Lincoln in Hillsboro

Lincoln in Hillsboro. Looking for Lincoln. , While in Hillsboro, Lincoln often visited his good friends, Joseph and Jane Eccles - affectionately known as "Uncle Joe" and "Aunt Jane" - at their home on the corner of Berry and East Water streets. The Eccles couple visited President and Mrs. Lincoln twice at the White House., Lincoln often stretched his long legs on the steps of the Eccles home. Years later, when their house was demolished, one of those steps was saved. It is now in the collection of the Historical Society of Montgomery County., During Lincoln's time in the State Legislature (1834-1842) , Lincoln traveled from New Salem to Vandalia, the state capital. , This journey included an overnight stop in Hillsboro, where he stayed at the Blockburger Inn and enjoyed swapping stories with lawyers and townspeople., His closest friend here was Joseph Eccles, a justice of the peace, assistant assessor, deputy collector of U.S. revenue, and a recruiting officer for Union troops in Hillsboro. He and Lincoln corresponded numerous times on political matters, and it was Eccles who convinced Lincoln to come to Hillsboro to make a campaign speech against Senator Stephen A. Douglas., In 1858, when Lincoln and Douglas were running for the United States senate, both spoke at the Hillsboro Fairgrounds just one month apart - Douglas on August 2nd and Lincoln on September 9th. Their famous debates in seven other Illinois towns occurred August 21 - October 15, 1858., Railroads first came to Illinois in the 1830s. As a state legislator, Lincoln strongly supported using government grants to help fund the Illinois Central Railroad. Hillsboro enthusiastically supported railroads, too. , In 1849, a meeting in Hillsboro attracted 6,000 individuals interested in locating a rail line here! In 1851, county residents voted to buy $50,000 in railroad bonds, half of the pledge to be paid when the railroad tracks reached the west edge of the county and the second half when the first train pulled into Hillsboro. On July 4, 1855, the first train of the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad arrived at the first Hillsboro depot, located at the foot of Taylorville Road. Lincoln subsequently rode this line when coming to Hillsboro.