Lincoln: Prelude to the Presidency
Historical notes by Guy Fraker
Lincoln in Macon County
BOOKENDS
The story of Abraham Lincoln in Decatur forms bookends of his years in Illinois, the first place in Illinois to which he came in 1830 and one of the last places he visited as he headed east to the Presidency in 1861. These two events illustrate the parallel course of Lincoln and central Illinois over the years, parallels that shaped Lincoln and propelled him to leadership of the nation.
He arrived a rough, uneducated, rawboned field hand, an exceptionally strong and hardworking one, but a field hand nonetheless. He was dressed in homemade clothes dyed with walnut; he was still part of his father’s home, although he had reached 21 and emancipation that February; he arrived in a three wagon oxen-drawn train and after a year left in a canoe because it was the easiest way to travel through these environs then.
The place to which he came, Decatur, was but a handful of cabins scattered around a plat that had been filed only a year earlier when the county of Macon was carved out by its creating legislation. The streets were ill-defined paths. The population was perhaps 100. It was a land of swamps and the “ever present aches” of malaria.
When Lincoln left thirty-one years later, he had been known to wear Brooks Brothers suits; his oldest son was at Harvard; he was perhaps the most successful lawyer in the entire state of Illinois, and most important, the President-elect headed to our nation’s capital to attempt to steer the nation through its greatest crisis. He was already acknowledged to be one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, articulate speakers of his day.
That day he came to Decatur on a train – the Great Western Railroad at its junction with the Illinois Central, one of the world’s great railroads. At this junction was a large imposing depot with a three-story octagonal tower built only five years earlier. The population of Decatur had grown forty times in that period to approximately 4,000. This transformation of Decatur and the other cities like it in central Illinois was a force that molded and shaped this great President.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS
Abraham Lincoln came to Macon County from southern Indiana with his father’s family in March of 1830. Several members of the Hanks family, relatives of Lincoln’s deceased mother, Nancy, lived in early Macon County, including the brothers Charles, William and John Hanks, cousins of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. The first settlers of Macon County came in the early ‘20’s settling south of the Sangamon River in what was to become the Ward Settlement, started by John Ward.
The Stevens family arrived at about the same time settling north of the river on the creek that still bears their name. John Hanks was part of this settlement, having arrived in 1828. Settlement that was occurring in the late ‘20’s was mostly from Tennessee and Kentucky which added a particularly southern flavor to the attitudes which would prevail for most of Lincoln’s time in central Illinois.
These pioneer settlements were located in Shelby County whose seat, Shelbyville seemed a long distance away. Accordingly, three members of the Ward settlement, John Ward, William Austin, and Andrew Smith ventured to the State capitol, Vandalia, seeking their own county, which the legislature did in January of 1829. The county was named for Nathanial Macon of North Carolina, a fiercely independent politician who had opposed the Constitution because it threatened the rights of states. Once formed the next task was to locate a county seat, a contentious issue that caused fights to break out between the two warring settlements – Ward and Stevens.
Commissioners named in the legislation chose the location of the county seat which was to be named Decatur. The legislation directed that it was to be laid out, “after the form of Shelbyville.” The town’s namesake was Stephen Decatur, a naval hero of the War of 1812 where he commanded the U. S. Constitution, and later naval action against the pirates of North Africa. He was killed in a duel in 1820, thus ending a long standing feud with another captain. Decatur is remembered for, “May our country always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.”
The new town was surveyed and platted July 1, 1829. The survey was performed by Benjamin R. Austin, the newly chosen county surveyor with the assistance of his brother William, one of those who went to Vandalia to seek formation of the county. The town site consisted of 20 acres where the north edge of the river bottom timber met the south edge of the prairie. It was bounded on the north by Prairie Street, on the east by Water, on the south by Wood, and on the west by Church. In the center was the public square and two Main Streets splitting the four largest blocks. Lots were sold on twelve months credit on July 10, 1829. The first building was a crude store built by Uncle Jimmy Renshaw north of the square and west of Main.
THE LINCOLN FAMILY COMES TO ILLINOIS
All of this took place less than a year before Lincoln’s arrival. John Hanks’ glowing reports of the opportunity in this new country induced Thomas Lincoln to undertake the trip west. The intrepid party consisted of thirteen people. Thomas and his wife, Sarah, his son Abraham, and her son John Johnston, and two of her daughters and their husbands and families. Her daughter Elizabeth was married to Lincoln’s childhood friend, Dennis Hanks, who was born ten years earlier than Lincoln. His family had moved to southern Indiana with the Lincolns in 1817.
Dennis had been sent to visit John in Illinois to assess the potential of the area. His favorable report caused the family to prepare to embark for Illinois come the spring of 1830. The party of thirteen left in three ox drawn wagons around March 1, 1830 with Lincoln driving one of the wagons. It took five days to reach the Wabash which they crossed in the vicinity of Vincennes. From there they headed north and west working their way toward Decatur. The trip was arduous with the muddy roads freezing at night and thawing during the warming of the day. There were swollen rivers to cross, including the Embarras, and the Okaw. As they traversed the newly formed county of Macon, their route took them past present day Lovington, Lake City, Mount Zion, and Elwin. Lincoln recalled years later that they crossed the Sangamon in the vicinity of the eventual location of the Illinois Central Railroad tracks, which point is now marked south of the Lake Decatur.
In 1860, Lincoln was to describe the trip, “A. having just completed his 21st year, his father and family, with the families of the two daughters and sons-in-law of his step-mother, left the old homestead in Indiana and came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was waggons (sic) drawn by ox teams, or A. drove one of the teams. They reached the county of Macon, and stopped there sometime within the same month of March.”
They arrived in Decatur on March 14th and camped on what is now the southeast corner of Lincoln Square. That square is aptly named because it is the site of a number of significant events in Lincoln’s life that span his entire time in Illinois, starting with that first night. It is hard to imagine the primitive village in which they landed. The town consisted of maybe a dozen log houses irregularly placed with the streets, though platted, in fact not really defined. And so began Lincoln’s one year stay in Macon County.
A DIFFICULT 12 MONTHS
It was to be a difficult experience for the family. The next day the caravan drove northeast to John Hanks’ home and he offered them a place he had picked out on the north bank of the Sangamon. He gave them logs that he had harvested and they immediately went to work building a cabin, smokehouse, and barn.
The Lincolns began breaking the sod for a corn crop and Lincoln split walnut, hickory, and black locust trees to fence off about ten acres. The family homestead sat at the junction of the timberline and prairie about ten miles west of Decatur. Here they raised a corn crop that first year.
The site is now a state park, though a replica of the Lincoln cabin placed there was burned down. The original cabin stood on this site for many years. In April of 1865 it was moved to Chicago where it was displayed. After that it was removed to Boston and stood on Boston Commons. John Hanks was responsible for these exhibits since he ended up as the owner of the cabin. Plans to have the cabin go to Philadelphia and Europe never seemed to be executed and the exact fate of the cabin is unclear. One story is that it was sold to an Englishman and lost in transit to England.
In the summer Lincoln hired out as a farmhand for several neighbors, including William Warnick who was the young county’s first elected sheriff and a leader in the community. Lincoln broke sod for Warnick and with John Hanks split several thousands of rails. Lincoln reaped Warnick’s wheat in the fall with a sythe. Warnick’s farm was across the river and several miles southeast from the Lincoln homestead located on the north side of the Paris to Springfield Road, now the Mount Auburn Road. While working for Warnick, Lincoln threw a fellow field hand, known to be a good wrestler, in a friendly match sanctioned by Warnick. The following day it is said that Lincoln made a political speech to the resting field hands on a break from work.
Lincoln became close to the entire Warnick family, including their daughter Mary Polly, who married into the Stevens family that summer. Family lore has it that Mary Polly rejected any romantic interest from Lincoln because she said she couldn’t sit daily across the table from anyone that homely. During the winter while crossing the frozen Sangamon to visit the family, Lincoln fell through the ice which caused him to suffer frostbite. He spent a week at the Warnick’s home being nursed back to health by Mrs. Warnick with a strange mixture of bear grease, skunk oil, and rabbit fat. In 1833 the Warnicks moved to a larger cabin which would become a well known tavern variously called the Huddleston House and the 33 Mile Inn. The building served as an Inn for travelers, including perhaps Lincoln as a circuit rider. Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in the 1970’s.
Warnick’s daughter Margaret married Benjamin Austin and his daughter Eleanor married William Austin. The Austin’s were also friends of Lincoln and for many years the family passed down an early biography of Napoleon which William was said to have loaned to Lincoln. Lincoln worked for other landowners as well, splitting rails for homespun clothes as well as for money.
Lincoln gave his first political speech on Lincoln Square in that summer of 1830, the event now commemorated by of a statue of the young orator. The story is told by John Hanks that Lincoln was breaking sod for his cousin, William Hanks on his farm located near the square of the fledgling town when he heard a crowd gathered to listen to two Democratic candidates speaking. They were a legislator, Joseph Posey and W. D. L. Ewing, one of the leading Democrats in the state. Lincoln wandered over to hear their speeches and then stood on a stump and responded with a speech of his own. The subject of Lincoln’s speech was improvement of the Sangamon for navigation, a subject important to Whig voters. At this point Lincoln was not even able to vote because of the residence requirement, and yet he was making a political speech. A mere four years later he was elected to the Illinois Legislature. Lincoln and Ewing clashed bitterly after Lincoln became a member of the House of Representatives.
Seven years after the confrontation between the unpolished speaker from the nearby farm field and the seasoned politician, Lincoln defeated Ewing’s efforts to keep the state capital in Ewing’s home town of Vandalia. Lincoln was the floor leader of the bill moving the state capital to his own town of Springfield. In 1838 Lincoln was the leader of the minority party, the Whigs, and Ewing the majority party, the Democrats. In that term and again in 1840, Ewing defeated Lincoln for Speaker of the House. In February of 1839, Lincoln was to write his law partner, John T. Stuart with uncharacteristic rancor, “Ewing won’t do anything. He is not worth a damn.”
Lincoln soon became part of the young community, attending socials as well as a wedding at the Bethel Church south of the river. In May of 1830, he was one of a number of signatories on a petition to change the voting place from a private home to the courthouse in Decatur. In December of that year, he was requested to appraise an “Estray Mare” by the County Clerk, suggesting confidence in the young new arrival.
It was a difficult year for the Lincoln’s. The prairies of central Illinois were not only morained ridges, but also numerous bogs and swampy, wet prairie which brought swarms of mosquitoes in late summer. All the settlers suffered that time of year and into the fall from the “Illinois Shakes” or ague which was a form of malaria. The victims of the disease suffered alternating chills and fevers, weakened by it. It wreaked havoc on the settlers. The most common medicine for the affliction was Peruvian Bark and whiskey. The records of the Renshaw store in Decatur show purchases by the Lincoln family of this medicine on August 10th and August 28th.
The malaria subsided as winter came on, but that was the year of “the Deep Snow” 1830-31, a brutal winter that the era’s pioneers all remembered and loved to describe years later. The Lincoln’s had a rough time in that winter of snow.
The first snowfall was in December and by the middle of February there had been nineteen separate snowfalls. The weather went days without sunshine as snow piled on snow three or four feet deep with drifting twice or three times that depth. Wild game was substantially obliterated by the weather conditions and food became scarcer and scarcer as the temperature fell below zero for extended periods. Lincoln and John Hanks struggled across the Sangamon - a distance of four miles east to a grist mill to get corn ground. The proprietor would go in the field following his oxen back and forth in an effort to expose corn on the ground from underneath the snow. The young men told Smith they were there because they had run out of corn.
Lincoln described the unpleasantness of this year as follows, “In the Autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with ague and fever to which they had not been used and by which they were greatly discouraged – so much so that they determined on leaving the county. They remained however through the succeeding winter which was the winter of the very celebrated “deep snow” of Illinois.”
Spring came and Thomas Lincoln and the rest of the family immediately began planning their exodus. As soon as feasible, he and the family picked up stakes, abandoning the cabin and heading southeast to Coles County where Thomas and Sarah were to live the rest of their lives. In the meantime, John Hanks negotiated an agreement with Dennis Offut of Springfield for Offut to hire Hanks and his friends Lincoln and John D. Johnston to float a flat boat to New Orleans.
Lincoln described the departure by stating, “During that winter, A. together with his stepmother’s son, John D. Johnston and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to one Dennis Offut, to take a flat boat from Beardstown to New Orleans, and for that purpose, were to join him – Offut - at Springfield Ills. so soon as the snow should go off. When it did go off which was about the first of March 1831 - the county was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable, to obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe and came down the Sangamon River in it. This is the time and manner of A.’s first entrance into Sangamon County.”
Thus ended Lincoln’s year in Macon County. He was not to return for seven years until he came to practice law; the profession he had adopted during the interim. The year had been eventful. Lincoln showed glimpses of the qualities that would lift him to the White House thirty years later – extremely hardworking and diligent, honest and reliable, confident, and socially able to connect with the influential people wherever he was.
LINCOLN THE LAWYER
The Decatur to which Lincoln returned seven years later had grown some, but remained a sleepy village. The hope for navigation on the Sangamon never developed. The population tripled to about 300. Court was still being held in the log building at the southwest corner of Lincoln Square. This two-story log building was under construction on the square when the Lincoln’s arrived in 1830. John Hanks had worked on its construction and it is possible, though never to be known with certainty, that Lincoln also worked on the building. The reconstructed building now stands at the Macon County Historical Museum attended by a fine statue of Abraham Lincoln by Decatur native John McLeary. It is believed that Lincoln appeared for the last Circuit court session held in that building. Across the street at the southeast corner, the new brick courthouse was nearing completion when Lincoln arrived. In March of 1837 Leonides Munsell of Paris was selected to build the new brick courthouse. The contract specified that it was to “be equal to or superior to the McLean County courthouse.” In fact Munsell built the courthouse in Bloomington in 1836 after building the courthouses of Paris and Shelbyville in 1832 and Charleston in 1835. All of them were made of brick and of the coffee mill construction, square with a cupola in the center. The Macon County courthouse was 32 feet square and was built at a cost of $10,000. The first floor was offices with the courtroom on the second floor.
Unlike many of the region’s counties, Decatur had two resident lawyers at the time of Lincoln’s professional arrival. The county’s first lawyer was Charles Emerson, who arrived in Decatur in 1834. A native of New Hampshire he was educated at Illinois College in Jacksonville. He practiced in Decatur until he moved to Paris in 1847, only to return to Decatur in 1850 when he was elected to the Legislature. He became Circuit Judge when Macon County was removed from the Circuit in 1854.
The other resident lawyer at this time was Kirby Benedict, a native of Connecticut, he came to Sangamon County in 1834 and then on to Macon in 1835 where he practiced law until 1849 when he also moved to Paris. Benedict traveled the Circuit as did Emerson. Benedict was an active Democrat. In 1853 Benedict was appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court by President Franklin Pierce and Chief Justice three years later by President James Buchanan. Benedict apparently went to see Lincoln about his reappointment in 1862 which Lincoln did. When an effort was made to unseat Benedict two years later, he wrote Lincoln soliciting his support. Lincoln’s response is unknown although Benedict was not replaced.
Both attorneys were frequently involved in cases with Lincoln, both with him and in opposition to him on numerous occasions. Emerson opposed him more than any other lawyer in Macon County.
Decatur’s third lawyer was Joel S. Post who was also frequently involved with Lincoln both on the same side and also opposing him. Post was Decatur’s first school teacher arriving in 1839. He studied in the office of Charles Emerson before becoming an attorney in 1841. He served in the Mexican War in 1846 and was elected to the State Senate where he served from 1856 to 1860, a staunch Democrat. Lawyers from around the Circuit also came to the Macon County Circuit Court, including such notables as Anthony Thornton of Shelbyville and Benjamin Edwards of Springfield.
The foundation of Lincoln’s practice was the Eighth Judicial Circuit. The courts of the state were divided into circuits, each with one Circuit judge and one state’s attorney for the entire Circuit. The Eighth was formed in 1839. The Circuit was 10,000 square miles, twice the size of Connecticut and ran from the Indiana line to the Illinois River. The length of the entire Circuit was variously described at 400-500 miles depending on the route taken. The Judge, David Davis, who was elected in 1848, would travel from county to county every spring and fall for consecutive court sessions. He was accompanied by some of the lawyers who practiced beyond their own county. Lincoln was one of these and the only one who rode the entire Circuit.
The trip to Decatur was on the return from the eastern counties, Paris to Shelbyville across the Okaw to Sullivan and then back across the Okaw on the same road that Lincoln and his family had traveled in 1830. “The trip was arduous and even treacherous.” Most of the roads were mere traces and there were many streams and rivers to cross. David Davis, with whom Lincoln generally traveled and stayed, recalled he and Lincoln arriving at the swollen Sangamon River after dark one year. Lincoln suggested waiting for daylight before attempting to cross. The Judge, anxious to be in court the next morning, ignored Lincoln and plunged into the river. He couldn’t find a way out on the other side so he returned to where Lincoln was. He then rode downstream a distance, got back in the river, and found a way to get out on the other side. He then lit a fire to guide Lincoln.
From Decatur the lawyers recrossed the Sangamon regaining the Springfield Road and heading west taking the Mount Auburn Road then south to Taylorville, county seat of Christian County. On each county line, east and west, there is a marker marking where Lincoln and his fellow traveling lawyers crossed the county line. On the Moultrie Macon County line it is on Moultrie County Road 2400, two miles west of Lake City, on the very same stretch of road that was part of the Lincoln family trail on their move to Macon County in 1831. On the Macon Christian County line, the marker is located on the Mount Auburn Road known as Macon County Road 1100. These were placed in 1922 along with a marker at every courthouse site where Lincoln practiced. Some time in the past, that marker for the Decatur Courthouse in which Lincoln practiced, has been moved to Milliken Park.
Lincoln’s Macon County practice was not as voluminous as that in other counties of the Circuit, but followed the same pattern, fairly mundane and ordinary. It was overwhelmingly civil with very little in the nature of criminal cases. Lincoln handled more collection cases than any other type of work. Other subjects of his cases included contract litigation, real estate title disputes, suits from other damages, will contests, divorce, injunctions, and chancery matters.
Slander cases, uncommon today, were much more common in Lincoln’s day. In his first court term in Decatur, Lincoln and his first partner, John Stuart, defended slander actions brought by Kirby Benedict against their client named Moore. Moore had stated that Benedict’s unmarried client, Margaret Patterson, was pregnant and because she wasn’t she sued for slander. The jury returned a verdict against Lincoln’s clients for $808.44, though a lesser amount was paid in satisfaction of the case. Slander was the gist of an interesting pair of cases brought by David Akin against clients of Lincoln’s and Charles Emerson’s. In both cases Lincoln’s clients alleged that Akin’s had stolen some hogs. The first case resolved in June of 1839. Akin’s was represented by Kirby Benedict and Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln’s long time political adversary. The jury found for Lincoln’s client, Robert Hines in that case. The second case was in the fall of 1839 and Benedict sued Lincoln and Emerson’s client Levi Meisenhilder. He likewise accused Akin of stealing hogs. The case was dismissed by agreement of the parties at the October session of the Circuit Court. In an added twist, after defending two men who had charged Akin with stealing hogs, Lincoln was appointed by the Court to defend Akin on a larceny indictment in which he was likewise accused of stealing hogs. The case was tried in that same October term and the jury found Lincoln’s client not guilty.
Slander cases were not always lucrative. In 1850 Lincoln and Emerson recovered five cents for their client William Hill.
In 1849 William Warnick engaged Lincoln and Joel Post to handle a case to recover some land that had been taken from him in payment of a judgment. One can imagine Lincoln’s pride when the man for whom he had once worked as a field hand engaged him on an important piece of litigation.
Lincoln frequently was hired by counties and their officials, an indication of his prominence. In 1856 Lincoln defended Christian County in a contract action arising from the construction of that county’s courthouse in a case entitled Christian County, Illinois v. Overholt and Squier. A change of venue brought the case to Macon County. A Macon County jury found against Lincoln’s client, but on appeal the county won the case in the Supreme Court for which Lincoln received a total fee of $50. In 1852 he represented the sheriff of Macon County, Samuel Rea in an action over the proceeds of a sheriff’s sale of real estate.
Lincoln would never let a social cause in which he was interested interfere with his law practice. An example is the case of Sullivan v. People. Lincoln was a temperance advocate, but he took cases like this one defending a man for the unlicensed sale of alcohol. His co-counsel was Richard J. Oglesby. Lincoln lost the case in the State Supreme Court in 1853.
John Hanks and his nephew Joshua Hanks went to the gold fields in 1850. John sent Joshua back to Illinois with $205 worth of gold to deliver to his wife. Joshua failed to deliver the gold. John engaged Lincoln in 1852 to recover the money. A note was given for the debt so the suit was dismissed. When Joshua failed to pay the note a year later, John sued again, this time using Joel Post, because Lincoln was a witness. Judgment was confessed against Joshua.
In 1855 Lincoln represented three plaintiffs in a suit against the Great Western railroad in a dispute arising over property they had given to the railroad for the depot. Ultimately Lincoln’s clients dismissed the case in 1857. Two of the plaintiffs were among Decatur’s most prominent citizens, William Martin and Henry Prather. The third was Richard J. Gatling, inventor of the legendary Gatling Gun, patented in 1862. When it was turned down for testing by the War Department, Gatling appealed directly to then President Lincoln, apparently to no avail. His other inventions included screw propellers for vessels and agricultural implements. He had manufacturing plants in St. Louis and Indianapolis, but his connection with Decatur is not clear.
In 1838, Lincoln and John T. Stuart, his first partner, persuaded the court to dismiss a case of attempted murder where their client, David Cordell, allegedly struck his victim with a sythe in an effort to kill him.
In 1854, Lincoln defended a murder case on a change of venue from Piatt County in the case of People v. Longnecker, where Lincoln’s client stabbed his victim to death in a fight. Lincoln was one of fourteen members of the Bar who petitioned the State’s Attorney to drop the case, which he did. Lincoln’s co-counsel on the case were Richard J. Oglesby and Joel Post.
His attendance at the sessions of the Macon County Circuit Court was its heaviest during the years when he reapplied himself to his practice, 1849 to 1854. At Davis’ request Lincoln drafted legislation, which was passed, cutting the size of the burgeoning Circuit because of it growth and the ever increasing volume of cases. Six counties, including Macon were eliminated from the Circuit. As a result Lincoln’s volume of work in the county dropped dramatically after 1853.
However, the relationship established by his lawyering in Decatur served him well throughout his time in Illinois and he continued to be thought of as part of the legal community in Decatur. In 1862 as Lincoln dragged his feet on the appointment of David Davis to the United States Supreme Court, the Macon County Bar Association submitted a petition supporting Davis’ candidacy. It included the signatures of Emerson, Post, Sheridan Wait, and Jerome T. Gorin.
DECATUR’S GROWTH
The growth and development of Decatur was slow and gradual. The county’s population increased from 1,122 in 1830 to 3,233 in 1840 to only 3,988 in 1850. Still, it was small by comparison to the 1850 population in other counties; Shelby County, 7,800; McLean County, 10,100; and Sangamon County, 19,100. Nevertheless, some of the citizens who would play a major part in the development of Decatur arrived in the 1830’s. Richard J. Oglesby, an orphan boy of twelve, to be Decatur’s most influential politician of the 19th Century, arrived in 1836. E. O. Smith, a native of Maryland, arrived in 1837. He became known as the builder of Decatur, figuratively and literally, building many of the early brick buildings in the 1840’s including the Macon House and the first Opera House. He built Urbana’s first brick courthouse in 1848. He was an active Whig elected to the Constitutional Convention of 1848 and also the Illinois State Senate. He was a supporter of Abraham Lincoln as early as the 1840’s. In 1839 Smith and J. J. Peddecord started the first ox mill for the grinding of the grain.
The city’s first good hotel, The Macon House, started in 1839 at the intersection of Franklin and Prairie Street, two stories high with twelve rooms. Stores and a handful of other businesses were started so that by 1840: “It was beginning to take on the appearance of a town.”
The ‘40’s saw this minimal growth continue. In 1842 the Krones took over the Macon House running it until 1850. During the period it was an island of comfort for the traveling lawyers because of the quality of the food and accommodations. In 1849 Davis refers to the tavern as, “first rate.” Jane M. Johns tells of a pleasant occasion at the Macon House in 1849. She and her husband, the influential H. C. Johns, arrived from their large farm in Piatt County to settle in Decatur. He was a prominent Whig politician and an avid supporter of Lincoln. While waiting for the construction of their home to be completed, they stayed at the Macon House, an oasis in the wilderness of miserable inns at which the lawyers were usually compelled to put up. During court week Mrs. Johns’ piano was delivered in a wagon to the front door of the hotel, a Gilbert Piano from Boston that had arrived via the Ohio and Wabash Rivers to Crawfordsville, Indiana and then by wagon to Decatur. At the suggestion of the landlord, she waited for the attorneys’ return to the hotel after court adjournment for manpower to unload the instrument. Lincoln agreed to help and went to the basement to find two timbers to roll the piano from wagon to steps and into the hotel. He did this with the help of attorney Leonard Swett of Bloomington and Usher Linder of Charleston. That night Mrs. Johns played for the lawyers of the Eighth Judicial Circuit and accompanied their singing.
The somnolent town did get its first newspaper in 1851 when James Shoaf started his Shoaf’s Family Gazette in 1851. This enterprise lasted until 1856. Shoaf was married to the daughter of Dennis Hanks, Nancy. In a letter to Abraham Lincoln in 1864 displays Shoaf’s view of their relationship. It refers to Lincoln as, “Uncle Abe” reminding Lincoln that they had called him that when Lincoln, “used to sit around our table in our humble cottage.” Shoaf was seeking the position of postmaster in Decatur. Lincoln did not honor his request.
Mrs. Johns’ colorful description of Decatur and the environs gives a picture of the place before the arrival of the railroads in 1854. She said it looked like an abandoned effort to build a city. The prairie surrounding the town had wolves, “lurking in thickets of tall grass.” There were wild turkeys, sand hill cranes, and prairie chickens all in great abundance. “Wild pigeons so dense as to cast a shadow like a passing cloud.”
It is reasonable to surmise that the Decatur at the end of the 1840’s and in the early 1850’s was not a promising venue. Its two leading attorneys had left for Paris, Illinois and a number of its leading citizens, including Oglesby, Smith, Prather, Peddecord, and John Hanks had gone to the California gold fields.
THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
This flagging town was instantly transformed by the coming of the railroads. The Great Western arrived from the west in April of 1854, its progress slowed by the considerable amount of work necessary to fill the valley of Stevens Creek. This difficult work was done by gangs of Irish and Germans which led to battles between the two ethnic contingents.
The Illinois Central arrived from Clinton on October 18, 1854. E. O. Smith was responsible for convincing officials of the Illinois Central Railroad to bring it to Decatur rather than six miles west of the city as originally planned. Soon the town had various manufacturing concerns, lumberyards, a brewery, wood mills. The town’s second newspaper was founded in 1855, the Illinois State Chronicle, with its publisher William J. Usery.
The Illinois Central built a large depot at the intersection of the two railroads in 1855. It was two stories high with a three story octagonal tower and was shared by both railroads; it had a hotel. Additions were added to the east and south ends of the Macon House as well as a third floor so it became a hotel of sixty rooms. In 1854 another major hotel was constructed known as the Cassel House. It was located at the southeast corner of the courthouse square, in 1857 the fairgrounds were laid out. The Legislature provided for public schools in 1855 and Decatur’s first school was built in 1857 known as the Big Brick. All of this activity sparked by the railroads made Decatur a suitable stage for political activity in the volatile 1850’s. Its population quadrupled during the decade.
The leading political figure of Decatur emerged in the 1850’s, Richard J. Oglesby. Throughout Lincoln’s career, it seemed almost providentially that there was a Lincoln supporter in a vital position to advance Lincoln’s course; such a man was Richard J. Oglesby. He was to become one of the giants of Illinois politics of the second half of the 19th century. Although he was not one of the handful of the inner circle of Lincoln’s supporters, he was to play a key role in Lincoln’s rise to power.
His life parallels Lincoln’s. He was born in 1824 in Kentucky with minimal schooling and was orphaned; coming to Decatur in 1836. He was admitted to the practice of law in 1845 and then went off to fight the Mexican War where he served with valor. After a short period of practicing law after the war, he left Decatur for the gold fields of California where he made a small fortune selling equipment to miners, delivering mail, and hauling for them. He then returned to the practice of law with the stake he had earned in California, practicing in Piatt and Macon counties. He formed a partnership in 1853 with Sheridan Wait. The two of them practiced in cases opposed to Lincoln as well as an association with Lincoln.
His political career and that of Lincoln were closely intertwined. He recalled first hearing Lincoln speak in 1840 in Decatur when Lincoln was campaigning for Benjamin Harrison, the Whig Presidential candidate. The two worked together for the election of Richard Yates as Governor in 1854 and Oglesby supported Lincoln’s unsuccessful bid for the U. S. Senate in 1855. Like Lincoln he was opposed to the extension of slavery but was a moderate in his views on abolition.
As the Civil War broke out, he raised ten companies and became a brigade commander, fighting at Fort Henry and Donaldson before being seriously wounded at Shiloh in Tennessee. Following the Civil War he was elected as Illinois Governor on three different occasions. His forceful leadership as governor in 1865 caused Illinois to become the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment constitutionally affirming the Emancipation Proclamation, a significant endorsement of Lincoln’s racial policies coming from his home state.
THE ANTI-NEBRASKA MEETING
Stephen A. Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and its threat to extend slavery had splintered the existing political parties dividing the dominant parties, Whigs and Democrats into two camps, anti-slavery and pro-slavery. Both camps were shaded with varying degrees of moderation and radicalism. Efforts were being made nationally as well as in Illinois, to bring together the disparate groups who had fallen off from these two parties in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
One of the significant mileposts on Lincoln’s road to the White House occurred in Decatur in early 1856. In late 1855 Paul Selby in his Jacksonville, Illinois newspaper, The Morgan Journal, called for all the Illinois anti-Nebraska editors to meet to consider uniting the opponents to the Douglas proposal. Other editors included Charles Ray of the increasingly influential Chicago Press and Tribune, the Springfield Journal endorsed the idea. William Usrey of the relatively new Illinois State Chronicle in Decatur endorsed the idea on December 6, 1855 calling for such a meeting. He proposed that the meeting be held in Decatur because of the convenient railroad access and central location and proposed that all the sympathetic newspapers issue a call for such a meeting. Twenty-five papers endorsed the idea. The organizers made sure Lincoln was able to attend, being the only non-newspaper man invited to do so. He had refused to attend a similar organizational meeting in 1854 because it was pro-abolition and too radical for Lincoln’s views. Usery formed a committee of Decatur leaders to put on a dinner after the meeting. Included on the committee was C. Jones, Everett O. Smith, Isaac Pugh, William Martin, and James Goran, all Lincoln’s friends. A major snow reduced the number attending on February 22nd to twelve editors.
The meeting was held at the Cassell House in Lincoln Square. The committee on resolutions in whose deliberation Lincoln was permitted to participate, laid down the relatively moderate principles that would chart the course for the new fusion party throughout the next four years. Its relatively moderate views were entirely consistent with those of Lincoln, to-wit:
1. There was to be no interference with the institution of slavery where it existed.
2. There was to be strong opposition of the extension of slavery into any other territories and the line of the Missouri Compromise should be restored.
3. It was resolved that a state delegate convention was to be held in Bloomington in May 1856 in anticipation of the national convention of the anti-Nebraska forces..
The productive meeting was followed by a banquet at which the eloquent Richard J. Oglesby presided. Following Oglesby’s remarks the principle speaker was Lincoln, a wonderful opportunity to promote his leadership considering the influence of the editors present. The Bloomington Pantagraph would pine regarding the success of the meeting on February 27th. “We rejoiced that the movement has manifested a firm and moderate spirit, such as will confute their enemies and secure the sympathies and confidence of the people.” Oglesby took himself out of any key role on the Central Committee at this point when he resigned in order to take at trip to Europe and the Holy Land that lasted until December of 1857.
Significantly the national anti-Nebraska leaders met in Pittsburgh at the same time and issued a call for a national convention which was to be held in Philadelphia in June of 1856.
As May 29th approached, Lincoln had been in court in Danville. In order to get to Bloomington, he took the train to Decatur to get on a train north the next day. He was accompanied by a number of attorneys from the east side of the state including Joseph O. Cunningham and Henry Clay Whitney of Urbana. They both recalled casually strolling from the Union Depot to the Square where they were staying at the Cassell House that night. Lincoln pointed out the spot where he spent that first night twenty-six years earlier. He told them where he had crossed the Sangamon to enter the tiny hamlet of Decatur in 1830 and then he reminisced about his early days in the small community. The entourage then strolled to the timber along the Sangamon River where they relaxed. Lincoln enjoyed the leisurely review of his younger days.
The May 29th Convention in Bloomington was a rousing success in which the Republican Party in the state of Illinois was firmly established. The platform adopted there expanded the preliminary work done at the Decatur meeting three months earlier by Lincoln and his committee. The highlight of the Convention was Lincoln’s legendary “Lost Speech” which elevated him to the leadership of the new crusading party in Illinois. Six days later Lincoln was back in Decatur and spoke at the courthouse. The State Chronicle reported that, “His exposition…produced an excellent effect.”
On June 17th, 1856 John C. Fremont was nominated at the Republican Convention in Philadelphia. H. C. Johns of Decatur was a member of the Illinois delegation. During the proceedings Lincoln had received 110 votes for Vice President indicative of his rising national prominence. Lincoln campaigned relentlessly around the state for the Fremont ticket making over fifty speeches. The major rally in Decatur was held on September 24th. Lincoln arrived on the Illinois Central and joined the other speakers for dinner at the home of Dr. H. C. Johns. The number at the rally was approximately 1,500. There was a number of speakers including Lincoln who merely spoke briefly on that occasion. The State Chronicle queried rhetorically, “…and who in Macon County does not know and respect Abe Lincoln?” Fremont carried neither the nation, Illinois, or Macon County, but Lincoln’s prominence in his campaign in Illinois furthered his own political ascent.
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS CAMPAIGN
1858 was the classic confrontation between the relative upstart of Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, the leading politician in the country. On July 10, 1858 William J. Usery, unrelenting in his support of Lincoln, wrote a letter to Lincoln politely but firmly suggesting that Douglas was getting the early upper hand and urging that Lincoln meet Douglas in a regular debate, which they of course did seven times around the state. The closest to Decatur was the Charleston Debate where Richard J. Oglesby also appeared on the speaker’s platform as the Republican candidate for Congress. The only campaign appearance by Lincoln in Macon County was on November 1, 1858, Lincoln’s last speech of the campaign. He gave it on the third floor of the new Powers Hall in the 100 block of East Main, a building which stood the pressures of time until it was torn down in 1976. After the speech Lincoln and his friends repaired to the Revere House. Both Lincoln and Oglesby lost their respective races.
DECATUR CONVENTION AND THE 1860 ELECTION
Lincoln’s loss to Douglas only temporarily slowed his rise. In fact his success in going head to head with Douglas gained him national recognition and made him a dark horse candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. Lincoln and his lieutenants continued to plot their strategy. On February 8, 1860 the Republican State Central Committee met in Springfield and picked the time for the state convention and the place – Decatur. The objections to the booming city’s lack of capacity to handle the crowds that would be drawn by the Convention, were overcome by the central nature of the site and easy rail access. It was good for Lincoln being in the heart of the area of the state where Lincoln was strongest – the Eighth Judicial Circuit. The date for the State Convention was eventually set for May 9th, a week before the National Republican Convention in Chicago.
Richard J. Oglesby was not a delegate, but he was placed in charge of arrangements. He ultimately raised $257 from local businessmen and the total money expended was $170 for convention expenses. The problem of finding a place large enough to hold the crowds was solved by the engagement of local builder D. C. Shockley. Oglesby borrowed the lumber needed for construction of the frame between the two buildings on Park Street across from the new Central Park. He also borrowed a large circus tent which was erected over the frame. The makeshift structure was 100 feet east and west and 70 feet deep. The speaker’s platform was at the south wall. The canvas ceiling was so low that a tall man on the platform almost touched it. It was called the Wigwam, as was the more permanent structure being built for the Chicago Convention. The name came from New York state designating buildings constructed for political meetings.
Trains and roads were jammed as people flocked into the city of 3,800, the convention drawing perhaps 5,000 visitors. It was the largest meeting of its type in the history of the state. The citizens of Decatur responded to the challenge opening their homes to accommodate some of those who weren’t able to find hotel accommodations. Delegates started arriving on May 7th. Lincoln himself arrived on May 8th and ended up staying at the Junction House sharing a room with delegates N. M. Knapp and John Moses of Winchester.
The Convention convened on May 9th, there were 700 delegates from all the counties of the state except one in southern Illinois. There were reports of 2,500 to 3,000 people packing into the hall. That day Lincoln posed for a photograph at the request of Decatur photographer Edward A. Barnwell. His daughter Grace presented the photograph to the Decatur Public Library in 1947.
The Convention was loaded for Lincoln from the beginning. The initial presiding officer John Palmer and also its permanent President, Joseph Gillespie, a long time Lincoln associate in politics as well as on the Eighth Judicial Circuit, were strong Lincoln men. Lincoln was present just inside the back door as the afternoon session started. From the floor Oglesby introduced Lincoln which caused an ovation to erupt. Lincoln was thrust forward, some reports say he was actually even lifted over the crowd and passed to the platform. As if this wasn’t enough what followed was to become one of the most significant events of the entire election. Interestingly, it had been vaguely forecast in the May 4th issue of the Illinois State Journal by the Decatur correspondent. Oglesby again arose and this time he introduced the lifelong Democrat John Hanks. Hanks entered the hall with another carrying two split rail with a banner stretched between them that stated:
Abraham Lincoln
The Rail Candidate
Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830 by Thos.
Hanks (sic) and Abe Lincoln whose father was the
first pioneer of Macon County (sic)
The inaccuracies in the banner were of no note. All accounts describe the “prolonged” and “deafening” response of the crowd which lasted for more than 10 to 15 minutes. In the wild melee of the demonstration, a part of the canvas roof collapsed. The cheers didn’t raise the roof, they caused it to fall in part. Lincoln acknowledged that if these weren’t the actual rails, they certainly were like many that he had done which again set the hall off in explosion of cheering.
After the Convention had adjourned that first day, Lincoln met with several friends in a grove near the Wigwam. Relaxing in the grass, Lincoln handpicked the at large delegates for the National Convention, including David Davis. He and his advisors then planned the strategy for the next day including a resolution for unit support by the entire delegation to be submitted to the full convention.
The Convention was a lock; not only would it endorse Lincoln the next day, which had been anticipated, but it did so unanimously with instruction to the delegation to vote as a unit and failed to mention any alternate candidate. An effort by Seward supporters to object was drowned out in the tidal wave of Lincoln sentiment stoked by the intense Lincoln demonstrations.
Decatur banker Lowber Burroughs recounted that after the nomination resolution was passed, he went to retrieve Lincoln and found him asleep on a couch in the back of the Peake Jewelry Store next door. Lincoln was rushed over to the convention for a brief statement of thanks.
The Decatur Convention gave Lincoln a substantial advantage over his opponents, who each had some minority division within his own delegation. Lincoln was no longer a mere favored son. He was now cast as a strong viable candidate for the National Convention the following week. He was no longer just a politician seeking the nomination. He was the Rail Splitter. That simple ploy of Oglesby’s instantly created the image of the common man, one of the people, the advocate of free labor, a powerful force in that time.
When the convention broke up, Davis was off to Chicago on Saturday of that week to set up his headquarters and orchestrate the pursuit of the nomination by his team which consisted mostly of central Illinois lawyers, including Decatur’s Oglesby whose role is not certain. The other candidates arriving in Chicago were unaware of the Lincoln boom resulting from the Decatur Convention as these rails popped up all over the city. Lincoln upset the favored candidate and the race was on against the split Democratic Party, Stephen A. Douglas, the nominee of the main body of the Democrats.
The rail became the most noted symbol of Lincoln’s candidacy and helped sweep him into the White House. They cropped up everywhere; at campaign parades, rallies, and other events. There is little doubt of the authenticity of the original rails. Oglesby was looking for some creative idea to epitomize the Lincoln candidacy and a few days before the Convention, he asked Hanks what kind of work Lincoln had done in his youth. Hanks told him of them splitting rails together. He and Oglesby went to the site of thirty years earlier and located the rails of locust and black walnut which they carried back to town and held for the session. Great demand was created for rails from all over the country and the two began collecting and selling them to Lincoln supporters. Ogeslby’s record account for the collecting and selling of 72 rails, the provenance of which is well established. The demand of the national campaign far surpassed the supply of actual Lincoln split rails so many supplied by others than Oglesby and Hanks were not genuine.
As was the custom of the day, Lincoln didn’t campaign so he did not return to Decatur before the election. The biggest campaign rally in Decatur for Lincoln was held on July 7th with 8,000 on hand. The following week the Decatur State Chronicle carried a letter from John Hanks responding to a story in a Columbus, Ohio newspaper that Hanks was in fact for Douglas. Acknowledging past support for Douglas, he refuted the charge and pledged his support to Lincoln. The letter, which was probably written for him by Oglesby, was disseminated around the country.
Lincoln, the President-elect, lost Macon County 1,541-1,501 votes. His old friend and in-law, though staunchly Democratic James Shoaf wrote Lincoln on November 14, 1860, “Dear Abe, Nancy wishes me to inform you that she had our cottage beautifully illuminated last night in honor of your election to the Presidency…your friends had a grand time here last night.”
LINCOLN’S FAREWELL
Lincoln’s last visit to Decatur occurred on the dismal, drizzling and cold day of February 11, 1861 as he made his way from Springfield to Washington. James Shoaf, now editor of the Democratic Magnet, urged all to come to see the man who would, “save the Union.” A large crowd gathered at the Union Station where the train stopped for a period of minutes. Lincoln spoke briefly from the back of the train and then came down to shake hand around, including that of a small boy who had cut across a field and through a ditch full of water to get close to Lincoln to whom Lincoln said, “My boy you must have wanted to see me pretty bad.” The train pulled out heading east for Lincoln to assume the Presidency and leadership of our nation in its time of crisis.
His old friend, Richard J. Oglesby, suffering from disease and wounds incurred in his gallant service in the war, attempted to resign his commission in June of 1863. Instead Lincoln gave him a leave of absence. Oglesby strenuously campaigned in support of the war in Illinois where opposition to the war was growing. In January of 1864 he returned to Washington on active duty and associated with Lincoln, Davis, and members of the Cabinet. He returned to Illinois and in May he was nominated for Governor on the ticket of the Union Party as the Republicans were called in that year of gathering support for the War. In November he and Lincoln were both pro-Union victors in the election.
He stayed in touch with Lincoln over the war years with occasional correspondence. He proudly telegraphed Lincoln the news that Illinois became the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment. On April 9, 1865 Lee surrendered. On the 11th Governor Oglesby left for Washington in order to seek reduction of the Illinois troop quotas, arriving on April 14th. After checking into the renowned Willard Hotel, he, I. N. Haynie, and Decatur’s Sheridan Wait, walked to the White House, arriving a little after 5. The President, Mary, and Tad had just returned from a carriage ride. Lincoln spotted his old friends and called them to join him. They followed him into his quarters where they discussed the war and the coming peace. Lincoln protested as Oglesby attempted to leave and invited Oglesby to sit down while he read a number of chapters of humor from the popular humorist Petroleum V. Nasby. Lincoln laughed and joked as he read it. Finally after refusing to be interrupted by three increasingly insistent calls to dinner, Lincoln allowed Oglesby to take his leave as he shook hands with the relaxed and contented Lincoln. “We saw him no more,” said Oglesby later.
That evening Oglesby heard the awful news at the Willard Hotel within a half an hour after Booth’s shot. He and Haynie rushed to the Pederson House where he was admitted to that now sacred room at 11 p.m. Oglesby, along with a number of others, stayed by the fallen leader’s side until he drew his last mortal breath at 7:22 a.m. April 15, when Stanton uttered the awful truth, “Now he belongs to the Ages.”
It was altogether appropriate that Oglesby, the Governor of Illinois and a denizen of the old Eighth Judicial Circuit was there at that awful moment. He was surrogate for all the people and institutions of central Illinois to whom Lincoln had given so much and perhaps more importantly who had given so much to Lincoln.