Sorry Steve, but it isn't Onstott.

Clue: Another of Lincoln's contemporaries referred to him as an "egotistical fool."

Best
Rob

His last name is not pronounced as it is spelled.

Best
Rob

Well, I guess I'll go ahead and call this. The letter writer was none other than Ward Hill Lamon, who was trying to get a picture of Herndon for Lamon's biography of Lincoln.

I'm not sure about the idea that before 1870, Herndon never had a picture taken. Doing some research, it shows only five known poses, but I'm not sure as to their dates. At least one looks like a younger Herndon.

Best
Rob

No Googling, please.

Read this quote from Sandburg:

I am a child of time. I celebrate the dignity, importance and pathos of time. Time used me with snow and rain, wind and frost, rust and rot, till I was falling away. Unless loving and thoughtful hands had come to help me I would have prepared to vanish and become dust in the wind, a shattered form and a forgotten melody, a house melted into thin shadows.

Sandburg uses the word "house" here, but he was not talking about a house. What building was he speaking of?

Best
Rob

(04-10-2024 09:33 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  No Googling, please.

Read this quote from Sandburg:

I am a child of time. I celebrate the dignity, importance and pathos of time. Time used me with snow and rain, wind and frost, rust and rot, till I was falling away. Unless loving and thoughtful hands had come to help me I would have prepared to vanish and become dust in the wind, a shattered form and a forgotten melody, a house melted into thin shadows.

Sandburg uses the word "house" here, but he was not talking about a house. What building was he speaking of?

Best
Rob

Wild guess here Rob. How about where Lincoln delivered the "House Divided" speech. The Old State Capitol in Springfield, IL.

That is an excellent and logical guess, Scott, but it isn't the Old State Capitol. However, I will say it is in Illinois.

Best
Rob

A church?

Gene,

It isn't a church.

Best
Rob

Major's Hall?

Another logical guess, Roger, but that isn't it.

Best
Rob

The imagery of Sandburg's poetic words keeps bringing up in my mind New Salem and the effort to reconstruct it. But if it has to be a specific building, maybe Rutledge Tavern?

Good try, Steve, but that isn't it.

This building is important to both Sandburg and Lincoln.

Best
Rob

A school ?

Old Main?

Gene,

You were on the right track, but Roger got it. It's Old Main at Knox College in Galesburg.

Best
Rob