HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
589
was elected a Circuit Judge, being again chosen to the same position in 1861. At the expiration of his second term he removed to Chicago. Died, at Jacksonville, August 24, 1894.
WILKINSON, John P., early merchant, was born, Dec. 14, 1790, in New Kent County, Va., emigrated first to Kentucky, and, in 1838, settled in Jacksonville, Ill., where he engaged in mercantile business. Mr. Wilkinson was a liberal friend of Illinois College and Jacksonville Female Academy, of each of which he was a Trustee from their origin until his death, which occurred, during a business visit to St. Louis, in December, 1841.
WILL, Conrad, pioneer physician and early legislator, was born in Philadelphia, June 4, 1778; about 1804 removed to Somerset County Pa., and, in 1813, to Kaskaskia, Ill. He was a physician by profession, but having leased the saline lands on the Big Muddy, in the vicinity of what afterwards became the town of Brownsville, he engaged in the manufacture of salt, removing thither in 1815, and becoming one of the founders of Brownsville, afterwards the first county-seat of Jackson County. On the organization of Jackson County, in 1816, he became a member of the first Board of County Commissioners, and, in 1818, served as Delegate from that county in the Convention which framed the first State Constitution. Thereafter he served continuously as a member of the Legislature from 1818 to '34-first as Senator in the First General Assembly, then as Representative in the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth, and again as Senator in the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth-his career being conspicuous for long service. He died in office, June 11, 1834. Dr. Will was short of stature, fleshy, of jovial disposition and fond of playing practical jokes upon his associates, but very popular, as shown by his successive elections to the Legislature. He has been called "The Father of Jackson County." Will County, organized by act of the Legislature two years after his death, was named in his honor.
WILL COUNTY, a northeastern county, embracing 850 square miles, named in honor of Dr. Conrad Will, an early politician and legislator. Early explorations of the territory were made in 1829, when white settlers were few. The bluff west of Joliet is said to have been first occupied by David and Benjamin Maggard. Joseph Smith, the Mormon "apostle," expounded his peculiar doctrines at "the Point" in 1831.
