Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President from 1860 to 1865, was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin, Kentucky, now Larue, Kentucky. On March 8, 1860, Edward Harris, Woonsocket's most prominent industrialist, abolitionist, and philanthropist, invited Lincoln to speak in Woonsocket at Harris Institute Hall, located in today's city hall. At this location, Lincoln disembarked from the train and entered the town before speaking at Harris Institute. He stayed overnight at Harris' mansion, Oakley, in the North End of Woonsocket. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, in Washington, DC, after John Wilkes Booth assassinated him at Ford's Theatre on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.
