During the campaign for U.S. Senate in 1858, Abraham Lincoln arrived in Kewanee by train from Macomb on the morning of October 27, 1858. He traveled by carriage to Toulon to deliver a speech before returning to Kewanee later that day. Lincoln stayed the night in Kewanee and left on the train to Chicago on the morning of October 28. Before boarding, he delivered a speech to Kewanee residents assembled at the railroad station. His campaigning in the area was preceded by U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who spoke in both Toulon and in Kewanee at Cutter Hall on October 26, 1858.