My photographer’s alarm rang at 6:00am on Friday July 26, 2024 and I was anxious for the three of us to hit the road. The reason for my eagerness was because Tom had scheduled a full day of Abraham Lincoln sites that would begin in Lincoln, Illinois and was slated to end in Abe’s hometown of Springfield. But even though my generous camera guy had penciled-in an antique mall to pacify his wife’s interests, Vicki seemed to drag her feet that morning. When we finally left the Holiday Inn Express in Morton, Illinois, we were ten minutes behind schedule – and that was something I hoped my photographer would nip in the bud immediately. The last thing the two of us needed was a foot dragger when we had a boatload of Lincoln sites to see.
Just thirty-two minutes after we left the hotel, Vicki parked the Jeep along South Madison Street in Lincoln, Illinois, which was on the West side of the square where the original Logan County Courthouse, also known as the Postville Courthouse, once stood. While his wife stayed in our vehicle, Tom carried me onto the site where I posed for numerous photos with the replica courthouse. In my mind, it didn’t matter that the building was a reproduction because Abraham Lincoln walked on that very ground when he came to Postville twice a year, from 1840 to 1848, to practice law. As a matter of fact, or perhaps local lore, when Abe and other lawyers waited for cases to come up on the docket, the attorneys walked across the street to a vacant field to play ‘town ball’, which was a 19th century version of baseball. That made me wonder which position Lincoln played – maybe pitcher? After all, it’s likely the rail splitter also possessed a devastating “splitter”, aka split-finger fastball.
The original Logan County Courthouse was built in 1840 in the town of Postville where Tom and I stood. After the building was no longer needed as a courthouse in late 1848, it became a private residence. Unfortunately, the historic courthouse fell into disrepair over the years and in 1929, the owner of the building, an elderly judge named Timothy Beach, decided to sell the structure – with the hopes the new buyer would renovate it. Beach had tried for years to get the city of Lincoln to buy the building and restore it as the historic courthouse, but they refused.
When automobile business magnate Henry Ford got wind of the sale, he pounced on the opportunity and shelled out $8,000 for the structure on August 18, 1929. After city officials and local historians discovered Ford had planned on moving the courthouse to his new outdoor living history museum known as Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, they balked and tried to get Ford to leave the building in Illinois. Their efforts failed, and on September 11, 1929, workers began to dismantle the Postville Courthouse for its trip to Michigan.
At that point, according to legend, was when things really got interesting. After local historians told Ford the building would lose all of its historical significance because it would no longer stand on Lincoln, Illinois soil, Ol’ Henry had six inches of dirt from the courthouse’s footprint removed and shipped to Greenfield Village. Today, ninety-five years after it was moved, the original Logan County Courthouse still stands on Lincoln, Illinois soil in the state of Michigan.
For over two decades, the lot where Tom and I were standing remained empty, which left the townspeople of Lincoln disgusted because they had lost their historical connection with the famous lawyer-turned-President. After those citizens put pressure on city officials, a nearly identical replica of the Postville Courthouse was erected on the site in 1953 and was furnished as a courtroom from the 1840s.
On October 18, 2024, I had visited the Logan County Courthouse in Greenfield Village, and I had hoped to compare the interior with the one in Lincoln. But since the building didn’t open until 12 noon, I was left wondering what the inside of the 1953 replica looked like.
The first stop on the second day of our trip couldn’t have gone any better because it’s not every day when I get the chance to stand on the same ground Abraham Lincoln had walked. But there was another historic aspect to Lincoln, Illinois that my photographer had not planned for – and that was the three amigos getting our kicks on Route 66. That’s right, the famous 2,448-mile-long ‘Main Street of America’ went directly through Lincoln, and I got my chance to get as close to the roadway as possible and still live to talk about it.
Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926, which was three years before Henry Ford moved the Postville Courthouse to Michigan. The famous roadway wound its way from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, of which 301 miles went through the state of Illinois. Over the years, the route changed a bit as progress was made in certain towns, including Lincoln. Today, signage has been erected along the original Route 66 which informs motorists the years the historic route was in use.
The beginning of the end to Route 66 came in 1956, however, when President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. For nearly four decades, businesses and attractions along the historic route fell into disrepair or were closed for good due to lack of traffic. But in 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the National Route 66 Preservation Bill which focused on ways to help preserve and restore historic features along the ‘Main Street of America’. When I heard Clinton had helped to preserve Route 66, I wondered to myself if it was due to the fact the road ended in Santa Monica?
With a few extra minutes to spare, Tom decided to let me pose alongside two different Route 66 attractions. The first was located about a mile from the Postville Courthouse site and featured a large figurine of Abraham Lincoln seated on the “World’s Largest Covered Wagon”, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. While the huge ‘Railsplitter Covered Wagon’ was located along a stretch of Route 66 that was in use from 1940 until 1977, the attraction was not original to the historic ‘Mother Road’. The large wagon was built in 2001 in Divernon, Illinois and relocated to Lincoln in January 2007 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the famous Route 66.
The wagon was enormous – it measured 25 feet tall and 40 feet long. But while the wagon was impressive, the 12-foot-tall, larger-than-life Lincoln was not historically accurate. When Abe travelled by wagon and read law books on the Eighth Judicial Circuit, he did not sport a full beard. As a matter of fact, Lincoln began growing his beard shortly before he was elected President in 1860 and was always clean shaven while he practiced law.
When I finished posing near the hokey attraction, the three of us headed down 5th Street towards the Postville Courthouse Historic Site where we found an original service station that once graced Route 66 from the late 1920s to 1940. While visitors to the Route 66 Corner Garage are no longer able to purchase fuel for their vehicles, they are able to take a step back in time to a more innocent era of America. And if the place would’ve been open for business at ten o’clock on that Friday morning, my companions could’ve dipped themselves in the magic waters of antiques as well. I know for a fact when Tom placed me on one of the old gas pumps, as well as in the middle of South Washington Street alongside the service station, I was finally able to get my kicks on Route 66.
It was a bittersweet moment when Vicki drove past the Logan County Courthouse site and out of Lincoln at a few minutes past ten o’clock. As a huge fan of our 16th President, that town in central Illinois was important to me as it’s the only city in the world named for and christened by Abraham Lincoln before he became President and while he was still alive.
On August 27, 1853, the lawyer and former member of the United State House of Representatives was invited to a ceremony to help christen and name the new town, which was located just East of the small settlement of Postville. According to local legend, Abraham Lincoln purchased two watermelons and carried one under each arm to the public square. “Now we’ll christen the new town”, Abe said as he squeezed watermelon juice onto the ground. When it was proposed to Lincoln the town be named after him, he advised against it, saying that in his experience, “Nothing bearing the name of Lincoln ever amounted to much.”
Since we had roughly two hours before our next Lincoln site opened in Mount Pulaski, which was only 12 miles to the South, Tom navigated the three of us Eastward to Clinton, Illinois where the Clinton Antique Mall was located. Even though my photographer enjoys visiting antique malls in his never-ending search for junk to add to his “Collection of Useless Stuff”, I knew in my resin heart he uses those stops to pacify his wife. Usually, Vicki questions my camera guy on how far out of our way a Presidential site is, but she had no problem when Tom said the antique mall was twenty miles off the beaten path.
When we arrived at the Clinton Antique Mall, I had hoped Tom would leave me in the Jeep. I wanted to use that platform as a way to protest Vicki’s habit of staying in the vehicle during our stops at historical sites. But instead, Tom slung the camera case, with me inside, around his shoulder as we went inside the large store. For over an hour, my photographer walked the endless aisles of useless old crap before he stumbled across a Betsy Ross flag he wanted to buy for his granddaughter Reese. But when he realized the thirteen stars were screen printed instead of being sewn onto the flag, he quickly put it back in place. At 11:30pm, the two of us returned to the Jeep where I watched Tom drink two bottles of ice-cold Moxie as we patiently waited for his wife to finish shopping.
Every person Tom and I saw walk out of that antique mall had something in their hands, except for my photographer’s wife. When Vicki returned to the Jeep at 11:50am, she was not only emptyhanded, but she was ten minutes late as well. We were twenty minutes away from our next site, which was the Mount Pulaski Courthouse, and Tom had planned on getting there when it opened at 12 noon.
From the mall, it was nearly a twenty-mile straight shot to the small town of Mount Pulaski, Illinois. But as soon as Tom’s wife had parked our vehicle alongside the town square on South Washington Street, my photographer and I were hit over the heads with a huge dose of “You’ve got to be kidding me right now?” A bright orange construction lift was parked directly in front of the historic building, while orange fencing and pylons blocked the walkway leading to the front entrance.
While Vicki once again decided to stay with the Jeep instead of joining us at the site, Tom carried me up seven steps and onto the grounds, which rose up from street level to form a small hill in the center of the town square. At the crest of the hill in front of us stood the majestic Mount Pulaski Courthouse, which was a two-story brick building that featured white pediments across the entire front and back rooflines, and eight wooden steps that led up to the front and rear entry doors.
The Mount Pulaski Courthouse was built in 1848 as a replacement for the wooden Logan County Courthouse in nearby Postville, which was always at risk of fire. From the time it opened until 1853, the courthouse in Mount Pulaski was visited by prairie lawyer Abraham Lincoln as he made his twice-a-year rounds of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Today, the Mount Pulaski Courthouse and the Metamora Courthouse are the only two surviving Illinois courthouses where Lincoln practiced law that still remain on their original foundations. Unfortunately, the building in front of us closed as a courthouse in 1853 when the county seat moved to Lincoln. After that, the building served as a school, the Mount Pulaski city hall and jail, and the local post office. Little to nothing is known about Lincoln’s legal cases at the courthouse as a fire in another building in 1857 destroyed all of the relocated county records.
As Tom carried me along a temporary pathway that took us towards the rear of the courthouse, which was the designated entrance for the tour, we met Site Manager Steve Martin as he watered flowers alongside the building. While Martin explained the ongoing restoration project, Tom did his best to photograph me near the front of the courthouse while he tried to avoid the construction eyesores.
Both my photographer and I thought the site would be less than stellar due to the ongoing renovation project and we were mentally prepared for a huge let down. But when the two of us followed Steve through the rear entrance and into the first floor of the building, we had stepped back in time. It was 1848 and Tom and I were walking in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln. Those very footsteps led us up a set of stairs to the second-floor courtroom, where I instantly felt the presence of Mr. Lincoln. There was no doubt Abe was in that building with us; his presence was so thick I could brush it from my resin face.
For roughly forty-five minutes, my photographer and I listened as Steve painted a verbal picture of what a trial was like in 1848 with Abraham Lincoln in attendance as legal counsel. First, Tom placed me onto the wooden table located to the left side of the judge’s platform, which was where Lincoln sat to prepare his cases. Then my photographer carried me along a narrow walkway located between the judge’s platform and the court recorder’s table – that walkway led to the witness stand and the jury seating area. But it was when I was placed onto the original floorboards in front of the judge’s platform where Lincoln touched my soul. I watched as the 6’4″ lanky attorney paced back and forth above me while he grilled the witness and spoke to the jury with his wry country wit and impeccable integrity always at his disposal. When the lawyer stepped over me and returned to his table, I saw him sitting in silence while he rubbed his chin as he listened intently to the courtroom proceedings. The wise lawyer was carefully plotting his next move.
Abraham Lincoln didn’t win every legal case he was hired for, but what he did gain during those years he practiced law was how to prepare to fight for justice and for the cause of the common man. Although he was plainspoken, Lincoln was genuinely interested in people and their problems. In fact, Abe made friends wherever he went along the Eighth Judicial Circuit with his storytelling, sense of humor, and down-home logic. All of those amazing qualities helped vault him to the highest position in the land, President of the United States.
When our visit inside the Mount Pulaski Courthouse had ended, Tom and I both realized we had just encountered one of those unexpected ‘Diamonds in the Rough’ we’ve experienced with Bob Moldenhauer over the past years. What had started out as a huge disappointment with the construction equipment quickly transformed into the highlight of the trip thus far. And while the spirit of Abraham Lincoln was the primary reason for our enthusiasm, it was the passion, knowledge, and stories shared by Steve Martin that brought the Mount Pulaski Courthouse to life for us. Like my photographer said to the site manager before we parted ways, “Steve Martin, when it comes to the history of this courthouse, as well as the history of this town, you are a wild and crazy guy – and it’s not even Saturday night!”
Back outside in front of the courthouse, the two of us made a quick stop where I posed alongside a statue of Lincoln depicted as a young lawyer, called ‘Pursuit of Truth’. The bronze likeness was created by Decatur, Illinois sculptor John McClarey and dedicated on July 26, 2023. Sadly, the artist was tragically killed in an automobile accident just six months after the dedication ceremony. When McClarey passed away on January 19, 2024 at the age of 88 years old, most who knew him would agree, “Now he belongs to the ages.”
The two of us met Vic back in the Jeep where it appeared she had just awakened from a one-hour nap. As soon as she wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth, my photographer’s wife asked Tom why he didn’t answer his phone because she was concerned about our well-being since we had been gone so long. With an immediate and somewhat sarcastic reply, Tom stated in no uncertain terms, “You should’ve toured that historic courthouse with us instead of watching videos of your influencers on Instagram. You missed out on seeing an amazing and original Abraham Lincoln site – one I think you would’ve really enjoyed.”
Without trying to sound like a jerk as his wife fired up the Jeep, Tom asked his wife to drive us over to the next block so he could see a mural Steve Martin had mentioned during his tour. The mural, which had been painted on the south exterior wall of the Market on the Hill building, featured the 1910 race between a Wright Brothers biplane and an Illinois Central steam train, which began in Chicago and ended in Springfield. The pilot of the plane, Walter S. Brookins, landed in an open field just south of downtown Mount Pulaski, with thousands of spectators on hand to witness the event. After Wilbur Wright, who was a passenger on the train, helped fix and refuel the plane, Brookins took off for Springfield where he ended up with the $10,000 prize and a spot in the record books for the longest continuous and sustained flight in American history.
It seemed as though when it came to planes, trains, and automobiles, especially those from 1910, Mount Pulaski’s Steve Martin was more than knowledgeable – he was a wild and crazy guy! And with that, the three of us headed Westward towards another Lincoln site.
** THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO MOUNT PULASKI COURTHOUSE SITE MANAGER STEVE MARTIN FOR HIS GENEROIUS STORYTELLING AND UNWAVERING PASSION TO PRESERVE THE LEGACY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN **
