Lincoln in Woodford County

Historical notes by Guy Fraker

Upon my admission to the Bar in 1858, I located at Metamora, a village of 500 inhabitants, about 40 miles northwest of Bloomington. It was beautifully and quietly situated eight miles from the railroad and was at the time the county seat of Woodford County, one of the finest agricultural portions of Illinois. Metamora contained many delightful families and a cordial welcome was accorded me.
Adlai Stevenson, I – 1909

Woodford County was part of the legendary Eighth Judicial Circuit, Abraham Lincoln’s professional home away from home throughout his legal career. Though smaller than the surrounding counties, it was only the fifth smallest county in the Circuit in both area and population. Lincoln traveled the Circuit from his admission to the Bar in 1837 until his nomination to the presidency in June of 1860. Woodford County was in the Circuit from its formation in 1841 until 1857. Thomas Bullock, a native of Versailles in Woodford County, Kentucky, led the effort to form Woodford County, Illinois. He had founded the hamlet of Versailles in now southern Woodford County in 1836 and he petitioned the legislature for the formation of the county in 1841, twenty-three years after Illinois statehood. It was carved out of Tazewell and McLean counties. Its settlers were predominantly from Kentucky like Bullock. The county was heavily Democratic and voted that way until after the Civil War. Lincoln’s Democratic opponents, Stephen A. Douglas in 1860 and George B. McClellan in 1864, both carried the county over Lincoln for president. This was true even though the state of Illinois went for Lincoln in both elections. Douglas garnered 54% of the Woodford vote and McClellan, somewhat surprisingly, 57%.

The act creating the County provided that Versailles would be the county seat for two years. It named three commissioners who then would hold a county-wide election to determine the location of the county seat. The election was held and the town of Hanover was selected. The move of the county seat sounded the death knell of Versailles. All that is left today of that hamlet is a stone placed at a rural “T” intersection approximately 80 years ago. Hanover had been called Black Partridge after a local Indian chief from the time of its original settlement in 1823-24. The name was changed to Hanover only to have to be changed again after several years when it was learned that there already was a Hanover in Illinois. Once that was determined, a new name had to be found. There was a popular play written in 1828 in the East about an apocryphal Indian chief named Metomocet, which meant, “Not dead but liveth again”. The name was selected for this town allegedly by the wife of Peter Willard, a prominent merchant and one day supporter of Lincoln’s.

A curious incident in the move was the transfer of the county records. Politics in those days was quite partisan. The opposition to the dominant Democrats was the Whigs, the party of Lincoln and the pre-cursor of the Republican Party. John J. Clark, County Clerk, later to be a supporter of Lincoln in the county, was a Whig. Samuel J. Cross, Circuit Clerk, was a Democrat. Neither trusted the other, so each got a group of political cronies and moved the records under his jurisdiction separately to their new home.

One of the conditions of the move was that the new county seat would have a suitable building to house the courts. Apparently there was none because the former schoolhouse in which court had been held in Versailles was put on runners and dragged to Metamora. It continued to provide a home for the courts there for two years until a new courthouse was built.

The new courthouse was built in 1845 at a cost of $4,500. Its style is classic revival Greek temple architecture fronted by four Ionic columns. It was built with local bricks and an additional brickyard was started to supply all the bricks demanded by the new building. The first floor contained county offices and the second floor contained the courtroom frequented by Lincoln. When the county seat was moved to Eureka in 1896, the building was deeded to the Village of Metamora. Changes were made to the building over the years; wings being added on each side. The stairwell, which was on the inside of the building in the back, was moved outside to the front. The Village turned it into a multiple purpose building known as the “Opera House”. It was used for a variety of purposes including dances, the first public movie to be shown in town, and high school graduations. The Annual Old Settlers Celebration in 1920 was held in the courthouse square across the street from the historic building. One of the speakers was Governor Joe Fifer of Bloomington who practiced law in the building after Lincoln’s time. He reminisced about his practice of law in that building and, noting its dilapidated condition, suggested conveyance to the state for restoration. Famous sculptor Loredo Taft, a native of Metamora and also a speaker, seconded this suggestion. The idea took hold and the new building was dedicated on August 25, 1921, again at the Old Settler’s Picnic where Fifer spoke again.

The Metamora Courthouse is one of only two courthouses in which Lincoln practiced that are still standing on their original sites, the other being Mount Pulaski in Logan County. The Christian County Courthouse of Lincoln’s era, a frame building, is still in existence but it has been moved to the edge of Taylorville in a historic park. It does not sit in its original location in the square. The original Logan County Courthouse was located in Postville, a town that pre-existed the city of Lincoln and is now part of south Lincoln. It was purchased by Henry Ford, dismantled, and reconstructed in his Greenfield village in Michigan. The Metamora Court House has recently gone through another extensive renovation and contains newly designed, informative, attractive exhibits about Lincoln and the Circuit. It is under the stewardship of the site custodian, Jean Myers.

At its largest, the Eighth Judicial Circuit consisted of fourteen counties, 10,000 square miles, twice the size of Connecticut. The lawyers made the trip around the Circuit every spring and fall spending approximately a week in each town. The trip was 400 – 500 miles and took 10 – 12 weeks. Metamora was one of the smallest towns in the Circuit and one of only a few that was never accessible by rail during Lincoln’s career. The traveling entourage of attorneys was led by David Davis of Bloomington, who was the circuit judge after 1848. He succeeded Samuel Treat, the Eighth’s first judge. Lincoln was one of the few lawyers who traveled the entire Circuit. The lawyers would come to Woodford County from Tazewell County, first Tremont and then Pekin after 1851. The route included a road from Washington to Metamora that is still in existence. There is a monument on the county line along that road to commemorate the passage of those intrepid circuit riders.

The court session would last for almost a week. That week had a festive atmosphere as people came from miles around to visit and socialize. After-court sessions at the local inn, the Metamora House, went long into the night as the attorneys and locals swapped yarns, told stories, gossiped and talked politics. The Metamora House was better known for its hospitality than its food. Noted national figure, Robert Ingersoll of Peoria practiced in Woodford County and stayed at the Metamora House. When seeing a centuries old tapestry in Windsor castle years later, he said it reminded him of the tablecloth of the Metamora House by the end of court week.

There were very few local lawyers. Most of them were from other towns such as Springfield, Bloomington and Peoria. Toward the end of Lincoln’s legal career, Adlai Stephenson, one day Vice President of the United States opened his law office in Metamora in 1858. His home in Metamora has now been restored and is open to the public. Stephenson moved to Bloomington 10 years later.

Lincoln was the center of all this activity and was popular in all the towns the lawyers visited. Because of his time in these towns, he came to know the residents and they him. His law business in Woodford County was like that in all the other counties – routine and mundane. He was simply a working lawyer handling a wide variety of cases. The cases he handled were overwhelmingly civil with a small amount of criminal business. Debt collection was the bulk of it, representing both sides in that. He handled a variety of other types of business including divorce, real estate, slander, mortgage foreclosure, breach of contract, tort litigation, and estate work.

One of his most noted cases in Woodford County was the murder case in which he defended the accused Melissa Goings in 1857. Goings, age 70, was married to Roswell Goings, a heavy drinker and abusive husband. During what was to be the last of many quarrels they had had over their years together, Roswell grabbed his wife by the neck. Freeing herself, Melissa grabbed a piece of firewood and struck him two blows inflicting a skull fracture from which he died. The bail originally posted was revoked and she was rushed to trial. There were substantial indications that the judge, who was not David Davis, was anxious to see her tried and convicted. The injustice of the case can be inferred from the fact that the sureties on her bond included two relatives of the deceased, Josephus Goings and Armstrong Goings. Bond was finally posted.

Lincoln took on the defense of Mrs. Goings in association with Welcome Brown, a lawyer from the east who was to become a county judge in Woodford County, and Henry Groves from Peoria. Lincoln was granted permission to consult with her in a room on the first floor of the courthouse. He returned to the courtroom without his client. What happened to cause her disappearance cannot be known with certainty, but local court officials told the story that Lincoln said she had asked for a drink of water and he responded that there was good water in Tennessee. After Lincoln left the room, she supposedly went out a first floor window, never to be seen in Illinois again.. Local court officials thought enough of the veracity of the story to later spread it in the official court records of the County. The proceedings to collect on the bond from those who had posted it were dropped on October 5, 1858 after Lincoln consulted with the state’s attorney the day before while in Metamora for a campaign speech. The state’s attorney dismissed the case entirely in 1859.

Only about 10% of Lincoln’s known cases in Woodford County were criminal. One was People vs. Pearl where Lincoln assisted David Campbell, the state’s attorney, in the successful prosecution of the defendant for “keeping a disorderly house that encouraged drinking”. Several years earlier in 1850, Lincoln unsuccessfully defended Francis Miller who was prosecuted for, “keeping a gaming house, opening a tippling house on the Sabbath and keeping a disorderly house”. During this period harboring a fugitive slave was a crime even though Illinois was, of course, a free state. In 1845 Lincoln defended two cases prosecuted by Campbell charging the defendant with a harboring a slave. A jury found the defendant James Kern not guilty in the first case. The second case was dismissed without trial. Both cases were in Woodford County on a change of venue from Tazewell County, a ploy frequently utilized by Lincoln.

Lincoln’s frequent engagement by local officials and units of government seen in other counties was repeated in Woodford County. In 1854 he represented the sheriff of Tazewell County in a civil suit involving alleged wrongful seizures of goods by the sheriff. The sheriff ultimately confessed judgment in the nominal amount of $.01. Lincoln represented the next sheriff of Tazewell County in a similar case as well. Both of these were in Woodford County on a change of venue. In 1853 responding to a petition by thirty county residents, the county commissioners laid out a road from Walnut Grove, one day Eureka, to Metamora. One of the affected landowners, unsatisfied with the $25 the commissioners awarded him for damages to his land sued the county. The county engaged Lincoln to defend the case. The jury found for the landowner and awarded him $296.85. On the other hand, a year earlier, Lincoln had sued the county for a landowner in a similar case and was able to recover damages for that landowner.

Lincoln’s civil practice included the defense of the putitive father of a child born out of wedlock. The case was brought by Asahel Gridley of Bloomington representing the mother. It was settled. A year later Lincoln represented a jilted woman in a breach of promise case he brought which was also settled. The defendant’s attorney in that case was the prominent Norman Purple of Peoria.

The lawyer appearing against Lincoln the most frequently in Woodford County was Purple. Asahel Gridley of Bloomington most frequently appeared both in association with, and opposed to, Lincoln. Some of the other lawyers appearing in cases involving Lincoln in this county were his good friend James C. Conkling of Springfield and Stephen Logan, his second partner, also of Springfield. Another lawyer who was involved frequently with Lincoln was Simon Shope, a Kentucky native and resident of Woodford County who served as the chairman of the Board of Supervisors of the county.

In style of practice and demeanor, the lawyers practicing in Woodford County ran the gamut from the scholarly Purple to the colorful Schopp. Purple was a native of New York who came to Peoria after practicing in Pennsylvania for seven years. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Illinois and served until the new selection process was incorporated in the Constitution of 1848. He published two scholarly works. One was a compilation of the real estate statutes of Illinois from the time of the Northwest Territory to the date of publication which was 1849. The other was a compilation of the Statutes of the State of Illinois published in 1856 was served as a reference book for lawyers into the 20th century.

Purple assisted Lincoln in the recovery of his $5,000 fee that he charged the Illinois Central for his success in stopping McLean County from taxing railroad real estate. This was probably one of the largest fees ever charged anywhere and certainly in Illinois. When the railroad refused to pay the fee charged, Lincoln had to sue to collect in McLean County. To support the reasonableness of the fee given the importance of the case and the value of Lincoln’s effort, he put in evidence an affidavit as to its reasonableness. It was signed by five prominent lawyers including Norman Purple.

At the other end of the spectrum was Shope, a large man of at least 250 pounds. Once in the middle of an argument to a jury he was held in contempt of court because of his behavior. The judge ordered him removed from the courtroom to serve three hours in jail for his conduct. In response Schopp laid down and it took several deputies to get him removed bodily from the courtroom. During the serving of the three hour sentence, the court was in recess. When the three hours expired, he returned to resume his argument stating “as I was saying before I was interrupted by the court…”.

The population of these counties, such as Woodford, was fairly transient because of the frontier nature of the place. So many people came and went over the years. Lincoln, however, was a fixture in these towns at the court sessions for 20 years and thus was very much a part of the communities. Woodford County was removed from the Circuit in 1857 so his visits were very limited after that. A review of Lincoln’s method of operating in the counties where he practiced law in the Circuit, shows a pattern. He associated and was well known to the leading citizens of each county. He often represented some of the wealthiest and most influential individuals in each county.

After the court session of one week or less, they would ride 30 miles to their next venue in Bloomington. The ride would take them on a ridge to the southeast, then following along beautiful timbered Walnut Creek as it wound its way through the present site of Eureka past Walnut Grove Academy, Eureka College after 1855. The road continued on to Versailles, then descending to the still existing ford across Panther Creek, the principle tributary of the Mackinaw. From there the road ascended the bluff to the town of Bowling Green. Legend has it that Lincoln and his fellows occasionally stayed at the inn here and that Lincoln and Peter Cartwright, his opponent for Congress, made a joint appearance during that Congressional campaign of 1846. Bowling Green was once a thriving hamlet of homes, a mercantile establishment, and an inn. All that remains today is the inn’s well, still lined with limestone and the pioneer graveyard hidden in the woods that have reclaimed it. From Bowling Green the road headed down the bluffs to Wyatt’s Ford across the Mackinaw and then headed southeast into McLean County past the home of Abraham Carlock, “the old Democrat”, where Lincoln would often stop to visit. The specific location of Carlock’s home is long lost. From there the road went to the town of Oak Grove which later packed up, moved, and became Carlock when the railroads arrived, and on to Bloomington. There is a similar monument on the Woodford, McLean county line marking the way of the roving lawyers.

Central Illinois was largely tall grass prairie: hundreds of thousands of acres of 8 foot high grass, big and little blue stem, and indian grass, dotted with profusions of forbs and wildflowers that bloomed throughout the warm weather from spring through fall…compass plant, rattlesnake master, coneflowers, prairie dock, New England aster. This vast, virtually tractless, sea of grass was laced with rivers and streams of clear water filtered by the marshes and wetlands that constituted a substantial portion of the prairies. These streams were often lined with trees that required more moisture such as silver maples and giant cottonwoods. The seemingly endless sea of grass was occasionally interrupted by islands of trees, prairie groves of hardwoods of immense proportions, oaks as wide as they were tall, hickories and walnuts. These groves provided relief and shelter from the heat and monotony of the prairie. The groves were open and relatively brush-free. One could drive a wagon through this park-like setting. The prairie groves varied in size and shape.
One such grove was Blooming Grove on the south edge of what is now Bloomington. Another was Funk’s Grove south of Bloomington, one of the few original prairie groves that still exist. Another such grove was Walnut Grove, one day home of Eureka College. This grove ran from Metamora southeasterly to the Mackinaw River roughly following Walnut Creek as it wound its way through Woodford County.

The Grove was first settled in 1824 – 6 years after Illinois attained statehood. Slowly over the next 20 years, additional settlers came to the area. These settlers scattered throughout the Grove. It was common for early settlers to settle in the groves for three reasons. First was shelter from the elements that were harsher out on the prairies. Second was access to the timber, the only source of building materials and fuel. Even later when bricks became a common building material, wood was required to fuel the kilns. Third was that they surmised that the soil was better in the timber because trees grew there and they did not grow out in the prairies.

There was no town in the Grove until the town of Eureka was platted in 1855 by John Darst, one of the original members of the Board of Trustees of Eureka College. Like so many other entrepreneurs around Central Illinois during this era, he located the town in anticipation of the coming of the railroad; the railroad being the Peoria and Oquawka. When platted, it was located mostly in uncut timber to conform to the railroad’s location. It took two years for the originally platted lots to be sold. The first post office in Eureka was located in the college for the students that were here rather than in the town.

One of the early settlers in Walnut Grove and the man generally acknowledged to be the founder of Eureka College was abolitionist Ben Major, a remarkable man. Major, the third of five children of a slaveholder in Christian County, Kentucky was born in 1796. The family was well educated and cultured. His brothers, William and Chastine, also came to Central Illinois and settled in Bloomington. Major married Lucy Davenport in 1820. His sister Eliza married Lucy’s brother William Davenport about the same time. Bothered by the moral shadow of slavery, Ben Major first came to Illinois in 1831 and visited the area of Walnut Grove. He returned in 1833 and purchased 800 acres on the east side of the Grove – 1/2 mile southeast of the current location of the campus. He moved to this site in 1835.
Prior to doing so, he provided a basic education to his eight slaves, teaching them to read and write. He was a long time member of the American Colonization Society, the national organization dedicated to freeing slaves and transporting them to Liberia to live their lives. Colonization was supported by a significant segment of the opponents of slavery nationally. Henry Clay, the leader of the Whig Party and an opponent of slavery favored colonization. Supreme Court Judge John Marshall was a member of the Society. Between 1820 and 1851, 6,800 slaves were so freed and transported. To attempt to understand the movement, one must understand the substantial prejudice against African Americans in 19th Century America. Many relatively enlightened thinkers, sympathetic with them doubted the ability of the two races to co-exist. Today the movement seems cruel and patronized at least, but it reflected a genuine concern on the part of racially liberal whites of the early 19th century for the welfare of freed men in that society.

Lincoln was one of the many who supported colonization as a solution to these complex problems. He endorsed it in 1852 in a eulogy to Henry Clay and seriously discussed it during his Presidency. Part of this discussion was in order to make emancipation more palatable to conservative northerners opposed to emancipation. He abandoned the idea in 1863 as he assented to and then supported the use of African Americans in the military. Numerous factors, including the courage and the performance by these soldiers, led to his abandoning the concept. Major, at his expense, sent his freed slaves with an agent he hired to New York and they were in turn shipped to Bassa Cove, Liberia. His ex-slaves maintained a warm, loving and admiring correspondence with him from the time of their transportation to Africa till his premature death in 1852 from cholera. One of these former slaves spoke at the Christian Church in Eureka in 1858 while in the United States on behalf of Liberia. Twelve of these letters still exist and are in the collection of the McLean County Historical Society.

Major was an ardent follower, as well as a friend, of Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Disciples of Christ. The power of faith motivated Ben Major as well as many of the other early settlers of Walnut Grove. A number of them were friends and associates in Kentucky, followers of Campbell. Campbell immigrated from Ireland in 1809. His beliefs caused him to break with the established denominations and he founded the Disciples of Christ in 1820, the first indigenous denomination in America. The core of the faith was the elimination of creeds and confessions in order to reduce Christianity to its basics. Though based in Virginia where he had founded Bethany College, Campbell frequently visited Kentucky where he became acquainted with Major. He also visited Major here in Illinois.
Major was a leader of the denomination in Walnut Grove, the Disciples Church that is still active in the town of Eureka. He was a preacher in that church. He also acted as the community healer or doctor – treating and healing many residents of the area. In 1852 his sister, Eliza Davenport contracted cholera which killed her. In treating her, he himself contracted the disease and died the same day as Eliza.

The college was rooted in the leadership of the Disciples of Christ Church in Walnut Grove. That led to the formation of a short lived girls’ academy in 1847, whose school year was cut short by a violent epidemic of measles. In the summer of 1848, Major started the Walnut Grove Academy engaging a teacher which in turn was expanded in 1849 to a two-story building with enrollment of 100 to 160 students. Then came Major’s tragic death in 1852. The Christian churches of Illinois refused a request to support the college. Nevertheless, the people of Walnut Grove pressed on.

John Lindsey and Major’s brother-in-law and close associate, William Davenport went to Springfield in January of 1855 and prevailed upon the legislature to charter the College, which it did on February 9, 1855 as Eureka College. Under Illinois law at that time, any corporation of any kind could only be created by an act of the legislature. Origin of the name is vague and it is generally believed that it was chosen by Lindsey, a scholar somewhat knowledgeable in Greek. Another version is that the name was taken from a town in Kentucky.

The school had operated as Walnut Grove Academy for the year 1854 and into 1855. It opened as Eureka College in September of that year. Its first year it enrolled 213, 131 men and 82 women. The college’s distinguished history includes the fact that it is the third college in America to admit women on equal standing.

One would wish that there was direct evidence of a relationship between Ben Major and Abraham Lincoln because of Major’s strong views on abolition which prevailed in the Disciples’ community in Walnut Grove. There is no tangible evidence known of connections between the two men although it is highly likely that they were acquainted. Ben Major’s brother William was a leading citizen of Bloomington where Lincoln was deeply involved. William was the builder of Majors’ Hall there. William Majors’ daughter, Judith Ann Radner recalled fondly Lincoln being in their home in Bloomington.

William Major built the Christian church in Bloomington and was its leading supporter. He gave $1,000 – a substantial sum at the time for the construction of Eureka College. Notwithstanding all this, descendants of Ben Major likewise know of no evidence of his relationship with Lincoln.

William Davenport, Major’s brother-in-law and close friend, was close to Lincoln and a political supporter of his. Davenport was also a minister of the Christian church in Walnut Grove. In a letter of Lincoln’s dated January 14, 1846 he discusses the support he had in his run for the Congress, and cites the support of Davenport. In 1850 Lincoln represented Davenport in a case which Davenport brought to force the county to organize itself into townships as required by law. Lincoln was unsuccessful in this case. The lawyer on the other side was Asahel Gridley from Bloomington. Davenport was involved with Ben Major in the 1847 formation of Walnut Grove Academy.

At the time of the legislative formation of the college, the original board of directors included several Lincoln associates in addition to William Davenport. One of these is William Major; another is Stephen T. Logan of Springfield. Logan was Lincoln’s second law partner from 1841 to 1843, a man described by David Davis as the most brilliant lawyer that he’d ever met. Logan remained very close to Lincoln throughout Lincoln’s legal career associating with him on many cases. Logan was part of the team assembled by David Davis, the Circuit Judge to go to Chicago in 1860 to obtain the Republican nomination for Abraham Lincoln and he was quite effective in that role. Another member of the original board associated with Lincoln was attorney Henry Grove of Peoria, who had associated with Lincoln in the Goings case. Grove was a political supporter of Abraham Lincoln’s and they appeared together and in opposition in the Circuit Court of Woodford County. Grove was a delegate to the Republican Convention in 1860.

Lincoln was also active politically in Woodford County throughout his career. Because of the southern origin of most of the original settlers of Woodford County, it was heavily Democratic. Lincoln was a Whig, the opposition party to the Democrats, until the Republican Party was formed in Illinois in 1856. In 1847 and 1848, he served in Congress from the 7th Congressional District which included Woodford County. It was the only congressional district in Illinois that wasn’t Democratic. He ran for Congress against Peter Cartwright, a Methodist Circuit Rider. Lincoln won the election for Congress with 56% of the votes. Of the eleven counties in the district, only two voted for Cartwright; Woodford being one of those. Lincoln lost by a count of 300 votes to 215 votes, his opponent gathering 57% of the vote.

In 1856 the Republican Party in Illinois was formed in Major’s Hall in Bloomington. In June, the first national Republican convention was held in Philadelphia. Lincoln’s name was placed in nomination for vice-president and he received 110 votes which shows that he was slightly in the national picture at that time. The nominee for President was the famed explorer, John C. Fremont. Lincoln vigorously campaigned for him throughout the campaign that summer and fall. He traveled all over the state from Belleville to Chicago, from Albion to Galena. He spoke out of the state in Kalamazoo, Michigan. One of the speeches given in this campaign by him was on the Eureka College campus according to avid local historian and eyewitness, Benjamin J. Radford. Radford, born in 1838, was the son of one of the first settlers of Walnut Grove and a founder of the College. He recalled seeing Lincoln on several occasions as he grew up in Woodford County as Lincoln visited as an attorney. Radford attended Walnut Grove Academy. He interrupted his matriculation to join the Army responding to Lincoln’s call for volunteers. He returned to Eureka College after the war, graduating in 1866. He was the publisher of the Woodford County Journal in that period and taught at Eureka College between 1870 and 1881. As a minister, a college teacher, and an editor, he pursued his career in Cincinnati, Des Moines and Denver returning to Eureka in 1892 where he taught at the college until 1908. He not only served as President of Eureka, but also Drake in 1882. He wrote a weekly history column for the Woodford County Journal in 1924 finally passing away in 1933.

Radford recalled vividly a speech made by Lincoln on the campus of Eureka College in October of 1856. It would have been early October of that year that Lincoln appeared on a moonlit evening in the then chapel which had been the original Academy building. This location is marked by a stone at the corner of Vennum Street and Reagan Drive. The actual site being in the yard of the Rinker House. The crowd was large, overflowing the relatively small hall into the lawn around the building. Lincoln was introduced by Harvey Hogg, a skilled lawyer from Bloomington, with whom Lincoln frequently associated. Hogg was a native of Tennessee who came to Bloomington in 1855. He had freed his slaves before attending law school. He was active in politics from the time he arrived in Bloomington and was elected to the legislature in 1860. He then enlisted in the Army and was killed leading a cavalry charge in Boliver, Tennessee, the state of his birth, in 1862. Radford’s memory of the speech is that it was a powerful speech quickly silencing a fairly hostile audience with its effectiveness. There is no other record of this speech; on the other hand it was a routine campaign speech by lesser luminary at the time so perhaps this is not surprising.
Eureka College is only one of two colleges where Lincoln spoke. The other one being Knox College in Galesburg where the fifth Lincoln Douglas debate was held.

1858 was the campaign of Lincoln and Douglas – the year of the seven debates. Each of them appeared in Metamora in a field on the south edge of town that fall. Douglas on September 30th and Lincoln on October 4th. Crowds of several thousand gathered to hear each of them at the time of their appearance, the crowds much larger than the town. This is testimony to the popularity of political speakers in that era. Because there was no direct election at that time, it cannot be determined how Lincoln fared against Douglas in the County in the Senatorial race.

In 1858 and 1859 Lincoln visited El Paso, his presence there being due to the railroads. The Illinois Central which went through north and south and crossed the Peoria and Oquaka Railroad which ran east and west. Lincoln arrived on August 28, 1858 returning from his debate with Stephen A. Douglas in Freeport, the _______ of the seven debates. He visited a restaurant run by Ludwig Chlopicki, a local character who had come to El Paso in the mid-1850’s and claimed to be a Polish count. From there he got on the train and proceeded to Peoria. He arrived on the 3:40 passenger train and left on the westbound 5:30. In July of 1859 Lincoln returned to El Paso. The Railroad and the State had a continuing squabble over taxation of the railroad’s property. Lincoln had been continuously involved in these matters over a long period of time. The State Auditor and other state officials, as well as Stephen T. Logan, the Auditor’s attorney were joined by Lincoln on a 9 day tour of Railroad property and facilities in a private car. Lincoln participated in this trip in his capacity as the I.C.’s attorney and took his family on the trip.

This was Lincoln’s last visit to Woodford County. With his election to the presidency, Lincoln left the simple, more tranquil confines of the old Eighth Judicial Circuit to face perhaps the most complex problems ever confronted by an American president. Somewhere from the prairie and its people he found the strength, the wisdom, the humanity, and persistence to solve those problems, preserving “the more perfect union” and ending the curse of slavery that had plagued our nation since its beginnings.