Lawrence Weldon

Who was Lawrence Weldon?

Lawrence Weldon was an Illinois attorney and politician, and a judge of the United States Court of Claims.

Weldon attended public schools in Zanesville, Ohio, where he was born, and subsequently attended Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio. He served as Clerk for the Ohio Secretary of State from 1853 to 1854. He read law while working for Judge Richard A. Harrison and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1854. In December, 1854, Weldon wed Mary Jane Howard, and had two children.

Weldon moved to Clinton, Illinois and engaged in the private practice of law from 1854 to 1861. It was during this time he became acquainted with Stephen A. Douglas, who introduced him to Abraham Lincoln. Weldon served on the Illinois House of Representatives in 1861 but resigned when appointed by Lincoln to serve as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, which he did from 1861 to 1866.

He resumed private practice, this time in Bloomington, Illinois in 1867.

Weldon was nominated to the Court of Claims by President Chester A. Arthur, to replace Bancroft Davis and he was commissioned on November 24, 1883. His service terminated due to his death on April 10, 1905. He was succeeded on the Court by George Wesley Atkinson.