As Tazewell County approaches our Bicentennial in April of 2027, current Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman and former County Clerk Christie A. Webb will be honoring and recognizing the previous community leaders who held this position. The office of Tazewell County Clerk was the first Countywide Office established on April 10, 1827. Since then, only 22 individuals have served in this vital County Government position. Two of them were surgeons, two owned cigar companies, and one was a race car driver. The youngest elected was 22, while the oldest elected was 64. One later served in the State Legislature, while another was appointed Assistant Secretary of State, and five received numerous United States Presidential Appointments to positions within the Federal Government.

Starting today, each month on the 10th , as we approach the Bicentennial we will be placing a floral wreath from The Greenhouse Flower Shoppe in Pekin at the gravesite of these 22 individuals. Additionally, we will share the biographies and signatures of these county government leaders, thanks to the research to Susan Rynerson of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society. Please join us as we build momentum for the historic Tazewell County Bicentennial by honoring and recognizing these tremendous individuals.

This month we recognize the first Tazewell County Clerk, R. Mordecai Mobley, 1827-1828, of the Whig Political Party.

Richard Mordecai Mobley was born August 29, 1800, in what is now Wellsburg, West Virginia. At age 18, he moved through Shelbyville, Kentucky, into Jonesboro, Illinois, where he paused briefly in 1819 before moving on to Vandalia in 1821 when the town became the new Illinois State Capital. He then skated over to Springfield in 1823, where he finally settled, for a little while. He was married to Martha Stevenson (unknown-1874) on November 28th, 1824, in Sangamon County.

When Tazewell County was organized in 1827, Mordecai Mobley served as the first County Clerk as well as Circuit Clerk, Recorder of Deeds, Probate Judge, and Postmaster. He was 27 years old when appointed to serve the citizens of Tazewell County. Mordecai Mobley purchased one of the original lots sold for the new Village of Mackinaw on June 11th, 1827, bidding $45 for Lot 2, Block 6. The meetings of the Tazewell County Commissioners’ Court between July 1827 and March 1828 were held in the home of Mordecai Mobley in Mackinaw. Mordecai Mobley was a Land Auctioneer. He received the first keelboat load of goods ever delivered at Town Site (now called City of Pekin), most of which was moved on to Mackinaw, then the Tazewell County Seat.

He represented Sangamon County in the Illinois House from 1826-1827 and was on the Springfield Board of Trustees in 1832. In 1835, he served briefly as Sangamon County Circuit Clerk. He was also a Justice of the Peace. Mordecai and Martha (1801-1873) had at least seven children. Edward (1825-1905), John (1828-1896), William (1832-1863), Margaret Littleton (1834-1893), Mordecai (1837-?), Mary Elizabeth (1840-1850), and Richard (1844-1875). All five sons served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

In 1844 the family moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where he was in the banking industry until the panic of 1857. In 1849 he was appointed Receiver of Public Lands by President Zachary Taylor. In 1861 he moved to Washington D.C. where he was appointed Chief Clerk of Public Land by President Abraham Lincoln, and held that position until 1866 when he was appointed Pension Agent, and held that office two years when he was appointed Chief Clerk in the Land Department by President Ulysses Grant. He remained Chief Clerk till 1878 when he resigned from the office and returned to Dubuque to reside with his daughter.

Mordecai Mobley died on June 25, 1887, while in Washington D.C.. He was buried in Linwood Cemetery, Dubuque, where the whole family was interred except for two sons.

His obituary noted that “he was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and enjoyed his confidence in a high degree, and has letters now in his possession written to him by Abraham Lincoln after he was elected President.” The obituary continued, “There are very few men who have been more prominently identified with the affairs where he has resided for the past fifty years than Mordecai Mobley.”

The 1879 Chapman History of Tazewell County relates that story of the first marriage license issued by Mordecai Mobley as: “Mordecai Mobley, the first Tazewell County Clerk, happened at old Father Stout’s to stay all night. Mr. Stout lived about five miles from Mackinaw. Mr. Mobley says he noticed a boy and girl around, but thought they were brother and sister. Soon the ‘old gentleman’ called him aside and told him that, ‘that ar boy had comin’ to see my daughter for a long time,’ and that they wanted to get married. Mr. Mobley told him they had to get a license, and that he was the man to issue the license. Mr. Stout wanted the license immediately, so Mr. Mobley told them if they would get him pen and ink and paper he would write the license. An unmarked flyleaf of an old book was found providing the paper. Mr. Mobley told them to go and catch the largest chicken they had. This was done and a large feather pulled out of its wing and a pen made of it. Now all they needed was ink. Mr. Mobley took some water and gunpowder and made some writing fluid. Thus, on an old book page, with a pen made from a chicken feather, and with ink made from water and gunpowder, the first marriage license issued in Tazewell County was written. John Stout and Fanny Stout were married on the 25h of June, 1827, by Reverend William Brown.”