Showing posts with label Abraham Lincoln. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abraham Lincoln. Show all posts

Sites of Lincoln, IL – 3 JUN 2011

There are several oddities in the nearby town of Lincoln, IL. This is the only town in the US named for Abraham Lincoln before he became president. They have a Watermelon Monument to Abraham Lincoln. Abe assisted with the platting of the town while working for the railroads as their lawyer. Railroad management decided to name the new town after him. For the naming ceremony, Abe paid a local farmer to bring a wagon load of watermelons to the event, to hand out to the celebrants. He cut into a melon, allowing the juice to hit the ground as a christening.They also have the World’s Largest Wagon with an equally large Abe Lincoln reading a book…large print I assume.They have a very impressive courthouse with a clock facing all four directions…and it tells the correct time!Check out the City Hall building.Yes, that is a telephone booth on the roof! It’s part of a severe-weather warning system where a firefighter uses the roof as a look-out and the booth for protection with the phone (hard wired to the ground floor) to report on the menacing sky (1960’s technology).

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, IL – 01 JUN 2011

20 miles Northwest of Springfield is the reconstructed village of New Salem (State Historic Site) where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood. They have people dressed in period cloths, preforming period tasks…from blacksmithing to barrel making.Tinky Winky makes the rounds.The cooper shop: Cooper - someone who makes wooden stave vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads.
The above bucket is held together with only the hoops and the cut of the wood to make it waterproof. The Blacksmith: There were several horses.

Next I was heading back to Petersburg to check out the cemetery.