Breese, Sidney Monument

Sidney Breese, of Welsh ancestry from Salop, Wales, was born in 1800 in Whitesboro, New York, the son of Arthur Breese and Catherine Livingston, who was the daughter of Major Henry Beekman Livingston, (argued by poetry scholars to be the true author of "The Night Before Christmas", not as attributed to Clement C Moore) and a member of the Livingston family, descendants of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland 1274-1329
His brother was Rear Admiral Samuel Livingston Breese, and he was a cousin of Samuel Finley Breese Morse (Artist and inventor of the Morse code and telegraph system)
**Breese [is said to have]partied with Marquis de La Fayette in Kaskaskia, Illinois at Colonel Sweet's Tavern on April 30, 1825 during the 50th Anniversary visit by Lafayette celebrating the spirit of 1776 in his year-long tour of the 24 states**

U.S. Senator from Illinois
Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives
A Forefather of Illinois,
Father of the Illinois Central Railroad
"He who sleeps beneath this stone projected the Illinois Central Railroad."
Section A 12 4
Photo by Marilyn Wilken/Luebbers Morrison