The New Student's Reference Work/Yates, Richard

Yates, Richard, was born at Warsaw, Ky., Jan. 18, 1818, and after graduating at Illinois College studied law and was admitted to the bar. He served a number of terms in the Illinois legislature, and during the Civil War was governor, a position in which he won an enviable reputation for zeal and patriotism as well as for vigor and efficiency in organizing and equipping troops. So great was his popularity with the people, among whom he was familiarly known as "Dick" Yates, that, as soon as his term as governor expired, he was chosen to a seat in the United States senate, which he filled till March 4, 1871. He died at St. Louis, Nov. 27, 1873.