A Sandburg Stumper

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Steve, but it isn't Onstott.

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

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

His last name is not pronounced as it is spelled.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

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

[Rob Wick]

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

[STS Lincolnite]

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.

[Rob Wick]

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

[Gene C]

A church?

[Rob Wick]

Gene,

It isn't a church.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Major's Hall?

[Rob Wick]

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

Best
Rob

[Steve]

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?

[Rob Wick]

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

This building is important to both Sandburg and Lincoln.

Best
Rob

[Gene C]

A school ?

[RJNorton]

Old Main?

[Rob Wick]

Gene,

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

Best
Rob