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F o r T h e P e o p l e A NEWSLETTER OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION VOLUME 21 NUMBER 4 WINTER 2019 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org Ray LaHood 2020 Birthday Banquet Speaker The Honorable Raymond H. LaHood will represented by Abraham Lincoln when he be the ALA’s 2020 Birthday Banquet served in the House in 1847-49. speaker. Mr. LaHood has held a multitude of interesting positions in government Mr. LaHood, a Republican, served as service over his long career. Most Secretary of Transportation during the recently in September 2019, Illinois Obama administration, offering a personal Governor JB Pritzker nominated him to example of how cross-party rivalry may at be chair of the trustees of the Abraham times be overcome. Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Mr. LaHood is a native of Peoria and The names of other nominated trustees holds a bachelor of science degree from include J. Steven Beckett, Kathryn Harris, Bradley University in that city. He is the and Dan Monroe, all directors of the ALA. author of Seeking Bipartisanship: My Life Mr. LaHood as well as the rest of this in Politics. He and his wife Kathy have newly appointed board await confirmation endowed a center for the study of cerebral by the Illinois Senate. The Fall 2019 issue palsy at the OSF Saint Francis Medical of For the People provided information Center in Peoria. about the nominated trustees. Please join us for Springfield’s biggest Ray LaHood Mr. LaHood served in the U.S. House of Lincoln event of the year, as we look to Representatives for 19 years. His son the past as well as the future in sharing Information about making Darin LaHood represents part of that same Lincoln’s life, his sites, and his words. reservations appears on page six. district today, which includes areas . President-Elect Lincoln’s Office in No. 4 Johnson’s Building By Richard E. Hart copious letter and newspaper files managed by ALA Board Member and Former ALA President John Nicolay were moved to a room in Johnson’s Building, across from the Chenery Shortly after Abraham Lincoln was House, ...a block west of the State House. elected President in November 1860, he Nicolay spent all his time in the new office while Lincoln came in occasionally. sought an office for receiving visitors and for use by his secretary, John Nicolay. One hundred and fifty years later, on a Governor John Wood offered his mellow October afternoon, I walked west chambers in the Old State Capitol and it on Washington Street from my office on was here that Lincoln officed until late in the North Side of the Old State Capitol December 1860. The Illinois Legislature Square. It was a walk that I had taken was to convene on January 7 and hundreds of times, but this one was Governor-Elect Richard Yates would take Johnson’s Building—Revere House 1873 different. I looked up as I waited for the office on January 14. Wood and Yates Springfield on February 11, 1861, a total light to change at Fourth and Washington would need the Governor’s Chamber of about 40 days. streets, and there it was in plain sight—a for their own uses, and Lincoln and his mid-nineteenth century three-story secretary, Nicolay, would have to move. William E. Baringer in his book A House commercial building, now home to A-1 Dividing described the move: Lock. Lincoln did just that in late December 1860, when he moved his office to No. 4 Next day was Christmas (December 25, 1860). Lincoln relinquished the Governor’s room in Is this a remnant of the Johnson’s Building Johnson’s Building at the northwest the State House, his office since early in the where President-elect Lincoln officed? corner of Fourth and Washington streets. canvass, for the Illinois legislature was soon to This remained his office until he departed assemble and the room would be needed. The (continued on page 2) 2 FOR THE PEOPLe winter 2019 The Middletown Flag By Anne Moseley regarding their candidate of choice, Mr. Abraham Lincoln. “THE PRAIRIES ARE ON FIRE FOR LINCOLN!” and “A Political Earthquake” The day began with a parade with bands and “Clear the Track!” – these are some of and floats constructed in the small towns the phrases local newspapers used for the surrounding Springfield. The Middletown Wide Awake Rally held in Springfield, float featured the flag as constructed by the Illinois, on August 8th, 1860. This coming th ladies of the community, along with two year marks the 160 anniversary of that banners designed by Dr. Reuben Neal gathering of Lincoln supporters for the Lawrence of Atlanta, Illinois. In a 1860 presidential election. newspaper article written by W.O. Paisley in 1896, “on account of the Atlanta Wide- that after the parade Mr. Lincoln, now Thousands of Lincoln’s supporters from all Awakes banner bearing the likeness of both draped in their flag, gave a speech at the over Central Illinois attended this Wide candidates [Lincoln and Hamlin], it was fairgrounds. Awake Rally. In anticipation of it, the placed at the head of the parade at the ladies of Middletown, Illinois, 25 miles monster rally at Springfield, which The Middletown Flag is one of three pieces north of Springfield, hand-sewed an concluded that memorable campaign.” created for and used by the Wide Awake American flag to fly in the parade. During Supporters of Logan County; Dr. the strenuous campaign, American citizens After the parade, the float was taken to a Lawrence’s “Nation’s Choice” banner and a manifested an intense interest in the issues local livery stable. About this time a group smaller banner of Lincoln are the others. presented, and this interest developed into came from the state fairgrounds where the Once the flag is restored, the entire set will the formation of “Wide Awakes.” The rally was in progress. Amid incessant calls be complete. All are part of the collection Wide Awake company in Middletown, for Lincoln to speak, the group came to the of the Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln organized by Lincoln adherents, was known livery stable to get a buggy to bring him to College. as the Union League. At a time when the fairgrounds. Upon seeing the flag, they women were not allowed to vote, women asked to use it on the buggy. Their request The Middletown Flag is a unique piece of organized an auxiliary to the Union League was granted, and Lincoln rode into the local history that ties Abraham Lincoln to for which they hand-stitched the flag for the immense throng seated on the flag as it was the Logan County community. gathering of Lincoln supporters. The flag draped over the seat of the buggy (modern Anne Moseley, a director of the ALA, is served as a way for the ladies of rules and decorum governing flag usage did director and curator of the Lincoln Middletown to express themselves publicly not yet exist). It thrilled the ladies to find Heritage Museum, in Lincoln, Illinois. (continued from page 1) I searched for photographs, drawings, and newspaper articles about Johnson’s Building. Curtis Mann, librarian at the Sangamon Valley Collection of Springfield’s Lincoln Library, found and shared with me a photograph of the west side of the Johnson’s Building circa 1870s. The photograph is to the right. I walked around the A-1 Lock building and noticed that the windows and a door on the west side had been bricked-in. I Johnson’s Building Circa 1870s compared those bricked in openings with the circa 1870s photograph. They matched. The same was true when I compared the still remaining chimneys on the A-1 Lock building with those in the Johnson’s Building pictured on the This indeed was a remaining portion of a previous page. A perfect match. much larger building known as Johnson’s It was in the Johnson’s Building that Building and sometimes the Revere Lincoln received visitors from 3:30 to House or Hotel, that once housed the 5:00 p.m. during the week of February 6, office of Abraham Lincoln. It is now a newly identified remaining part of 1861, as evidenced by the Daily State October 2019 photographs of the A-1 Lock Journal article of Wednesday, February Lincoln’s Springfield. building, now verified to be a remnant of 6, 1861. the Johnson’s Building where President- elect Lincoln officed for 40 days in 1861. winter 2019 FOR THE PEOPLe 3 The Abraham Lincoln Association Bob Willard President’s Message President Two years have flashed by and my term as president is coming to a Michael Burlingame First Vice President close on Mr. Lincoln’s birthday. I am proud of our accomplishments William E. Bartelt and, of course, regret that we did not accomplish more. Most im- Second Vice President portantly, we dealt with the departure of three executive managers. I James M. Cornelius think we will be well-served by the new incumbent, Amy Kwedar Secretary Budinger, and I wish her much success in the years to come. Douglas M. Barringer Treasurer Kathryn M. Harris We presented an interesting 2019 Benjamin P. Thomas symposium, Immediate Past-President and hosted the Banquet celebrating Lincoln’s 210th birthday, where Amy Budinger we were greeted by Illinois’s new governor, JB Pritzker. (We have a Executive Manager great Symposium and Banquet coming up in 2020; details are in this Board of Directors newsletter.) We continued to publish both the Journal of the Abraham Kenneth L.

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