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Champaign in Champaign County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
 

Champaign's Lincoln

Looking for Lincoln

 
 
Top Section - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
1. Top Section - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
(Click any of these photos to see the details.)
Inscription.
Until the Illinois Central Railroad rolled into town, geese flocked to a pond in this vicinity. The IC cleared the pond and donated the land to the Congregationalist (today the Community United Church of Christ). Their sanctuary, completed near the corner of University and First Street in 1856 was fondly known as the Goose Pond Church for its first inhabitants. In this yet unfinished church, Abraham Lincoln addressed a crowd in June 1856 (and possibly later that same year). Lincoln appealed to the congregants’ strong antislavery and abolitionist views to rally votes for Fremont, the new Republican Party’s presidential candidate. This photograph shows the church after a tornado in the early twentieth century.

Middle Section
Abraham Lincoln during his campaign against “The Little Giant” in 1858 was met at the Doane house by an enthusiastic crowd. Between debates, Lincoln and Douglas followed each other from town to town campaigning. On September 23rd Douglas spoke, and the following day Lincoln spoke, at the fairgrounds in Urbana. Judge Cunningham gives this account of the eager Lincoln supporters who assembled on this corner: “At an early hour people began to flock into town. . . . At ten o’clock a procession, led by the Urbana Brass Band, the German band and Danville band, and over sixty
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young ladies on horseback with their attendants, thirty-two of whom represented the states of the Union, marched to the Doane house for the purpose of escorting Mr. Lincoln to the Fairgrounds.” The Doane house, an inn which served as the Depot building, was north of the Goose Pond Church on the east side of the railroad tracks. A Chicago newspaper wrote about Lincoln’s speech that day: “. . . the number present was nearly, if not quite as large as those in attendance at the Douglas demonstration of yesterday, the enthusiasm ten times as great.”

Lower Section
Not only did Lincoln make speeches in West Urbana (later Champaign), he also formed friendships here. He stayed with the Baddeley’s, prominent storekeepers, who lived at the corner of Randolph and Hill. He dined with Mark Carley, entrepreneur and old-line Whig, who owned the first grain elevator in the new Depot town. Henry Clay Whitney, later a biographer of Lincoln, ran his legal practice out of his father’s home on the west side of the tracks. Lincoln’s friend from rural Mahomet, B. G. Harris, was a partner in the Cattle Bank (on the northeast corner of First Street and University). As Lincoln was escorted to the fairgrounds, he would have passed the newly opened bank.
 
Erected 2009 by State of Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
Middle Section - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
2. Middle Section - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
& Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition.
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Government & PoliticsNotable Places. In addition, it is included in the Former U.S. Presidents: #16 Abraham Lincoln, and the Looking for Lincoln series lists. A significant historical month for this entry is June 1856.
 
Location. 40° 7.033′ N, 88° 14.337′ W. Marker is in Champaign, Illinois, in Champaign County. Marker is at the intersection of 1st Street and East Park Street, on the left when traveling north on 1st Street. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Champaign IL 61820, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. The First Congregational Church (here, next to this marker); The Cattle Bank Building (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Inman Hotel (approx. 0.2 miles away); New Orpheum Theatre (approx. ¼ mile away); Roger Joseph Ebert (approx. 0.3 miles away); Kappa Sigma Fraternity House (approx. 0.7 miles away); Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity House (approx. 0.7 miles away); Early Computers (approx. 0.7 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Champaign.
 
Also see . . .
1. Looking for Lincoln Video - on P. B. S. Follow Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "...from Illinois, to Gettysburg, to Washington, D. C., and face to face with
Lower Section - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
3. Lower Section - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
people who live with Lincoln every day..." (Submitted on May 24, 2010, by Al Wolf of Veedersburg, Indiana.) 

2. Looking for Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area website homepage:
Many resources for tracking of Lincoln through History and Illinois, for all ages. (Submitted on May 24, 2010, by Al Wolf of Veedersburg, Indiana.) 
 
Full View - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
4. Full View - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
Looking North/West - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
5. Looking North/West - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
Looking South - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
6. Looking South - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
Looking West - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Courtesy:: Trevor Searcy, May 23, 2010
7. Looking West - - Champaign's Lincoln Marker
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on July 22, 2021. It was originally submitted on May 24, 2010, by Al Wolf of Veedersburg, Indiana. This page has been viewed 1,558 times since then and 12 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. submitted on May 24, 2010, by Al Wolf of Veedersburg, Indiana. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 19, 2024