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’s New Salem, Reconstructed

MARK B. POHLAD

“Not a building, scarcely a stone”

In his classic Lincoln’s New Salem (1934), Benjamin P. Thomas observed bluntly, “By 1840 New Salem had ceased to exist.”1 A century later, however, a restored New Salem was—after the , in , D.C.—the most visited Lincoln site in the world. How this transformation occurred is a fascinating story, one that should be retold, especially now, when action must be taken to rescue the present New Salem from a grave decline. Even apart from its connection to , New Salem is like no other reconstructed that exists today. Years before the present restoration occurred, planners aimed for a unique destination. A 1920s state-of-­ ­ brochure claimed that once the twenty-­five original structures were rebuilt on their original founda- tions, it would be “the only known city in the world that has ever been restored in its entirety.”2 In truth, it is today the world’s largest log-house­ village reconstructed on its original site and on its build- ings’ original foundations. It is still startling nearly two hundred years later that a of more than a hundred souls—about the same number as lived in at that time—existed for only a decade. But such was the velocity of development in the West. “Petersburg . . . took the wind out of its sails,” a newspaperman quipped in 1884, because a new county seat and post office had been established there; Lincoln himself had surveyed it.3 Now the very buildings of his New Salem friends and

1. Benjamin P. Thomas, Lincoln’s New Salem (Chicago: Abraham Lincoln Bookshop, 1966), 57. I wish to thank Dr. James Cornelius for the information and advice he pro- vided for this project. 2. “Old Salem State Park,” Illinois Public Department of Works and Buildings, ca. 1925, p. 3, https://archive.org/details/illinoisnewsalemlinc_4/page/n6. 3. Joseph M. Di Cola, New Salem: A History of Lincoln’s Alma Mater (Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2017), 82.

Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2019 © 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Mark B. Pohlad 39 neighbors were disassembled and moved to the new town a few miles north. Not all were moved away from New Salem, however. One had actually been brought there in Lincoln’s time: -­McNamar store, which Hill had purchased at Clary’s Grove. A few years later, as New Salem was being abandoned, Hill moved it to Petersburg.4 Describing New Salem in the 1880s, William H. Herndon and Jesse Weik, in their Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (1889), lamented, “Not a building, scarcely a stone, is left to mark the place where it once stood. . . . A few crumbling stones here and there are all that attest [to] its former existence. . . . [W]hat became of the abodes they left behind, shall be questions for the local historian.”5 Indeed, at the time of Lincoln’s assassination, there was “only one lone and solitary log hut” standing in the original village site.6 Roads were grassing over, trees were sprouting from ancient cellars, and the place had reverted to pasture. Soon, it was being referred to, even by those who had once lived there, as “Old Salem.” One of the most haunting aspects of New Salem’s disappearance is how its old foundations and cellars were used as quarries for new buildings.7 Petersburg residents, perhaps even those who had moved from New Salem, might themselves have taken stones. One reason New Salem descendant Ida L. Bale could contest the location of the re-­created Rutledge Tavern (see below) in 1931 is that she remembered her uncle pillaging the original foundation.8

Pilgrimages and Renewed Interest Although Lincoln downplayed the importance of his early life, includ- ing his time in New Salem, devotees ardently sought out information about it after his death. Herndon, Lincoln’s former law partner, and the one who did more than anyone to generate interest in Lincoln’s early life, visited the site, as did Ida M. Tarbell. Their biographies innovatively highlighted his years as a young man, advancing the notion that it was essential to understanding Lincoln the president.

4. Ibid., 96. 5. William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (: D. Appleton and Company, 1893), 1: 68, 69. 6. Thomas, Lincoln’s New Salem, 141; though his source does not identify the structure, it was most likely the Jacob Bale House. 7. Barbara Burlison Mooney, “Lincoln’s New Salem; Or, the Trigonometric Theorem of Vernacular Restoration,” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture 1, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 20. 8. Ibid., 28. 40 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed

Historians, locals, Chautauqua attendees, and Lincoln lovers of all stripes made “pilgrimages” to this “Mecca of the soul.”9 Private vis- its eventually fostered group visits. Throughout the 1870s and ‘80s, late-­summer reunions of Menard County settlers occurred there, and demonstrations of old rural activities were enacted. As we shall see, the entire period of New Salem’s restoration (1890–1940) was near enough to Lincoln’s time to attract who had actually known him or who were relatives of those who had. The dedication of the Rut- ledge Tavern in the 1930s included a reunion of the Rutledge family.10 In the years following Lincoln’s assassination, people were rightly concerned that there was nothing left of the town to represent the person fast becoming the most famous American of all. In 1870 the Menard County Old Settlers Association was founded, the first such organization dedicated to preserving Lincoln’s New Salem. But where some saw the need to memorialize, others saw commercial opportu- nity. In 1885 some Menard County residents hoped to build a veterans’ home on the site, and there was even talk of developers purchasing the site for use as an amusement park or a beer garden.11 In the 1870s, visitors to the village site were eager to see anything connected to Lincoln—even supernaturally so. Some marveled at young entwined trees growing from the cellar of the vanished Offutt store, where Lincoln held his first . A local artist, purportedly the Petersburg painter Aaron Francis Phillips (1848–99), carved a rude portrait of Lincoln on one of them. He painted it to make it even more lifelike and touched it up each spring.12 It seemed to many that the young trees were a metaphor for Lincoln’s own growth as a national icon. Others saw in the conjoined trees Lincoln’s reunion of North and South; the carved portrait face “turned toward the sweet, sunny South.”13 Ida L. Bale admitted to carving the name “Lincoln” into the trunk of one tree as a young girl; it was a way of marking it for tourists. She then watched the name slowly rise up the tree as it grew. Soon the

9. Thompson Gaines Onstot, Pioneers of Menard and Mason Counties (Peoria, IL: T. G. Onstot, 1902), 79. 10. Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1937. 11. Richard S. Taylor and Mark L. Johnson, “The Spirit of the Place: Origins of the Movement to Reconstruct Lincoln’s New Salem,” Journal of Illinois History 7 (2004): 184, 188. 12. Ida L. Bale, New Salem as I Knew It (Petersburg, IL: Petersburg Observer Company, 1939), 14. 13. From a poem by Carrie Wright, “Our Own Little Village and the Home of Abra- ham Lincoln,” in C. S. McCullough, Petersburg and the Early Home of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: R. Acton [1896?]), unpag. Mark B. Pohlad 41 trees were covered with names, as souvenir hunters broke off limbs and chipped pieces from the trunks. Boys shot at the until it was obliterated.14 At this point, the site offered little hope of being restored. Through- out the 1880s visitors saw only a weeded pasture with depressions marking ancient cellars.15 Sometime during that decade the whole site was plowed because it had become so overgrown. This further destroyed paths, roads, and traces of the original buildings.16

The Chautauqua, Hearst, and the State It is impossible to speak about the reconstructions of New Salem with- out acknowledging the early efforts of the Old Salem Chautauqua. It began in 1898 when the Old Salem Cumberland Presbyterian State Chautauqua Association held a two-week­ assembly near New Salem. Subsequent gatherings became so popular that in 1909 the association bought fifty-four­ acres on the a half-mile­ north of the village, where period artifacts were displayed and streets were named for former New Salem residents. Chautauquas were a combination of county fair, meeting, and outdoor university. Wildly popular in late nineteenth-­century America, they spawned their own celebrity speakers and tourism culture. The Old Salem Chautauqua was linked to Abraham Lincoln from the very beginning, and this aspect was part of its regional appeal. Chautauquans could take a steamboat to “Salem Hill,” stroll, picnic, and view old building foundations marked by posted signs.17 After 1919, Chautauqua visitors marveled at the five buildings erected by the Old Salem Lincoln League, and after 1934, the complete reconstructed pioneer village was on display. Altogether, the Chautauqua was of incalculable importance in maintaining interest in the restoration of Lincoln’s New Salem. Congressman Henry T. Rainey intervened when word got out about potential buyers of the site. He contacted one of his younger fellow congressmen: the media mogul William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951). On August 17, 1906, Hearst, criticized in some quarters as “the rich

14. Bale, New Salem as I Knew It, 13. 15. Louisa M. Clary (1834–1917), who would be so helpful in providing advice about buildings’ locations for the 1918 restoration, actually fell into one of these cellars and broke her collar bone. Thomas P. Reep, Lincoln and New Salem (Petersburg, IL: Old Salem Lincoln League, 1918), 63. 16. Bale, New Salem as I Knew It, 9. 17. Taylor and Johnson, “Spirit of the Place,” 187. 42 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed young man in politics,” addressed the Old Salem Chautauqua assem- bly. Moved by the historical significance of the place and apprised of the threats to New Salem’s future, he determined to do something to preserve it. He may also have thought that his support of a memorial to Lincoln would quiet rumors about his family’s slave-­owning past.18 He bought the site for $11,000 (about $307,000 today) and deeded it in trust to the association.19 Three years later, in 1909, the year of the Lincoln Centennial, the association announced plans to reconstruct the buildings of New Salem. But even as late as 1916 hogs could be seen rooting around the former village site. The Old Salem Lincoln League—the first such organization to specifically concern itself with New Salem’s recon- struction—was founded the following year, in 1917. Composed of local professionals, boosters, Lincoln fans, and relatives of old settlers, this organization would do much toward the first crucial reconstruction of New Salem, in 1918. The approaching celebration of Illinois’s centen- nial in that year provided additional momentum and publicity for the need to restore New Salem. The league intended to raise money by memberships, originally four dollars per year, the bylaws stipulating that, “any person eighteen years of age or upwards, of good moral character is eligible to membership in the League.”20

The 1918 Restoration The first step was to determine exactly where the buildings and streets had been in Lincoln’s time. Septuagenarian Reverdy Johnson Onstot, son of New Salem’s cooper, drew a map of New Salem in 1909 and put markers on the old site to indicate some of its features.21 Local historian Thomas P. Reep convened a committee to determine the precise loca- tions of buildings and roads. Impressively, their findings were more or less accurate. In the process, they also discovered where the cockpit, the barbeque pit, and the gander-pulling­ contests had been, and that the horse races occurred west-to-­ east­ on Main Street, ending at the second Berry-­Lincoln store.22 Shortly thereafter, the original 1829 plat

18. Mooney, “Lincoln’s New Salem,” 21. 19. One of those who sold the site to Hearst was Ida L. Bale, ancestor of Jacob Bale, of Lincoln’s New Salem. Bale, New Salem as I Knew It, 32. 20. Prospectus of the Old Salem Lincoln League for Restoration of New Salem, the Early Home of Abraham Lincoln (Petersburg, IL: Old Salem Lincoln League, 1918), unpag. 21. Taylor and Johnson, “The Spirit of the Place,” 189. 22. Thomas P. Reep, Lincoln at New Salem (Petersburg, IL: Old Salem Lincoln League, 1927), 128. Mark B. Pohlad 43 was found in the county clerk’s office, the old well at the Rutledge Inn was restored, old roads were marked, and inscribed granite slabs were placed where original buildings were thought to have stood.23 A concrete bridge across Bale’s Creek, funded by the Menard County Board, connected the new entrance with the road to Petersburg. Even with all these improvements, at this time only a small sign at the base of the hill announced “North Entrance. Old (New) Salem. Lincoln’s Early Home.”24 Rebuilding original structures now commenced. A traditional house-­raising and fish fry were held on July 30. Approximately two hundred men and boys showed up; there were rumors that some were recruited in the streets of Petersburg.25 Six individuals who had personally known Lincoln were on hand, as were several ancestors of others. For the wood needed to erect the buildings, the league procured trees from the Chautauqua site. They also were given or purchased “all the old log buildings within a radius of five or six miles.”26 This seems rash today—disassembling buildings that might have had a connection to Lincoln. Altogether, five buildings were reconstructed by the Old Salem Lincoln League, including the Store, the Hill-McNamar­ Store, a part of Dr. John Allen’s dwelling, the Berry-­Lincoln Store, and a short time later, the Rutledge Tavern. In 1921 the Lincoln League secured funding for further reconstruction and for the erection of a stone building—whose style reflected the French colonial architecture of —for use as a custodian’s home and museum (by G. E. Lindstrom, state assistant architect). One of the league’s most dramatic early restoration successes was the recovery and restora- tion of Onstot’s cooper shop, today regarded as the only “original” structure at New Salem. In the late 1830s, the Onstots had moved their home and shop to Petersburg, where the shop remained until 1922, covered in clapboarding and converted into a dwelling. Additionally, in 1923 the league bought land southwest of the original village, where the school had stood and where the cemetery was located. The state purchased this land from the league two years later. Thomas P. Reep (1870–1960) was a key figure in the restoration of New Salem. In the 1910s and 1920s he amassed a wealth of information

23. Reep, Lincoln and New Salem, 102. 24. See illustration in Reep, Lincoln and New Salem, 100, 101. 25. Katharine Aird Miller and Raymond H. Montgomery, A Chautauqua to Remember: The Story of Old Salem (Petersburg, IL: Silent River Press, 1987), 173–74. 26. Prospectus, unpag. 44 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed about the village and its residents. A Petersburg attorney and found- ing member of the Old Salem Lincoln League, Reep had frequently visited the old townsite as a boy. His own family was connected to the Armstrongs of Clary’s Grove. In the early , while still in college, he toured New Salem in a horse and carriage, sometimes accompanied by former residents, with an eye toward someday writing a thorough publication. The result was his important and enduring Lincoln and New Salem of 1919, a dense, lavishly illustrated history; in 1927 it was expanded and retitled Lincoln at [emphasis mine] New Salem. Among the legion of researchers who then and now have relied on it are Joseph F. Booton, the restorer of New Salem in the 1930s, and , who used the original edition for his Pulitzer Prize–winning biogra- phy of Lincoln. New Salem’s recovery and reconstruction, both the 1918 and the 1930s iterations, would have been impossible without Reep’s research. Theater and the notion of dramatizing history have been a crucial part of the efforts to revivify New Salem from the start. To celebrate the Illinois state centennial in 1918, and to raise interest in the league’s restoration, a production called “The Lincoln Pageant of Salem Hill” was organized and performed by the people of Menard County on September 6 and 7. It was the first of many such plays and tributes performed at New Salem, which has been a regional theater destina- tion ever since. The cast of two hundred included many descendants of the people of Lincoln’s New Salem, several in their exact biographical roles wearing heirloom costumes and accessories. The three-­hour-­ long production was staged just north of the Berry-Lincoln­ store. The whole thing was so enthralling that “at least 75% of the persons who attended on Friday came back again on Saturday.”27 Reep believed that the interest generated by this ambitious pageant was instrumental in persuading the State of Illinois to take it on as a state park.28 We should heighten our awareness of the 1918–1920s restoration by the Old Salem Lincoln League. It involved the actual manual labor of families whose elders had lived in New Salem with Lincoln. It also established the site as a tourist destination with all its attendant products (souvenirs) and services (lodging, restaurants, etc.). This

27. The “Revivification of New Salem, Abraham Lincoln’s Home, 1831–37,”Petersburg Democrat, extra edition, September 13, 19XX, Abraham Lincoln and Museum; transcribed in Reep, Lincoln at New Salem, 132–37. 28. Reep, Lincoln at New Salem, 137. The long and storied history of theater at New Salem deserves more scholarly treatment, for there are intriguing links between histori- cal reconstruction and dramatic performance. Figure 1. Thomas P. Reep, first historian of New Salem, ca. 1890. Constance Reep Unsworth, Lincoln and the Frontier Folk of New Salem (2002). 46 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed restoration was the New Salem of Chautauqua visitors, of old veter- ans of the Civil War and young ones of World War I, and of authors such as Sandburg. It was a bridge between those who came to see the “Lincoln Trees” and the thousands who annually visit the present 1930s restoration today.

The 1930s Restoration On February 1, 1919, Illinois granted state park status to the par- tially reconstructed village. Soon after, on April 3, the state passed “An Act to establish the Old Salem State Park, in Menard County, State of Illinois,” with Governor Frank Lowden signing it into law. The state would oversee construction of thirteen log buildings; the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) would later erect ten others. But the state was slow to begin the work, and it took more than a decade for this new phase of restoration to take shape. Still, intense interest in the possibility of a fully re-­created Lincoln’s New Salem was gener- ated by the approaching centennial of Lincoln’s 1831 arrival in New Salem, the opening of Colonial Williamsburg in in 1932, and the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth in the same year.29 By 1931 the movement to restore New Salem had gained such momentum that the state legislature appropriated $50,000 (about $826,000 today) for its restoration. After a decade of inactivity, the state finally embarked on a com- pletely new, more comprehensive re-creation.­ The 1918 buildings that the Old Salem Lincoln League had constructed of cottonwood were already badly aged and were torn down. Governor Louis Lincoln Emmerson laid the cornerstone of the Berry-Lincoln­ Store on Novem- ber 17, 1932, and a month later signed a proclamation changing the name of the park from Old Salem State Park to New Salem State Park. Ironically, the new name took the site back to its oldest, original name. In January 1933, a Champaign-­based firm, English Brothers Con- struction Company, began building the first thirteen buildings.30 They used timbers from Paris, Illinois, that were hewn, that is, shaped with an axe, not sawn, by laborers from southern Indi- ana. A weatherproofing zinc oxide wash was applied to the logs. To heighten their look of authenticity, the men were told not to obscure

29. Mooney, “Lincoln’s New Salem,” 22. 30. Information about these construction details are in Mooney, “Lincoln’s New Salem,” 23. Mark B. Pohlad 47 their tool marks. Stone for building foundations was brought from the Sangamon River, and clay for bricks was dug from a nearby source. Hearth bricks were made to the same dimensions found in excava- tions. Three years later, in 1936, the contract for the rebuilding of the Rutledge Tavern was awarded to the E. R. Jones Company, of Spring- field.31 But it was erected on the wrong site—based on confusion of its location with that of the Bale House nearby—as determined from more recent archaeological research.32 It and two other buildings, the cabins of Isaac Guliher and the Trent brothers, were dedicated on June 17, 1937, bringing the total to eighteen structures, of them part of the original twenty-five­ of Lincoln’s New Salem. Nearly $450,000 (or $8.6 million today) had been spent up to that point. To celebrate the dedication of Rutledge Tavern, a descendant of , an eighteen-­year-­old named Ann Rutledge of Ottumwa, , was presented to a Lincoln impersonator, Mr. E. S. Mitchell, a “tall, gaunt oil dealer” from Petersburg, Illinois.

Joseph F. Booton C. H. Hammond is noted as the architect of New Salem, because he headed the State Division of Architecture and Engineering. However, it was his chief draftsman, Joseph F. Booton (1897–1983), just thirty-­ five at the time, along with an assistant, researcher Jerome Ray, who was ultimately responsible for New Salem’s rebuilding. Besides his work on New Salem, Booton also helped restore the Lincoln Home in Springfield and designed the ’s Host Building, a number of buildings at Southern, Eastern, and Universities, and hospital buildings in and around Chicago. He also helped restore the third statehouse in Vandalia and the church at Bishop Hill, and was responsible for the interior decoration of the at Ridge. Many of his projects have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Altogether, Booton should be regarded as one of the most prolific and well-respected­ restoration architects in this country. Although seriously pressured for time, Booton and Ray conducted an incredible amount of research. They interviewed former New Salem residents, located old maps, performed rudimentary archaeological digs, scoured archives and libraries, and, of course, relied on Reep’s

31. Mooney, “Lincoln’s New Salem,” 23, n. 29. 32. Di Cola, New Salem, 98–99. 48 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed work. Booton voluntarily published an intricate record of his plans and designs: Record of the Restoration of New Salem . . . 1932–33 (1934), a testament to the thoroughness and specificity of his preconstruction work. Even so, the historical accuracy of the present reconstruction is not perfect, as many recent historians have argued. Hewn logs were used in many buildings that originally had rounded logs. Concessions in construction had to be made in building the new structures. To prevent cave-­ins, walls were built in some cellars where none had originally existed. Foundations were sunk below the frost lines on buildings that originally rested on the ground. A more durable plaster and tinted cement were used instead of the pioneers’ mud and hair mixture.33 Little information about the exterior appearance of the buildings was available; the addition of porches to some houses was based on the wealth of the owners. The stores did not have porches in the 1932 reconstruction, though they have been subsequently added to some, including the second Berry-­Lincoln store.34 And buildings of the original village are missing altogether from the restoration. There is no Reverend John Camron residence, for instance, though he was a founder of the village and owned the land on which New Salem was platted.35 Illinois’s state’s attorney for Menard County, Henry E. Pond— whose spouse, historian Fern Nance Pond, is mentioned below— was in charge of the restoration of Onstot’s cooper shop. He faced a difficult decision about where to place the reconstructed chimney. In the end, he guessed that the pioneers would have used their good sense and put it on the gable end to give the structure added stabil- ity.36 This structural design may or may not have been correct. More fundamental is the misplacement of the restored village’s Main Street, which is substantially north of the one in Lincoln’s time, and resting on a post–New Salem meadow lane. The street would also have been much wider, actually obliterating the current lawns in front of build- ings. More crucial is that Booton did not heed the recollection of the aforementioned Ida L. Bale, a descendant of New Salem resident Jacob Bale, regarding the location of the Rutledge Tavern. The present tavern actually rests on the site of the Bale house, the last structure standing after the village was deserted. Worse, after excavating the tavern’s

33. Thomas, Lincoln’s New Salem, 162–63. 34. Di Cola, New Salem, 95. 35. Di Cola, New Salem, 100. 36. Richard S. Taylor and Mark L. Johnson, “A Fragile Illusion: The Construction of Lincoln’s New Salem,” Journal of Illinois History 7 (2004): 260. Mark B. Pohlad 49 original foundation, Booton may have ordered that it be obliterated by backfilling it with new soil. Mazrim’s important excava- tions in the 1990s were thus unable to adequately search the original context. Finally, though not Booton’s error but an error nonetheless, the situation of the north-­south road to Springfield differs from its original orientation. It is good to acknowledge all these missteps, and to acknowledge the myriad aspects that were restored accurately by thousands of hands.

The Civilian Conservation Corps On , 1934, camp 1683 of the CCC was set up on the site, and 216 young men began work on the park. The CCC was a dynamic and highly successful Depression-­era Roosevelt program (1933–42) for construction and park beautification. Two and a half million men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five—about­ Lincoln’s own age while he was in New Salem—participated. They were mostly unmarried, from relief families. The CCC was particularly active in Illinois, and evidence of its projects can still be seen and experienced statewide. Enrollees performed work at White Pines, Kickapoo, Mis- sissippi , and Matthiessen and Illini State Parks. They built lodges at Starved Rock and Giant City State Parks. Besides their reconstruction of the buildings at Lincoln’s New Salem, they also performed restoration work and rebuilt the structure at Lincoln Log Cabin Site Historic Site, outside Decatur. The CCC remained at the site for seven years, rebuilding eight log buildings, including a mill on the Sangamon and the carding mill, erecting split-rail­ , planting trees, and laying trails and roads. The daily life of CCC workers was almost military in its discipline and regimentation; the War Department had a hand in their train- ing and housing. The young men were housed in barracks, the first structures they built at New Salem, replacing earlier tents. During the Monday-to-­ ­Friday workweek, reveille was at 6 a.m., with each day ending at 4 p.m. On weekends, the workers went into Spring- field and Petersburg, where they patronized businesses and attended church. Pay came to about thirty dollars per month, eight of which was given to each worker and the remaining twenty-­two sent to their families. For some of the young men, it was the first such collective discipline and group work they experienced.37 It is not surprising that

37. “Daily Life in a C.C.C. Camp,” http://www2.gsu.edu/~phltso/paulwriting/ ccc.html. 50 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed a significant number of CCC workers served in the military during World War II a few short years later. By the time CCC workers at New Salem had concluded their proj- ect, they had added another ten log buildings, including two mills, a lodge, and seven houses. The CCC also constructed the open-­air Kelso Hollow Theater, and erected the Wagon Wheel Inn at the base of the bluff. The restoration energized the region and spawned other Lincoln-­related restoration projects. Intriguingly, sometime in the 1930s there were plans to restore the path Lincoln took from New Salem to Springfield. A “New Salem–Springfield Lincoln Trail Asso- ciation” imagined an “all weather” road through Athens, Sangamo Town, and on to Springfield.38 Sadly, it was never realized. Besides re-­creating some of the original buildings, the CCC workers planted trees. In the 1830s, of course, the village would have been bar- ren of trees due to the need for wood for housing and fuel. The corps first had to fell the trees that had grown there since Lincoln’s time before planting new ones. To beautify state parks—after all, Lincoln’s New Salem is a state park—was a mission of the CCC. The trees they planted are now mature and fully grown after eighty-­five years. They fulfill the valuable function of insulating the village from the sights and sounds of the twenty-first­ century: views of modern roads and bridges, truck noises, and the like. Despite their loveliness, the trees give the false impression that Lincoln’s village was a leafy, idyllic place, perhaps perfect for reading under a tree or wooing a young girl. One of the most significant changes between the original restora- tion in 1918 and that of the 1930s was the removal of the parking lot from the center of the village. Photos from the 1920s show cars parked alongside the cabins. Prohibiting parking in the entire village helps create one illusion of the past. Relocation of the lot on the western perimeter has obliged visitors to walk into the village, thus preparing them for the experience beyond. A winding path at the west entrance to the village and a raised berm, which limits the initial view of the village’s Main Street, add visual drama. The interiors of the New Salem buildings, however, represent a crucial dimension of the visi- tor’s experience.

38. See this newspaper article (title and date illegible) in Lincoln Financial Foun- dation Collection, Illinois. New Salem. Miscellaneous, 15. https://archive.org/details/ illinoisnewsalemlinc_4/page/n15. Mark B. Pohlad 51

“The Women Get Busy” The need to furnish the 1918 reconstructed buildings made a case for recruiting women as members of the Old Salem Lincoln League, which originally had been open only to men. By 1918 the women members were collecting period artifacts from around the region. On May 3, 1918, the Petersburg Observer proclaimed, “Let the women get busy.”39 The provenance of some items, saved by families Lincoln would have known, was linked to New Salem. Others were period antiques akin in appearance and function to those used in the vil- lage. It is easy to underestimate the importance of this aspect of New Salem’s re-­creation. Unlike the buildings, which, in any case, were entirely reconstructed and not original, the items gathered by these dedicated women were authentic and, in some cases, possibly used by Lincoln himself. And because they graced the interiors of the 1918 buildings as well as those of the present 1933 reconstruction, they are a common thread. The historical objects remain an important point of contact for visitors even today. Besides collecting period furnish- ings, women contributed to New Salem as the majority of costumed interpreters. Their dedication to imparting knowledge and re-­creating the spirit of the place has been indispensable in the history of the re-­ created village. Collecting objects continued well into the 1920s, and by 1933 the State of Illinois had produced an exhaustive catalog of these items in time for the dedication of the newly reconstructed village. The list associates each object with its building, indicates which objects were original to or produced in New Salem, and relates some history about each, along with donors’ names.40 Benjamin P. Thomas claimed, Every piece was passed on by an authenticity committee, and unless an article was obviously one hundred years old [recall this was in the early 1930s] the donors were required to trace its history back a hundred years before it was accepted. The people

39. New Salem Lincoln League, Lincoln’s New Salem: A Village Reborn (Petersburg, IL: New Salem Lincoln League, 1994), unpag. Though women were important early on, of course male interpreters have always played an important role, too. Jim Patton, for instance, an ALA board member, expertly represented the town blacksmith for more than twenty-five­ years, and met visitors who taught him the word ‘blacksmith’ in more than a hundred languages. 40. Illinois, Department of Public Works and Buildings, New Salem: A Memorial to Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, Illinois, 1933); six editions to 1947. 52 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed

of Menard County and some from more distant places were most generous in turning over old pieces of furniture and relics to the state. Not a single piece was bought.41 The result was a group of approximately six thousand items. Besides its connection to Lincoln, the catalog is a vast time capsule of pioneer material culture. Former residents themselves surrendered items from the days of Lincoln. The youngest sibling of Ann Rutledge, “Aunt” Sallie Saun- ders (1829–92), donated several things, including the Rutledge family , a saddle used by Ann, buttons from her brother’s coat worn when he was in Captain Lincoln’s company, and a coffee pot used by her mother at the Rutledge Tavern.42 A dress originally made by Parthena Nance Hill from items in the Hill Store was given by “Aunt” Lucy Bennett.43 A leader in the 1930s effort to furnish and promote the reconstructed buildings was Fern Nance Pond (1889–1960), of Petersburg. She was also the author of New Salem’s popular “official” pictorial guidebook, on which generations of visitors relied.44 Recognized as an expert and spokesperson on New Salem—she is the only “historian” listed in the 1933 catalog—she was later a technical adviser for the Ford Foundation’s television movie Mr. Lincoln (1952). Altogether, she was the public media face of the reconstructed New Salem. Her husband, Henry, the state’s attorney, was also a leader in the restoration of the village. Pond was herself related to Parthena Nance Hill, the wife of New Salem resident Samuel Hill. Both had been close friends of young Lincoln. So perhaps it is fitting that Fern and Henry spent the night in the Hill residence before the dedication of the site.45 The reconstruction of the 1930s—the New Salem we visit today— took place during the governorships of Republican L. L. Emmerson (1863–1941) and Democrat (1878–1940). Horner avidly collected Lincoln documents and artifacts, and his vast collection

41. Thomas, 163. 42. Reep, Lincoln and New Salem, 63. 43. A photo of her wearing it is reproduced in Reep, Lincoln and New Salem, 24, as “Costume of a fashionably dressed lady at New Salem.” 44. It ran to twelve editions in different iterations: New Salem Village: Photographic Views and Brief Historical Sketch, 1938 and later. 45. Wayde Brown, Reconstructing Historic Landmarks: Fabrication, Negotiation, and the Past (New York: Routledge, 2019), 108–09. Figure 2. Vol- unteers at Old Salem Lincoln League House Raising Day, New Salem, July 30, 1918. Thomas P. Reep, Lincoln at New Salem (1927). Figure 3. Governors Henry Horner and Louis Lincoln Emmerson in the Gov- ernor’s Mansion, Springfield, Illinois, 1932. Photo by Herbert Georg. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Figure 4. Fern Nance Pond ad- dressing Illinois State Histori- cal Society members at New Salem, . Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 42: 4 (Dec., 1949), p. 488. Photo by Edgar F. Schultz. 56 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed became the foundation of the Illinois State Historical Library and its successor institution, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. It included 1,996 books, 3,717 pamphlets, 343 addresses presented at memorial services for President Lincoln in 1865, and 410 other significant items. His enthusiasm for the re-creation­ of Lincoln’s New Salem was therefore intense. The restored New Salem was dedicated on October 26, 1933. Orga- nizers had invited people to bring old-fashioned­ wagons, carts, and vehicles to park on Main Street. Descendants of New Salem’s pio- neer settlers and league members were greeters and hosts in many of the buildings; many were wearing historical period clothing for the occasion. Logan Hay, president of the Abraham Lincoln Association from 1920 to 1942, presided, and Paul M. Angle, then secretary of the Illinois State Historical Society, spoke. George Hearst (1904–72), son of benefactor William Randolph Hearst, who had purchased and donated the town site back in 1906, was also in attendance. The music was provided by the “Lincoln Liberty” chorus, the Petersburg high school band, and an all-­male, black “Lincoln sextette.” In attendance were a few members of the G.A.R., presumably Civil War veterans.46 Governor Henry Horner gave the address, a masterpiece of Progres- sive Era oratory, particularly its final paragraph. Under the influence of his life we will continue to have faith in Illinois, faith in its sons and daughters, faith in our national institutions. We cherish the hope that this village which we have re-­erected on the hallowed ground where it formerly existed will always be a symbol of our desire to adhere to the rugged truths which guided [Lincoln], and that it will encourage us to return to the confidence which he had in his fellowmen and to seek to accomplish in our own humble way, and in our times, some of the things he was able to achieve. In that spirit we today turn back the pages of history to live for a moment in a past century in order that we may live more usefully and understandingly in the present one.47 When we recall the state’s efforts to restore New Salem, we should recognize the personal investment of its administrators and elected officials.

46. Chicago Tribune, Oct. 27, 1933. 47. “New Salem: The Dedication Ceremonies,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 26, no. 4 (Jan. 1934), 456–57. Mark B. Pohlad 57

Figure 5. Stairs showing current deterioration of New Salem structures. Cour- tesy of James Patton.

An Uncertain Future It is difficult to overestimate the number of visitors to New Salem since the 1930s reconstruction—several million perhaps—and it is difficult to overestimate its cultural, regional, and even international impor- tance. In the intervening , however, the village has dramati- cally demonstrated its vulnerabilities. The aging seen in the buildings today includes weathered wood, moss-covered­ roofs, and crumbling foundations. Though evocative of the past, these are not accurate to Lincoln’s time. The buildings of his New Salem were virtually new, and lasted only ten years in that village. Those made in the 1930s are nearly ninety years old. These are not recent anxieties. “Abraham Lincoln saved the Union, but who will save Lincoln’s New Salem State Park?” asked the Chicago Tribune environmental editor nearly a half-­century ago, in 1971.48 That article describes layers of dirt on the building’s exteriors and interiors,

48. Casey Bukro, Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1971, F1. 58 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed and the pools of mud that form after rainstorms. “We’re approaching irreversible damage; the foundations are coming out,” said Bill Hand, then the assistant ranger for the park. Issues like these persist today, because there are no monies earmarked for the park’s upkeep out of the funds devoted to the entire park. A scandal erupted in 1969 when an inventory of the approximately twelve thousand Lincoln-­era artifacts donated by New Salem relatives revealed that more than a hundred were missing.49 These included firearms and powder horns, furniture, surgical instruments, and more. Moreover, the preservation of objects was deplorable. In one case, rodents had completed chewed up an 1834 Bible, and a leaky roof in one cabin ruined a pile of Lincoln-era­ books, documents, and some furniture. There had been no comprehensive inventory since 1947, a Chicago Tribune investigation uncovered, and there were simply no records of many items. Visitors may have accounted for some losses. In one instance, a guest was seen lifting a child over a restraining gate in an attempt to steal a pottery item. A day after this story appeared, officials announced swift action and a comprehensive inventory.50 Not just the buildings but also their precious contents require careful and vigilant oversight. The site has been under more watchful management in the past fifty years. The nonprofit New Salem Lincoln League was established in 1981 and operates the museum store, conducts a calendar of events and programming, and preserves and maintains the village. Its stew- ardship of the village, the park, the volunteers, and the theatrical productions has been impressive. In 1985 the site’s name was changed yet again, this time to “Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site”; it had formerly been known as New Salem State Park. In 1992 a new mixed-­use building for a theater, a museum, and a visitor center was unveiled. The village was managed by the Illinois Historic Preserva- tion Agency from 1984 to 2017, and since then by the Department of Natural Resources. The visitor center and museum are funded by the league. Many people are surprised to learn that the buildings are not pro- tected individually as historic sites, although the entire site has been on

49. Ibid., 2. 50. William Jones, “State Officials Act on Thefts of Relics at New Salem Park,”Chicago Tribune, April 25, 1969. Mark B. Pohlad 59 the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. Unlike the Lincoln Home in Springfield, the structures at New Salem today (except for Onstot’s Cooper Shop, which Lincoln is known to have visited) were never inhabited by Abraham. Rather, the buildings are products of the 1930s, and thus have the same historical status as any other Illinois park structure. But they are worth protecting, just as buildings of their vintage and provenance have been protected elsewhere. For example, a cabin built by the CCC in Mount Nebo State Park, in , is on the National Register of Historic Places, as are the 1930s-­era log forest management buildings erected by the CCC in a state park east of the town of Walden. The CCC-built­ structures in more than twenty state parks in are safeguarded by their inclu- sion on the register. And there are many, many more throughout the country. When they tour New Salem, most Lincoln buffs see only his village. They see the more or less accurately re-created­ buildings and material culture of the pioneer generation of which he was a part. But if New Salem is to survive, they should also recognize it as a massively ambi- tious historical reconstruction from another heroic period in American history: the 1930s of the Great Depression. Lincoln’s New Salem rep- resents a multilayered history of effort by boosters, Chautauquans, the Old Salem Lincoln League, architects, researchers, CCC workers, and the State of Illinois. The site successfully conjures Lincoln, too, as it was meant to do. After a trip to New Salem in 1866, Herndon described its impact in ways that still hold true for many New Salem visitors today: “We see , we feel it; it is present, and we deeply sympathize with it.”51 Or as author Carrie Wright Douglas (b. 1862) recommended in the 1930s: “Visit . . . for in no other place will you realize the presence of Lincoln’s kindly spirit brooding over you. It is truly a shrine for every American. His body lies near Springfield, but his spirit lin- gers at [New] Salem.”52 The writers of the 1920s brochure cited at the beginning of this essay hoped that “[e]very blade of grass, every dell, every field in the eighty acres will speak to you of Lincoln.”53 And even contemporary scholars who have misgivings about its historical

51. Taylor and Johnson, “Spirit of the Place,” 184. 52. Carrie Douglas Wright, Me an Abe: A Narrative Poem of Abraham Lincoln’s New Salem Days (Chicago: Mrs. H. P. Mozier, 1930), unpag. 53. Op cit. 60 Lincoln’s New Salem, Reconstructed accuracy admit that “the rebuilt village possesses enormous imagina- tive power.”54 Considering the serious need for repair at New Salem today, Reep’s final words in Lincoln at New Salem (1927) carry the same urgency: “With the aid of your influence, Dear Reader, the State of Illinois will complete its work of restoration now, instead of delaying it for another generation. Won’t you ask your representatives in the State Legislature to see to it that this work is done now?”55

54. Taylor and Johnson, “Spirit of the Place,” 174. 55. Reep, Lincoln at New Salem, 140.