Pike County's Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was a frequent visitor to Pike County, where he crossed the Illinois River from his judicial circuit to practice law with many of the county's leading attorneys, formed close associations with prominent Whig and Republican Party members, and enjoyed close personal friendships with many residents. He often campaigned there, including a notable rally with U.S. Senator Lyman Trumball in the 1856 presidential and congressional campaign, and he served in the Illinois State Legislature with William Ross and William Grimshaw, while his friend Oziah Hatch was Illinois Secretary of State and Alexander Starne was Illinois State Treasurer. Among Lincoln's old friends in Pike County were Abraham Scholl, who fought in the Indian Wars in Kentucky with the Lincolns, the Shastid family, Milton Hay, Daniel Gilmer, Reuben Scanland, Aaron Tyler, and Charles Philbrick, Lincoln's third private secretary, and many homes and buildings associated with his visits still survive. John Nicolay and John Hay, who had met and spent much of their boyhood in Pittsfield, later became Lincoln's private secretaries after his election as president; in January 1861, a Pike County Republican article said he had paid a decided compliment to Pike County because Nicolay's home was there and Hay had gained citizenship by attending school there for a long time. The courthouse where Lincoln appeared before the bar was built from plans accepted on February 5, 1836, finished in 1839 at a cost of $15,000.00, and was the site of thirty-four cases he worked between 1839 and 1852. Six lawyers who tried cases in the old Pike County courthouses later became U.S. Senators: Stephen A. Douglas, Orville Hickman Browning, Richard Yates, and William A. Richardson from Illinois, Edward D. Baker from Oregon, and James McDougall from California. On October 1, 1858, Lincoln gave a two hour speech on the courthouse square to a large crowd as he opposed Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate, and Douglas himself had spoken there nearly two months earlier.

Pittsfield, Illinois · United States