Travel in Abraham Lincoln's time was time-consuming, dirty, and usually uncomfortable. On many trips, Lincoln traveled by train to Meredosia, then continued by steamboat or by carriage over rough roads, and he also reached Beardstown and other Cass County communities by horseback. In Beardstown he usually stayed at local hotels, including the Dunbaugh House on May 6 and 7, 1858, when he defended William Duff Armstrong in the Almanac Trial, and the National Hotel on several occasions, including Aug. 12, 1858, when he delivered a two-hour speech in his bid for the U.S. Senate. He also likely stayed at Thomas Beard's inn and the Virginia Hotel. Tradition holds that he spent evenings on hotel verandahs sharing stories with local residents while whittling, and local historical accounts say that during his visits he almost always went to a tavern at the corner of State and Second streets for a meal and lively conversation. He passed time on the circuit roads by reading as he traveled to the next court session. Beardstown hotels of Lincoln's time were spartan but better than smaller inns where travelers often slept in the same room and usually in the same bed. The National Hotel and other local hostelries were wood-frame buildings with private rooms, though without indoor plumbing and with chamber pots in each room. These hotels were later lost to fire and time, and the coming of the railroad in 1870 led to the construction of more substantial brick hotels.