Abraham Lincoln and the Rock River Valley Region
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Thomas S. Johnson has written "a series of weekly columns (in the Rockford Register Star newspaper) celebrating our community’s Lincoln heritage, concluding on Sept. 27, 2009, when 'Iron Determination,' a monumental bronze bust of Lincoln by John W. McClarey, will be dedicated in the newly established Abraham Lincoln Courthouse Square, concluding a yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth." Mr. Johnson serves as the 'chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of Winnebago County. He is a Rockford native and student of Rockford history, and is a member of WilliamsMcCarthy LLP, one of Rockford’s oldest and largest law firms.'" Below are the links to his columns. |
Rockford Celebrates Its Lincoln Heritage
February 11, 2009
"This column was adapted from a speech Johnson gave to the Rockford Rotary Club in February." |
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Abe Lincoln’s First Visit to the Rock River Valley
July 4, 2009
"Two years before the first settlers arrived — during the Black Hawk War of 1832 — Capt. Abraham Lincoln led his militia company to the battlefield at Stillman Valley to help bury the dead from the massacre at Stillman Run." |
Lincoln Helps Establish Winnebago County
July 11, 2009
"Not only did Lincoln see Winnebago County before it existed, it may never have existed were it not for the decision of Lincoln and his fellow members of the Ninth General Assembly in 1836 to create several new counties in northern Illinois — one to be called Winnebago — once part of the tribal lands of the Indian nation for which it was named." |
Courthouse Square: Part of Our Lincoln Past
July 18, 2009
"Winnebago County’s historic courthouse square, a portion of which is to be set aside in lasting tribute to Abraham Lincoln, symbolizes the county’s Lincoln heritage." |
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Lincoln and the Great Reaper Trial
August 1, 2009
"Abraham Lincoln came to Rockford in July of 1855 to prepare for what has come to be called the Great Reaper Trial — perhaps the most significant commercial lawsuit in the city’s history." |
Rockford Supports Lincoln for President
August 15, 2009
"Everyone in the capital of Springfield knew that Rockford was Lincoln country. Elijah Blaisdell, a local newspaper editor, had attended the meeting in Bloomington at which the Republican Party had been organized and was so impressed with Abraham Lincoln that he changed the name of his paper to the Republican and endorsed Lincoln for president — one of the first newspapers in the nation to do so." |
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Col. Elmer Ellsworth: A Story of Love
August 29, 2009
“When Elmer Ellsworth, the handsome drillmaster of the Rockford City Greys, became engaged to Caroline Spafford, a member of one of Rockford’s most prominent families, the marriage was conditioned, at her father’s direction, to his finding what Rockford historian Jon Lundin described as ‘a more responsible career than soldiering.’ And so the young man dutifully left Rockford to study to become a lawyer, in the offices of Lincoln & Herndon in Springfield.” |
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Four Union Regiments Trained at Camp Fuller
September 5, 2009
“When war broke out, Abraham Lincoln issued calls for volunteers, and Rockford responded. From an adult population of less than 10,000, the city sent more than 3,000 volunteers off to war.” One of the members “of the 95th Regiment was H. Ford Douglass, an escaped slave who had once made Rockford his home and was one of the very few African-Americans to serve in an otherwise all-white regiment.” |
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Two Local Men Served as Generals in Civil War
September 12, 2009
“Winnebago County had at least two Civil War generals. One was among those to whom Lincoln paid tribute at Gettysburg. They had given 'their last full measure of devotion,' he said." Both Simon M. Preston and Elon J. Farnsworth of Winnebago County helped preserve the Union. |
Winnebago County Lands a Lincoln Exhibit of its Own
May 26, 2009
This article from the Rockford Register Star explains how "Winnebago County is getting on the Lincoln train with a courthouse square park at Church and Elm streets, marking the 16th president’s bicentennial." |
Military ‘Miracle’ Part of History of 74th Illinois
September 19, 2009
"On Sept. 28, 1862, the 74th Illinois Infantry Regiment, comprising primarily of volunteers from Winnebago County, marched from Camp Fuller, Rockford’s Civil War training camp — off to war and on to glory." |
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