A collection of material related to the Waller family of Kentucky and Henry Waller, American lawyer, politician, and businessman.

Henry Waller (1810-1893) was a lawyer, politician, and businessman, born in Frankfort, Kentucky. He graduated from West Point in 1833, then resigned from the army to pursue legal studies; he practiced law in Maysville, Kentucky. In 1841, he was elected, as a Whig, to the state legislature and retained his seat until 1847. In 1837, he married Sarah Bell Langhorne and together they had 10 children. The Wallers lived in Maysville until Henry Waller moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1855 and his family followed him in 1860. He continued to practice law until 1867, as well as heavily investing in real estate there. In 1876, he was appointed master in chancery. Like his brother James Breckenridge Waller (1817-1887) Henry Waller was a Democrat, known for his political speeches. During the Civil War, Sarah Langhorne Waller organized charitable works and donations to the Confederate prisoners confined at Camp Douglas. In May 1863, William W. Waller, Jr. (1838-1874) the eldest son of Henry and Sarah Waller, was arrested by the Union authorities in Kentucky for recruiting within federal lines; until the end of the Civil War, he was imprisoned at Johnson's Island. Maurice Waller (1840-1916) became a Presbyterian minister and served in Petersburg, Illinois, Helena, Arkansas, and Manchester, Ohio. Henry Waller, Jr. (1844-) and Edward C. Waller (1845-1931) went into the real estate business in the Chicago area. Edward C. Waller was known for his development of a suburban home division in River Forest. John Duke Waller (1852-) was a physician who, in the late 1870s, worked at the Illinois Central Hospital for the Insane in Jacksonville, Illinois.

11.7 Linear Feet (29 boxes, 1 oversize folder)

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