The Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway. First National Memorial to Abraham Lincoln. , Why Lincoln? , Neither Carl Fisher or Henry Joy ever met Abraham Lincoln but both had gown up in a nation that was still grieving over the death of the “Great Emancipator” and that was still searching for a fitting way to nationally honor the martyred President. It is very likely that Henry’s father, James F. Joy, spoke favorably of the twelve-year relationship he had with Lincoln from the time James hired Lincoln to represent the Illinois Central Railroad until Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. , So when Henry Joy agreed to support Fisher’s plan for a coast-to-coast highway, it was out of respect for his father’s friend and the nation’s 16th President that he suggested naming the road The Lincoln Highway. The fact that this would be a memorial highway is referenced several times in the September 10, 1913, Proclamation of Route of The Lincoln Highway –

“…this highway is to be known, in memory of Abraham Lincoln, as “THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY…” and “…that is may become an appropriate memorial to the great martyred patriot whose name it bears…”

[Insert]: , The Lincoln Highway is on the map. An enduring and useful memorial has been created to the greatest American. The universal approval expressed on all sides is tribute to the memory of a man beloved by the people. It is unique in the annals of American history that a proposal of a national memorial should not even be debated as to its propriety of its fitness. Could there be a greater tribute? , The Lincoln Way already exists. One can travel on it entirely across these broad United States. Throughout its length of approximately 3,500 miles, it is in daily use by hundreds of thousands of people. The evolution of this memorial has begun. In loving tribute it will be carried, as time passes, to its ultimate ideal. No cenotaph could so much through the years strengthen patriotism and bring closer to us all the great principles of public service which Lincoln so ably illuminated by his life’s work., To aid in advancing the evolution of the Lincoln Way, either by gift or effort, is to serve the nation as a whole. It is a work to which all can lend aid and derive benefit in return and experience the golden satisfaction of duty well done., The work of “broadening, straightening, maintaining and beautifying this memorial road” will be a labor of love by a patriotic people., Henry B. Joy , President of the Lincoln Highway Association, The Lincoln Memorial , An article titled, “Importance of Good Roads – Coast-to-Coast Highway Project Gaining Advocates Every Day Among All Classes of People” in the Aug. 7, 1913 issue of Coleman’s Rural World stated, “…In naming this Coast-to-Coast road, the Lincoln Highway, its founders believe they have at last entered upon a work which will be suitable in character and permanent in form as a great and lasting memorial to the martyred President. In the capital at Washington there is to be a Lincoln building in which the Lincoln furniture, manuscripts, and picture will be placed on view. Comparatively few will ever see it. Lincoln came from and was part of the people. The Lincoln Highway will reach all the people. It will be employed by everyone, bring a benefit to everyone and the ‘Lincoln way’, as it will be eventually known, will keep ‘old Abe’ close to the hearts and sympathies of the nation. So those who help contribute, help to keep the memory of Abraham Lincoln as keen and as perpetual as the life of the nation.”, The Lincoln Highway pre-dates the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., by nine years. Henry Joy was an outspoken critic of the millions of government dollars that would go into the construction of the memorial when one was going to the roads, especially The Lincoln Highway. We know today that the Lincoln Memorial did become a national destination but we must credit Joy and others for their biased support of the Lincoln Highway. The fact that you are reading this sign along the “Lincolnway” is proof that they were also right., [Caption]: James Frederick Joy December 20, 1910 – September 24, 1896 , Prominent attorney in Detroit , Railroad Entrepreneur , Close friend and supporter of Abraham Lincoln
The Lincoln Highway and The Civil War , The date chosen by the founders to establish the Lincoln Highway Association, July 1 (1913), coincided with the same date in 1863 on which the greatest battle in the American Civil War was begun at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln’s greatest speech would be made there at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery in November 1863., Support for the Lincoln Highway soon came from the veterans who had served in Mr. Lincoln’s Army during the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) and the Women’s Relief Corps (W.R.C.) promoted placing bronze tablets of the Gettysburg Address along the route. The Women’s Relief Corps was instrumental in placing U.S. flags in schools and in celebrating Flag Day along the Highway each year., Lincoln and The Transcontinental Railroad , Before the automobile existed, the main modes of transportation included walking, horse, wagon and boat. As a visionary, Abraham Lincoln saw how the relatively new invention of the railroad could connect a nation east to west. In 1847, he characterized railroad building as “…a link with a great chain of railroad communication which shall unite Boston and New York with the Mississippi…”, He was elected president on a platform that declared, “That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction.” As president, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 and the 1864 amendments to that act for the first transcontinental railroad, 51 years before a transcontinental auto highway would be named in his honor. , Lincoln in Indiana , Indiana was Lincoln’s boyhood home from age 7 to 21 (1816-1830)., Lincoln’s family moved from Kentucky in the winter of 1816, just before Indiana became a state, to Little Pigeon Creek Settlement (present day Lincoln City, Indiana). The reason for the move was for both economic opportunity and because Indiana was a free state in regards to slavery. The young Lincoln first saw large numbers of slaves while on a trip to New Orleans in 1828., In 1830, Lincoln and his family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois where he became a self-taught lawyer passing the bar examination in 1836. He married Mary Todd in 1842., Lincoln became involved in politics and was eventually elected President during one of the darkest times in our nation – the Civil War. He would be the first president to be assassinated when he died on April 15, 1863., Photo Credits –, James F. Joy: Courtesy of kansasmemory.org , Boyhood Lincoln: Courtesy of kiarts.org , Gettysburg Address: Courtesy of the Library of Congress , Cabin Photos: Courtesy of National Park Service , Gettysburg Battle: Courtesy of the Library of Congress , Joy’s Words: Courtesy of The Lincoln Highway National Museum and Archives , Lincoln Memorial Photos: Courtesy of Dreamtime , Public Railway: Courtesy of National Archives ,