(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] Illinois Stories is brought to you by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Illinois Arts Council Agency, and by the support of viewers like you.

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(gentle upbeat music) - Hello, welcome to Illinois Stories.

I'm Mark McDonald in Lincoln at Lincoln College and the Lincoln Heritage Museum.

It doesn't seem possible that it was seven years ago that this museum opened.

It's no longer a new museum, but they do have a couple of new items that you might want to see.

One is an immense United States flag that was used during Lincoln's first campaign, and they actually wrapped him up in it.

It's been restored.

And, the other is a collection of civil war letters from a local family.

112 letters, which recount that period of history.

So, come along.

Our first stop at the Lincoln Heritage Museum is one of the newer acquisitions.

Olivia Partlow, that you have gotten this, and this is really precious, and you're very proud of it, and you should be, because this flag from 1860, I believe, right?

- Yes.

- During the campaign, Lincoln's campaign for, his first campaign for president, was made locally here in Logan County.

And, it's been kept all these years, and what?

Got tattered, and torn, and a group brought it to you, and you're able to restore it, and this is what you end up with.

It's absolutely phenomenal.

- Yeah.

I'm so happy with how it turned out.

So, Lincoln College first acquired the Middletown flag in the 1990s, but it was in such rough condition that we were only able to really unravel it one time, just to take a look.

- 'Cause you were afraid it would fall apart, right?

- Exactly.

Yeah.

We didn't want to, you know, risk damaging this amazing artifact.

And so, it wasn't until just this past summer, summer of 2020, that we were finally able to get it restored.

It was about a three-month process, but we were so happy to finally have it on display.

- Who restores something like this?

How do you find a company to do that?

- Well, it's definitely specialized.

We went with a textile conservation company out of Indianapolis.

And so, I drove the flag up, it was a very nerve wracking drive, - Oh, I'll bet.

- but we made it there safely.

And, it took about three months.

They washed it very delicately, there were stains all over it that they were able to get out pretty well.

Then, they added a fabric backing, and several different pieces of fabric.

So, they matched the color fabric of the color of the flag.

So, under the blue there's blue fabric, under the red there's red.

- Well we can see over here, some of the areas, especially on the blue, you can see where it really needed some help here.

And, those areas have been reinforced and reassembled again.

- Absolutely, and if you look at this star right there even, it was barely even hanging on, but now it's totally secured and we're able to have it on display for hopefully forever.

- And, you've got it in a climate controlled area?

This museum has made for, you know, items like that?

- Yes, and this display case, it was actually designed by some people in Indianapolis as well from the Indiana War Memorials.

They have hundreds of battle flags from the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, all different wars, and so this is their design that we're following.

So, this case was actually constructed by a local Logan County resident, Jason Hoffman, and he put it together using the design plans from the Indiana war memorials.

And, after it was created, a group of women actually from Logan County were the ones to sew the fabric backing.

So, not the actual flag, they didn't touch the actual flag, but the fabric backing, they sewed to the foam core that's behind it.

And, it was really a perfect moment, and taking the flag full circle to see this group of women sitting all around the flag, discussing normal everyday things, just how I imagine the ladies of Middletown in 1860 would have constructed the flag.

- This was made for one of his rallies in Springfield during the 1860 campaign?

- Correct.

It was for his August 8th, 1860 campaign.

- August 8th, okay.

And, the people that were supporting him at this time, they were called Wide Awakes, is that right?

- Correct, the Wide Awakes.

It was kind of like a grassroots movement, a grassroots movement, almost paramilitary.

They had uniforms, they would have rallies, and so they just, it was mostly young men that supported Lincoln and supported the Republican party.

- Let's go over here, because there's some pictures of that year.

This would have been in Springfield.

There's the Springfield Headquarters, which of course the old State Capitol, and then the Wide Awakes below there.

They're described there as, and that's the group that you were talking about, which not only supported him but made this flag, and apparently wrapped him in it during this time.

- Correct.

So he was not originally supposed to be wrapped in the flag, but the Middletown Wide Awakes, they had this huge carriage that could fit about 25 men.

So, they used that carriage to go all the way from Middletown to Springfield, about 15 miles, and they had a 20 foot pole, and on that pole was this flag.

And so, originally, you know, the flag was just made to decorate their parade float, and they participated in the rally, and they went to put the flag away.

It was getting kind of windy and they were worried about, you know, it getting tattered.

So, they were going to put it in an old stable at the state fairgrounds, and that was supposed to be the end of it.

But then, a group of men came in and they were trying to find a carriage for Abraham Lincoln to use to make his way across the other, to the other side of the state fairgrounds.

There were no carriages available except for the one that the Middletown Wide Awakes had.

So, they asked that his name was Ray Burn, that was who was taking care of the flag, and so they asked if they could borrow the carriage to use for Abraham Lincoln.

And he said, "Of course."

Who would say no to that?

And so, Abraham Lincoln sat on this flag and then it was also kind of like, draped over his shoulders as he made his way to make that speech.

A speech that he wasn't even supposed to make in the first place.

But the crowd was just cheering and begging for him to come.

- This museum is also proud to have a couple of other pieces of artwork that are artifacts from the 1860 election.

And, this is an original made in Logan County painting on material, right?

- Yes.

- And, of course, Lincoln and Hamlin, who was his vice-presidential choice, right?

- Yeah, and so this banner, along with the other nations choice banner we have, were used at the same rally, the August 8th, 1860 rally, and along with a couple other Wide Awake rallies in Logan county.

And so, the story is they like to use this larger banner out front because it had the likeness of both Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin.

Most of the time the banners just had Lincoln, so that was kind of nice for the public to see both.

- This is in the condition you received it?

So, this has stayed in really good condition all through the years.

- It has, yes.

- It doesn't need to be rehabbed like the flag did.

And then, there's another one of him here in the 1860, and this is also a painting on material, and it's of course, like you said, it doesn't include the vice presidential candidate.

- It does not.

No, but these were both created by the same two men, Dr. Reuben Neil, and then his nephew who's Reuben Neil Lawrence.

So, these two men hand painted the banners and they used them in the Wide Awake rallies.

The nephew of Reuben Neil knew Lawrence, he was actually the commander of the Middletown Wide Awake Regiment.

It's kind of a funny story.

He would lead their rallies with brandishing a revolutionary war sword, not really any connection to Lincoln, but kind of just a interesting tidbit.

And, the sword was actually owned by Mad Anthony from the Revolutionary War.

He was one of the generals, they would call him Mad Anthony.

- Mad, okay.

Now, this is one of your latest acquisitions, but you also have an exhibit of Civil War letters, which is extensive, and they're from a local family.

And, you've got that exhibit out as well, and before we see the rest of the museum, I'd like to go take a look at that, okay?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Okay, Olivia.

The Hawes Collection is a collection of letters exchanged between the Hawes family and their sons who were engaged in the Civil War on the union side.

What makes this collection unique or important?

- Well, it's important because it's a Logan County family.

So, it's right here at home.

But, what makes it really unique is that there are letters both from the soldiers fighting, but also the family at home.

It wasn't as common to hold on to the letters written by your family.

So, most of the Civil War collections, Civil War letter collections, have only letters written by the soldiers.

So, the Hawes collection is so, so, just unique and fascinating because you get the full picture of what was going on with this family.

You know, the hardships that they were dealing with at home, their mother got sick at one point, so you get the father writing to tell their, his sons that their mother is sick, and then you get the worry sent back, and it's just an amazing collection because of that back and forth.

- 112 letters all preserved, and then in 2012, this Mr. Hawes decides it's time to donate this to where they can be taken care of forever, and he chose your museum to bequeath them to, which is a terrific thing to do.

- Yeah, we're so lucky.

The collection was preserved for generations and then James Hawes, he found it in his mother's house, and all the other siblings, you know, were saying what they wanted from her house.

And he said, "You know what?

I'll take the history."

And so, he took this awesome collection of letters, and we were so lucky that he chose us to donate them to.

And, over the course of a few years, we've transcribed all 112 letters and actually created a book with all of the transcriptions - Oh, that's wonderful.

- to give to the Hawes family.

- We can look inside these windows here and see what you've done.

You also have our artifacts from the Civil War, of course, and the sword on the right is particularly important, isn't it?

- Yeah, so it's actually a sword cane.

So, you can see it could be, the blade could be completely hidden.

But, it was actually a Confederates sword cane, but it was given to James Ewing, one of the Hawes sons, during the Civil War.

- And, of course, you see some quotes up here from George Hall.

He's in the field in April 12th, 1862.

"The dead are lying thick for miles around."

It must have been so gruesome.

I asked you Olivia, if we could pick out a couple of examples of some things to read and you chose one.

Well, let me read mine first, because mine talks about how these particular soldiers on the union side just found slavery to be so abhorrent, and it gives a reason why they actually found a reason to write.

So, and this comes from JJ Ewing to his parents in June of 1863, "No one who has not been in the midst of slavery can have any just conception of the wickedness connected with it.

Though the most gigantic rebellion is now being waged that the world ever saw, and that our nation is again to be baptized in blood, yet I have no doubt that we will come out of the contest a wiser and better people with purer government, free from the clog that has always impeded our progress."

This from a fellow in the field, who's been fighting for a couple of years.

I mean, that's, he's a very good writer and a very intelligent guy, I guess the whole family was smart.

- Yeah, well, his father was a school teacher, so.

- And, you picked one back from one of the sisters to one of the brothers who was fighting, and this is interesting because this comes right after the president was assassinated.

- Yes, this is one of the most unique letters.

It's describing Abraham Lincoln's funeral train going through Atlanta, Illinois.

And, it's so unique because we get lots of accounts of the funeral train going through large cities, but you don't have so many of it going through small towns, and a small town where the residents actually knew Abraham Lincoln.

So, this is by Louisa Ewing Shores May 3rd, 1865.

"My dear brother Henry, I will have to write to you again about the great loss that our nation has sustained in the death of our much beloved and justly honored President Abraham Lincoln.

He is now in Springfield.

It has been published for some time that the train that bore the body would pass through this place at six o'clock this morning.

The people of this place had a meeting Monday evening, May the first, to make arrangements to receive the train.

So, yesterday they went to work.

They built an arch over the railroad and trimmed the arch with black crepe, black muslin, white muslin, and evergreens.

The arch is high enough for the cars to pass under.

Then, they went to work and trimmed the depot the same way."

- 112 Letters like this between family members, not only from the viewpoint of the soldier in the field, but from the family back home.

It's remarkable.

- It definitely is.

- Okay, Olivia, we have just entered a new time.

- Yes.

I like to call the elevator our time machine.

So, now that we're out of our time machine it's April 14th, 1865.

And, you'll notice we're right outside of Ford's Theater.

- Mm hmm.

This is an interesting setup because you're starting this emerging tour with his shooting, with him being assassinated.

- Right, you might think there's not much else to be told, but the tour is really, really unique.

It's set up almost like a life review.

So, we'll go in, we'll see Abraham Lincoln be shot by John Wilkes Booth, but then the rest of the tour all takes place in that nine hours in between him being shot and actually dying the next morning.

So, during that nine hours, we use our imagination to think of what he, what could have been going on in his mind, a life review.

So, as we go through, we'll go through his childhood, adolescence, early years, throughout his different career paths- - Until his eventual death.

- Until we get to his eventual death.

- After you.

- Sure, so we'll make our way right through Ford's Theater, and you'll see in here, we can witness Abraham Lincoln be shot by John Wilkes Booth.

And then, we make our way back in time even further to February 12th, 1809, the day that Abraham Lincoln was born.

He was born to Nancy Hanks Lincoln and Thomas Lincoln.

Unfortunately, his mother passed away while he was still a young boy and his father remarried Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln was really close to his stepmother.

She said that he was the best boy she ever saw, and she really encouraged his love of learning and reading, while his father, on the other hand, wanted him to do hard work and wanted him to be a hard worker.

- DIdn't want him wasting that time, reading those books.

- Right.

- Yeah, and like over here, I mean, he seems to be getting a great amount of pleasure out of that.

- Absolutely.

- So they were born, he was born in Kentucky, moved to Indiana, and then near Decatur, when they came across the state line to Illinois, they were near Decatur.

- Yes, as a young man, his father, Thomas, moved the family to Illinois.

Illinois had only been a state for a few years.

So, there was lots of opportunity that has father wanted to latch on to.

And, after going to Illinois, Abraham Lincoln didn't stay with his family.

He set out on his own and one of the big things he did was take a flat boat all the way down the Mississippi to New Orleans.

And, it was on this trip that he made money for himself for the first time.

And so, that was a really big deal.

Before he would always give his money back to his family.

But, this time he got to hold onto it for himself.

It was also a very important trip because this was the first time that Abraham Lincoln witnessed slavery firsthand.

He stayed right across from a slave market in New Orleans.

So, he got an up close view of slavery at that time.

- So, it formed an early opinion for him.

He probably had heard of slavery, but never encountered it.

- Absolutely.

- Probably not in Indiana or Illinois, anyway.

- No, and honestly, he hadn't really even encountered a big city before.

So it was, it was an eyeopening experience.

- Yeah, yeah, and that flat boat that you were talking about, people that know the New Salem history know that that's how he ended up there because he got one stuck near there.

- Yeah.

On one of his flat boat trips, he got the boat stuck in New Salem.

He ended up having to stay the night, and he met a lot of the townspeople, and he decided that when it was time for him to settle down, that New Salem was the place for him.

So, he had several jobs in New Salem.

He worked as a postmaster, he owned a general store, he racked up some debt with that.

He also was a captain in the Black Hawk War.

He has a funny quote.

He fought in the Black Hawk War, but he says his bloody battles were with the mosquito.

- Well, and people should know that there's a wonderful state park at New Salem that recreates that village.

So, they should check that out too.

- Absolutely.

You can see actually the store that Abraham Lincoln owned in New Salem.

And, during that Black Hawk War that I mentioned before, Abraham Lincoln made some friends, and one of those friends was John T. Stewart, who would later become his law partner.

And, it was Stewart that encouraged and gave Abraham Lincoln the idea to become a lawyer.

- Okay, and then he had various other, everybody knows about Herndon, and their law office is still there and restored for people to go through.

- Yes, you can tour that in Springfield.

- In Springfield.

Yep, yep.

And then, he was a circuit rider.

A lot of people don't know what that means, but that means lawyers who would go around to these various courts, these rural courts, and they would represent people that they probably hadn't even met yet, you know, but their court date was there, so he would go in and hear these trials.

- Yeah, and that's where a lot of the people like, everyday people around Illinois met Abraham Lincoln and became his supporters, because we didn't have TV or things like that to entertain ourselves with.

So, a big source of entertainment was going to the local county courthouses and watching trials.

So, it was at these small county courthouses all around the Eighth Judicial Circuit that the people of central Illinois really got to know Abraham Lincoln as a man.

- And it was a way to be, he could make money.

That was really one of the only ways he could make money because sitting in his office in Springfield, well that wasn't going to do much.

So, he had to go around where the business was, right?

- Yes, although there were times that he would barter for his services.

So, I'm not sure how much he made then with the chicken.

- Well, it's worth something.

- So, over here we show Mary Lincoln, as well as a few of his other love interests.

We talked about New Salem before, over here we have a depiction of Ann Rutledge, which many believe was Lincoln's first love.

- And, you have no photographs of her, I guess?

- No.

Nope.

And, I wish that there, we had proof of that, but it'll be one of those, I think, questions for forever.

- Yeah, it will always be a mystery.

Yep, yep.

Because he wasn't going to talk about it.

- No, and downstairs we actually have the desk that Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge studied on in New Salem.

- Okay, so we know about Mary Todd Lincoln.

We don't know about Mary Owens up in the corner up here.

- Yeah, Mary Owens was Lincoln's first fiance.

She and Abraham Lincoln got engaged while Lincoln was still living in New Salem.

They just, it kind of fizzled out, there just wasn't a lot of compatibility there and they ended up breaking it off and it was after he moved to Springfield that he met Miss Mary Todd.

- And, his family, of course, and there's a lot of tragedy in his family, 'cause I think he lost two sons.

One in Springfield and one in the Capitol.

- That's correct.

Eddie and Willie both died before Abraham Lincoln did, and Willie died in the White House.

And, unfortunately Ted Lincoln, his youngest son, he also did not survive to adulthood.

He died just at age 18, but that was after Abraham Lincoln's death.

So, the political climate in the 1850s was getting really heated, with things like the Fugitive Slave Act, the Northern states were very upset about that, and Lincoln in particular was as well.

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln ran for Illinois Senate against Stephen Douglas.

And, that's really what took Abraham Lincoln from this small country lawyer that just those of us in central Illinois knew, to a nationally recognized politician.

Stephen Douglas was already well known nation-wide, So, when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took on a series of debates, the Lincoln Douglas debates, that really skyrocketed Abraham Lincoln to the national front.

Books of their debates were circulated by both the Democrats and the Republicans.

So, people all around the nation read those transcripts.

- We saw a little bit about his campaign downstairs when we began, about the Wide Awakes and his supporters.

And, this would have been the year that he actually won the election, I guess, 1860, huh?

- Yes, in 1860.

Some of those, his law partner, and Leonard (inaudible), another lawyer on the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and Judge David Davis, a judge from the Eighth Judicial Circuit, these were his supporters, big supporters, for the 1860 election.

And, he met them while traveling the Eighth Judicial Circuit.

- And then, okay, then he says, "Mary, we are elected."

And, he gets ready to go to Washington, and everybody, I think a lot of people are aware they did leave from Springfield and the station's still there that he departed from, and it looked a lot like this.

- Yes, and it was rainy that day, and they left on February 11th, 1861.

And, the path that his train took to Washington DC is actually the path that his funeral train would take back to Springfield to bring his body.

- How fitting, how fitting.

And then, of course, he spent almost five years, more than four years anyway, here in this office.

Now the Lincoln bedroom, but this was his office.

- Yes, his office, the cabinet room, is right here.

On the desk we've got a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.

There's kind of a funny story with that.

When Lincoln went to sign it, he was worried that his signature might look shaky and not because he was questioning the proclamation, but actually the opposite.

He was worried that people would think he was questioning the proclamation if his handwriting was shaky.

- He didn't want any doubt about it, right?

- No.

- He was nervous about that.

- He was sure that this is what he wanted to do.

- Well, we've seen this character before.

- Yes, John Wilkes Booth.

We are leaving the past, so now we're in our present day, 1865.

So, moving back towards Abraham Lincoln's last moment.

- Very effective, very effective.

And then, of course in here there's a video that accompanies this, but this of course is the site the morning after, and I assume that he had just passed.

- Yes.

Abraham Lincoln passed away on April 15th, about a little after 7:00 AM at the Peterson house, next door to Ford's Theater.

- Hmm.

And then, you're able to wrap it up with, you know, we all have a separate idea of Lincoln, but these descriptions pretty much fit what most people think of him, and this is a great way to try to sum up his life.

- Definitely.

We like to focus on the things, the events, and the character traits that made Abraham Lincoln the admired man he is today.

You know, his time in Illinois, his time on the Eighth Judicial Circuit, his time working as a postmaster, as a surveyor, all of those little things that made him into, you know, everyone's favorite president.

- Thank you, Olivia.

- Thank you.

- The Lincoln Heritage Museum really is something to see and you can see it Tuesdays through Fridays from nine to four, and on Saturdays from one to four.

There is an admission.

With another Illinois story in Lincoln, I'm Mark MacDonald.

Thanks for watching.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] Illinois Stories is brought to you by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Illinois Arts Council Agency, and by the support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

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