Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society

"In the days of his law practice in Springfield, Mr. Lincoln didn't own a horse and so when they went out electioneering he frequently borrowed my mother's.  My mother's family had come from the blue grass region of Kentucky, and their pride was in their riding horses, and horseback riding was almost their only means of travel.  My mother used to tell with considerable pride how when Mr. Lincoln and my father were campaigning for the state legislature, she gave Mr. Lincoln her own riding horse to use in his electioneering travels and that a queer figure the tall man made astride a lady's riding horse.

“The campaign on the riding pony resulted in the election of both men to the legislature at Vandalia and with seven other men from Sangamon County they were appointed on the committee to consider the removal of the capital from Vandalia to Springfield.  Abraham Lincoln stood in height at the head of the "Long Nine," as the committee was called in early Illinois history.  Father, I think, came next.  An official United States document of the war, which is before me, gives his height as 6 ft. 4 in.  Col. Baker, who enter the military service during the Civil War from Oregon, (the State) and who was killed at Balls Bluff so early in the conflict, came next.  Herndon and Fletcher were the Senators on the committee, Lincoln, Edwards, Dawson, McCormick, Elkins, Baker and Wilson were of the lower house.  These composed the "Long Nine", whose total height was reputed to have been fifty-four feet.

“In the summer of 1856 Abraham Lincoln made a great speech here.  There were two rows of locust trees then in front of our house running east and west where Seventh Street now is.  The platform was erected between them.  When my daughter Anne and I were both teaching in the Second Ward years later, we located with the help of others the place where he stood.  An elm was planted with elaborate records placed at its roots.  Unfortunately, the elm died.  Later a boulder was set up for a remembrance.  Mr. Lincoln was to have been our house guest, but mother had met with a very serious accident a few days previous and was entirely prostrated for months.  She was so ill that day that father, after meeting Lincoln and seeing him located properly, went home and sat by the open window in the room with mother and listened to the speech.  Aunt Mary Manahan, who lived on Third Street opposite Galt and Crawford’s store entertained him.  I am writing at the table that Anne says her grandmother valued most highly because Lincoln when a guest at her home sat at it for meals.  The next year were his debates with Douglas.  One was in Rockford, another in Galesburg, none in Sterling.

"Father attended President Lincoln's Inaugural address.  Times were strange then.  Lincoln left Springfield in 1861 to go to Washington as President.  He had many friends with him.  It was known to be a dangerous journey.  When he reached Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he had to leave the train and go quietly with a friend or two unrecognized until he was safely landed in Washington, wearing a high collared, buttoned up coat, a rain coat, which hid his face-- otherwise he could not be safe.

"A large group of Lincoln's personal friends organized just after the inauguration for the safely of the President and the city of Washington.  The called themselves "The Clay Guards" and Cassius M. Clay, a nephew of Henry Clay, was in command.  They were mustered out of service regularly as they were regularly sworn in.  In those pre-war days, they patrolled the streets of Washington, especially during the night, till after the arrival of the first war troops, a regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers who saw their first fighting in Baltimore, as they were on their way to the Capitol.

"Mr. Lincoln had made a list of his old friends for appointment to office.  He wanted to appoint this old friend to some foreign post, but father thought his duty was in the army, and so Mr. Lincoln made him a Paymaster.  Father took his son Silas for his chief clerk, and they left before the 13th Regiment had been ushered into service.

"Soon after the war began, father, at his own request, was sent to Springfield and the west."

"The colonel's house was on a piece of land just north of the town, and Lincoln was always his guest when he came to Sterling.

"In the month of October 1903, a committee of the citizens of Sterling who were present at the time Lincoln made his speech in 1856, conceived the plan of placing a monument at the place in memory of the occasion; a large granite boulder was obtained and properly marked with dates and places as near the spot as it could be and on public ground, in the north east corner of the block occupied by the Central school buildings."