15 Facts About Shadrach Bond

Shadrach Bond was a representative from the Illinois Territory to the United States Congress.

Shadrach Bond was born in 1773 in Frederick, Maryland the son of Nicodemus, a landowner, and Rachel Shadrach Bond.

Shadrach Bond had twelve Illinois Country connections through his uncle, named Shadrach Bond, a scout with George Rogers Clark's Illinois Regiment in the American Revolutionary War.

The young Shadrach Bond learned from his uncle of the rich farmland of the Illinois Territory, and emigrated to the American Bottom, an especially fertile section of the Mississippi River basin.

Shadrach Bond would be an Illinois farmer for the remainder of his life.

Shadrach Bond was made a Freemason in Temple Lodge No 26, Reisters Town, Baltimore County, Maryland.

Shadrach Bond was elected Illinois' first Grand Master when the first Illinois Grand Lodge was constituted on December 11,1822.

When Illinois was admitted to the Union, Shadrach Bond was elected the first governor.

Shadrach Bond was less successful in his advocacy for a canal that would connect Lake Michigan and the Illinois River.

The canal was eventually built in the 1840s, long after Shadrach Bond had left office.

Shadrach Bond took steps to abolish the whipping post and pillory for misdemeanor offenses.

Shadrach Bond considered this dishonorable and felt that there should be no banks chartered by the state government of Illinois until the State had enough specie to support the value of its banknotes.

Shadrach Bond was no longer in the center of Illinois politics, as the General Assembly had moved the state capital from Kaskaskia to Vandalia.

Shadrach Bond died of pneumonia on his farm at Kaskaskia in 1832.

Shadrach Bond is interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Chester, and his grave is marked by the Governor Bond State Memorial.