Hugh Carroll, Fayette County

Hugh Carroll was sent to Vandalia in 1860 with the Brown brothers who were so successful in Vandalia. In 1855 Hugh Carroll had been a poor boy in the House of Refuge on Randall's Island.

Born in New York in 1849, he wasn't really old enough to enlist in the Civil War but he did in May of 1864. He enlisted in the 143rd Infantry in Mattoon and was discharged in September of that year at the same place. He was blond and blue eyed and stood only five feet and one inch. He was working as a farm laborer when he enlisted and continued in that work until about 1880. He was also teaching school according to some reports, so he had been able to advance his education enough to obtain a teaching certificate. He went to Bloomington Illinois some time around or before 1879 with his good friend J J Brown, and they attended law school there, graduating in 1881. There were some bumps along the road to his law practice and it was reported in May 1881 that:

This problem must have been ironed out because later the same year Carroll was seeking a place to practice with J J Brown. They both continued to live and practice law in Vandalia.

Hugh married Lillie Aurora Washburn in Marion Illinois in June of 1882. She had been the principal of the West Side School in Centralia Illinois. They had just one daughter, Mary Elvira. Hugh's life was cut short by The White Death, tuberculosis, on May 30 1885. His wife remarried two years after his death. Mary Elvira married but never had children.