Logan County IL Archives History - Books .....Abraham Lincoln And Atlanta 1953 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 31, 2007, 12:33 am Book Title: A History Of Atlanta ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND ATLANTA Abraham Lincoln was well known to several of Atlanta's pioneer families. Some of the earliest contacts were the friendships formed during the years when Lincoln was a circuit riding lawyer, travelling the stage road between Bloomington and Springfield. The course of that portion of the stage road which passed through Atlanta Township was recorded, in detail, by the late John L. Bevan, for many years an Atlanta attorney, in a letter written March 15, 1917 to Judge Lawrence B. Stringer. The road entered Atlanta Township at a point near Gordon's bridge, almost due south of the east boundary of the city of Atlanta. It ran in a northeasterly direction, crossing Clear Creek, a branch of Kickapoo, near the Roach Cemetery. The road continued north from this point, across the fields, until it emerged at the location of the Lincoln memorial marker on the east west road which is the north boundary of Atlanta Township. Bevan wrote that the old road bed could be seen part of the way and that he thought the old trail could be followed its entire length. He remembered, too, having seen stages passing on the old road just south of where New Castle was then located. It was on the old stage road that Samuel Hoblit built the two story house in which he often entertained Abraham Lincoln, David Davis, Judge Treat and others equally well known, when on their way to and from Bloomington and Springfield. The house was situated west of the stage road, just north of the Roach Cemetery, and a little south of the road running east from the north edge of the City of Atlanta. The house stood until 1942, when it was torn down. Illinois was divided then, as it is now, into judicial districts. Each was presided over by a judge, who traveled from one county-seat to another within his jurisdiction. At this time there were only nine judicial districts; consequently each district comprised a much larger area than do those of today. The judge was accompanied on his rounds by members of the local bar. The custom of riding a circuit was a necessity for a lawyer in those early periods since there was not enough legal business in any one of the small communities to support a lawyer. Later, during Lincoln's second partnership with Herndon, however, the work was not a matter of necessity but of choice. Lincoln liked the freedom of the road. He made friends at every place he stopped and had a close acquaintance with men of all sorts. SPEECH IN ARMINGTON'S HALL Emmanuel Hertz in his "The Hidden Lincoln" quotes from a letter written by William H. Herndon to Jesse W. Weik, dated Springfield, Illinois, November 22, 1888. "Dave Littler tells me this additional story. During some of the political canvasses, the people in Logan County, Illinois, just north of this county and adjoining it, had determined to have a large meeting, a grand rally, and had appointed the day and the hour. When the day and the hour arrived, the heavens opened up with a terrific storm; it blew in hurricanes and rained in torrents. Only about twenty persons appeared. Lincoln had felt this sting of disappointment and therefore he did not wish others to be disappointed. After some reflection he said: Boys, the day is bad, too bad for many people to appear here to hear me speak, but as you have dared the storm to hear a speech, you shall not be disappointed. Come, let us go over to Armington's Hall and I'll give you a talk such as I have." The twenty went over to the hall and Littler, telling Herndon of the speech said that it was cool, dispassionate and learned. In a note added at the end of his letter Herndon wrote: "The place, village, at which the speech was made was Atlanta, Logan County, Illinois." It seems probable that Armington's Hall was the three-story brick building referred to in the June 19, 1856 issue of the Logan County Forum, now in the possession of P. A. Crihfield of Atlanta. It was built by H. Armington and is thought to have been located where the Argus Office is now. This visit to Atlanta was made in 1856, during the Freemont-Buchanan campaign. PRACTICING THE FREEPORT SPEECH During Lincoln's campaign for the United States Senate in 1858 he stumped Illinois in a series of debates with his Democratic opponent, Stephen A. Douglas. At this time Lincoln was Counselor for Richard T. Gill, who had laid out the town of Atlanta. On August 26, 1858, the day before his famous Freeport speech, Lincoln stopped in Atlanta to advise Gill concerning some legal matters. The late Dr. G. M. Angell, long a practicing physician in Atlanta, related the following to the late Roy H. Crihfield: "Gill then owned a large frame building, the first floor of which was filled with a stock of merchandise. I had an office on the second floor in front, while back of my rooms was an apartment, which Gill and his partners used as a private consulting room. When Lincoln had transacted his business with Gill, he asked if there was any quiet place where he could go so as not to be disturbed, for an hour or two, and said that he had to make a speech at Freeport the next day and wanted to think over what he was going to say. Gill took him to the consulting room, back of my office. A little later I heard a voice, in a vigorous tone, begin 'Judge Douglas says' and then followed a speech to an imaginary audience. Gill came quietly up the stairway and whispered, 'Listen to Lincoln, he's practicing his Freeport speech.' Gill and I both listened to him a while. When a few days later we secured a printed account of the great debate at Freeport, between Lincoln Lincoln had delivered in Gill’s back room in Atlanta." James Hart, formerly of Atlanta, now of the Bloomington Pantagraph, has a letter from C. W. Gill, dated March 10, 1941, in which he writes that he remembers that his father and those who helped in the store told of Lincoln's rehearsing his speech in the room over the store, his tramping back and forth and talking in a loud voice which could be heard downstairs. THE JULY 4, 1859 CELEBRATION Atlanta citizens decided to celebrate the anniversary of the nation's birth on July 4, 1859. A committee was appointed to secure a speaker for the day. Rev. E. J. Thomas, chairman of the committee, wrote to Lincoln asking him to come and speak on the occasion. Lincoln replied that he was not good as a speaker for such an occasion and recommended James H. Matheny of Springfield, who, he said, could make a good Fourth of July speech and added that if Matheny agreed to come he would come with him. Matheny agreed to speak. He came and Lincoln came with him. The meeting was held at Turner's Grove, located on the property adjoining the Atlanta Cemetery on the east and south. Rev. Thomas, in recalling the occasion said that the day was cold and raw and that there was a heavy frost. Paul M. Angle in his "Lincoln 1854-1861, Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abraham Lincoln from January 1, 1854 to March 4, 1861" writes "Monday, July 4, 1859 ATLANTA. Lincoln attends a Fourth of July rally." Angle quotes briefly from the Illinois State Journal write-up of the celebration. The Lincoln Herald of July 6, 1859 had this to say of the event: "The booming of cannon opened the day. A vast crowd from the country thronged the streets early. At ten o'clock, a procession was formed and started for Turner's Grove, one mile distant, and we are informed that when the head of the procession had reached the grove, the people were still forming at the rear in Atlanta." There was music by the Atlanta Band and the Atlanta Glee Club. Rev. Thomas made an opening prayer, Dr. William T. Kirk, a local physician, read the Declaration of Independence and James H. Matheny made the Fourth of July speech. After Matheny's address, Sylvester Strong stepped forward and with a few words presented a cane to Lincoln, who up to this time had taken no part in the exercises. Lincoln responded briefly with well chosen words. Judge Stringer stated that the editor of the Lincoln Herald, Mr. Dake, was present on the occasion and that he probably wrote the following item which was published in the July 6, 1859 issue: "The cane is of South American orangewood, topped with North American Buckthorn. It has a silver plate on top, bearing the words, 'Presented by S. Strong.' Strong and Lincoln are said to have become acquainted early in life, when each broke prairie, somewhere below Springfield. Upon a silver band, below the middle of the cane, is the first letter of Lincoln's name, and thence downward there is a knot for every other letter of his name, covered with a silver plate and inscribed with its appropriate letter. The silver plate work was executed by Dr. Perkins and the engraving by H. O. Rodgers, both of Atlanta." Dr. George R. Perkins was an Atlanta dentist whose address as given in the 1856 directory as the Logan House. Mrs. Anna Strong Forgy, granddaughter of Sylvester Strong, telling the story as she had heard it repeated many times, said: "Grandpa with his cane sat on the platform with the speakers, and he was so impatient to give Mr. Lincoln the cane that he hardly waited until the last words were said." Mrs. Forgy said also that after Lincoln's death, she wrote to Mrs. Lincoln, asking about the cane. Mrs. Lincoln wrote that it had been given to a cousin and that she did not know where it was. It is not known where the cane is now but it is thought to be in a collection of Lincolniana in the east. After the Fourth of July program Lincoln walked with Strong across the field to the Strong home about a mile south of Atlanta, due south of the Atlanta fair grounds. The house is situated in the pasture, about fifty rods south of the east-west road. In the course of the conversation Strong told Lincoln that he did not have a picture of him. Lincoln replied, "Why is that? I will send you one when I go back home." Soon afterward Strong received the picture. It was a small ambrotype believed to have been taken by Preston Butler in Springfield in 1858. The picture was borrowed in the early 1890s by Alfred Montgomery, an Atlanta resident quite well known in this vicinity for his paintings of corn. He sent it to Ida M. Tarbell whose life of Lincoln was being published serially in McClure's Magazine. A full page reproduction of the picture appeared in the March, 1896 issue. The picture appears as No. 17 in the 1944 copy of "Photographs of A. Lincoln" Frederick Hill Meserve and Carl Sandburg. All trace of this ambrotype appears to have been lost. In the evening of the day of the celebration an ice cream with entertainment was held at the Congregational Church, at the corner of Elm and Fifth Streets, now the location of the house purchased by School District No. 20 to be the residence of the superintendent of schools. The ladies of the church had .planned the social for the purpose of obtaining money to purchase pews for the new church building which had just been, completed. Both Lincoln and Matheny attended. During the evening James Wren, a local baker, came forward to present to Lincoln a cake he had baked for the occasion. He became embarrassed and stood before Lincoln, holding out the cake, unable to utter a word of the speech he had carefully planned. The situation became an embarrassing one, the speechless baker holding the cake before Lincoln, and apparently rooted to the spot. Lincoln relieved the tenseness by saying to the group, "Well, I'm not as hungry as I look." Everyone laughed, including the baker. Lincoln thanked the baker, turned around and presented the cake to the ladies of the church. It was then sold at auction. Rev. Thomas bought it. In the fall of 1859 Lincoln accepted an invitation from Gov. Chase of Ohio to make a speech in Columbus. He asked Strong to accompany him and he went. Lincoln took the cane with him on this trip. When the news reached Atlanta that on May 18, 1860 the Republican National convention had nominated Abraham Lincoln for president of the United States there was an enthusiastic celebration. Cannons were brought out and thirty-three rounds of ammunition were fired in honor of the event. An organization of Lincoln "Wide-awakes" was formed in Atlanta on June 22, 1860 to aid in the election of Lincoln and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin. A large banner of five feet ten inches long and four feet ten inches wide was prepared by two local men, Reuben D. Neal and R. N. Lawrance, to be carried in the Wide-awake parades. Neal was a photographer and painter; Lawrance worked for him. On the left side of the banner is the finely sketched likeness of Lincoln; on the right is Hamlin, U. S. senator from Maine at the time of his nomination as candidate for the vice-presidency. The campaign symbols of the "Railsplitter" candidate, the axe, maul and wedge are clearly seen on the banner and the slogan, "THE NATION'S CHOICE" appears near the bottom of the banner. Other banners were made to be used in the campaign but this one seems to be the only one having the likenesses of both candidates. It is said to have been placed at the head of the parade at the monster rally at Springfield, August 8, 1860 which closed the campaign. After the election of Lincoln, Lawrance removed the banner from its stretcher and carefully preserved it. After service in the Civil War Lawrance studied dentistry and after practicing elsewhere for several years eventually opened an office in Lincoln. His son, Dr. E. P. Lawrance, also a dentist later shared his office, and after the father's death continued to practice there. About three years ago the banner, faded and brown with the dust and decay of ninety years was restored and framed. The breaks in the coarse cloth on which the picture was made are visible but it is generally agreed that a good job was done restoring it. Dr. E. P. Lawrance presented the banner to Lincoln College at the time of their commencement in June, 1950. It now hangs on the north wall of the Lincoln Room of Lincoln College. THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN When the news of the death of President Lincoln on April 15, 1865 reached Atlanta the horror and gloom which prevailed over the nation were felt here. But there were, in addition, the grief and sorrow which follow the loss of a personal friend. The funeral car, bearing the body of Lincoln from Washington to Springfield reached Atlanta early on the morning of May 3, 1865. A large number of people had assembled and the train was met with muffled drum and portraits of Lincoln with emblems of mourning. These memories of Lincoln, told and retold many times, are an important Atlanta heritage. The early settlers shared the sturdiness and self-reliance which were characteristic of Lincoln. These stern qualities are the background from which Atlanta has grown. Additional Comments: Extracted from: A HISTORY OF ATLANTA 1853-1953 Prepared by Citizens of Atlanta As a Part of the Observance of the Centennial, June 11,12 and 13,1953 THE PUBLICATION IS SPONSORED BY THE ATLANTA WOMAN'S CLUB Atlanta, Illinois 1953 Published By The Stewart - Pinks Publishing Co. Atlanta, Illinois File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/logan/history/1953/ahistory/abrahaml50gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 15.7 Kb