After Jesse Fell returned from a trip through the East, he found that many people had heard of Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 but knew little about him, and he urged Lincoln to present his views on slavery and his background to the public as a step toward a possible presidential candidacy. Though Lincoln doubted his chances and believed little in his early life would interest anyone, he eventually wrote an autobiography that, after being rewritten and embellished, was widely published throughout the North and East and introduced him to readers beyond those who knew only his debates with Stephen A. Douglas. Fell, who had known Lincoln since 1835, remained a close friend, and Lincoln personally pressed for Fell's appointment as a paymaster in the Regular Army in 1862 until he received it on June 3, 1862. Fell was secretary of the Illinois Republican Party and helped connect the Whigs with abolitionist-leaning Republicans, while his home became a gathering place for Lincoln and other Illinois political, legal, and social leaders, including David Davis, Leonard Swett, Owen Lovejoy, John H. Bryant, and Asahel Gridley, as they met for social and political occasions and helped plan Lincoln's election as the nation's first Republican president. After the Civil War, Fell encouraged African-American families such as the Duffs to settle in Normal by selling lots and homes on interest-only payments until they became established, and in 1867 he was a leader in promoting the integration of Illinois State University. Fell built this house in 1856 and 1857 and lived there from 1857 until 18982 on what was then the corner of Broadway and Irving Street, within an eighteen-acre landscaped setting called Greenwood based on a plan by William Saunders; the grounds, admired by Fell for years, were opened for picnics and other events, and the household was also noted for furnishings such as a Rococo hall tree remembered by the family as one Lincoln used and for Hester Vernon Fell's introduction of fashionable domestic features including a piano and window screens.