Lincoln and His Father

[David Lockmiller]

The President-Elect Visits Coles County 193

Whitney, as he tells the story, secured a pass for Lincoln at the depot [Lincoln's departure from Springfield on the morning of January 30, 1861]. Lincoln waited for the train in the railroad superintendent's office. After boarding the train, Whitney recalled, "Lincoln took pains, though not with ostentation, to secure an humble old lady, whom he knew, a double seat."

The President-Elect Visits Coles County 195

A Charleston lawyer, James W. Connolly (later a major in the Civil War) told Jesse W. Weik in later years about Lincoln's arrival at Charleston. Hearing that Lincoln was coming to the city, Mr. Connolly went to the depot to witness his arrival. He recalled that:

When the train finally drew in and stopped, the locomotive was about opposite the station and the caboose, or car which carried the passengers, was some distance down the track. Presently, looking in that direction, we saw a tall man wearing a coat or shawl, descend from the steps of the car and patiently make his way through the long expanse of slush and ice beside the track as far as the station platform. I think he wore a plug hat. I remember I was surprised that a railroad company, with so distinguished a passenger aboard its train as the President elect of the United States, did not manifest interest enough in his dignity and comfort to deliver him at the station instead of dropping him off in the mud several hundred feet down the track. In addition to myself quite a crowd of natives were gathered on the platform to see him. . . . There were no formalities. Lincoln shook hands with a number of persons whom he recognized or who greeted him, and in a few minutes left for the residence of a friend, where, it was understood, he was to spend the night.