol. 3, ed. Newton Bateman, Paul Selby, and Charles L. Hostetter (Chicago, IL: Munsell Publishing Company, 1913), 603.

“Richard Yates’ Mother Dies,” The Kenney Gazette (Kenney, IL), October 16, 1908.

"Richard Yates (1815-1873)," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present, accessed April, 11, 2021, https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/Y000012.

"Richard Yates (1815-1873)," Find A Grave, Memorial #6624690, accessed May 12, 2021, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6624690.

Citation

Yates, Richard. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32204060 (November 12, 2026).

The people, organizations, and places listed below appear in the same documents as Richard Yates (Morgan County, Illinois, governor, attorney, representative, and senator). They are sorted by the number of documents they share.

Documents (7)

People

Organizations

Places

Loading network...

Network Visualized

How to use the visualization

CWGK’s network visualization brings the edition’s documents to life. The network on this page centers around Yates, Richard. Click on the light blue dot to see the documents in which the entity appears. You can also click on the dark orange dots to see other people linked to Yates, Richard, a light orange dot to see the places connected to Yates, Richard, or dark green dots to see organizations linked to Yates, Richard.

Additionally, the lines between the dots add additional information. The light green lines demonstrate direct connections between Yates, Richard and another person, place, or organization. The light pink lines highlight that the dots appear in the same document.