Lincoln Slept Here

Lincoln Slept Here. Looking for Lincoln. Joseph Otis Glover could boast “Lincoln Slept Here” in a bedroom in his modest home at 810 Columbus St. Traveling political candidates often put up at the homes of supporters. Thus, when Lincoln arrived in Ottawa on August 21, 1858, for his first debate with Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, he was feted at Glover's dinner table before being shown to one of Glover's bedrooms. Glover, who was the town mayor that year, was a partner in one of the city's most successful law firms, Cook and Glover, which maintained an office on the second floor of a building at the corner of Court and Madison streets. His law partner, Burton Cook, lived just a block away in an imposing brick home. Glover would end their 30-year partnership in 1869, only after he was appointed U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois , which prompted his move to Chicago. The house was demolished in the 1960's. Following their dinner, Lincoln and others, including noted abolitionist Owen Lovejoy of Princeton, gathered on the courthouse lawn for more speeches. Afterwards, candidate Lincoln was accompanied back to the Glover home by a torchlight procession., Burton Chauncey Cook (1819-1894) was a man of few words when it counted. The chairman of the Illinois delegation to the 1864 Baltimore nominating convention leaped on a settee and uttered twenty-four words: “The state of Illinois again presents to the loyal people of this nation for President of the United States , Abraham Lincoln. God bless him.” In 1860, Cook pumped up the crowd for Lincoln's first nomination in Chicago, fluttering his handkerchief to initiate an outburst of cheers. Party affiliation initially stood in the way of the Democrat's support of Lincoln's 1856 Senate bid, but Cook eventually switched parties. State Senator Cook (1852-1861) ushered in a tax-supported state public education system. In 1861, Cook was a peace negotiator before the Civil War, and he was a Congressman from 1865 to 1873 before becoming a railroad lawyer., Captions , [Top] Ottawa offered an environment where Abraham Lincoln could feel at home. As the county seat and occasional home to the state supreme court, Ottawa was filled with lawyers. On this occasion, Lincoln stayed under J. O. Glover's roof, but on other visits he would stay at the home of T. Lyle Dickey, a future state Supreme Court justice. Another Ottawa jurist, John D. Caton (Supreme Court, 1842-1864) chastised appellate lawyers Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1851 for inadequate preparation in a case brought before him. Many Ottawa attorneys' careers took them to the state's highest court, the legislature, Congress, or even federal office. Other attorneys' names appear on the list of city mayors, clerks, and other offices. , [Bottom] J. O. Glover Courtesy of Robert S. Jordan; Burton C. Cook Courtesy of David W. Mumper