Abraham Lincoln comes to town 

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In August and December of 1859, lawyer Abraham Lincoln climbed aboard a passenger car of the new Hannibal & St Joseph Railroad and came to town. 

These trips were after his loss in the Illinois Senatorial race a year earlier against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas. 

From August to October of '58, the pair squared off in a series of debates throughout Illinois, focusing on the main national argument of the day, how to handle the question of whether to extend slavery, or not, into the new territories. Leading up to the debates, Lincoln was just another politician from a neighboring state.

The contests changed how the press covered live events. These were formal debates with strict rules. Alternating, one contestant would open and speak for 1 hour. Their opponent then addressed the crowd for 90 minutes with a 30-minute rebuttal to follow. Each session lasted exactly 3 hours, so strap in! 

Newspapers were desperate to cover the event in a timely manner. 

Enter a newly developed concept, Pitman shorthand, allowing an attending stenographer to take down almost every word spoken. Giving the scribbles to a runner who scurried to the next scheduled train headed for Chicago. Riding in a car would be a transcriber who would then decipher the code by the time the train arrived in Chicago. Rushing the text to the paper’s typesetter and telegrapher allowed the contest’s exchanges to be out for public consumption in some cases only hours after being spoken. 

This media phenomenon elevated Lincoln’s notoriety. 

Honest Abe was becoming known for having the ability to take complex issues, dissect them with logic, then use persuasive, comprehensible words to explain his stance, swaying people who believed his arguments and felt his charisma. 

“Abe Lincoln headed West for several reasons,” says my go-to Sarah Elder. “If you are wanting to become a national figure, you need to ride the new rail, check out the vibrant City where so many travelers were migrating through and visit that turbulent new state everyone was talking about, Kansas.”

When Lincoln arrived in St. Joe for his second visit on Dec. 1, he lay low. 

St. Joseph was a wide-open town; most citizens professed southern sympathies. Abe was on the cusp of becoming “somebody,” and didn’t want any undo attention, not here, not now. 

From his time as a congressman years earlier, Lincoln knew a few people in St. Joe. Visiting an old Washington friend, now General James Craig, they walked the town. 

Remember the stats on St. Joseph in the 1860 census, roughly 8,900 residents, 2,200 indentured and 129 saloons. Couple those numbers with a mix of settlers, native Americans, farmers, merchants, painted ladies, dandies, drunks and boisterous supporters of both the North and South, it had to be an eye-opening stroll. It's been said in those divisive days that someone died in the streets of St. Joe every week. 

It is known that Lincoln stopped at the old Downtown Edgar House Hotel for a haircut and shave. The city, no doubt, was exciting but also uncomfortable. Divisions and rhetoric over slavery had reached a boiling point. Storm clouds of war were gathering as the country faced the threat of southern states seceding. 

Lincoln and Craig caught a ferry to Elwood, where Abe had been invited to speak. Fearing a light turnout, the event was marketed by a man banging a gong through downtown Elwood, announcing Lincoln’s upcoming speech at the Great Western Hotel. Attendance was good, and the hall was full. 

Both men decided to spend that night on the Kansas side of the river. 

Dec. 2, 1859, the weather changed, welcome to Kansas. Lincoln was invited to speak that afternoon in Troy. This Kansas sojourn proved to be the furthest West our future president ever traveled in the United States. 

Lincoln, with driver, hired a two-seater buggy to get to Troy. Famously on their way, they encountered old friend Henry Villard heading in the opposite direction, a newspaperman who saw that Abe was ill-prepared for the cold and shivering. 

Close to St. Joe, Villard lent Lincoln his buffalo robe that wrapped around Abe like a thick blanket, just what he needed. 

On Dec. 2, Lincoln spoke in Troy, on the square where a memorial commemorates that day. 

Nobody knows what Lincoln said, but it was noted that he spoke for just over an hour. 

It is my contention that Abe practiced the speech he would deliver 2 months later in New York City at Cooper Union.

The just over 60-minute-long Cooper Union Address propelled Lincoln not only to national prominence but also solidified his position as an alternative candidate in the upcoming 1860 presidential elections. 

Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, in Springfield, Illinois, later stated that Abe worked longer and harder on that speech than any other. 

Abe spent a cold night in Troy at the home of Sidney Tennant, that house still stands on the courthouse square. 

Early the next day, Lincoln departed for Doniphan, Kansas, the birthplace of Jayhawk leader and US Senator Jim Lang, for another planned speech at a now nonexistent hotel. 

The town has since been swept away by time, but I found it. Two foundations and an old stove off the road at the end of a bean field. That’s the thing about history: if you don’t pay attention, it disappears. 

Lincoln and his robe moved on to other existing Kansas venues, Leavenworth and Atchison. 

More on the exploits of our future president along the Kansas/Missouri border, who would be “called” to lead this country through its most difficult period in history, next week. 

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Bob Ford's History will appear in each edition of the Weekender, Midweek and Corner Post. You can find more of Bob’s work on his website and videos on YouTube, TikTok and Clapper.