Lincoln in Champaign County

Historical notes by Guy Fraker

Champaign County was part of the Eighth Judicial Circuit from 1841 to 1861, the year Abraham Lincoln went to Washington. The Circuit was Lincoln’s home away from home. At its largest, from 1847 to 1853, the Circuit included fourteen counties running from the Illinois River to the Indiana line and from Shelbyville to Metamora. The Circuit Court held sessions in each county, spring and fall, in consecutive weeks and the lawyers would travel from county to county following the circuit judge. The trip took approximately eleven weeks and was approximately 400 miles. The roads varied in quality from vague tracks to more established ways. Initially there were no bridges, so the streams had to be forded or even swum, a fairly treacherous business during the floods of spring.

ON THE ROAD

The Champaign County section of the Circuit was in the middle of this two-month trek and saw the intrepid lawyers coming from Clinton then Monticello, to Urbana, then on to Danville and south to Paris before heading back west.

The traveling lawyers often had to overnight between towns, sometimes in the occasional farmsteads along their way, sometimes in primitive taverns. One of these is Kelley’s Tavern which was located in Old St. Joseph, south of the present town, east of the river and north of the old state road where it crosses Salt Fork. Built in the early 1830’s by Cyrus Strong, the tavern was split log with four rooms when first built. The river was crossed by a ford when the water was low and a ferry when it was high. A bridge was built in 1837 for $426, but high water swept it away within a year.

Joseph Kelley, born in Virginia in 1802, arrived from the vicinity of the namesake Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio in March of 1831 and became the proprietor of the tavern from 1849 to 1864. It served as the post office – named for Kelley by a passing patron of the tavern with influence over the Postal Service in Washington, D.C. Champaign County attorney Henry Clay Whitney recalled first meeting Abraham Lincoln, David Davis, Bloomington attorney Leonard Swett, and David Campbell, the State’s attorney for the Circuit at the tavern on June 3, 1854, traveling in a two-seated open spring wagon.

Another tavern where Lincoln is said to have stayed on occasion between 1853 and 1856 was Mahomet’s “Nine Girl Tavern” allegedly so named because one of the proprietors had nine red-headed daughters. The tavern was a rambling two-story house, south of the road, located east of the point at which the Bloomington road, now Route 150, crossed the Sangamon. The ford is today marked by an old trestle north of the highway.

Lincoln was the only lawyer who traveled the entire Circuit and who stayed out the entire time, seldom returning to Springfield. As a consequence he became a part of the communities, forming close and important friendships and associations. Champaign County was no exception. Like the other settlements of the Circuit, it grew and prospered as Lincoln grew and prospered.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS

The first settlements in Champaign County were in its groves, islands of large hardwoods in the vast prairies. The county’s largest was Big Grove, which consisted of several thousand acres just north of present day Urbana. Crystal Lake Park has remnants of the great oaks that constituted the Grove. The county’s first settler, Runnel Fielder settled northeast of Urbana in 1822 and a sparse settlement followed in the north end of the Grove. Shortly after Fielder’s arrival, William Tompkins, the first settler in present day Urbana, built a cabin on the Boneyard near where Race Street now crosses the creek. Tompkins in turn sold out to Isaac Busey, one of the Urbana’s founders. The Boneyard was so named because the banks were occupied by Indians who left piles of bones from their hunts.

There were also early settlements on the Salt Fork Timber south of present day St. Joseph and on the Sangamon Timber at present day Mahomet. Settlement was still quite sparse when the county was formed in 1833, sliced off what was known as the, “attached part of Vermilion County.” Senator John W. Vance from just west of Danville authored the bill creating the county. It called for an election to be held the following April to select three commissioners who in turn were to choose the county seat.

There was no organized town or even a sizeable population center in the county, the total population of the county being only 500 to 1,000 people. The most centrally located population was the north end of Big Grove; however after the three commissioners spent the night at the home of Isaac Busey, south of the Grove, they chose that area as the county seat, Urbana. The landowners who influenced the controversial decision by donating the land for public buildings included Isaac and his brother Matthew Busey, William T. Webber, and his son Thomson R. Webber.

The original platted town ran from Water Street on the north to Green on the south, and Vine on the east to Race on the west. This shows on Main Street which follows the curved path of the historic Bloomington Road entering the downtown from the east and leaving to the west, differing from the straight streets of the plat. Springfield Avenue likewise reflects its historic path west of the downtown. Lots were sold by the county in April of 1834 and because of limited success with the first sale, again in July of 1835.

LINCOLN COMES TO URBANA’S EARLY COURTHOUSES

Lincoln’s first visit to Urbana was for its three day court session commencing on May 10, 1841, four years after his admission to the Bar. The Urbana that Lincoln first saw was fairly primitive – mud streets with livestock running through the town and a population of less than 500. It had no resident lawyers then. William Somers gave up his medical practice to become Urbana’s first lawyer in 1846 under the mentoring of David Davis of Bloomington.

That May, 1841 session was the first held in Urbana’s second courthouse, built in 1840 for $340. It replaced a primitive log structure, built to temporarily house the courts in 1836, court having been held in settler’s homes prior to that. It was located on the town’s original courthouse square. The current courthouse spans two blocks originally divided by Walnut Street. The older portion stands on that original square. The second was of frame construction, 40’ x 26’ with a 26’ long courtroom. It was built by Moses D. Harvey who built many of Urbana’s early buildings. Harvey was a friend of Lincoln’s and entertained him for dinner in June of 1846. That courthouse stood until 1848 when a more imposing building was constructed of brick, two stories with a bell tower. It was built by E. O. Smith of Decatur at a cost of $2,744, with the courtroom on the second floor. Smith was a friend of Lincoln’s and wrote him from Urbana during the construction on June 16, 1849 regarding a political appointment Lincoln was seeking. This building figured prominently in Lincoln’s political and legal career.

The first courthouse was moved to the northeast corner of the vacated Walnut and Main where the courthouse addition now stands. It was moved by Asahel Bruer, who added clapboard and opened the Urbana House where Lincoln and the other lawyers frequently stayed. As the town grew, additions were added to the hotel and it became the Pennsylvania House which was operated by Samuel Waters, whose descendants still live in the community. Moses Harvey notes in his account book on May 12, 1851, “Seen Abe Lincoln run a foot race with Samuel Waters from Mane St. to Walnut St. in front of the courthouse. Abe beat.” This story of Lincoln’s athletic prowess is consistent with similar incidents in other towns of the Circuit. The incident was featured for many years on the menu of the Urbana Lincoln Hotel.

EARLY SETTLERS

Thomson R. Webber and John Gere were early Urbana residents close to Lincoln whose descendants still live in Urbana. Webber was born in 1807 in Shelby County Kentucky. He came in 1833, to land already purchased by his father, William T. Webber. He operated Urbana’s first store and was appointed postmaster by Andrew Jackson. He remained a staunch Democrat his entire life. When the county was organized, he became County Clerk, a position he held for twenty years. He served as Circuit Clerk for twenty-seven years. In 1848 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention which rewrote the state’s original Constitution. He was a close personal friend of David Davis and Lincoln. There are several notes by President Lincoln endorsing Webber for paymaster of volunteers during the Civil War. On August 28, 1862 Lincoln sent a note to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, “I personally know Thomson R. Webber of Illinois to be an honest and capable man having for a long time been Clerk of the courts in which I practiced.”

John Gere was born in Vermont in 1811 and came to Urbana in 1847 where he was a prominent businessman for nearly 40 years. His brothers Asa and Lyman ran the hotel that was known as the Gere House and then the American House. It was located on the north side of Main Street a block west of the courthouse. Lincoln and the traveling entourage frequently stayed there. The Urbana Free Library owns a page from the guest register of the American House for June 3, 1855 with, “David Davis, Bloomington, Illinois,” “A. Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois,” and “Henry Clay Whitney, West Urbana, Illinois” registered as guests.

Lyman’s son Asa recalled knowing Davis, Stephen A. Douglas, and Lincoln as a child. He remembered sitting on Lincoln’s lap and being advised by him on choosing his life’s work. As a child he walked out into the country with Lincoln when they encountered a team of oxen stubbornly refusing to perform. Lincoln recalled a method of motivating oxen by tying knots in their tails. It worked, the riled cattle suddenly turned, knocking Lincoln into the ditch.

Henry M. Russell, whose mother was a Gere, came to Urbana in 1847 and went to work in the hotel attending the fires in the rooms, bringing water and other items as needed and waiting tables. He remembered all the renowned lawyers of the Circuit who stayed at the hotel and remembered Lincoln particularly for his unique friendliness. Russell eventually became a stagecoach driver for the Gere’s. Russell married the daughter of Samuel Waters and ultimately became a prominent Urbana businessman, the first President of the Board of the Urbana Free Library.

Henry Clay Whitney describes the hotel: “This primitive hostelry had three front entrances from the street, but not a single hall downstairs. One of these entrances led directly into the ladies parlor and from it an entrance was obtained to the dining room and also from another corner a flight of stairs conducted us to our room. Close by the front and dining room doors was kept a gong which our vulgar boniface was wont to beat vigorously, as a prelude to meals; he standing in the doorway immediately into our windows; and thereby causing us great annoyance.” One day the innkeeper, by then John Dunaway, was very upset because the gong was missing. When Whitney got back to the room he was sharing with Lincoln and Davis, he learned that Lincoln had hidden the offending implement. Judge Davis urged Lincoln to replace the gong which he did while Whitney held the door, so Lincoln’s role in the crime wouldn’t be discovered.

William H. Somers, a staunch Republican who was elected Circuit Clerk in 1856, recalled the regular entertaining evenings in the judge’s room where the lawyers, allowed by Davis, gathered to wile away the evenings with stories and horse plays. He remembered an incident where Judge Davis, with his wide girth, stood before the fireplace in his room presiding over the evening’s entertainment. John Moses, a slight balding lawyer, bent over and ran at Davis full speed head butting him in the midriff as the rest of those gathered convulsed in laughter. Davis finally collapsed on his bed in self defense against the repeated assaults.

The Busey family has played a prominent role in county history. Matthew’s oldest son Simeon was also a major landowner who, in partnership with his brother Samuel, founded the Busey Bank in 1868. Lincoln represented Simeon in an 1857 case to recover possession of 160 acres. In 1854 Lincoln handled a partition action dividing 120 acres between the heirs of Charles Busey.

LINCOLN THE LAWYER IN URBANA

Lincoln visited Champaign County regularly throughout his career on the Circuit from 1841 to his last visit in October of 1859, only eight months before his nomination for President. In the 1850’s he attended every court session of the Circuit Court with the with the exception of the fall of 1858, at the peak of the senatorial campaign against Stephen A. Douglas. As in other counties, his caseload in Champaign County was overwhelming civil with relatively few criminal cases. It included divorce, estates, personal injury, slander, contracts, land title disputes, foreclosures, and a substantial amount of collection work for both debtor and creditor. His clientele included some of the wealthy and influential citizens of the community, as was the case elsewhere. He was the attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad, the state’s largest corporation, in Champaign County as well as other counties.

In several counties in the Circuit, Lincoln would occasionally fill in as Circuit Judge in Judge David Davis’ absence. He wasn’t the only attorney to do so, but did it far more often than any other attorney. He did so more in Champaign County than any other. Davis had great confidence in Lincoln. They were very close, traveling together from the time Davis took the bench in 1848, generally sharing the same room at inns – beneficial for Lincoln since the Judge always got the best room. Somers remembered they were constant companions. The Judge was the center of the social life on the Circuit which enhanced Lincoln’s stature. There is no evidence that Lincoln ever had an advantage because of this relationship and there is no apparent resentment found among the other lawyers – a testimonial to the honesty and integrity of both Davis and Lincoln.

Lincoln was an excellent lawyer – honest and of the highest integrity. His even tempered, calm demeanor, never to anger, made him exceptional in the contentious courtrooms of the day. He was known for economy of style – emphasizing only the strongest points of his case. His ability to relate to the common people is fact, and that rapport carried over to juries. Somers characterized Lincoln as, “a general favorite” of all, always taking time to be friendly and assist young lawyers and inexperienced court personnel.

Though his Champaign County practice was predominantly civil, some of his most interesting Champaign County cases are criminal, including People v. Weaver. This was the first murder case in the history of the county. Lincoln and his close friend, Bloomington’s Asahel Gridley were court appointed to represent William Weaver. The 1878 county history colorfully describes the crime. “On the 10th day of October, 1844, William Weaver of Urbana, a miserable, drunken, reckless, wretch shot David Hiltabran in the right side with a rifle, without apparent motive except the fiendish rash recklessness that often attends men who have become besotted.” The evidence against him was so overwhelming that he was convicted and sentenced to be hung. Fortunately for the “reckless wretch,” the log jail was so poorly constructed that he escaped to Wisconsin where he made a decent life of his second chance.

Liquor played a role in another murder case that Lincoln defended in the spring of 1859, People v. Patterson. Henry Clay Whitney referred the case to Lincoln and Leonard Swett of Bloomington, in whom Lincoln had the greatest confidence of all the Circuit’s trial lawyers. Each of the three received a fee of $200. A man named Dehaven entered the store of Thomas Patterson in Sadorus to buy a hatchet. Patterson refused him more credit until he paid his account. In the ensuing argument Dehaven, who had been drinking, raised a spade to strike him. Patterson threw a two pound scale weight at Dehaven which struck him on the side of the head causing his death. Whitney suggested that the charge should have been murder but the influence of Patterson’s family led to the lesser charge of manslaughter. He further describes Patterson as, “a worthless doggery keeper at Sadorus” and describes his victim as “an old good natured drunkard.” The trial was delayed by the Douglas campaign and not tried until the spring of 1859. Whitney further suggests that Lincoln did not argue the case particularly effectively. Patterson was found guilty and was sentenced to the Alton Penitentiary for three years. On August 14, 1860, Lincoln joined in a petition for pardon to the Governor citing the “…absence of previous bad character…the necessities of his family…” The pardon was granted on August 30, 1860.

Another criminal whose case Lincoln lost was that of a horse thief, George High who was convicted in two cases defended by Lincoln in 1852. The newspaper report referred to High as, “the notorious horse thief” and did not even mention Lincoln’s participation. Lincoln personally carried a petition for pardon to Governor William Bissell which was signed by a number of people including the prosecutor, Ward Hill Lamon and Judge Davis, citing the defendant’s youth and hope of reform. Lincoln endorsed the petition, “I cheerfully join in the request.” The pardon was granted.

More bizarre cases were People v. Spurgeon, an 1843 case and People v. Swany and Dunn an 1855 case. Lincoln’s clients were five members of the hospitable Spurgeon family who invited one Kingston for dinner. The guest got in a fist fight with one of the hosts, when another of the hosts picked up a 6 or 7 foot hickory stick and struck Kingston repeatedly, leading to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. After a trial, three of Lincoln’s clients were acquitted and two convicted. The account fails to mention if Kingston ever got dessert. In Swany and Dunn, Lincoln aided his sometime associate, Ward Hill Lamon, the state’s attorney by drawing an indictment for adultery and fornication alleging Swany to be married, but not to Dunn. When the couple produced the marriage license, the case was dismissed. This was remindful of a story related by Urbana Judge Joseph Cunningham about a breach of promise case in which Lincoln represented the woman, the man was unrepresented. Lincoln got the case settled by applying to the County Clerk for a marriage license and the judge married the couple. As soon as the ceremony was over, the husband turned and said, “We are married, now; you can do as you please but you’ve seen the last of me,” and he disappeared for good.

THE BIZARRE CHINIQUY CASE AND OTHER UNUSUAL CASES

Slander cases, unusual today, were quite common in Lincoln’s day and he handled his share throughout the Circuit. A slander case in Champaign County involved one of the most bizarre clients Lincoln ever represented, Charles Chiniquy. Chiniquy was a charismatic French Canadian priest who came from Quebec to Illinois to minister to several French Canadian communities located in southern Kankakee and northern Iroquois County, Saint Anne, and L’Erable.

Chiniquy allegedly had continued to state from the pulpit that Spink had perjured himself in statements about Chiniquy, after Spink had been cleared of these charges. Spink sued him for slander in Kankakee County. On Spink’s motion, the case was transferred to Champaign County. The trial in May of 1856 drew large contingents supporting each side, overrunning the town with colorful crowds including, “musicians, parrots, pet dogs, and all.” The hotels were full and some of the visitors camped out. The entire bar of Iroquois County came to attend the trial including a nephew of George Washington. Lincoln’s co-counsel included Henry Clay Whitney and Leonard Swett. Spink’s attorneys included Oliver Davis, the brilliant lawyer from Danville. Portions of the trial were conducted in French so an interpreter was necessary. The first trial ended in a mistrial when a juror was discharged due to the fatal illness of a child. A new juror was called and the case was tried again, taking up the entire whole court session. This time the jury could not reach a verdict. The case was set for retrial at the next court session. The crowds of onlookers and supporters invaded Urbana again. At this point Lincoln, “Wisely prevailed upon his client to recant thus settling the case.” In a statement written in Lincoln’s hand, Chiniquy indicated that he had never believed that Spink was guilty of perjury and with each party paying his own cost, the case was over. Chiniquy paid Lincoln with a note for $50.

As if the case wasn’t strange enough, the post trial behavior by Chiniquy was more so. He was later discharged by the bishop for refusing to convey church property to the diocese and he eventually became a Presbyterian minister and a staunch anti-Catholic. He claimed that he had been vindicated by the trial as opposed to having settled it. He claimed that he had two meetings with Lincoln at the White House in which Chiniquy told him of a Jesuit plot to kill Lincoln because he had defended Chiniquy. He said Lincoln advised him that the Baltimore riots through which he rode to get to Washington in 1861 were part of this Jesuit plot. Lincoln further advised him that he was aware of the danger and the plot to murder him and told Chiniquy that the Pope was in league with the Confederacy in attempting to overthrow the United States Government. These scurrilous allegations formed the basis of anti-Catholic literature well into the 20th Century. They are totally lacking in fact and there is no suggestion of any personal relationship of any kind between Chiniquy and Lincoln.

Another civil case was the personal injury suit brought in 1852 by Benjamin Burt against James Jennings, Lincoln’s client. Jennings had assaulted Burt with a pocket knife inflicting damage to his eyesight. Burt sued for $1,000 to recover for his vision problems as well as his medical bills of $10. The jury found for Burt but awarded the damages in the amount of .05 cents because Burt had been the aggressor.

An unusual series of cases is that involving Lincoln’s client, Nancy Jane Dunn. Her relationship with Albert G. Carle led to three suits in 1850. Carle was one of the town’s pioneers. First Dunn sued Carle for a breach of marriage contract. The court ruled for the defendant saying Lincoln’s client failed to prove her case. In a second case, Dunn’s father, Zephariah retained Lincoln who sued Carle for seduction because Dunn had lost his daughter’s services while pregnant. Lincoln recovered a verdict for $100. Third, Nancy Dunn successfully filed a paternity charge in which Lincoln and the State’s Attorney participated recovering $50 a year in support.

In the case of McClatchy & Sits v. Roney et al. Lincoln represented a virtual who’s who of 1853 Urbana. Temperance was a major social issue of the day, equal in public attention and concern to anti-slavery sentiment. The defendants in the case included an early mayor of Urbana, Archibald Campbell, the two Gere brothers, John and James, and Calvin Higgins, a pioneer Justice of the Peace and Postmaster during the Buchanan administration whose wife was an early schoolteacher in Urbana. Other defendants were William Park, builder of the town’s first flouring mill and sawmill, Benjamin Roney, co-publisher of the Union, the town’s first newspaper, Conrad Tobias, a leading contractor who remodeled the third courthouse and built Urbana’s first planing mill, and William H. Webber, brother of Thomson R. Webber.

The suit was a civil suit for damages seeking recovery in the then large amount of $5,000. On March 26, 1853 the defendants entered the plaintiffs’ distillery and, “using clubs and hatchets” smashed barrels, kegs, bottles, and decanters destroying large quantities of “whiskey, rum, brandy, wine, and gin” and beer. The plaintiffs obtained a change of venue to Vermilion County. Lincoln engaged Oliver Davis to assist in the case. The case was tried in May of 1854 in Danville and the jury returned a verdict for Lincoln’s clients denying the plaintiff’s claim.

This is one of a number of cases where Lincoln represented the opponents of liquor. Typically though he also represented three clients charged with the illegal sale of liquor in 1856 which resulted in two convictions and an acquittal. Lincoln was a committed, hard-working lawyer who never let his causes get in the way of his legal career.

This is best illustrated by his most famous civil case – the one that he did not take in Champaign County against the Illinois Central Railroad. Pursuant to legislation introduced by and passed through the efforts of Stephen A. Douglas, the federal government gave the state of Illinois thousands of acres through the center and the length of the state, which in turn the state gave to the Illinois Central Railroad. The railroad was to sell the land and the proceeds would finance the construction of the railroad. The state legislation establishing this huge transaction provided that the state would get a percentage, at first 5%, then 7%, of the proceeds and railroad land would be otherwise exempt from taxation. Since the acreage was a substantial portion of each county affected, the counties protested and would not accept the deprivation of tax revenues. The issue was critical to the financial viability of the railroads and therefore to the potential explosive growth that would follow the arrival of the railroads.

In 1853 Thomson R. Webber approached Lincoln seeking his representation of Champaign County in the case to contest the exemption and to attempt to tax the railroads. On September 12, 1853 Lincoln replied to Webber, the letter still being in the possession of Webber’s local descendants. Lincoln advised that McLean County was also attempting the taxation. He states that the Illinois Central had offered to engage him there. Lincoln states his, “…feeling that you have the prior right to my services; if you choose to secure me a fee something near such as I can get from the other side. The question, in its magnitude, to the Co. on the one hand, and the counties in which the Co. has land on the other is the largest law question that can now be got up in the state; and therefore in justice to myself I cannot afford, if I can help it, to miss a fee altogether.”

Lincoln represented the Railroad in the McLean County case and was successful in the Supreme Court of Illinois preventing the taxation. Lincoln charged the Railroad $5,000, the equivalent of perhaps a quarter of a million dollars today and by far his largest fee. He had to sue the Railroad in McLean County to collect it.

LINCOLN’S FRIENDS CUNNINGHAM AND WHITNEY

Two of Lincoln’s closest associates at the Champaign County Bar were Joseph O. Cunningham and Henry Clay Whitney, who came to Champaign County in 1853 and 1854, respectively. Cunningham modestly characterized himself as, “mostly as observer, not a participator to any extent” in the Lincoln story, whereas Whitney was a significant “participator” though he tended to exaggerate his role. Both were lawyers, though Whitney was much more active in the trial bar than Cunningham, Whitney handling numerous cases with Lincoln and several against him. Cunningham was born in Lancaster New York in 1830, Whitney in Maine in 1831, though he grew up in New York. Both attended college in Ohio, Whitney being a college roommate of Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur. Both were Republicans and supporters of Lincoln. Both lived long after Lincoln’s death and each became renowned for their graphic and colorful descriptions of life on the Circuit and their observations of Lincoln.

On June 14, 1853, Cunningham purchased the Urbana Union, the county’s first newspaper, from William M. Coler, who started it in 1852. Cunningham converted it from a Democratic paper to an “independent paper” that supported the Republicans. Cunningham sold his interest in the paper in August of 1858 after commencing the practice of law in 1856. He continued involvement with the newspaper well into the ‘60’s. His friendship with Lincoln is evidenced by the informal tone of a letter that Lincoln sent him on August 22, 1858, from Ottawa. Lincoln invites Cunningham to meet him in Monticello on September 6th to plan his campaign appearance in Urbana later in the fall. “Douglas and I, for the first time this canvas, crossed swords here yesterday; the fire flew some, and I am glad to know I am yet alive…” This letter is part of the important Illinois History and Lincoln Collection of the University of Illinois Library. Cunningham was to go on to become one of Urbana’s leading and most public spirited citizens. He was a county judge who practiced law into the 20th century, amassing a substantial fortune. His grand home purchased from Samuel Waters in 1864 became the still operating Cunningham Children’s Home in 1895.

Cunningham authored a reliable, well written history of Champaign County published in 1905. He gave a talk to the local chapter of the DAR at the home of Mrs. George W. Busey in November of 1914, three years before his death. That talk inspired the state organization to locate the route that Lincoln took around the Eighth Circuit by placing county line markers at the point where Lincoln crossed each county line; these were nineteen in number. In addition one was placed at each courthouse site where Lincoln appeared. Both sets of markers were placed in 1922. Champaign County markers are on the Piatt County line, on the county road just north of I-72 and on the Vermilion County line on the Old State Road. The courthouse marker now stands on the north side of the new addition to the County Courthouse.

Cunningham’s estate provided funds for the Loredo Taft statue, the Young Lawyer, that stands today in Carle Park. Taft, an 1879 graduate of the University of Illinois, is nationally renowned for his work which includes several pieces on the University of Illinois campus, among them, the beloved Alma Mater. The Lincoln statue was originally placed in front of the Urbana Lincoln Hotel in 1927. Taft and noted Lincoln scholar, William E. Barton spoke at the dedication. Five months later it was moved to the park due to real estate title issues at its original location. This statue is notable because it shows Lincoln as he looked while practicing law and politics in Urbana.

Whitney’s impact on Urbana is much less than Cunningham because he moved to Chicago in 1857, continuing to practice for the Illinois Central. On the other hand, his impact on the Lincoln story is probably greater because he published a book in Boston in 1892, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln that has been closely studied and analyzed and is generally regarded as the most complete and credible account of this significant part of Lincoln’s life by any contemporary. Unfortunately, Whitney occasionally strays from the facts, thus diminishing the total impact of this important book.

Whitney was the first attorney in the newly formed town of West Urbana, now Champaign. His makeshift office was located in the dining room of his father’s home at the southeast corner of Walnut and Main. His father was a Justice of the Peace. Whitney describes the visit that Lincoln and other lawyers made to his office in the fall of 1854. Notwithstanding Whitney’s young age, he was accepted by Lincoln and his close friends, Davis and Swett, as part of their inner circle. Lincoln was notably private about his inner thoughts and strategies but his letters to Whitney display an unusual trust and closeness.

In 1856 Leonard Swett, perhaps Lincoln’s closest friend on the Circuit, was beaten by Owen Lovejoy in a contest for the Republican nomination for Congress. Lincoln with uncharacteristic candor demonstrated his trust in Whitney by writing on July 9, 1856, “It turned me blind when I heard Swett was beaten, and Lovejoy nominated; but after much anxious reflection I really believe it best to let it stand. This, of course, I wish to be confidential.” This letter demonstrates Lincoln’s ability to detach himself from his personal feelings in analyzing professional and political issues, a trait which served him well all his life in dealing with both friend and foe.

Lincoln and Whitney shared law business. In December of 1855, he wrote his old and trusted friend Joshua Speed in Kentucky referring a legal transaction to Whitney because Lincoln perceived himself to have a conflict of interest. Lincoln gave him a legal opinion in December of 1857 and said, “You must not think of offering me pay for this.”

Whitney’s move to Chicago in 1857 placed a trusted political operative in Chicago to advise Lincoln on the delicate balance between rival factions within the Republican Party there. Correspondence between Whitney and Lincoln discusses the strategy on the Douglas campaign.

Whitney accompanied Lincoln to several of the debates and describes Lincoln’s calm before the Ottawa debate. Whitney also accompanied Lincoln to the Jonesboro Debate. The most reliable reports on the seven debates were carried in the Chicago Press and Tribune. Lincoln wanted to obtain two full sets of copies of these, one for his scrapbook and one to be used for publication. When he had trouble getting them directly, he asked Whitney to do so, which Whitney did. On December 25, 1858, Lincoln wrote Whitney advising that he had received the newspapers and promising Whitney a copy of the book if published. Lincoln did get the book published by a Columbus, Ohio publisher after a well received speech in that city the following year. The publication occurred shortly before the Republican Nominating Commission of 1860, a 268 page book entitled Political Debates Between the Honorable Abraham Lincoln and Honorable Stephen A. Douglas and the Celebrated Campaign of 1858 in Illinois. It was an instant best seller and added strength to Lincoln’s stature as a candidate for the presidential nomination.

Whitney describes spending ten hours alone with Lincoln in Springfield from 2 p.m. to bedtime on January 5, 1859, the day that the Legislature elected Stephen A. Douglas to the Senate, the result of the legislative elections which followed the debates. His description of Lincoln was, “gloomy, dejected and dispirited...radically and thoroughly depressed, so completely steeped in the bitter waters of hopeless despair.” Typical of Lincoln, however, was a meeting held the next day, which included Lincoln and other Republicans planning strategy and the next moves in his continued path which led to the White House. Whitney was present during the efforts of David Davis, Lincoln’s Campaign Manager, and his team of Eighth Circuit lawyers to nominate Lincoln, at the Republican Convention in Chicago.

Whitney was not above using his friendship with Lincoln to advance his own ends. There is a letter dated April 30, 1859 from Lincoln to Salmon P. Chase, then Governor of Ohio, thanking him for his appointment of Whitney to a minor post. He helped seek a similar post from the state of Massachusetts for Whitney. Lincoln obtained an appointment as paymaster in 1861 for him and wrote a note asking General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac to see Whitney in September of 1861. In January of 1864, Whitney was seeking transfer from Louisville, Kentucky to Leavenworth, Kansas which request Lincoln endorsed with typical detachment, “Major Whitney is a friend I would like to oblige but not to the prejudice of the service.” After the war Whitney went to Kansas holding various posts and spent the balance of his life in Boston.

OTHER CHAMPAIGN COUNTY ATTORNEYS OF THE DAY

Their friendship is demonstrated by a letter Lincoln wrote to Whitney on November 26, 1860 after his election. “I regret not having an opportunity to see more of you. Respects to Mrs. Whitney and your good father and mother.”

The law firm that appeared most frequently in association with Lincoln in Urbana as well as on occasion against him was Coler, Sheldon, and Sim. William N. Coler, born in Ohio in 1827 came to Urbana after service in the Mexican War. He studied law under Amzi McWilliams of Bloomington and became Urbana’s second lawyer in 1852, the same year he started the Urbana Union in partnership with Benjamin Roney. He was the county’s leading Democrat and a strong backer of Stephen A Douglas. Notwithstanding his popularity in the community, he lost his race for the Legislature in 1858 to a pro-Lincoln candidate and his race for the Illinois Senate in 1860 to future Governor Richard J. Oglesby of Decatur who was also a strong supporter of Lincoln’s. He and Lincoln remained friends and Coler visited Lincoln in Springfield on the first day of the Republican Convention in 1860. He rallied behind the Union when the Civil War broke out and was commissioned to organize the 25th Infantry Volunteer Regiment. He enjoyed great success in real estate and other ventures. Eventually his success as a broker of municipal bonds led him to leave Champaign County to start a brokerage firm in New York City in 1872.

He was joined in the practice by Joseph Sim and Jarius Sheldon. Sheldon was the half brother of Joseph Cunningham and came to Urbana with him in 1853. He had apprenticed himself to learn shipbuilding on Lake Erie before heading West. He supplied timber and ties for the railroads across Champaign County before beginning the practice of law in 1856.

The firm that most frequently opposed Lincoln was that of William D. Somers, Urbana’s first lawyer who began his practice in 1846, a doctor before becoming an attorney. He was later joined in the practice by his nephew, James, son of one of the town’s earliest physicians, Winston D. Somers, William’s brother. The Circuit Clerk, William H. Somers, was the brother of James. The family came to Urbana in 1843 from North Carolina where James was born in 1833. James was aroused to political action by the Kansas Nebraska Act and became deeply involved in the political forces opposing the extension of slavery. Whitney called him “the promising orator of our Circuit of the young men.” He became close to Lincoln in the Campaign of 1858. By 1860 he had developed serious hearing problems which made the practice of law difficult. He wrote to Lincoln seeking advice on his future career. Lincoln responded on March 17, 1860 recommending that he resettle in Chicago where Whitney had offered him a partnership. Lincoln closed saying that his advice was given, “with the deepest interest for your welfare.” A week later Lincoln wrote a recommendation, “My young friend James W. Somers I have known from boyhood and I can truly say that in my opinion he’s entirely faithful and fully competent to the performance of any business he will undertake.” Lincoln obtained an appointment for him in the Department of the Interior which led to a distinguished career of 25 years of public service in Washington. In 1865, at the urging at his friends in Urbana, Lincoln recommended his father Winston for a surgeon’s post to which he was appointed.

THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS AND ANOTHER URBANA

It is hard to imagine the simple town Lincoln came to in the 1840’s and early ‘50’s. It was relatively small and as yet not important. The population of the entire county in 1850 was 2,649. It was the smallest county of the fourteen in the Circuit with the exception of Piatt. By way of comparison, DeWitt County that year was 5,000 and McLean and Edgar Counties were over 10,000. Judge Cunningham gives us a graphic picture of this hamlet to which he came in 1853. He estimated the town’s population to be 500, mostly Southerners. The frontier village was surrounded by unbroken prairie, most of the land being still owned by the government. Wolves preyed on farm animals out in the country and one even got loose in town in 1854. Wild turkey, prairie chickens, and grouse abounded. The town had an estimated 75 buildings all within a quarter of a mile of the square. Cows, pigs, chickens and geese roamed the dirt streets.

All that changed with the coming of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1854. Cunningham calls it, “the Awakenment.” The mobility afforded to the lawyers by the railroad changed the Circuit experience forever. The coming of the Railroad created a market for crops and manufactured goods to be shipped out and materials and merchandise to be shipped in for consumption by the residents. The county’s population exploded, but at the new town that sprung up where the rails went, not in Urbana. As the track construction approached the route chosen was two miles west of Urbana, an economic decision because it was relatively flat with no significant streams to cross. It wasn’t a concern of the railroad’s to go to Urbana which was too small to matter. The railroad had no plan to create a new town and continued to call the stop, “Urbana” until 1860. By pure happenstance the new town started up at once. It was called the Depot until it became West Urbana two years later. In less than three years, the population of West Urbana exceeded that of Urbana. This caused an effort to move the county seat which was successfully resisted by the leaders of Urbana who extensively remodeled the courthouse in 1859 so that it was no longer economically feasible to remove the courts to the new town. The name was officially changed to Champaign in 1861, although West Urbana’s new newspaper, the Central Illinois Gazette first referred to the town as, “Champaign City” on May 16, 1860.

The coming of the railroads created the town of Tolono, 10 miles south of West Urbana. In 1856 the Great Western Railroad, later the Wabash, running east and west, came through Champaign County south of “the Urbana’s,” creating a junction that fueled optimism for growth there. History did not justify this optimism, but the railroad junction made Lincoln an occasional visitor to Tolono. In order to go north or south, he could take the train from Springfield to Tolono and switch trains to do so. The town had a fairly large depot and hotel, the Marion House, at the southeast corner of the intersection of the railroads. Early residents recalled Lincoln whiling away his time there waiting a connecting train – playing chess and throwing horseshoes. Adelaide Chaffee, the doctor’s sixteen year old daughter recalled going to meet Lincoln in the parlor at the hotel as he waited for his train. Lincoln came through Tolono on his last visit to see his stepmother in Coles County on January 30, 1861.

Usually Lincoln did not return home between court sessions so he had considerable idle time in the towns of the Circuit. In Urbana he spent this in various ways. One was reading and quiet meditation, as observed by all of his fellow companions on the circuit. He played billiards; he watched young men wrestle at the courthouse square, a pursuit in which he himself had engaged as a younger man. He played Euchre. He was observed to playing a mouth harp and even attended weddings. He was invited to teas in the homes of notables of Urbana. Whitney recalls him taking long walks in the country out to the great oaks of Big Grove, north of town.

In April of 1858, after court, Lincoln went to the studios of a photographer, Samuel Alschuler to pose for ambrotype. Alschuler’s studio was located on the second floor of the Lowenstein Building at the northwest corner of Main and Race in Urbana. Throughout his lifetime Lincoln posed for countless photographs. What makes this one unusual is that he is suppressing a smile as the picture is taken. Joseph Cunningham, who witnessed the sitting, told of Lincoln appearing in a white linen duster which Alschuler said wouldn’t photograph well, so the photographer offered Lincoln his dark jacket. Both men had the same breadth of body but Alschuler was much shorter so the sleeves reached only to Lincoln’s elbows. Alschuler shot the pictures so that Lincoln’s arms would not show. It took Lincoln a while to regain his composure for the picture because of his ludicrous appearance in the jacket. This ambrotype is also part of the fine collections of the Urbana Free Library and the University of Illinois.

At Henry Clay Whitney’s request, Lincoln posed for Alschuler in Chicago on November 25, 1860. This was the first picture taken of Lincoln with his beard, which was still taking shape at the time of the photograph.

OTHER LINCOLN FRIENDS

Lincoln became a close friend of two of the most influential citizens of Champaign, Mark Carley and Benjamin Franklin Harris. Carley was born in 1799 in Hancock, New Hampshire where he knew Horace Greeley as a boy. He spent seventeen years in Louisiana building mills and cotton gins. He moved to Ohio in 1837 where he farmed until 1850 at which point he went to the California gold fields. After a year there, then two back in Ohio, he came to Urbana. He built the first residence in West Urbana, which held the county’s first piano. He had many business interests including the city’s first grain elevator with its first steam engine. He was a staunch Whig acquainted with the party’s leader Henry Clay. He was a close friend and admirer of Lincoln, who did legal work for him. Lincoln often visited his grand home at the northeast corner of Church and Randolph.

Harris was born in Virginia in 1811. He came to Champaign County from Ohio in 1835. He purchased land south of Mahomet and raised cattle which he in turn drove annually across the Appalachians to eastern Pennsylvania where he sold them for a substantial profit. Thus staked, he returned to Champaign and bought more and more land. In 1853 he purchased a sawmill in Peoria, transported it back to his farm and used it to create lumber for the construction of the grand home to replace the log cabins in which he and his family had lived to that point. His stately home on a hill close by the Sangamon was a location where Lincoln frequently stopped as he traveled from Monticello to Urbana.

Harris’ colorful autobiography tells of his trip to Washington, DC in May of 1861 which he took to encourage Lincoln during those early dark days of the Civil War. He went to the White House first and saw Mary Lincoln and the couple’s two sons. At Lincoln’s invitation he went to a cabinet meeting the next day which led to a dinner that night at the home of Montgomery Blair, a center of influence on the national scene. While Harris was in Washington, Elmer Ellsworth was killed attempting to take down a Confederate flag off the Manns Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. Harris visited the site of the killing two days later and was at the hero’s funeral in the East Room of the White House. Harris moved to Champaign in 1863 where he died in 1905. His country house, which had been visited by Lincoln, was not torn down until 2005, ravaged by time. It was probably the last existing building in the entire county that had actually been visited by Lincoln, although the stately house at 310 West Washington Street is said to have hosted Lincoln. It was once the parsonage located next door to the downtown Methodist Church in Urbana and was later moved to the present site, but none of this could be documented.

LINCOLN THE POLITICIAN IN 1854 AND 1856

Partisan politics really didn’t begin in the county until 1854. This change was caused by the new population drawn by the railroad as well as the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act introduced by Stephen A. Douglas that year. Until Douglas’ legislation there was an uneasy but stable nationwide truce on the issue of slavery. The Missouri Compromise sanctioned slavery south of a defined line and freedom north of that line. Douglas’ bill knocked the issue off this foundation. By its terms the people of each territory could decide the issue of slavery for themselves. After his relatively unsuccessful term in Congress in 1847 and ’48, Lincoln had substantially withdrawn from politics, focusing on his law practice. Lincoln felt slavery could not be legally abolished where it existed, but he felt strongly that if its expansion could be restricted, such restriction would ultimately cause the slow, but less traumatic, death of the institution. All that changed with Douglas’ legislation, passed in May of 1854. That fall Lincoln came out swinging and started down the path that would ultimately lead him to the White House. He made a series of speeches attacking the Douglas legislation and outlining his own moderate approach on the issue. One of those occurred in Urbana on October 24, 1854 at the courthouse. The speech was made while Lincoln was in town for the court session. Cunningham later recalled being disappointed by the moderate tone of Lincoln’s speech that night. However, this tone is what reflected the anti-slavery views of the majority in Illinois and as it turned out six years later, the majority of Republicans nationally.

This series of speeches, which included appearances in Springfield, Peoria, and Bloomington, as well as Urbana, put Lincoln in the forefront of the anti-slavery politicians in Illinois. Whitney recalled going to the room at the Pennsylvania House east of the courthouse with Davis and Lincoln, early in the evening before the speech. He told of the banter between Lincoln and Davis as they awaited the meeting. When that time came, they crossed the street to the courtroom which was lit by eleven tallow candles. Without introduction Lincoln gave his speech, “with no ostentation, no preparation, and no labored effort.” After the speech the three men returned to Davis’ room to continue the usual joking and camaraderie until midnight. He called the speech one of Lincoln’s best efforts.

The anti-slavery tide continued to swell as the presidential year of 1856 arrived. The Urbana Union issued a call for all those who opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise to meet at the courthouse on May 18th in order to select a delegate to the anti-Nebraska Convention to be held in Bloomington on May 29th. The signors of this important invitation included Winston and William H. Somers, Jarius C. Sheldon, attorney James Jaquith, William Park, and Joseph Cunningham.

The following week Lincoln was in Danville in court. On his way to Bloomington for the Convention, he was joined on the train in Tolono by Cunningham and Whitney. They both recalled laying over with Lincoln in Decatur waiting for a train the next day to go north to Bloomington. Lincoln, in a nostalgic mood, walked Decatur with them reminiscing about his youthful arrival there in 1830. They walked to the Sangamon timber next to the river and sat for a long time in quiet enjoyment.

The next day Whitney stayed with Lincoln at the David Davis home and recalled strolling downtown with Lincoln when he purchased his first spectacles. On May 29th, both Cunningham and Whitney were present as Lincoln electrified his audience with his famous, “Lost Speech” so called because it was never recorded. At this Convention, the Republican Party of Illinois was formed and the speech thrust Lincoln to its forefront. Cunningham glowingly describes this great speech in summary. Whitney, on the other hand, recited it twenty years later verbatim. His effort has been greeted with considerable skepticism by historians ever since.

Lincoln was in Urbana for its regular court session when the first National Republican Convention was held in Philadelphia the following month. He received 110 votes for vice president. He learned of this from Cunningham’s Urbana Union as Whitney delivered the news. Lincoln acted amused only, but his close friend from Springfield, James Matheny said that this nomination first planted the seed of presidential ambition.

Republicans nominated John C. Fremont, their first national candidate for whom Lincoln campaigned all over the state of Illinois that year, including in, “the Urbana’s.” In June of 1856, Lincoln happened to be in town for a special court session necessitated by the volume of business in the booming county. That night he addressed a political gathering endorsing the Fremont candidacy. This probably took place at Goose Pond Church built on the landfill site on First Street at the present location of the police department, across the street from the Cattle Bank which houses the Champaign County Historical Society and is one of the few buildings left in existence from this time. The Urbana Union stated, “As a persuasive and convincing speaker the equal of Mr. Lincoln cannot be found.”

While in Urbana for court business and this political appearance, Lincoln learned that his stepbrother and boyhood friend, John Johnston had a handicapped son who was under arrest. The young man was passing through town aiding a drover taking horses from Coles County to northern Illinois. While in Champaign he went to an old watchmaker’s shop and took a gold watch worth $125. He was being held for prosecution at the time. While in town for the political meeting, Whitney arranged for Lincoln to quietly visit his nephew in jail. Lincoln was saddened but assured the young man that he would attempt to help. On October 21st while in town for the regular circuit court session, Lincoln again spoke at the Goose Pond Church accompanied by Bloomington attorneys Leonard Swett and Harvey Hogg who also spoke to the enthusiastic audience. While awaiting his turn to speak, Lincoln visited the nearby humble residence of the shopkeeper whose watch had been stolen. Lincoln persuaded him to come to court and request dismissal of the case, which he did and the charges were dropped.

Lincoln returned in September of that year to speak at the county’s major Fremont campaign event on September 17th. The Urbana Union claimed a crowd of 5,000. The crowd started gathering from all over the county in early morning. The crowd’s size forced the proceedings to be held at Webber’s Grove east of Urbana. A brass band and a delegation of thirty young women representing the thirty states led the procession. There were two stands to accommodate all the speakers, eight in number besides the main attraction, Lincoln. Lincoln’s speech was very effective to arouse the crowds in favor of the Fremont candidacy, “Before him the sophistic ‘little giant’ Douglas quaked (got sick) and others of his party fly like a flock of birds.” A huge dinner was served and the glee club closed the county’s largest gathering ever.

Fremont lost the election to James Buchanan, but he carried Champaign County, 722-556.

LINCOLN’S POLITICS IN 1858

Lincoln’s race against Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 for United States Senate was the watershed of Lincoln’s career. He entered the race as Illinois’ leading Republican and he emerged from that race, though not elected, a national Republican figure. The major event in Urbana saw the two candidates square off on separate days at the Fair Ground September 23 and 24th.

The Fair Ground was located approximately one mile north of Springfield Avenue straddling what is now Lincoln Avenue. Douglas spoke there on September 23rd, the last day of the county fair. He drew a huge crowd and was accorded a generous reception from the audience, including a large Republican contingent which treated him courteously. Lincoln arrived that afternoon, making an appearance at the Doane House, a hotel in West Urbana next to the Depot. He was greeted by many friends and supporters and serenaded by bands from Danville and Urbana. It is interesting to note that on this campaign visit, spent one night in West Urbana and one night in Urbana. Perhaps he sensed the already brewing rivalry between the two towns.

While in West Urbana the first night, he stayed at the home of merchant John W. Baddely whose home at the northwest corner of Hill and Randolph was a center of the social life of the young town. The lawyers would dine there at least once at each term of court. Ironically, this strong supporter of Lincoln’s had a history with him. In Lincoln’s first trip to Bloomington in 1838, his partner John T. Stuart sent him to represent Baddely, then of LeRoy Illinois, on a case. Baddely fired the callow and inexperienced Lincoln.

In Urbana on September 24th he stayed at the home of Mayor Ezekiel Boyden which was located on the south side of Elm Street in the 300 block. Knowing of this, Whitney addressed an urgent, letter dated September 23, 1858 from Chicago to Lincoln at Boyden’s home. Boyden was one of the early successful manufacturers in Urbana with a large plow and wagon factory on the north side of Main Street just west of the Boneyard. The next day an elaborate procession with three bands and a delegation of young women met Lincoln in West Urbana and proceeded to the Fair Ground. The procession was two miles long and reached the Fair Ground for a sumptuous meal before the speech. Lincoln recognized an elderly woman known as “Granny” standing nearby who had been a waitress and dishwasher at one of the hotels in Urbana where Lincoln had stayed over the years. At his insistence and over her protestations, Lincoln gave Granny his seat at the head table and ate lunch sitting on a stump under a tree. Following the sumptuous meal, Lincoln spoke for an hour and a half, his speech a rehash of the substance of his speeches in the Douglas debates which were being held during this stretch of the campaign.

Lincoln’s campaign was operating under a distinct disadvantage that day with his campaign appearance following the close of the three day fair. The crowd was not quite what it might have been, and not quite as large as the Douglas crowd. However, the paper noted that, “The enthusiasm was ten times as great.” Following the speech the procession then accompanied Lincoln to Mayor Boyden’s home. That night he walked over to the courthouse and delivered a speech again condemning the Kansas-Nebraska Act. On this senatorial race, Lincoln lost the battle, but won the war; he defeated Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.

The spring and fall following the great campaign of 1858, Lincoln was back in Urbana practicing his trade in the Circuit Court, making his final appearance in the courts of Urbana in the fall of 1859. The twin cities of 1858 are caught in time in the rare and beautiful Alexander Bowman Map in the collections of the Urbana Free Library, copies of which are available.

THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY

The newspapers of the day in Champaign played an important role in fanning the partisan flames. They showed little restraint in their bias. Cunningham’s Urbana Union, though anti-slavery, was less strident than the Democratic paper, Our Constitution which commenced publication in July of 1856 and was strong in its criticism and derision of Lincoln. In March of 1858, the ancestor of the News Gazette was launched when John W. Scroggs acquired the failed Spirit of Agricultural Press.

Scroggs was born in Ohio in 1817, leaving home at age 10 after his mother’s death. He labored for several years ultimately becoming a doctor after matriculating at Ohio Medical College, and Eclectic Medical College, both in Cincinnati. He practiced medicine from 1840 until failed health caused him to quit. Having invested in the land in Champaign County, he came to the county in 1857.

Scroggs located the newspaper in West Urbana at the intersection of Main and Neil and called it the Central Illinois Gazette. Its mast head modestly proclaimed “An Independent Paper: Devoted to Agriculture, Education, Hygiene, Temperance, Literature, Social Reform, News, and the Interests of Central Illinois.” For its first two years, its front page was devoted to agricultural news and its avid reporting of the political scene was on page 2. Scroggs had no idea how to run a newspaper and he was rescued from this ignorance by the appearance of William O. Stoddard on the scene. A native of Rochester, New York, where he attended the University of Rochester, he migrated to Chicago in 1857 to work for a paper there. When it failed he bought a farm near Tolono, attempting farming. That drove him to West Urbana where he brazenly presented himself to Scroggs announcing that he would run the paper. Stoddard describes Scroggs as always wearing a black frock suit and a brilliant vest of many colors. He greatly admired Scroggs and called him a fanatical temperance and anti-slavery man who was courageous and pugnacious.

Stoddard successfully ran the paper and it became unequivocally supportive of Lincoln in his run for the White House. In June of 1858, the paper endorsed Lincoln for the Senate. Later that fall it covered the Lincoln campaign appearance in detail. Stoddard met Lincoln for the first time in the Fall at the offices of the Gazette where Lincoln came to meet Scroggs and him.

On April 27th, 1859, Lincoln called on Scroggs and Stoddard at the Gazette, which was reported in the May 4th issue. Lincoln dazzled Stoddard with his feel for the county’s politics, “He seems to know my prairie neighbors almost man for man.” The paper described this meeting in glowing terms. The description was widely disseminated by Stoddard in an effort to promote Lincoln’s candidacy, although its impact is not known. On December 21, 1859, the editorial column bore the headline “Abraham Lincoln for President.” The paper continued to report on the events of Lincoln’s rise throughout 1860. The Republican State Convention was held in Decatur on May 9th and 10th, 1860. Its unanimous support of Lincoln was essential to his drive to the White House. The Champaign delegation was headed by Henry M. Russell and included Ezekial Boyden, Ben Harris, and John Scroggs. Russell played an important role in the Convention in Chicago a week later. He recalled helping slip 300 pro-Lincoln spectators into the Convention in seats which should have been occupied by the Seward delegates while they were still out parading on the streets of Chicago. He also secured two votes from the all important Pennsylvania Delegation. After Lincoln’s election Russell accompanied Pennsylvania’s Simon Cameron, Lincoln’s first Secretary of War to Springfield to meet Lincoln for the first time. The exciting political news finally caused the Gazette to bump the agricultural news off the front page on May 30, 1860 reporting speeches at the Chicago Nominating Convention which had occurred earlier that month. On November 7, 1860 a bold headline declared, “THE COUNTY ALL RIGHT” Lincoln beat Douglas, 1,792 to 1,251.

Stoddard, never shy, asked Lincoln to hire him as a Secretary. In pursuit of that post, he went to Washington in 1861, where he attended the first inaugural. He first obtained a job with Lincoln’s endorsement in the Department of the Interior but later became a Secretary to Lincoln in the White House where he spent the White House years assisting Lincoln’s principal secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay. After the Civil War Stoddard went on to become a nationally known literary figure, never to return to Champaign.

LINCOLN’S FAREWELL

Lincoln’s final appearance in Champaign County was on the prophetically dismal, cold, and rainy day of February 11, 1860 as he took a train from Springfield east toward Washington. The train stopped in Tolono where he made a short speech, powerful in its brevity.

I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, attended, as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it: ‘Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.’ I bid you an affectionate farewell.

The county strongly supported Lincoln’s re-election in 1864 giving him 2,116 votes compared to George McClellan’s 1,132.

Lincoln, of course, never returned to Illinois, struck down by the assassin’s bullet on April 14, 1865. Joseph Cunningham in the Gazette on April 21st described the communities’ response to the calamity, “Saturday April 15th was the most mournful day ever witnessed in Urbana.” The following Wednesday all the businesses were closed, homes and businesses were draped in funeral bunting and virtually the entire community attended the memorial services. Cunningham described the county’s loss.

He was not only our President and Chief Magistrate, but our fellow citizen. Since the early settlement of this county, he has, from his frequent visits upon professional business, been intimately and well known to very many – his great kindness and urbanity of manner here, as everywhere else, had won for him a warm corner in every heart.

When Abraham Lincoln departed from central Illinois to save our nation, he carried Champaign County, the place, its people, and its influence, with him.