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 22 community leaders to have held this position. The office of Tazewell County Clerk was the first Countywide Office established on April 10, 1827.

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. This is the sixth in this series of twenty-two recognitions. 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 and Jared Olar of the Pekin Public Library. 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 Republican Tazewell County Clerk, William W. Clemens, 1865 – 1869, of the Republican Political Party.

William Wirt Clemens was born in Granby, Connecticut, to Allen and Catherine Stillman Clemens in 1837. He was living in Springfield, Illinois, in 1863 when he registered for the draft during the Civil War. By 1865 he was living in Pekin where he married Emily Wagenseller on May 9th, 1865. William had a daughter Carolyn (1861-1934) from a previous marriage. William and Emily had a daughter Catherine (1866-1951) and son Allen (1869-1940).

William Clemens served as Tazewell County Clerk from 1865 to 1869. The first Republican elected Tazewell County Clerk, he defeated Democrat incumbent John Gridley Sr with a vote total of 1878 to 1796. He also served as Pekin City Clerk and as secretary of the Soldiers Aide Society in 1864. He was 28 years old when elected Tazewell County Clerk.

The family left Pekin some time after the 1880 census and there seems to be no clue as to what became of him. His wife Emily turns up in Columbus, Ohio, in 1896 where their son Allen had been living. She is buried in Columbus with his family. Since we do not know of the location of William Clemens gravesite, the wreath has been placed at the entrance of the Tazewell County Courthouse.