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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
HACKER, John S., pioneer and soldier of the Mexican War, was born at Owensburg, Ky., November, 1797; in early life removed to Missouri, where he was employed in the stock and produce trade with New Orleans. Having married in 1817, he settled at Jonesboro, Union County, Ill., where he kept a tavern for a number of years, and was also engaged some thirty years in mercantile business. It is said that he was unable to read until taught after marriage by his wife, who appears to have been a woman of intelligence and many graces. In 1824 he was elected Representative in the Fourth General Assembly and, in 1834, to the State Senate, serving by re-election in 1838 until 1842, and being a supporter of the internal improvement scheme. In 1837 he voted for the removal of the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield, and, though differing from Abraham Lincoln politically, was one of his warm personal friends. He served in the War of 1812 as a private in the Missouri militia, and, in the Mexican War, as Captain of a company in the Second Regiment, Illinois Volunteers-Col. W. II. Bissell's. By service on the staff of Governor Duncan, he had already obtained the title of Colonel. He received the nomination for Lieutenant-Governor from the first formal State Convention of the Democratic party in December, 1837, but the head of the ticket (Col. J. W. Stephenson) having withdrawn on account of charges connected with his administration of the Land Office at Dixon, Colonel Hacker also declined, and a new ticket was put in the field headed by Col. Thomas L. Carlin, which was elected in 1838. In 1849 Colonel Hacker made the overland journey to California, but returning with impaired health in 1852, located in Cairo, where he held the position of Surveyor of the Port for three years, when he was removed by President Buchanan on account of his friendship for Senator Douglas. He also served, from 1854 to '56, as Secretary of the Senate Committee on Territories under the Chairmanship of Senator Douglas, and, in 1856, as Assistant Doorkeeper of the House of Representatives in Washington. In 1857 he returned to Jonesboro and spent the remainder of his life in practical retirement, dying at the home of his daughter, in Anna, May 18, 1878.
HADLEY, William F. L., lawyer and Congressman, was born near Collinsville, Ill., June 15, 1847; grew up on a farm,
