Archer, William B. (1792-1870) This Ohio-born man of agrarian aspirations would become one of the most important individuals in early nineteenth-century Illinois. In 1819 he was appointed the first County and Circuit Clerk of Clark County, IL. Colonel Archer also served in the Illinois General Assembly and the State Senate and was a commissioner of the Illinois and Michigan Canal for which he, spade in hand, personally broke ground July 4, 1836. Archer Avenue, which bears the colonel's name, follows the canal's path from Chicago to Lockport.