“Lincoln” sites draw visitors

Max Daniels from Wheaton (left) and his wife, Donna, portrayers of President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, were in Hancock County Friday and Saturday. After speaking at LaHarpe on the anniversary of his speech there in 1858, Daniels went to several locations with Looking for Lincoln exhibit signs including the one near Fountain Green at a cemetery where Lincoln relatives are buried.

Like many places in Illinois, several Hancock County towns have some historical claim to Abraham Lincoln. The statewide “Looking for Lincoln” project is a way to attract tourism by drawing history buffs to Lincoln sites around the state, including Hancock County.

Lincoln portrayer Max Daniels and his wife, Donna, got a look at several of the new Lincoln wayside exhibit rails that have been mounted in Carthage, LaHarpe, Fountain Green, Dallas City, Augusta and Nauvoo.

The Carthage exhibit tells about Lincoln defending at the first trial in the second Hancock County courthouse in 1839.

The Dallas City exhibit tells about Lincoln's visit on Oct. 23, 1858, that was witnessed by several thousand people.

The LaHarpe exhibit tells of Lincoln speaking there on that same day, in front of the Methodist Church.

The Augusta exhibit tells about Lincoln attending a district convention in that town, and nearly falling from the buggy that carried him through the crowd on a campaign visit in 1858.

Abraham Lincoln probably stayed at the Hamilton House when he came to Carthage in 1839 to serve as the defendant's counsel in the Fraime murder trial. There are no other known Lincoln court cases in Hancock County. But he did handle several local cases on appeal in the Illinois State Supreme Court, including an 1845 case where the owner of the Hamilton House, Artois Hamilton, sued a debtor for payment. Other lincoln exhibits are found at Kibbe Hancock Heritage Museum.