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In April 1857, the Logan County Courthouse burned to
the ground and court officials temporarily arranged to hold court in nearby
Lincoln Christian Church. That fact is not in dispute. In the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln was a respected
Springfield lawyer, trying cases all over the state, including in his
namesake town, about 30 miles north of the capital city. That fact also is
not in dispute.
But did Lincoln actually try any cases in the Lincoln
Christian Church? The answer was unclear until recently, when church
ministers announced they found evidence that he did.
Lincoln Christian Church officials have long believed
in a special link to Lincoln, despite the absence of any primary records
(records that are created by contemporaries of an event) to prove the case.
In the late 1930s or early ’40s, church officials even dedicated a
bronze plaque, declaring unequivocally that Lincoln practiced law at
Lincoln Christian Church.
Historians treated the church’s claims, for the
most part, as myth. In 1953, respected Lincoln scholar James Hickey
concluded that Lincoln couldn’t have been in the Logan County Circuit
Court in the fall of 1857 because he was involved in a high-profile case in
Chicago. William Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner, most likely handled
matters in Logan County, Hickey suggested. That’s the way things stood until a few weeks
ago when the church’s top two ministers announced they’d
discovered a smoking gun: Four Logan County cases from the spring of 1858
in which Lincoln was a lawyer or judge.
They shared their findings with the area’s
press, and many bought the story. Take the Lincoln
Courier, which told readers on Sept. 8:
“It’s official! Researchers at Lincoln Christian Church [. . .]
have laid an urban legend to rest.” The Bloomington Pantagraph followed two days
later: “The Lincoln Christian Church has verified its legendary claim
to fame.”
Not so fast, says Leigh Henson. A professor emeritus of English from Missouri State
University in Springfield, Mo., Henson is a native of Lincoln with a
special interest in the cultural history of central Illinois. He visits
frequently, and has even devoted a Web site to his hometown. The Illinois
State Historical Society named his www.geocities.com/findinglincolnillinois
the best Web site in 2004. When Henson learned of the Lincoln Christian
Church’s renewed claims, he began an e-mail exchange with Todd
Parmenter, executive minister of the church. There seemed, Henson says, a
major problem with the church’s case: Despite the fact that the
church located the four Lincoln-related cases, there wasn’t any proof
yet that the Logan County Circuit Court met at the church in the spring of
1858. A 1911 history of Logan County said that temporary County Court
offices were built and occupied by Oct. 1, 1857; it’s possible the
Circuit Court was also held in those offices, and not the church, Henson
says.
Henson isn’t interested in bursting the
church’s bubble, and suggests it’s even possible that Hickey
was wrong, in light of more recent research that puts Lincoln briefly in
Springfield in late September 1857, within easy traveling distance of the
Logan County courts. Henson’s just interested in making sure all the
facts square up. His Web site has a link to an essay, explaining his
position.
In the Land of Lincoln, it’s almost impossible
to avoid some link to the Great Emancipator. Communities all over the state
also can make legitimate claims to the historical Lincoln. Sometimes, the
ties are stretched a bit; sometimes, they’re just ridiculous.
Parmenter says while he’s convinced Lincoln
practiced law in the original church building, which burned to the ground
in 1902, he appreciates the information that Henson provided. And he now
agrees that additional proof is needed. “I acknowledge, before we can say that with 100
percent certainty, we need that last piece of primary evidence [confirming
the court met at the church in 1858],” Parmenter says.
“It’s the same kind of argument you can make for a lot of
historical facts: there’s a lot of history we accept as fact, based
on an abundance of secondary and weaker primary evidence. I think
that’s what we have here — we may never find that piece of
paper that pins down that date.”
Parmenter says the Lincoln connection is an immense
source of pride to the church and the community it serves. It also, he
says, has broader meaning, because it shows that the separation of church
and state wasn’t as big a deal a century ago.
“In the modern era, this would never happen.
They would never mingle, not even on this level,” Parmenter says.
The good ministers of Lincoln Christian Church have
the right to draw whatever conclusions they want — after all, with
14,000 books about Lincoln and counting, it’s clear that
Lincoln’s life and words are subject to wide interpretation. Given the hoopla that’s bound to grow in
anticipation of his 200th birthday in 2009, expect to see many more Lincoln
connections pop up in the next couple years. We should take all new revelations with an extra
helping of skepticism.
Contact Roland Klose at editor@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2007.
