Radford, Reuben

b. 1803, in Virginia. In 1831, Radford became a Springfield, Illinois, merchant. Later that year he bought a store in New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln and Berry bought Radford’s New Salem stock from William Green in January 1833. In 1837, Radford successfully bid for the contract to demolish the old Sangamon County courthouse. Also in 1837, Radford received a contract to construct the railroad from Springfield, Illinois, to the Sangamon River. In 1849, he was awarded the contract to build the Caseyville-Illinoistown Railroad. In 1850, Radford made his living as a carpenter but owned no real estate. On January 1, 1851, he dissolved his partnership with William Mauzy.

Roy P. Basler et al., eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 1:15-16; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 25 January 1851, 3:1; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, Illinois), 29 December 1831, 3:4; Sangamo Journal, 1 July 1837, 2:5; Sangamo Journal, 11 November 1837, 2:1; Sangamo Journal, 24 December 1849, 3:2; Sangamon County, Illinois, Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; Benjamin P. Thomas, Lincoln’s New Salem (Springfield, IL: The Abraham Lincoln Association, 1934), 7, 61.