Lincoln's hometown a popular destination

From: The Jakarta Post

By Judy Hevrdejs

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (JP): The young man leading a group of visitors through the Lincoln Home National historic Site here is explaining why, despite all the beds and books and black top hats on display, only 50 or so of the hundreds of items filling the two-story house were actually used by Abraham Lincoln and his family.

"The Lincolns had a type of yard sale in which they sold a lot of pieces before they left for Washington," says National Park Service ranger Andre Jordan. And his tour group, familiar no doubt with the popular American-house cleaning method, greets this bit of Lincoln entertainment with a laugh.

The anecdote about the yard sale held before the Lincolns moved to the White House in 1861 is not a monumental piece of information. It does not carry the importance of the Gettysburg Address, for example, nor does it pique historians' interest as much as Lincoln's legal work in Illinois.

But such information--dispensed with enthusiasm by National Park Service employees at the Lincoln Home, guides at the Old State Capitol and costumed interpreters at Lincoln Home, guides at the Old State Capitol and costumed interpreters at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site--make a weekend with Mr. Lincoln come to life.

Track the Lincoln trail through the Springfield area and you'll find structures built of logs and stones and bricks and stained glass. Yet it is the folks along that route who give those structures a voice, paint a picture of the era and provide visitors with an intimate portrait of the man who was America's 16th president.

Consider, say, the image of Lincoln presented at the Lincoln- Herndon Law Office, where the young lawyer arrived at dawn most days, stretched his 6-foot-4 frame out on a smallbed tucked in a corner there , then spent a goodly amount of time perusing the local newspaper.

Or eavesdrop on the conversation between an interpreter and visitors at the Hill McNamar Store in New Salem, a historical re- creation of a 19th-century village--"Course, that Ann Rutledge, she sure caused quite a stir," opines the interpreter--and imagine how blue-eyed Ann captured the attention of several young men, including Abraham Lincoln.

Stories such as these add a particularly human dimension to the image of Abraham Lincoln, and only in Springfield are these so many opportunities for gathering those details from the plaques, the brochures and, especially, the guides along the way.

"In total, (The Springfield sites) give one a good sense of Lincoln," says Larry Blake, chief of operations at the Lincoln Home. "The home gives insight into Lincoln the family man and Lincoln the neighbor. The law office is a look at his professional life. At the Old State Capitol, it is the political system in which he participated. And a visit to the Lincoln Tomb culminates with the sense of prestige he still carries as a world figure.

What's impressed me since I've been here," says Blake, who has worked at several other National Parks, "is the recognition Lincoln has as a world figure-- the respect and awe that he carries with International visitors and the importance they place on visiting this site as a part of their trip to the U.S."

And that translates into big numbers: The Lincoln Home Site welcomed some 480,000 visitors in 1993 and 475,000 in 1994. According to a spokesman, at Lincoln's New Salem Historic Site, where numbers dropped in 1993 because of a misperception that it was heavily affected by floods, the log cabin village registered 566.359 visitors in 1994.

Many people admire Abraham Lincoln, says George Painter, a historian with the National Park Service, "because of his rise from humble origins, from a log cabin to the presidency."

Yet, as Painter points out, Lincoln did live in a couple of other homes between the log cabin and the White House--including the house tat is the centerpiece of the Lincoln Home Site. And he did not actually go from being a rail splitter to being the president--he actually worked as a lawyer for 20 years.

(But legends and myth tend to surround the life of Abraham Lincoln--including his relationship with Ann Rutledge, which many historians believe was simply a friendship. In fact notes one historian, that story just keeps coming up.)

Such confusion might be understandable, of course, considering that many people make their first--and sometimes only--trip to Springfield and the Lincoln sites on a bright yellow school bus in the company of schoolmates more interested in field-trips freedoms than history.

This does not worry David Hedrick, though, who is convinced that even rambunctious youngsters remember visits to Lincoln's New Salem.

"Every day, people come up to you with their children and say that they were here on their 8th-grade trip and they remember the buildings," says Hendrick, the site of the manager there.

So, if you cannot remember the names of Lincoln's sons or who won the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, consider spending the weekend with Abe in Springfield.

While the Lincoln Heritage Trail actually begins at his birthplace near Hodgenville, Kentucky, and winds through Indiana on to Illinois, there is a wealth of information in a half dozen historic sites in the Springfield area -- many of which are within walking distance of each other and easily visited in a weekend.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site: It was here, at the corner of Eight and Jackson Streets, where Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd moved in 1884 and lived until 1861. It is here their four boys--Robert Todd, Edward Baker, Wiliam Wallace and Thomas (Tad)--were raised. And, no doubt, disciplined.

Old State Capitol State Historic Site: located on Springfield's downtown city square, this domed, Greek Revival building is where Lincoln argued cases before the courts and gave his House Divided Speech ("A house divided against itself cannot stand...") in the Hall of Representatives before the Civil War.

The rooms echoed with history, for this was the center of Illinois government from 1839 to 1876, housing offices for such state executives as the auditor, treasurer and secretary of states. One of five drafts of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's own handwriting is displayed in the rotunda. In 1865, following his assassination in Washington, Lincoln's body was returned here to lie in state prior to his burial in Oak Ridge Cemetery a few miles away.

Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices State Historic Site: the only Lincoln offices still in existence, where Lincoln the professional worked (from 1843 until 1852) in partnership first with Stephen Logan, then with William Herndon.

Lincoln Depot: It was here, on Feb. 11, 1861, that Lincoln gave his speech prior to his departure for Washington, D.C., and his inauguration to the presidency: "No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feelings of sadness at this parting.... Here I have lived a quarter of a century and have passed from a young to an old man.... I now leave , not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington...."

Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site: Abraham Lincoln's body was returned to Springfield in May 1865 and buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery on the insistence of Mary Todd. It is also the final resting place of Mary Todd and three of their sons ( William, Thomas and Edward); Robert is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site: Travel 20 miles northwest of Springfield to step into the world lived by a young Abraham Lincoln and his fellow pioneers in 1830 Illinois.

Young Lincoln moved to New Salem in 1831 at the age of 22 and left in 1837. During his stint here, he worked as a laborer, store clerk, merchant, county surveyor and postmaster. He served as captain of the local militia during the Black Hawk War and studied law. Yet he never owned a home here.

"A lot of people assume he had a house here, but he did not," says site manager David Hedrick. "In the six years he was here, he had many different jobs that took him out of the village. Surveying would take him out of town. So did the Black Hawk War and his work with the state legislature in Vandalia (where the state capital was then located). During that time, he stayed with people who owned home here, and he also owned interest in the Lincoln Berry Store and stayed in the back. He was a young single man and did not have a lot of possessions."

JP/Lincoln's hometown a popular destination