Judge William A. Lemma, the present State’s Attorney of Jackson County,
Illinois, and one of the most prominent of the leading members of the legal
fraternity in the County, was born in Shawneetown, Illinois, on the 25th of
December, A.D. 1840. He is the second and youngest child of James Lemma,
formerly a citizen of Shawneetown. His father emigrated to this county from
Ireland a few years previous to the birth of his son James, and subsequently
returned to his native land and died. The Judge in his youthful days improved
the means of culture and education afforded by the common schools of the day,
and in 1854, entered Chappel Hill College, at Dangerfield, Texas, and availed
himself of the more ample and extended means of mental culture there afforded
him, which, as good seed in a fertile soil, were destined to yield an abundant
harvest in after days. The Judge returned to Illinois in 1856, and afterwards,
in 1858, he commenced the study of the law under the instructions of the able
and distinguished lawyer. Judge William J. Allen. His legal pursuits and studies
were suspended temporarily by the breaking out of the war of the great
rebellion, when, animated by the patriotic influence that fired the breasts of
multitudes of our brave young men, he enlisted under the banner of the Union, in
the fall of 1861, in company B of the 128th Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers,
and was appointed adjutant of the regiment. He was mustered in at Camp Butler,
at Springfield, Illinois, and thence he proceeded with his regiment to Cairo,
and thence to Columbus, Kentucky, and thence to Pochahontas, Tennessee. He was
appointed in command of a detachment of the 128th Regiment, which was afterwards
consolidated with the celebrated 9th Illinois Regiment. He shortly afterwards
resigned his connection with the regiment and connected himself with the
quartermaster’s department, at Columbus, Kentucky, where he remained until the
close of the war, after which he soon located himself in Carbondale, Illinois,
where he resumed his legal pursuits, and was admitted to the profession in 1867;
immediately he engaged in practice, and rapidly won for himself laurels of
professional honor and an honorable and prominent position at the county Bar, by
his gentlemanly deportment, affable disposition, genial manners, persistent
industry and assiduous attention to business.
In the same year (1867) of
his admission to the Bar he was elected Judge of the City Court of the City of
Carbondale, and in the fall of 1871, he was elected a member of the General
Assembly of the State of Illinois, on the Democratic ticket, and at the
expiration of this term was re-elected to the same honorable position. In the
winter of 1873 he was elected Mayor of the City of Carbondale, and was
re-elected again to the same position in 1874. In the fall of the year 1876 he
was elected State's Attorney for Jackson County, which important position he now
fills with eminent ability and the marked approbation of the citizens of his
native county. In politics Judge Lemma has always been an unswerving supporter
of the principles and policy of the Democratic party, and wields a potent
influence in the Democratic ranks of southern Illinois. The Judge is a member of
the Masonic fraternity.
As a judge, lawyer, politician, and private
citizen, William A. Lemma has won for himself a fair fame and an unblemished
reputation in this State, and has participated in many important legal contests
with an ability and genius that sheds lustre on the Bar of southern Illinois.
Extracted 06 Jul 2021 by Norma Hass from 1878 History of Jackson County, Illinois, page 80.