Abraham Lincoln not only left his mark on Illinois and the nation but on the history of several towns as well.
Joliet, Morris and Ottawa claim visits by Lincoln to their communities, and information gleaned from the Joliet Public Library as well as from Ottawa historian Leonard Lock provides some details of his journeys.
Lincoln’s best-known visit to Ottawa, of course, was for the Lincoln-Douglas Debate on Aug. 21, 1858, and a monument to that event stands in the town’s Washington Square. But years before, as a lawyer, he came through when the Illinois Supreme Court was conducting business in Ottawa, Mt. Vernon and Springfield. Lincoln’s legal duties often took him to the Ottawa area in the 1840s and 1850s, Lock said.
The day before the famous debate, Lincoln visited a friend, Judge William T. Hopkins, who was a leading citizen of Morris. The next morning, they went to a hotel barber shop, where a freed slave gave Lincoln a shave.
In October of that year, Lincoln visited Joliet to stump for fellow Republican Lyman Trumball, who was running for the state senate. He stopped at the political rally that was being held on a grove near Center Street and Western Avenue, according to “Gleanings and Biographies,” published by the Will County Historical Society in 1969.
The book also notes that efforts were made to bring Lincoln and Douglas to Joliet for a debate. Those failed, but Douglas appeared in Joliet, speaking at the Will County Courthouse on Aug. 31, 1858.
