Lincoln and the City of Athens

Lincoln and the City of Athens. Looking for Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln visited the town of Athens on numerous occasions in the 1830s and 1840s. By then, Athens had become a thriving community - since its first settlement in 1819. Initially, Lincoln's first visits were just north of town, to the home of Col. Matthew Rogers, to borrow books. Between 1833 and 1836, Postmaster Lincoln picked up New Salem's mail in Athens, when the mail carrier couldn't reach New Salem because of river flooding. In 1834, while Deputy Surveyor for Sangamon County, Lincoln surveyed the Athens-Sangamo Town Road ending at Main and Jefferson streets. Upon his election to the Illinois Legislature in 1834, Lincoln came to Athens - to meet and socialize with fellow "Long Nine" legislator (and Athens resident) Robert Wilson. Lincoln and the "Long Nine" were honored at the "Rogers Building" in Athens on Aug. 3, 1837. "While he [Lincoln] lived in New Salem, he visited me often; he would stay a day or two at a time; we generally spent the time at the store in Athens"- Athens resident Robert Wilson (letter to William Herndon, Feb. 10, 1866), On August 3, 1837 Lincoln and his six other "Long Nine" legislators from Sangamon County attended a banquet on the second floor of the "Rogers Building" in Athens. They were being honored for their role in securing the Illinois Legislature's approval to relocate the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield. The Sangamon County legislators were known as the "Long Nine" because they averaged six feet in height. The "Rogers Building" was built in 1831-1832 by Col. Matthew Rogers, a New Yorker and an early resident of the Athens area. In addition to being used for early civic gatherings, the building also served as a store and was the site of Athens' first post office. The building was reportedly the first framed commercial structure north of the Sangamon River. This "tintype" photograph was made c.1870., (center:), Lincoln-era sites in Athens include: the Athens-Sangamo Town Road surveyed by Lincoln in 1834; the "Rogers Building" where Lincoln, and other "Long Nine" legislators were honored in August 1837; the home of "Long Nine" colleague Robert Wilson that Lincoln occasionally visited, and the Banks Hall tavern where Lincoln stayed at times. When in town, Lincoln would have seen William Strawbridge's steam-powered saw and grist mill and an early Methodist Church where Peter Cartwright preached.