Shadrach Bond (November 24, 1773 – April 12, 1832) was a representative from the

Illinois Territory The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its ...

to the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

. In 1818, he was elected

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its we ...

, becoming the new state's first chief executive. In an example of American politics during the

Era of Good Feelings The Era of Good Feelings marked a period in the political history of the United States that reflected a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the War of 1812. The era saw the collapse of the Fe ...

, Bond was elected to both positions without opposition.

Early life and career

Bond was born in 1773 in

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...

the son of Nicodemus, a landowner, and Rachel (Stevenson) Bond. He had nine siblings like Benjamin, though most of the siblings' identities are unknown. He had twelve

Illinois Country The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

connections through his uncle, also named Shadrach Bond, a scout with

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot military officer on the American frontier, nort ...

's Illinois Regiment in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Because they held some of the same offices in Illinois, the two Bonds are sometimes confused; the uncle is usually known as Shadrach Bond, Sr. The young Bond learned from his uncle of the rich farmland of the Illinois Territory and emigrated to the American Bottom, an especially fertile section of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

basin. In 1794, Bond's family would move to what is now Monroe County where he would be an Illinois farmer for the remainder of his life, his labor was overshadowing his rather plain education. Shadrach Bond was made a Freemason in Temple Lodge No. 26, Reisters Town, Baltimore County, Maryland. When he moved to Illinois, he became a member of lodge The Western Star Lodge No. 107, Kaskaskia, Territory of Indiana on December 27, 1806. On November 27th, 1810, Bond married his distant cousin Achsah Bond, and they had two sons, Thomas Shadrach and Benjamin Nicodemus, aswell as five daughters, Julia Rachel, Mary Achsah, Isabella Fell and two unnamed. Bond was elected Illinois' first Grand Master when the first Illinois Grand Lodge was constituted on December 11, 1822.

Political career

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...

, Bond was elected to the Indiana Territorial Council. After

was organized, he was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

. When Illinois was admitted to the Union, Bond was elected the first governor. His inauguration took place on October 6th, 1818, at the initial state capital of Kaskaskia. As Illinois's first governor, Bond led a new state that had sterling prospects but almost no transportation infrastructure or cash in hand. Bond made transportation his top priority as governor, along with education. Because the state had almost no money, the General Assembly passed and Bond signed bills to build privately operated toll roads and bridges, headed by a road connecting the state's then capital, Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River, with what was then the state's largest city, Shawneetown, on the Ohio River. The road was built and eventually taken over by the state of Illinois as a state highway. After almost two centuries of improvements, much of it is now part of Illinois Route 13. Legislature also passed a bill that put taxes on the land non-residents owned to improve the newly formed state's lack of money. Bond had a method to

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

salt springs. Bond was less successful in his advocacy for a canal that would connect

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

and the

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

(the

Illinois and Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago ...

). The canal was eventually built in the 1840s, long after Bond had left office. Governor Bond was deeply concerned about

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

. The Illinois criminal law made arsonists eligible for the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

, along with persons guilty of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

. The governor was by no means exclusively concerned with appearing to be tough on crime, however. He took steps to abolish the whipping post and

pillory The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. ...

for misdemeanor offenses. Bond also Bond's most controversial act was his attempt to veto an act passed by the General Assembly to create a non-capitalized ''State Bank of Illinois.'' The

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

was ready to issue

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

s based on the prospect of future economic growth within Illinois. Bond considered this dishonorable and felt that there should be no banks chartered by the state government of Illinois until the State had enough specie (gold and silver coin) to support the value of its banknotes. The undercapitalized bank was chartered anyway, and promptly went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

, justifying Bond's concerns.

Retirement

After Bond's single term as governor, he returned to his Kaskaskia farm. He was no longer in the center of Illinois politics, as the General Assembly had moved the state capital from Kaskaskia to Vandalia. President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

appointed Bond chief record keeper of the Kaskaskia land office, an important job in a land-hungry frontier state. As a respected local leader, Bond also helped to raise the local share of funding to secure the construction of the state's first

penitentiary A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state, usually ...

in Alton. In the early 1830s Bond was elected Master of his

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

Personal life

Bond was a Methodist-Episcopalian. Bond married his distant cousin, Achsah, on November 27th, 1810, at

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. They had seven children; Rachel, Mary Achsah, Isabella Fell, Thomas Shadrach, Benjamin Nicodemus, and two unnamed daughters. Bond was also popular with females. He was also noted for being six feet long and weighed an estimate of 200 pounds.

Death

Shadrach Bond died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

on his farm at Kaskaskia in 1832. He is interred in Evergreen Cemetery in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, and his grave is marked by the Governor Bond State Memorial. In September 2008, his obelisk – the tallest and most prominent monument in the cemetery – was toppled by the effects of Hurricane Ike.

Honors

In 1817, Illinois Territory named the newly created Bond County for Shadrach Bond.Allan H. Keith
''Historical Stories: About Greenville and Bond County, IL''
Consulted on August 15, 2007. The honor was bestowed for Bond's service as a congressional delegate; he had not yet become governor. Governor Bond Lake in Greenville, Illinois is also named in honor of Bond.

References

Solon J. Buck, Illinois in 1818
at Thayer's American history site * Robert P. Howard, Mostly Good and Competent Men * Theodore Calvin Pease, The Frontier State 1818–1848 , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bond, Shadrach 1773 births 1832 deaths 19th-century Illinois politicians Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves Deaths from pneumonia in Illinois Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from Illinois Territory Democratic-Republican Party state governors of the United States Governors of Illinois Illinois Democratic-Republicans Members of the Indiana Territorial Legislature People from Kaskaskia, Illinois Politicians from Frederick, Maryland 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives