b. January 18, 1833, in Mt. Airy, North Carolina; d. 1904, in Hollywood, California. Somers came to Urbana, Illinois, as a child with his family. He studied law in the office of his uncle, William D. Somers, with whom he became a law partner after being admitted to the bar in 1856. Originally a Whig, Somers helped to organize the state Republican party and actively campaigned for both Fremont in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and 1860. In 1861, President Lincoln appointed Somers to a position in the Department of the Interior, in which he would work for many years.