The Jefferson Lemen Compact - Was it True

[Rob Wick]

First, let’s clear one thing up. There is a sofa in the Lincoln bedroom of the Illinois Governor’s mansion. Here are pictures of the sofa. It’s hard to judge its length from these photos, but it appears long enough that Lincoln might have been able to sleep on it, although it seems awfully narrow to provide comfortable sleeping, but then again, that’s me. That there is a sofa there is a long way from proving its provenance.

As I was searching the photos, I discovered something of great interest. Look at the third photo. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the upholstery on the couch matches that of the chair and ottoman and even appears to match the rug. Given that no one has suggested there was a chair and ottoman that had a connection to Lincoln, it appears that the sofa was reupholstered at some point to match the other furniture. If this couch was such a valued historical relic, changing the upholstery to match the rest of the furniture would have been a desecration to something of great value.

Edit: There is, of course, a couple of other possibilities. 1)the chair and the ottoman were reupholstered to match the couch or 2)all three were reupholstered at the same time, which I think makes more sense, given that the chance of finding fabric that would match exactly seems pretty remote. Still, the act of reupholstering would have damaged the historical integrity of the couch, if it had any.






As to the rest of your post, first, I would like to see a link to the article from the Centralia paper or post it without your ellipses so I can judge it myself in its entirety.

Second, let’s explore just who William Alderfer was. He served during various years as Illinois State Historian, an appointed post. While from the brief research I conducted, there seems to be no reason to believe that Alderfer was not competent as state historian, that is a far cry from being competent to “verify” the authenticity of your claim. Exactly what methods did he use to verify the Lemen claim? Did he receive affidavits that pointed to the provenance of the couch? Did he look through historical records to show on what occasions Lincoln actually visited Salem, and was there documentary evidence to show that Lincoln stayed with B.F. Lemen, or is that simply family tradition? Did he do his due diligence, or did he fall for the claim that while on a hunt for Lincoln-related memorabilia to go in the home whose restoration he was appointed to oversee, that he was told by someone “hey, there’s a sofa in Salem that Lincoln slept on?" Given that the only claim appears to come from the website of one of the family members, there has to be more evidence than that before the claim can be sustained.

Third, look at various books, articles and recorded tours of the Executive Mansion. If you notice in the tour here (go to 2:04 in the video) the tour guide doesn’t even mention the couch. None of these mentions the sofa in connection with Lincoln. The only items mentioned in the Lincoln bedroom are the large bed frame and some of the knick-knacks scattered throughout the room. It seems telling to me that none of these mention Lincoln’s connection to the couch, which one would think merits something. Also, here is the transcript of an oral history project conducted in 1971 and 1972, at the time the mansion was undergoing restoration. The first interview was with Alderfer who mentions nothing of his connection to the restoration. The second is with Lowell Anderson and James Hickey and concerns the mansion. When asked about the furniture, no mention is made of the couch, although they do mention the bed frame. Here is a more in-depth interview with Lowell Anderson on the renovation, which discusses in detail the furniture. Again, no mention of Lincoln's couch.

So we have a couch, but only one source that claims Lincoln slept there on “several” visits to Salem, although the Lincoln Log shows only one visit in the 1840s. Without further evidence, one cannot say conclusively that Alderfer was taken in when he bought the couch, but if I was a gambling man, I would lay money on that being the case. After all, how many places on the east coast suck in tourists by claiming that George Washington slept there?

Best
Rob