Richard Oglesby Monument (in Lincoln Park)

This sculpture honors Richard J. Oglesby (1824-1889), three-time Republican Governor of Illinois. Born in Kentucky, Oglesby moved to Decatur, Illinois where he was raised by his uncle. After studying law and a brief period of gold mining in the west, he became involved with politics in Illinois and was elected State Senator in 1860. Serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, he helped organize and fought with the 8th Illinois Infantry. At the end of the war, President Lincoln made Oglesby a Major General. He went on tobecome Governor of Illinois for three terms, and also served as a U.S. Senator from 1873 to 1878. Thirty years after his death in 1889, five prominent Chicagoans joined together to commission a monument of Oglesby. These individuals, John Barton Payne, J.S. Runnels, John W. Bunn, L.C. LaForce, and Martin B. Bailey hired Leonard Crunelle to create the sculpture. Mentored by Chicago’s preeminent sculptor, Lorado Taft, Crunelle produced several important outdoor works of art for Chicago including the fountain figures (now in Grant Park) and Victory, a memorial a regiment of African-American soldiers who fought in World War I (located on Martin Luther King Drive). Crunelle presented Oglesby in a humanistic portrayal-- the ten foot bronze figure is depicted holding a hat and coat. The 1919 sculpture is made more prominent by its location on top of Mount Prospect—a hill composed of the earth that was excavated when North Pond dredged in the nineteenth century.