Governor Augustus C. French House

The house at 820 Belleville St. is thought to have been built in 1854 as the home of former Illinois Governor Augustus Chaplin French. French was elected governor twice, in 1846 and for a four-year term in 1848. When he lived in Lebanon after his terms ended, he founded and headed the Law Department at McKendree College. The former governor, age 56, and his eldest son William, age 20, died within a month of each other in 1864. The French family - widow Lucy and the four remaining children - appear to have moved away by 1870. The Governor French House is part of the Lebanon Historic District, listed in the National Register in 1977. The house is next door to another Clio entry, the Benjamin Hayes House.

Augustus C. French was born in Hill, New Hampshire in 1808. He studied at Dartmouth College but did not graduate. He was orphaned at age nineteen and helped to raise his four younger brothers. French studied law in New Hampshire and was admitted to the bar in 1831. He moved to Paris, Illinois in 1832. French served as a member of the Illinois Legislature from 1836 to 1838 and 1838 to 1840. In 1839, French became head of the U.S. Land Office in Palestine, Illinois. French was a Democrat and was elected Governor of Illinois in 1846. He was the first governor in the state to be elected to two terms and served from December 1846 to January 1853. The house was likely built in 1854 when French retired from politics. The three-bay-wide, red brick house has a projecting central bay containing the main entrance.

In 1860, the French household was listed in the federal census in St. Clair County, Illinois in Township 2 North, Range 6 West, on the outskirts of the town limits of Lebanon. French (age 52) was a lawyer who owned $55,000 in real estate and $3,000 in personal property. He shared his home on Belleville St. with wife Lucy (43); and five children: William (15), Edward (14), Augusta (11), Lucy (8), and Charles (1). Lucy (Southworth) was born in New York and the children were natives of Illinois. Also living in the house were servant(s) Elizabeth Robins (21) and Mary Smith (17). Governor French founded and headed the Law Department at McKendree College in Lebanon until his death. His three sons studied at McKendree, and the two daughters were educated at Monticello Seminary in Godfrey, Illinois. Edward began his studies at age 11 in the Preparatory Department of McKendree in 1857.

Sadly, the oldest son William died at age 20 in August 1864, not long after finishing his studies at McKendree. Former Governor French died one month later, in September 1864, at age 56. His gravestone in the family plot at College Hill Cemetery in Lebanon is inscribed: "A man, true, kind and noble; a citizen, just, generous, and honorable; a public officer, upright, philanthropic, energetic, and faithful; a husband and father, affectionate, wise, and good; a Christian, humble, charitable, and trusting."

The second son, Edward, left McKendree and served as a Lieutenant in the Civil War before resuming his studies and graduating in 1866. Edward studied law in Springfield, Illinois in 1867 and then at the University of Michigan, where he received an LL. B. degree in 1869. He practiced law in Lebanon for one year in 1869 and one year in Olney, Illinois. In 1870, Edward married Mary Wells of St. Louis, and then became a professor at Wells College in Aurora, New York. In the 1880s, he moved to California and taught school; he died in the 1920s. The youngest child, Charles, studied at a theological seminary in the eastern U.S. after McKendree and was later an Episcopal Minister in New York. The elder daughter, Augusta, married a man from Chicago named C.H. Wicker. The other daughter married Dr. John L. Hodgeman of Colorado and later moved to Texas.

None of the French family members were found in the 1870 census within the Lebanon area so they may have sold the house by then. The home was described in the 1920s as one of the finest houses on Belleville Street. The Governor French House was vacant and owned by the Schaefer family in 1971 when the ten-room house was documented for the Illinois Historic Sites Survey.

Schaefer, Ruth A. Illinois Historic Sites Inventory Form for Governor French Home, Belleville St., Lebanon, Illinois. St-H-145. Springfield, IL. Illinois Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, 1971.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of August C. French in Township 2 North, Range 6 West near Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois, dwelling 4653, family 4702. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1860.

Walton, William Clarence. Centennial McKendree College with St. Clair County History. Lebanon, IL. McKendree College, 1928.