Category Archives: Lincoln, Abraham

Mary Lincoln

Mary Lincoln (1818-82) was a sad and complicated figure — an intelligent, ambitious and attractive young woman whose later life was bedeviled by tragedy and physical and emotional breakdown. Her life and her impact on her husband’s career and presidential … Continue reading

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Lincoln-Herndon law office building, 1886 (photo)

Abraham Lincoln shared offices on the third floor of this building at Sixth and Adams streets with two of his three law partners — Stephen T. Logan, 1843-44, and William H. Herndon from 1844 to 1860. The second floor housed … Continue reading

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‘Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight’ (Vachel Lindsay)

Vachel Lindsay‘s best-known poem, “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight,” was included in his collection The Congo and Other Poems. The collection was published in 1914, and “Walks” is eerily prescient about the disaster World War I would become. Abraham Lincoln … Continue reading

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Larkin Mead, Lincoln Tomb designer

Larkin Mead (1835-1910), who designed the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site, got his artistic start from a snow angel. Not the kind children make by lying down in snow, but an 8-foot-tall, highly detailed snow statue of the biblical Recording … Continue reading

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Mordecai Mobley (1828 pioneers)

Mordecai Mobley was an early merchant who had a store on Jefferson Street west of First Street, according to John Todd Stuart’s recollection of 1828 Springfield. (The store is listed as No. 11 on the reconstructed map of 1828 Springfield.) … Continue reading

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Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards home (Lincoln marriage site)

Abraham and Mary Lincoln were married in the dining room of Elizabeth Todd Edwards (1816-88), Mary’s sister, and her husband, Ninian Wirt Edwards (1809-99), in the 500 block of South Second Street in Springfield on Nov. 4, 1842. Mary Lincoln … Continue reading

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Oak Ridge Cemetery

Oak Ridge Cemetery was founded as about a 28-acre site in 1856. Dedication ceremonies were held on May 24, 1860, with the highlight being a lengthy, fulsome oration by James C. Conkling (1816-99). A sense of Conkling’s speaking style — … Continue reading

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George Power Farmstead

The George Power Farmstead , east of Cantrall off County Road 9.5N, is Sangamon County’s best remaining example of a 19th-century farm layout — and perhaps the site where fledgling lawyer Abraham Lincoln argued his first case. Kentucky-born George “Squire” … Continue reading

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Octavia Roberts (Corneau)

Octavia Roberts (1875-1972), was a Springfield-born journalist and writer. Her best-known work today is Lincoln in Illinois, a brief (160-page) reflection on Abraham Lincoln in New Salem and Springfield that was published in 1918. Roberts was for a time the … Continue reading

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Julius Rosenwald

This entry has been revised in light of new efforts to recognize Julius Rosenwald’s charitable and other contributions on both the local and national levels. Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932), a Springfield native, teamed with Richard Sears to build Sears, Roebuck & … Continue reading

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