Samuel W. Moulton

Samuel Wheeler Moulton (January 20, 1821 – June 3, 1905) was an educator, attorney, state legislator, and U.S. Representative from Illinois.

Samuel Moulton was born in Wenham, Essex County, Massachusetts, the son of William Moulton (1775–1858) and Mary Lunt Moulton (1776–1850). The Moulton family was one of old Massachusetts stock, with Samuel descending from James Moulton, who likely arrived in Essex County from Norfolk, England in the early 1630s.

Moulton attended public schools in Essex County. After completing his primary and secondary education, he moved to Kentucky, where he taught school for several years, and then to Mississippi where he continued to teach. While teaching in Mississippi, Samuel met Mary H. Affleck, and they married in 1844. Census records show they were married in 1844, but the 1776-1935 Mississippi Marriage Index does not show a marriage between the two. Similarly, the 1763-1900 Illinois Marriage Index does not show a record of marriage between Samuel and Mary.

The newly married Moultons moved to Illinois in 1845 and settled in Oakland, Coles County where he commenced the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1847 and started a practice in Sullivan, Illinois. He moved to Shelbyville, Illinois in 1849 and continued the practice of law. Moulton was a contemporary of another central Illinois attorney named Abraham Lincoln.

Moulton and Lincoln were co-counsel on a legal case in Illinois on May 25, 1852 in Shelbyville. In Shelby County Circuit Court, Lincoln and Moulton were co-counsel in the slander case Johnson v. Hardy, with Hardy being defended by Lincoln and Moulton. With Circuit Judge and future United States Senator and United States Supreme Court Justice David Davis hearing the case, a jury was empaneled, and Hardy was found guilty of slander and fined $50.00, with an additional $9.85 for court costs.

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