West Cemetery

Colonel Asa Carrington Matthews was born in Perry, Illinois, in 1833. He was the son of Benjamin Leach and Minerva Carrington Matthews. Asa attended McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois and after graduating studied law and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1856. On October 5, 1858, Asa married the daughter of Col. Wm Ross Anna Edna Ross.

In 1862 Asa began to recruit men that would become Company C of the 99th Illinois Infantry and Asa would be elected captain of the company. He rose through the ranks over the course of the war to Colonel. At the end of the war, he was selected by the War Department to accept the surrender of Confederate General Kirby Smith. Matthews was also sent into Indian Territory to negotiate the surrender of Confederate Cherokee and Choctaw Indians who had fought on the side of the south.

After the war Colonel Matthews returned to Pittsfield and his law practice. In the years that followed Asa held several important political positions. He served as Collector of Internal Revenue for the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Elected three times to the Illinois Legislature along with serving as Speaker of 36th Illinois General Assembly. He was appointed the first United States Comptroller by President Harrison. Along with the many political appointments he was highly active in veteran affairs. Asa served on the Vicksburg Commission whose task was to erect a monument on the Vicksburg National Military Park in memory of all the Illinois soldiers who fought at Vicksburg. Asa Carrington Matthews died on June 4, 1908, and was laid to rest in West Cemetery, Pittsfield, Pike, Illinois.

Colonel William Ross was born in Monson, Massachusetts, April 24, 1792, where he resided until the age of 13, when his father, Micah Ross, moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

In 1820, Colonel Ross and his three brothers, Leonard, Henry, and Clarendon, moved to the Midwest, settling in an area on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, which Colonel Ross named “Atlas,” a derivative from the words “At last.” Atlas became the first county seat of what is now Pike County. But in 1833 the Illinois State Legislature passed a law stating that all county seats must be centrally located within said county. This resulted in the formation of a committee to locate more centrally located property in Pike County for the new county seat. Land was found at the cost of $200.00 but the committee had zero funds. Col. Ross then agreed to give the $200.00 for the purchase of the land. to show they’re thanks to Col. Ross the committee gave him the privilege of naming the new county seat. Ross chose Pittsfield after his hometown in Massachusetts.

In 1832, Colonel Ross fought beside Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hawk War, and he became politically prominent and in 1860 Ross was one of eleven delegates from Pike County that voted for Abraham Lincoln at the Illinois Republican Nominating Convention. During Colonel Ross’s life, he raised and shipped beef, owned three riverboats, a flour mill, and a general store. Served as postmaster, founded the first bank, and was instrumental in founding the Republican Party.

On September 30, 1858, Abraham Lincoln spent the night at Colonel Ross’s stately home on the east edge of Pittsfield. The next day Lincoln spoke for two hours on the town square.

Colonel Ross died May 31, 1873, in Pittsfield. His remains were laid to rest at West Cemetery, Pittsfield, Pike, Illinois.

Dr. Thomas Worthington was born in Anderson County, Tennessee on June 11, 1808. He was the son of James and Lettice Tunnell Worthington. He first came west to Pike County in 1833. That same year he enrolled in the Medical College of Ohio located in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Upon his graduation Worthington returned to Pike County where he remained the rest of his life. He was a fine physician well liked for his bedside manners and caring of his patients. He was one of the first doctors that encouraged other doctors to stop the practice of bleeding their patients to treat them for illness. Worthington was one of the earliest physicians to develop and use traction on patients with severe broken limbs. One of his most famous cases involved a young boy by the name of Jefferson Kinman who was run over by a loaded wagon causing a severe crushing injury to his arm and leg on one side of his body.

After examining young Kinman’s injuries Worthington wanted to amputate but the boy’s father refused. Worthington dressed the wounds and left. Checking in on the boy the next day he discovered that both the leg and arm were drawn up in an unnatural way. Rigging up a series of weights attached to the boy’s limbs Worthington was able to extend the limbs to their normal lengths. In time the boy healed with little or no effect of the injuries. As an adult Thomas Jefferson Kinman would enlist and rise to the rank of Lieutenant in the 99th Illinois Infantry were he would be killed in the charge on May 22, 1863, at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Worthington had apprentices that worked with him like John Thompson Hodgen. After completing his medical training Hodgen became an assistant resident physician at St Louis City Hospital. Later he worked as demonstrator of anatomy at the University of Missouri. During the Civil War Hodgen worked as a surgeon and as Surgeon General of Missouri.

Worthington’s knowledge and inventiveness must have influenced Hodgen. In his lifetime and career Hodgen is credited with inventing traction devices, splints, a double-action syringe, and a stomach pump. He invented the Hodgen brace, a splint used to set broken femur bones. This device is still in use today.

Worthington’s practice continued to grow he began to purchase tracts of land throughout Pike County. To supplement his income, he became a stockman raising cattle, horses, hogs, and all other types of stock.

Thomas Worthington was a strong Whig in his political views. In 1842 he ran for state senate and won. It was said that his stump speeches were delivered with force, vigor and to the point. While serving in the state senate he is credited with helping pass the Two Mill Tax and the Free School Tax bills. Worthington ran for reelection in 1846 but was defeated by 203 votes.

Worthington was even allowed to come before the Illinois Supreme Court to argue that the taxation of land and the note given in payment was unjust taxation. His argument was heard and raised much commendation. In the end the court found against Worthington.

At the age of forty Worthington found himself feeling ill to the point that he had to pass his daily affairs and practice to others. Within a few years his health had improved but he chose not to return to his past interests. Instead, he became interested in geology and the glacial period. Worthington became so involved in his new interest that he traveled all over the country in its pursuit. He took extensive notes on his findings.

Along with geology Worthington was a devout Christian and spent hours studying the Bible. He died after suffering from illness for only two days on November 14, 1888, and was laid to rest in West Cemetery, Pittsfield, Pike, Illinois.

Charles Roger Lame was born on November 27, 1820, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Joseph and Sarah Lame. Charles and his sibling William and Amanda were baptized on April 26, 1830, at the Old St George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On May 11, 1841, Charles married Elizabeth Reed Whartnabey in Philadelphia.

In 1836 the family traveled west settling in Alton, Illinois before returning east. Charles once again moved west in 1842 settling in Barry, Pike County, Illinois for about two years at which time he moved to Pittsfield, the county seat of Pike County.

Lame was a former Whig Party member who turned Republican and had strong beliefs regarding the expansion of slavery into the free territories. He was a Mason and secretary of Pittsfield Lodge No. 56, A.F. & A.M. Charles was a builder and contractor by trade, building many of the homes and businesses in Pittsfield. Lame belonged to the Congregational church in Pittsfield which he had helped build.

Charles Lame was a dear friend of Abraham Lincoln. On October 1, 1858, Lincoln was in Pittsfield campaigning for a seat in the Senate against Stephen Douglas. In preparation of Lincolns arrival Robert Caldwell Scanland and Charles Lame were practice firing a campaign cannon which was a tradition of the day. The two men had fired one shot from the cannon and were in the process of loading the second shot. While Lame swabbed the barrel and carefully rammed the powder charge and wadding, Scanland filled the vent with powder and then covered the vent with his hand. This was done to prevent air from getting into the barrel and feeding any hot amber that might be left which could cause the gun to fire prematurely. As Scanland placed his hand over the vent hole of the barrel, he was met with extreme heat which caused him to jerk his hand away. Scanland’s actions caused sparks to fall from the torch he was holding which ignited the powder in the vent hole causing the cannon to fire before Lame had removed the ramrod and stepped back. This resulted in Lame’s face being burned and his arm badly mangled by the ramrod. The ramrod flew a block away lodging itself into a tree on Piper Lane.

Lame was taken to his home on Fayette Street and local physician Dr. Joseph H. Ledlie was called. Ledlie had wanted to amputate Charles Lame’s arm, but he decided against it. Over the next few days Lame developed a fever due to infection in his wounds causing Dr. Ledlie to believe that Lame would die from his wounds.

The room that Lame laid in did not have screens on the open windows. This allowed houseflies to enter the home and lay their eggs in the wounds of Lame’s arm resulting in the hatching of maggots. Dr. Ledlie did not remove the maggots because they were cleaning the wound of dead and infected tissue. Over time Lame’s fever went down and he fully recovered.

Charles Rodger Lame continued to support Lincoln and run his furniture and undertaking business until his death at age sixty-seven. He is buried in West Cemetery, Pittsfield, Pike, Illinois.