Lincoln's Final Days In Springfield

[STS Lincolnite]

(09-20-2023 09:47 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(09-06-2023 08:48 PM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  Hope some of you may tune in and even ask a question or two (nothing too difficult of course. )

I was going to ask a question if I had the chance to do so.

The timing of Lincoln's departure from Springfield forever was obviously very close to his birthday. Since Lincoln would be gone from Springfield for four years at least and many of his old friends would remain in Springfield for that entire time, I thought perhaps that there may have been an early "birthday and parting" party with some of his old friends in attendance.

But Lincoln was very busy and very much a one-to-one person and so may have preferred such intimate meetings in seeing old friends for perhaps the last time. As I recall, he visited his step-mother in such manner shortly before departing Springfield.

Hi David,

I don’t know that there was any birthday party for Lincoln per say. However, the Lincoln’s did hold a farewell reception on February 6th at their home. I’m sure at least some birthday good wishes were passed on to Lincoln at that time knowing he would be absent for an extended period. Several newspapers reported the event. One source stated that “thousands” attended and that the reception, though scheduled from 7:00 pm to 12:00 am, lasted longer.

And yes, Lincoln did visit his stepmother in the Charleston, IL area. He left Springfield on January 30, 1861 and returns to Springfield on February 1, 1861.

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(09-21-2023 05:27 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Scott, I enjoyed your talk very much. For some reason the question of whether Jameson Jenkins transported Lincoln to the depot reminded me of the problem of figuring out exactly which men carried the dying President from Ford's Theatre to the Petersen House. Over 20 men claimed or were given credit for doing this. It sounds like Jenkins has far less "competition" for being the one who drove Lincoln to the depot. Good luck on your research, Scott.

Thank you Roger. I did feel my talk was a little choppy. I did a lot of editing over the last few days to make sure I met the time guidelines. LOTS more context, information, and detail that I just didn't have time to share. So I'm not sure it flowed exactly the way I would have liked after having removed some of those things.

Yes, there is some similarity of difficulty in determining who drove Lincoln to the depot and who carried Lincoln to the Petersen House. Other examples might include who was in the Petersen House (or at Lincoln's bedside) the night he died and who served as housekeepers in the Lincoln household.

It it seems everyone was out to claim their connection with Lincoln in a given instance (whether true or not).

And therein lies one major difference here. In the case of who drove Lincoln to the depot, I have not been able find any primary source where ANY of the potential candidates themselves actually and/or directly claimed to have been the one to drive Lincoln. All names of the potential candidates were put forth later by others (and in most cases MUCH later). In spite of that, I do have very good circumstantial evidence that, when taken as a whole, definitely points to one of the candidates as the one who drove Lincoln to the Great Western Depot.