Clinton

During his years traveling the Eighth Judicial Circuit, Abraham Lincoln was the overnight guest of many DeWitt County residents.  As a frontier lawyer, he spent several months per year away from home while making his legal rounds.  For travelers spending the night in various DeWitt County private homes. taverns, and hotels, the accommodations varied considerably...  

John and Ann Richter, united in marriage in 1820, were natives of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In 1830, the Richters took up residence in Springfield, Illinois.  They moved to Marion in 1840, just one year following the organization of DeWitt County.  During his early years in Marion, Mr. Richter was engaged in the mercantile business and held the offices of postmaster and coroner...

Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits tell the stories of Lincoln’s life and times in Illinois.  Each wayside exhibit tells a unique Lincoln story and a local story.  Many of the waysides share little known stories about Lincoln and the individuals he interacted with.  There are over 260 Looking for Lincoln waysides in the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.    

When Lincoln called for troops to defend the Union, the men and boys of DeWitt County heeded his urgent request.  Some who volunteered were from families who had known and befriended Lincoln during his days as a prairie lawyer and politician, for Lincoln practiced both occupations here.  Others, like German-born twenty-eight-year-old shoemaker Martin Mohrle, were foreign-born DeWitt County residents who answered the call just the same...

Abraham Lincoln first met George B. McClellan in a small, rustic DeWitt County courtroom.  At the time, Lincoln, a prairie lawyer, was representing the Illinois Central Railroad.  McClellan was an Illinois Central Railroad executive called to testify on the company's behalf.  Waiting for McClellan to arrive, someone in the courtroom asked who he was, to which Lincoln replied that he only knew McClellan to be an Illinois Central Railroad officer.  As political upheaval and war clouds loomed on the horizon, Lincoln and McClellan's paths crossed once more...  

Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits tell the stories of Lincoln’s life and times in Illinois.  Each wayside exhibit tells a unique Lincoln story and a local story.  Many of the waysides share little known stories about Lincoln and the individuals he interacted with.  There are over 260 Looking for Lincoln waysides in the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.    

Lincoln traveled the Eighth Judicial Circuit six months a year, becoming close friends with his fellow lawyers, with whom he shared, not only the courtroom, but also meals, an easy camaraderie, and often a room...

Lincoln, Judge David Davis, and Ward Hill Lamon, a Danville lawyer and a great bear of a man, were visiting one evening on the porch of the Barnett Tavern (a term used then for an inn, not a saloon) while young Vespasian "Pash" Warner listened.  Lamon suggested making  trip across the square to the grocery (then a term for a place that sold liquor, not food) to obtain some whiskey.  Davis objected, reminding Lamon that only the week before in Mr. Pulaski, Davis had found it necessary to postpone court since Lamon had been too indisposed (hungover) to argue a case the next day.  Lincoln pointed out that Davis often allowed a first offender in the courtroom a second chance and asked that he give Lamon the same consideration.  Davis relented.  Lamon returned with a pitcher of whiskey, and the three retired upstairs to Lamon's room to continue their discussions, leaving the boy behind.  Lincoln never drank but often enjoyed the company of others who did.  Lamon became one of Lincolns staunchest supporters and accompanied him as his bodyguard on his journey to Washington, D.C., when Lincoln was elected President.

Vespasian Warner, named after  Roman emperor, was a toddler when his father, Dr. John Warner, moved from Mt. Pleasant (now Farmer City) to Clinton in 1842.  To supplement his budding medical practice, Dr. Warner and his wife, with Harry P. Merriman, ran a hotel on the west side of the square.  There, the Eighth Judicial Circuit lawyers paid $1.50 for a week's food and lodging.  The doctor prospered, gave up the hotel, building the first brick residence in Clinton across the street from the Barnett Tavern, located a block south of the square.  Vespasian Warner said of this time when he was an adolescent, "Being young and curious, I would hang around the tavern in the evenings, as long as my parents would allow me to remain out of ed, to hear the judge and lawyers, great men in my eyes at the time and great later."

Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits tell the stories of Lincoln’s life and times in Illinois.  Each wayside exhibit tells a unique Lincoln story and a local story.  Many of the waysides share little known stories about Lincoln and the individuals he interacted with.  There are over 260 Looking for Lincoln waysides in the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.    

Nine women from the Village of Marion (now DeWitt), joined by women from Springfield, plotted against the village saloon frequented by their menfolk.  The ladies banned together and crusaded against the "Demon Whiskey."  They stormed George Tanner's saloon, filled the whiskey barrels into the street, destroyed the kegs, and poured the vile liquid onto the ground.  In May 1854, the ladies found themselves in the DeWitt County Courthouse for "riotously, unlawfully and with force turning out, wasting and destroying ten gallons of whiskey, of the value of five dollars." They had not hired a defense attorney, but it just so happened Abraham Lincoln and John T. Stewart were present in the courtroom and offered their services...  

Lincoln grew to manhood on a frontier where whiskey was a staple and a liquid form of currency.  During his brief time operating a tavern in New Salem, Lincoln sold whiskey, among other things.  In later years, the temperance movement became a volatile political issue.  While he didn't not condemn those who drank in moderation, Lincoln himself was a teetotaler...

Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits tell the stories of Lincoln’s life and times in Illinois.  Each wayside exhibit tells a unique Lincoln story and a local story.  Many of the waysides share little known stories about Lincoln and the individuals he interacted with.  There are over 260 Looking for Lincoln waysides in the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.    

 In the summer of 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas began to campaign for the Senate seats from Illinois that was to lead to the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates.  The Republicans' initial strategy called for Lincoln to follow Douglas around Illinois, with each candidate addressing the crowds individually...  

Posters all over DeWitt County announced that Douglas would arrive on the morning train.  A small group was present when the 5:00 A.M. train pulled in without Douglas.  A group of two or three hundred persons (two-thirds of them Republicans, a local paper noted), along with a band ready to play and with a flag to unfurl, met the 7:00 A.M. train.  However, Lincoln, not Douglas, emerged to great cheering.  Lincoln lingered on, working the growing crowd as they waited for Douglas's appearance, which did not come until 4:00 P.M.  Douglas, with our even acknowledging the crowd, went straight to a waiting carriage and drove to the fairgrounds a mile southwest of Clinton to give his speech...  

"You can fool all the people part of the time and part of the people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time."  Although scholars disagreed, the people of Clinton vouched for this Lincoln utterance, as did reporters from the Chicago Tribune and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle...

Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits tell the stories of Lincoln’s life and times in Illinois.  Each wayside exhibit tells a unique Lincoln story and a local story.  Many of the waysides share little known stories about Lincoln and the individuals he interacted with.  There are over 260 Looking for Lincoln waysides in the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.