Person:Henry Dement (1)

Information on Henry Dement

From "The American Biographical Dictionary":

HON. HENRY D. DEMENT.

SPRINGFIELD.

Henry Dodge Dement, Secretary of State, was born at Galena, Illinois, October 10, 1840. He is a son of John Dement, a native of Tennessee, and Mary L. Dement, a native of Missouri, and grandson of Hon. Henry Dodge, one of the early territorial governors of Wisconsin. The subject of this sketch was educated at Rock River Seminary, Mount Morris, this state, at a Catholic college at Sinsinawa Mound, Grant county, Wisconsin, and at a Presbyterian college at Dixon. Civil war breaking out in 1861, he did not quite finish his college course, but volunteered his services to save the Union. In April, 1861, he enlisted in company A of the I3th Illinois infantry; was commissioned second lieutenant on the 2oth of that month, and two or three months later was promoted to first lieutenant. We learn from the History of Sangamon County, 1881, that he was with Generals Fremont and Curtiss in their campaigns west of the Mississippi; with General Sherman in his defeat at Chickasaw Bayou; with General Grant in his march to and assaults upon the strongholds of Vicksburg, and with General Sherman's corps in the engagements which resulted in the capture of Jackson, Mississippi. February 3, 1863, for his gallantry at Arkansas Post and Vicksburg, Lieutenant Dement received a complimentary commission as captain, which he held at the time he left the service in August, 1863.

In the autumn of 1872, Mr. Dement was elected to the lower house of the general assembly for the twelfth district, and after serving two terms in that body was transferred to the upper house, in which he represented Lee and Ogle counties, constituting the twelfth senatorial district, for two terms. During the first session in which he was in the lower house, Mr. Dement was chairman of the committee on labor and manufactures. In the next session the democrats and grangers were in power, and he held subordinate positions. During all the time that he was a member of the general assembly, whenever the republicans had control, his abilities were handsomely recognixed. He was, during one or two sessions, chairman of the committee on penal and reformatory institutions; also on the committee on appropriations and military affairs. He served on the revenue committee nearly all the time he was in the legislature. In 1880, the republican party nominated Mr. Dement for his present state office, and he was elected by the usual majority. That post he is filling with eminent satisfaction.

The year after leaving the army, Secretary Dement engaged in the manufacture of plows at Dixon, and continued that business, in company with William Todd, until 1870, when he began the manufacture of flax bagging for covering cotton bales. In that branch of business he is still largely engaged. He married, at Dixon, October 20, 1864, Mary F., daughter of Hon. Hezekiah and Eliza (Patterson) Williams, the former a native of Vermont, the latter of Maine; and they have had five children, only three of them, all daughters, now living, their names being Gertrude May, Lucia W. and Nonie E. The family reside at Dixon, where the children are being educated. Mr. and Mrs. Dement are members of the Presbyterian church.