Lawyer Harriot's home and office site

This was the location of the home and law office of James Harriott, who came to Pekin in 1849 from Jersey County, Illinois. Harriott later was elected a judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit in 1857 and was reelected judge in 1861. As a Pekin attorney and Justice of the Peace, Harriott had dealing with Abraham Lincoln. For example, Harriott was Justice of the Peace in the 1853 case of People v. Thomas Delny, which Lincoln prosecuted as Tazewell County State's Attorney pro tempore.

The accompanying illustration, from an 1877 aerial depiction of Pekin, shows the building (at the center of the image) in which Harriott had his home and office.