Champaign County IL Archives Biographies.....Ayres, Judge Alexandder M 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Celia Snyder cgsnyder@uiuc.edu September 1999

Biography of Judge Alexander M AYRES, Champaign County, Illinois
From:  "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

JUDGE ALEXANDER M. AYRES

Was born in Washington County, Penn., on the 28th day of September, 1827.
His parents, David and Nancy AYRES, were natives of the same State. 0n the
father's side the ancestry is English, on the mother's Welsh and Scotch.

The parents removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and settled in Richland
county, about the year 1836, where they lived until the lime of their
death, which occurred respectively in 1849 and 1865. There were six
children in the family, of which the subject of our sketch was the eldest
son. He remained upon the farm, engaged in cultivating the paternal acres
until 1846, when at the age of nineteen years he entered the Vermilion
Institute, located at Haysville, Ohio, where he took a literary and
scientific course. He taught school, and attended the Institution until
1851, when he went to East Feliciana, Louisiana, where he taught school
until the fall of 1852. While a resident of the later place he commenced
the study of law, and in the fall of the same year returned to Ohio and
settled in Mansfield, and entered the Law-office of I. J. Allen, where he
continued his studies, and was admitted to practice to the Bar, on the 27th
day of May, 1854, and commenced the practice of his profession. Prior to
this time, however, he taught in the graded schools of the city. In the
fall of 1855 he removed to Urbana, his present home. He returned to Ohio
the same year, and married Miss Mary J. GLENN of Jeromeville, Ohio, on the
22d day of November, 1855, and returned with his young wife to his western
home, and settled down to the practice of his profession. They have had six
children only, four now living. Mary J., the eldest, died at the age of
nineteen. Frank died at the age of six years. Laura L. S. Addie, Judson F.,
and Belle the youngest, are living, the sunshine and light of their home.

We have followed down the course of the Judge's life, gathering up the main
facts and incidents connected therewith. This now brings us down to the
beginning of the war.

Fort Sumter has been fired upon, our flag insulted, the laws and authority
of our Government set at defiance, and the gauge of battle cast defiantly
at our feet. The subject of our sketch, stirred by patriotic ardor, steps
to the front, and is mustered in as Quartermaster into the 125th Regiment
Ill. vols. The regiment was ordered into camp at Danville, Ill., from
thence to Covington, Ky., and next to Louisville, where the regiment
reported to Gen. Nelson, and was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland.
The regiment participated in the battles of Chaplin's Hill, Ky., August
8th, 1862, Chattanooga, Cumberland Gap, Knoxville, Chickamauga. It
accompanied Gen. Sherman on his famous march to the sea, through Carlin 
to Columbia, from thence to Raleigh and to Richmond, Va., on to Washington,
participating in the grand reunion, and from thence to Chicago, where, on
the 29th day of June, 1865, the regiment was mustered out of service. The
Judge returned home and resumed his practice. The following November he was
elected to the honorable position of County Judge, which office he held
until 1869, when he was re-elected, and continued in office until 1873. On
the 18th day of December, 1874, he was appointed Postmaster at Urbana,
which position he holds at the present time. During all this time, however,
he has not relinquished the practice of law.

In politics the Judge is a Republican, and cast his first vote for Fremont,
and for John Sherman for Congressman.

Judge Ayres served also as Quartermaster of the Third Brigade, 2d Division,
14th Army Corps; and part of the time was Division Quartermaster. He was
attached to General McCook's Staff, and remained in that position until the
close of the war. The 125th was a part of the 3d Brigade, that was attached
to Sherman's Army that marched to the sea, as above stated.

The foregoing is a brief epitome of the life of Judge Ayres. The main
points gathered up and chronologically arranged. He is an old citizen of
Urbana and resident of Champaign county, having settled here in 1855. The
Judge is a well-read lawyer, an excellent pleader, a clear logical
reasoner. He is respected and esteemed by his fellow-citizens, for his
sterling qualities of heart and head, and by them been frequently called 
to occupy positions of trust and responsibility. He is domestic in his habits,
quiet and unassuming, a genial companion, and has a great many warm personal 
friends. 


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