Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Gadwell, William H 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 2:03 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

William H. Gadwell, Justice of the Peace, Notary Public and Clerk of the 
Village of Rock Falls, was born Dec. 28, 1826, at Hartford, Conn., of which 
place his parents—Charles and Annie T. (Benton) Cadwell— were also natives. 
Mr. Cadwell received a very limited common-school education. Being at the age 
of 12 years thrown upon his own resources, having to look out for himself, he 
entered a printing-office, where he remained nearly three years, at the 
expiration of which time he found employment in a map-publishing house for 
another year. At the age of 16 years he apprenticed himself to his uncle, 
Daniel Fish, and completed his trade as a pastry-baker and confectioner. In 
1848 Mr. Cadwell married Miss Catharine Fish, of Boston, Mass., by whom he has 
one daughter, Nellie Frances; she married Mr. W. H. Tuttle in 1871, with whom 
Mr. Cadwell is now residing, having lost his wife by death on the 5th of 
March, 1884. Soon afterward he assumed control of the manufacturing department 
of his uncle's business. Having a desire to better his condition in life, he 
took Horace Greeley's advice, packed up, and, with his wife and child, his 
sister and her family, started West, arriving in Belvidere, Boone County, this 
State, in the spring of 1856, where he again conducted his business, in 
connection with ice-cream parlors and a news room. Soon after the breaking out 
of the war he was appointed agent of the American Express Company, at about 
which time the printing establishment then known as the Belvidere Union came 
into his possession, and the name changed to the Boone County Advertiser. In 
1868 he disposed of the office to a syndicate of Democrats, to boom the 
nomination of Horatio Seymour for President. After the election of Grant the 
establishment again came into the hands of Mr. Cadwell, who discontinued the 
paper. In 1870 he formed a partnership with Mr. W. H. Tuttle, and moved the 
establishment with his family to Rock Falls, and started the first newspaper 
published on the south side of Rock River, naming it the Rock Falls Progress. 
After conducting the paper for six years and six months, it was discontinued 
and the partnership dissolved, Mr. Cadwell continuing in the job-printing 
business. In 1882 Mr. Cadwell was elected Justice of the Peace to fill a 
vacancy. At the spring election of the present year (1885), Mr. Cadwell was 
elected his own successor. He also is appointed by Governor Oglesby a Notary 
Public, also for four years, and again re-elected Village Clerk. Politically, 
he is a Republican and takes an active interest in matters pertaining to the 
growth and prosperity of the Republican party, and the village and town in 
which he resides. Socially, he is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows; was an 
active worker for the organization of Advance Lodge, No. 590, of which he was 
the first presiding officer; is also a member of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. 
He is also the first Master Workman of Union Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W., of 
Sterling, the organization of which is due to his labor. He was sent from No. 
3 as a delegate for the organization of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, of which 
organization he was made the first Past Grand Master of the State; also the 
first Representative from the Grand Lodge to the Supreme Lodge of the United 
States, meeting at Cincinnati in 1875, which position he filled for three 
successive terms.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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