Lincoln's Lincoln

On August 27, 1853, the first sale of lots in the new town of Lincoln took place near this spot, attended by Abraham Lincoln, for whom the town had been named. When asked to officially christen the town that day, he obliged after reportedly joking, “Nothing with the name of Lincoln has ever amounted to much.” He chose a melon and carried out a brief ceremony witnessed by thirteen-year-old John S. Stevens, who later remembered Lincoln cutting the melon with his pocket knife, squeezing its juice into a tin cup, pouring it on the ground, and declaring the town site christened as Lincoln and soon to be the permanent capital of Logan County. Lincoln then turned the occasion into a feast, giving Stevens, whom he called the youngest American present, half of the christening melon and inviting the gathered men to help themselves from a pile of melons.

Lincoln, Illinois · United States