Abraham Lincoln's Connection to Ford County
Abraham Lincoln's Connection to Ford County
In the history of Ford County there have been times when people of influence and importance were in the county. Some were incubated on this rich prairie soil. A few briefly trod it's ground but left a long lasting impression. A few Presidents, William Howard Taft, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, were here briefly.
Here in the Land of Lincoln many strive to try to make a connection to our great sixteenth President. While he may have made a train trip through Ford county on the Illinois Central train tracks, it probably will never be positively proved that he was in the county. Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer practicing on the Eighth Judicial Circuit, which Ford County would be added in 1859. But Lincoln was no longer on the circuit when that happened.
But we do have a record that two of his closest and most intimate associates were in Paxton briefly. From the Ford County Atlas of 1884 we learn that the first session of the Eighth Judicial Circuit in the new county was held at the City Hotel on November 18, 1859. The judge was Hon. David Davis of Bloomington, IL and Ward H. Lamon of Danville as the State's Attorney.
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| David Davis |
As the judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, Lincoln would often be in front of Davis. The judge and lawyers on judicial circuits often travelled together. They often were in the same hotels, shared meals and sometimes slept in the same bed. The idea of the rotund Davis and the long Lincoln in the same bed is humorous and a little absurd. After Lincoln's election as President he nominated Davis as an associated Justice of the US Supreme Court, which he served from 1861 to 1877. He resigned as a Justice when he took office as a US Senator from Illinois. After one term in the Senate, Davis retired to his home in Bloomington.
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| Ward Lamon |
Lamon was also a lawyer who also practice on the Eighth Judicial Circuit and a close friend of Lincoln. His second wife was Sally Logan, the daughter of Judge Stephen Logan and Logan was a former law partner of Lincoln. Later Lamon became the prosecuting attorney on the circuit and opposed Lincoln in court. With Lincoln's election he went to Springfield at Lincoln's behest and, as large imposing man himself, Lamon became the personal bodyguard of Lincoln. He was appointed the US Marshall of Washington DC by his friend in 1861. Lamon resigned from the post in 1865, after Lincoln was assassinated. He later wrote two books of Lincoln. He would end his days in West Virginia.
At it's beginning, Ford County had the shadow of great men cross it's boundaries. For a little county there is much to be proud of, even is the association is brief and lost in the distance of the past.
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