On February 18, 1861, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln paused in Painesville as his inaugural train carried him to Washington, DC. He walked from the platform of the train to a stand of railroad ties from which he addressed 5,000 people who had come to welcome the Illinois railsplitter. Four years later, minute guns announced the arrival of the assassinated president's funeral train returning him to Springfield, Illinois via the identical route of the inaugural train. Early on the morning of April 28, 1865 a mourning community went to the depot on railroad street again to pay respects to Mr. Lincoln.
