Lamon, Ward Hill, 1828-1893

Ward Hill Lamon, a close friend and a biographer of Abraham Lincoln. A native of Virginia, he moved to Illinois in 1847. He became Lincoln's law partner, and in the 1850's worked for his political career. In 1861, Lamon accompanied Lincoln to Washington. In the same year he was appointed Marshal of the District of Columbia. After Lincoln's assassination, Lamon practiced law in a partnership with Jeremiah S. Black. Black's son, Chauncey F. Black ghostwrote Lamon's Life of Abraham Lincoln (1872). The book did not enjoy public or critical success, and Lamon chose not to continue the publication. In 1876, moved to Colorado but returned to Washington ten years later. In 1895 Lamon's daughter, Dorothy Lamon Teillard, published an extended version of her father's work under the title Recollections of Abraham Lincoln (1895).

An Illinois lawyer and friend of Abraham Lincoln, Lamon was marshal of the District of Columbia and sometime bodyguard of Lincoln. In 1872 Lamon published a controversial biography of Lincoln.

Biography

Ward Hill Lamon (1827-93), law partner and friend of Abraham Lincoln, was born near Winchester, Va. and brought up on a farm in Berkeley County, now West Virginia.

Lamon's association with Lincoln began in 1852, in Danville, Ill., and continued there for five years. Then he moved to Bloomington where he became very active in the newly formed Republican Party, and in furthering the cause of his friend; the middle of February, 1861 found him en route to Washington, D. C., as companion and virtual body guard of the President elect, and a few months later, upon the outbreak of war, he was appointed Marshal of the District of Columbia.

After Lincoln's death, Lamon resigned (June, 1865) to become a law partner of Judge Jeremiah S. Black practicing as a claims attorney in Washington, afterwards he also opened a law office in Martinsburg, W. Va., which, during the 70's, became his headquarters. Throughout this period he made repeated efforts to secure some kind of official appointment, but always without success, until finally, discouraged and in poor health, he moved to Denver, Colo., where he remained for nearly ten years practicing law, speculating in mining properties, and writing for the press.

In 1886 he returned to Washington and spent the rest of his life in writing and travel.