Lincoln in Tolono
Abraham Lincoln traveled through Tolono by locomotive at least eighteen times. He whiled the time away for his train connections by playing horseshoes and visiting with the Tolono residents. While campaigning in Illinois, Lincoln would frequently play a game of chess with a telegrapher at the Marion house Hotel-Depot.
Tolono lies at the junction of the Great Western and Illinois Central Railroads. Tolono is privileged to have at this site an historical stone marker to honor Abraham Lincoln. Even though Lincoln traveled through Tolono several times, February 11, 1861 was significant, for on that day he gave his last formal address in the State of Illinois while on his trip to Washington D. C., saying, “I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, attended as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it, ‘Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.’ I bid you an affectionate farewell.” It was a dreary, dank, drizzly day. The station was crowded with people from all over the area who had assembled at the depot platform to bid Lincoln goodbye. Many of those citizens went to the wooded park just west of the depot to obtain what protection the trees afforded. Lincoln is remembered today as a man of integrity … encouraging justice, freedom and equality.
On January 3, 1861 young Adalaide Chaffee ran to the Marion house hotel-Depot to greet Lincoln when she heard he was there waiting for his connection to visit his step-mother near Charleston. Lincoln stood up from a rocker as she entered the parlor. Chaffee wrote: “He smiled, shook hands and spoke most cordially. . . .”
President-elect Lincoln’s presidential train was magnificent with flags and streamers waving from the locomotive, baggage car, and passenger car. As the locomotive rolled to a stop on February 11, 1861, cheers from thousands of people, the booming of a cannon, and the waving of handkerchiefs greeted the arrival of the special train that delivered the man they elected. In response, Lincoln stepped on the platform of his plush presidential car to bid them farewell.
Marker is at the intersection of Long Street (U.S. 45) and West Austin Street, on the right when traveling north on Long Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
