The Jefferson-Lemen Compact / The Relations of Thomas Jefferson and James Lemen in the Exclusion of Slavery from Illinois and Northern Territory with Related Documents 1781-1818

The Relations of Thomas Jefferson and James Lemen in the Exclusion of Slavery from Illinois and the Northwest Territory with Related Documents 1781-1818
A Paper read before the Chicago Historical Society February 16, 1915

The University of Chicago Press 1915
Copyright by CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1915
The materials here presented were collected in connection with the preparation of a history of the first generation of Illinois Baptists. The narrative introduction is printed substantially as delivered at a special meeting of the Chicago Historical Society, and, with the collection of documents, is published in response to inquiries concerning the so-called Lemen Family Notes, and in compliance with the request for a contribution to the publications of this Society. It is hoped that the publication may serve to elicit further information concerning the alleged Notes, the existence of which has become a subject of more or less interest to historians. The compiler merely presents the materials at their face value, without assuming to pass critical judgment upon them.
W. C. M.
Upon leaving the army James Lemen married Catherine Ogle, daughter of Captain Joseph Ogle, whose name is perpetuated in that of Ogle county, Illinois. The Ogles were of old English stock, some of whom at least were found on the side of Cromwell and the Commonwealth. Catherine's family at one time lived on the South Branch of the Potomac, although at the time of her marriage her home was near Wheeling. Captain Ogle's commission, signed by Gov. Patrick Henry, is now a valued possession of one of Mrs. Lemen's descendants. James and Catherine Lemen were well fitted by nature and training for braving the hardships and brightening the privations of life on the frontier, far removed from home and friends, or even the abodes of their nearest white kinsmen.
True to his avowed purpose in coming to Illinois, young Lemen became a leader of anti-slavery sentiment in the new Territory, and, undoubtedly, deserves to be called one of the Fathers of the Free State Constitution, which was framed in 1818 and preserved in 1824. His homestead, the Old Lemen Fort at New Design, which is still the comfortable home of the present owner, is the birthplace of the Baptist denomination in Illinois; and he himself is commemorated as the recognized founder of that faith in this State, by a granite shaft in the family burial plot directly in front of the old home. This memorial was dedicated in 1909 by Col. William Jennings Bryan, whose father, Judge Bryan, of Salem, Illinois, was the first to suggest it as a well-deserved honor.