Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Clover, Edward L January 25, 1861 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com February 20, 2006, 6:51 am Author: Bio/Gen Rec LaSalle/Grundy Counties 1900 EDWARD L. CLOVER Among the practitioners of the bar at Morris is this gentleman, who has gained prestige in the legal profession. He is a western man by birth, training and preference, and possesses the true western spirit of diligence and enterprise, a spirit which has enabled many men to rise rapidly from humble positions to places of considerable prominence. Mr. Clover was born in Hardin county, Iowa, January 25, 1861, and is a son of Gerettus and Susan D. (Maddox) Clover. The father was born in Indiana and was a son of John Clover, who was a native of Pennsylvania, and became a pioneer of Grundy county, Illinois, settling on eighty acres of land in Highland township, where he carried on agricultural pursuits until his death. He located in the midst of a tract of timberland, his nearest neighbor being at that time four miles distant. With the pioneer development of the county he was actively identified, and in an early day he served as a county commissioner. He had eighteen children, but Gerettus is the only one now living in Grundy county, he being a resident of Gardner. He accompanied his parents in their removal to Illinois and was married in 1855, in Iowa, to Miss Susan D. Maddox. He afterward removed to Kansas and later returned to the Hawkeye state, where he was living at the time of his enlistment in the Union army. In 1862 he joined the boys in blue of Company E, Sixteenth Iowa Infantry, and for thirty-seven months loyally followed the old flag and fought for the cause it represented. When the war was over he located on a farm near Mazon, Grundy county, where he made his home until 1879, when he removed to Oswego, Kansas. Three years later, in 1882, he returned to Illinois and has since lived a retired life in Gardner, being one of the respected citizens of that locality. E. L. Clover, whose name introduces this review, was reared in Iowa, Kansas and Illinois. He spent his boyhood days on the farm and in the common schools acquired his preliminary education, which was supplemented by four months' study in a private school and six months' study in a high school in Kansas. Subsequently he studied law and on the 26th of November, 1881, when twenty years of age, was admitted to the bar. He did not at once engage in practice, however, but devoted his energies to school-teaching. For six months he had charge of a country school and then joined his parents in Gardner, where he engaged in teaching for one term. He was also employed for one term as a teacher in Mazon, and after his marriage he formed a partnership with his brother, Thomas F., for the practice of law in Braceville, Illinois. In September, 1885, when his father was made the postmaster of Gardner, he became the deputy and filled that position until February, 1886, when he removed to Morris. Here he served as the deputy postmaster until March, 1887, and on the fifteenth of that month he opened a law office, since which time he has been accounted one of the leading representatives of the profession in this city. In April, 1887, he was elected the city attorney and discharged his duties so ably that he was continued in the office for three successive terms. Mr. Clover was united in marriage, May 20, 1884, to Jessie M. Coles, of Grundy county, and their union has been blessed with one daughter, Inez J. Mr. Clover is a Democrat in his political affiliations, and socially he is a Master Mason and a member of the Sons of Veterans. He was a candidate for judge of the thirteenth judicial district, in 1897, and though defeated he reduced the usual Republican majority from seven thousand to two thousand—a fact which indicates his personal popularity and the confidence which his fellow citizens have in his professional ability. His devotion to his clients' interests is proverbial, and he prepares his cases with such thoroughness and precision that he seldom fails to win the verdict desired, and with most of the important litigation of the county he is therefore connected. Source: Biographical and Genealogical Record of La Salle and Grundy County, Illinois, Volume 11, Chicago, 1900, p613-615 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/bios/clover176nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 4.8 Kb