By Mark Rhoads
Few Illinoisans of the 19th and early 20th Century were more famous than Shelby Moore Cullom of Springfield. He served more years in high Illinois public offices than any other person in the history of the state. He was Speaker of the Illinois House for three terms, a member of the U.S. House for three terms, governor for six years, and a U.S. Senator for thirty years. He was born Nov. 22, 1829 in Wayne County, Kentucky. But his family moved when he was less than a year old in 1830 to Tazewell County, Illinois where his father was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. Shelby's father, State Rep. Richard Northcraft Cullom, was a trusted friend and ally of Abraham Lincoln when both served in the Illinois House.
Shelby attended the Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris, Illinois where he also taught lower grades part-time to earn money for his own tuition and expenses. He moved to Springfield in 1853 to read for the law at the firm of Stuart and Edwards and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1855. That same year, the newly-minted attorney was elected City Attorney of Springfield at the age of 26. In 1856, Shelby was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. Shelby was married twice. His first wife was Hannah M. Fisher. They were married from 1855 until her death in 1861. He later married Julia Fisher in May 1863. She was First Lady of Illinois 1877-1883 and died in 1909.
Shelby was re-elected in 1860 and was elected by his peers as Speaker of the House in 1861. In 1862, President Lincoln appointed him as a member of the War Claims Commission at Cairo, Illinois. He was elected to Congress in 1864 and was re-elected in 1866 and 1868. Returning to Illinois, he was again elected to the Illinois House in 1872 and 1874 and again served as Speaker of the House for four years. Mr. Cullom was elected governor of Illinois in 1876 and was re-elected in 1880.
Among the major accomplishments during his administration was the fact that Illinois was debt free and called in the last of its bonds in 1881. Pure food legislation was passed the Board of Dental Examiners and the Board of Pharmacy was created. Pursuant to the census of 1880, the Illinois congressional delegation expanded to twenty U.S. House members and new districts were drawn by the state legislature.
Early in 1883, Gov. Cullom was elected by the legislature to serve as United States Senator from Illinois. He was the principal sponsor of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 that curbed the power of railroads. He served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois continously for thirty years until his fifth six-year term expired in March 1913. In 1911, he wrote a memoir called Fifty Years in Public Service.
As Chairman of the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention of 1872 in Philadelphia, Sen. Cullom placed the name of President Ulyses S. Grant in nomination for president for a second term. In 1884 in the same position, he placed the name of his colleague Sen. John A. Logan in nomination for Vice President of the United States.
During the year after he retired from the Senate, Sen. Cullom served on the Lincoln Memorial Commission but did not live to see its completion eleven years after his death. He also served on the committee to draft laws for the Hawaiian islands.
Sen. Cullom died less than a year after he retired on Jan. 28, 1914 in Washington. He is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.
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