1858 Senate Race Here

Abraham Lincoln and incumbent Stephen A. Douglas spent ten weeks in 1858, contesting for the U.S. Senate.

During the grueling campaign, Lincoln made sixty-three speeches across the state; Douglas made 130. Both men spoke separately in Jacksonville. Lincoln arrived in Jacksonville ...

Soldiers of the World War

Legion Memorial Bridge

In memory of

Charles Wesley Avars · Percy J Bates · Stanton K Berry · Martin F Bowles · Albert B Carstedt · Ocal Chapman · Jesse E Crisp · Clay Dotson · Paul H Graves · Cass Hale ...

Lincoln and Grierson

Abraham Lincoln met Benjamin H. Grierson when the two campaigned for the Republican Party. Grierson, a merchant, music teacher, and musician, even wrote a song for Lincoln's presidential campaign in 1860, with the chorus:

"So clear the track--get out of the ...

Whig Rivals and Friends

A native of Kentucky, John J. Hardin moved to Jacksonville in 1831 when he was twenty-one. Like other young men of their generation. Hardin and Abraham Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War. Both men were lawyers and Whig politicians ...

The Civil War Governor

Richard Yates moved from Kentucky to Jacksonville in 1831. Four years later he became the first graduate of Illinois College. Abraham Lincoln and Yates admired Henry Clay and actively supported the Whig Party. Both strongly opposed Stephen A. Douglas and ...

Greene Vardiman Black

G.V. Black, father of modern dentistry, was born in 1836 on a farm near Winchester, Illinois. He studied medicine and dentistry and in 1857 began his practice of dentistry in Winchester. After serving in the Civil War, he resumed dental ...

Lincoln and Jaquess

Abraham Lincoln met the Reverend James F. Jaquess when Lincoln was a lawyer on the Eighth Judicial Circuit

and Jaquess rode the Petersburg Circuit for the Methodist Church. They became better acquainted in Jacksonville when Jaquess was named the first president ...

Legend of Paul Bunyan

The legend of Paul Bunyan is the creation of lumberjacks from Canada to the United States and from Maine to the Pacific Northwest. It probably had its roots in a real person. There was a soldier, named Paul Bunyan, who ...

Secondary Industrial School

Side 1:

Proposed in 1904 by Carleton B. Gibson, Columbus School Superintendent, the Secondary Industrial School is regarded as the nation’s first public coeducational industrial high school. G. Gunby Jordan, then President of the School Board, and his son R. C. ...

The Lewis Family Pavilion

Dedicated May 3, 2003

The Lewis Family, America's First of Bluegrass Gospel Music, was organized in 1951. The Lewis Family has achieved worldwide recognition as an icon of bluegrass gospel music. From a modest but proud beginning in Lincoln County, the ...