One of the central figures of the judiciary of southern Illinois is the
honorable gentleman whose name forms the subject of this review. Prominent
in legal circles and equally so in public matters beyond the confines of his
own jurisdiction, with a reputation in one of the most exacting of
professions that has won him a name for distinguished service second to that
of none of his contemporaries, there is today no more prominent or highly
esteemed man in Marion county, which he has long dignified with his
citizenship.
Samuel L. Dwight was born March 15, 1841, at Mount
Vernon, Jefferson county, Illinois, the son of Lewis and Mahala Pennington
(Casey) Dwight. The subject's mother was the daughter of Governor Zadoc
Casey, of Illinois. She was born while her father was a member of the
Legislature at Vandalia, capitol of Illinois at that time. He originated the
bill to create the county of Marion, naming the same after his father's
Revolutionary commander, Francis Marion, of historic fame. Lewis Dwight was
born in Massachusetts and educated in that state. However, he graduated at
Yale University, after which he came to Jefferson county, Illinois, and
taught school for a number of years. He died at the age of seventy years,
after a very useful and active life. Samuel L. Dwight was reared with the
family of Governor Casey and was educated in the public schools of Mount
Vernon, Illinois, having taken one year's course of study at McKendree
College. Being ambitious from the first, he applied himself in a most
diligent manner to his studies and became well educated. Early deciding to
enter the law as a profession, he began the study of the same with Tanner
and Casey at Mount Vernon. But when our national horizon was darkened with
the clouds of rebellion in the early sixties our subject left Blackstone
behind, severed home ties and offered his services in defense of his
country's integrity, having enlisted in Company 1 Sixtieth Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, and so gallant were his services that he was mustered
out at the close of the war as captain of the same company. He served one
and one-half years, having taken part in many engagements and faithfully
performing what service he could.
After his career in the army Mr.
Dwight, in July, 1866, left the farm at Mount Vernon, Illinois, and resumed
the study of law, this time under his uncle, Colonel Lewis F. Casey, who had
married an aunt of Samuel E. Dwight, and the daughter of Governor Casey.
Our subject was admitted to the bar in 1868, and he entered into
partnership with Colonel Casey, with whom he continued in a most successful
manner until the death of Colonel Casey early in the eighties, the prestige
of this firm having gradually grown until their practice was equal to that
of any other firm in the county.
In 1870 Samuel L. Dwight was
elected a member of the lower house of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly
and served to the entire satisfaction of his constituents for one term.
After the death of his former law partner he carried on the business of the
firm successfully, practicing law in all the local courts until 1897, when
he was elected to the bench of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, and
so faithfully did he discharge the duties of the same that he was re-elected
to the office in 1903 for another term of six years, and is, therefore, at
this writing, 1908, still holding the position. His tenure of office has
been marked by a remarkable clearness of decision and fairness to all
parties, his decisions having seldom met with disapproval at the hands of a
higher tribunal, for he came to the bench well qualified for its exacting
duties and responsibilities and from the beginning his judicial career was
characterized by such a profound knowledge of the law and an earnest and
conscientious desire to apply it impartially that he was not long in gaining
the respect and confidence of the attorneys and litigants and earning for
himself an honorable reputation among the leading jurists of the state. From
the first his labors were very arduous and many important cases were tried
in his court, in addition to which he was also frequently called to other
circuits to sit on cases in which larger interests were involved.
The happy and harmonious domestic life of Judge Dwight dates from September
4, 1872, when he was married to M. Irene Noleman, the cultured and
accomplished daughter of Capt. R. D. Noleman and Sarah A. Jennings, the
mother of Mrs. Dwight having been the daughter of Charles W. Jennings. R. D.
Noleman was for many years a leading citizen and business man of Centralia.
Fraternally Judge Dwight is a member of the Masonic Order, the
Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, the Grand Army of the Republic and the Modern
Woodmen. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Their beautiful home is frequently the gathering place for numerous friends
and admirers of Mr. and Mrs. Dwight.
Judge S. L. Dwight is ready at
all times to make any reasonable sacrifice for. the cause in which his
interests are enlisted, He is not only an able and reliable counselor, with
a thorough acquaintance of the principles, intricacies and complexities of
jurisprudence, but his honesty is such that he has frequently advised
against long and expensive litigation, and this, too, at the loss of liberal
fees which he could otherwise have earned. His treatment of the case he has
in hand is always full of comprehension and accurate, his analysis of the
facts clear and exhaustive, and he seems to grasp without effort the
relation and dependence of the facts, and so groups them as to enable him to
throw their combined force upon the point they intend to prove. He is,
withal, a man of the people, proud of his distinction as a citizen of a
state and nation for whose laws and institutions he has the most profound
admiration and respect.
Extracted 27 May 2019 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 535-537.