Lincoln's visit to Dallas City on October 23, 1858, was significant to his political career in many ways. According to the Dallas City Review newspaper, Democrats made several efforts to tear down the platform erected for Lincoln's speech, but Republicans present prevented it. The Democrats then improvised their own platform from a large barrel or hogshead with wide planks on top for a rival speaker meant to drown out Lincoln, but as that speaker was preparing to begin, the main plank was jerked away and he fell to the ground. Another story told of that day recalled Lincoln seeing the Durham Democrats' banner "Douglas Against the World" and replying, "Well, Douglas may be against the world, but always let it be said that Lincoln was for the world, and all the people that live in it - now and always." According to the Carthage Republican newspaper, several thousand people gathered to hear Lincoln speak in Dallas City, and businessmen used the crowd to gather signatures for a charter to incorporate the community under state law. Their efforts succeeded, and on February 19, 1859, Dallas received its charter, was incorporated as a city by approval of the Legislature, and was given the official name of Dallas City. Many local men helped persuade Lincoln to visit in 1858, including George M. Ames, H.F. Black, and Ben Mendenhall. Ames's daughter, Ella Harris, later recalled seeing Lincoln's tall frame mounted on a lumber pile delivering his address despite interruption and heckling. The gathering took place at H.F. Black's lumberyard along the Mississippi River, originally called Wisconsin Lumber Company, where Black finished lumber brought down from the north on rafts; over the years the yard was also known as Black & Loomis Lumber Company and later Pioneer Lumber Company.