Thomas Mather , 1795-1853

Thomas Mather was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 1795. His father, William Mather, fought in the Revolutionary War and was a direct descendant of Cotton Mather, the New England minister associated with the Salem Witch Trials. Thomas Mather migrated to the village of Kaskaskia in 1818 and quickly became a business and political leader, advocating for the building of a steamboat landing at the confluence of the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers. Smith’s Landing, later renamed Chester, grew and thrived. Mather served 4 terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, two terms in the Illinois Senate, and one term as Speaker of the House. A strident abolitionist, Mather participated in public debates over Illinois’ “free-state” constitution, and helped keep slavery out of Illinois.

Mather’s many commercial ventures included building a warehouse on this site in 1830, the first-floor walls of which are still intact. Mather moved to Springfield in 1835 and built a home on what became known as “Mather Hill.” Here he entertained dignitaries such as Dorothea Dix, the mental health reformer who lobbied for a state asylum in the 1840s, and Cassius M. Clay, the Kentucky abolitionist who spoke on Mather’s lawn and was heard by a young Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln died in 1865, Springfield leaders picked Mather Hill as the site for the proposed Lincoln tomb. Mary Lincoln overruled them and chose pastoral Oak Ridge Cemetery instead. Two years later the Mather Hill site was chosen for the new Illinois state capitol.