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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
which he now holds. Mr. Dawes is the son of R. B. Dawes, a former Congressman from Ohio, and the great-grandson of Manasseh Cutler, who was an influential factor in the early history of the Northwest Territory, and has been credited with exerting a strong influence in shaping and securing the adoption of the Ordinance of 1787.
DISTIN, (Col.) William L., former Department Commander of Grand Army of the Republic for the State of Illinois, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 9, 1843, his father being of English descent, while his maternal grandfather was a Colonel of the Polish Lancers in the army of the first Napoleon, who, after the exile of his leader, came to America, settling in Indiana, The father of the subject of this sketch settled at Keokuk, Iowa, where the son grew to manhood and in February, 1863, enlisted as a private in the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry, having been twice rejected previously on account of physical ailment. Soon after enlistment he was detailed for provost-marshal duty, but later took part with his regiment in the campaign in Alabama. He served for a time in the Fifteenth Army Corps, under Gen. John A. Logan, was subsequently detailed for duty on the Staff of General Raum, and participated in the battles of Resaca and Tilton, Ga. Having been captured in the latter, he was imprisoned successively at Jacksonville (Ga.), Montgomery, Savannah, and finally at Andersonville. From the latter he succeeded in effecting his escape, but was recaptured and returned to that famous prison-pen. Having escaped a second time by assuming the name of a dead man and .bribing the guard, he was again captured and imprisoned at various points in Mississippi until exchanged about the time of the assassination of President Lincoln. He was then so weakened by his long confinement and scanty fare that he had to be carried on board the steamer on a stretcher. At this time he narrowly escaped being on board the steamer Sultana, which was blown up below Cairo, with 2,100 soldiers on board, a large proportion of whom lost their lives. After being mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, June 28, 1865, he was employed for a time on the Des Moines Valley Railroad, and as a messenger and route agent of the United States Express Company, In 1872 he established himself in business in Quincy, Ill., in which he proved very successful. Here he became prominent in local Grand Army circles, and, in 1890, was unanimously elected Commander of the Department of Illinois. Previous to this he had been an officer of the Illinois National Guard, and
served as Aid-de-Camp, with the rank of Colonel, on the staff of Governors Hamilton, Oglesby and Fifer. In 1897 Colonel Distin was appointed by President McKinley Surveyor-General for the Territory of Alaska, a position which (1899) he still holds.
DUMMER, Henry E., lawyer, was born at Hallowell, Maine, April 9, 1808, was educated in Bowdoin College, graduating there in the class of 1827, after which he took a course in law at Cambridge Law School, and was soon after admitted to the bar. Then, having spent some two years in his native State, in 1882 he removed to Illinois, settling first in Springfield, where he remained six years, being for a part of the time a partner of John T. Stuart, who afterwards became the first partner in law of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Dum-mer had a bro
