Who is Sameer Somal, and what has he been doing in Athens?
The 43-year-old Pennsylvania resident, entrepreneur and Abraham Lincoln historian has been a frequent presence in the Menard County community in recent months. Somal is on the board of the town’s Abraham Lincoln Long Nine Museum, and he envisions transforming vacant and available property into real estate that celebrates Lincoln’s legacy. He recently brought a group of investors to Athens to meet with city leaders and experience what the community has to offer.
But why Athens?
“This region is where Abraham Lincoln spent more of his time than anywhere else in his life,” Somal said. “Athens is special to me because of Mr. Lincoln, who is endearing to all Americans.”
Somal has immersed himself in all things Lincoln over the past several years and sees an opportunity to engage younger generations through institutions and edifices dedicated to the 16th president’s life and legacy. With Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield just 14 miles away, and with Athens already interpreting an important part of the Lincoln story, Somal thinks Athens has some serious growth and tourism potential.
“I went to see Athens on one of my first visits here, and I also saw what it was like in photos 100-plus years ago,” Somal said. “It was once a place where Mr. Lincoln spent a lot of time, and we should strive to put it on the map a little bit more and transform it into a place that celebrates his legacy. But I also want to make it a place that people are proud of, even more than they already are.”
The Abraham Lincoln Long Nine Museum in Athens has already benefited from Somal’s involvement. The museum, located in the Col. Matthew Rogers Building on Main Street, is the site of the Aug. 3, 1837, dinner meeting during which Lincoln and other state legislators, nicknamed the “Long Nine” because they were all tall men, succeeded in a plan to get the state capital moved from Vandalia to Springfield. The museum, which commemorates the evening banquet where seven of the Long Nine celebrated their victory, is open Tuesday through Saturday afternoons during the summer.
Abraham Lincoln impersonator Randy Duncan in front of the Lincoln Home during a tour organized by Samer Somal, center. PHOTO BY DAVID BLANCHETTE
“I received a call in 2025 from a Lincoln scholar in Philadelphia, Sameer Somal. Fellow board member Guy Fraker and I brainstormed and thought, ‘We need to bring younger energy like this on our board,’” said Long Nine Museum Board president Joe McMenamin, an attorney and former Springfield City Council member. “Since Sameer has been on our board, there’s been a huge surge of enthusiasm, action and revitalization.”
That momentum included a standing-room-only event at the museum on Feb. 13 and reached a new high when Somal brought more than 25 out-of-state friends and colleagues into Athens to enjoy the Aug. 1 “History and Hog Roast” event staged by the Long Nine Museum.
“We’re making great progress. We’ve got a strategy and plans, and we’ve paid $90,000 toward the $140,000 cost to complete the contract for deed on this property,” McMenamin said. “Now we are going toward a private, not-for-profit corporate ownership.”
But Somal’s vision includes more than just the Long Nine Museum.
“I hope to be a unifier and rebuild Main Street in a movement that generations of Athens residents will be proud to join,” Somal said. “I need the people of Athens to help me take the lead. Together, we can do something beautiful that attracts Mr. Lincoln’s admirers now and in the future.”
“Instilled in me a love of history.”
Somal’s parents are of Indian descent. His father grew up in England, served in the Royal Navy and then settled his family in Rochester, New York, where Somal was born in 1983. The family later moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania. where Somal’s father was an aeronautical engineer with Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
“I grew up in the company of books, and my father instilled in me a love of history,” Somal said. “I also grew up as part of the family business. My mother owned a gas station and convenience store and that taught me so much about self-reliance, the fundamentals of accounting and finance and what it takes to put a roof over your head.”
Somal was ambitious from a young age. At 10 years old he mowed lawns, shoveled driveways, and sold and delivered newspapers door to door. Somal studied finance at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and founded two startups while there. One was called Smarter Campus, which offered “comprehensive student services solutions,” and the other was Offish Aquariums, which installed aquariums in professional offices.
Next up for Somal was a career as a private banker and middle-market investment banker at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Scotiabank. He then launched Blue Ocean Global Technology, which provides digital transformation, business consulting and technology development services.
Somal also has other business interests, including Capital Expert Services and Girl Power Talk, a venture that employs talent in 40 countries to celebrate the emerging influence and affluence of women globally.
Athens Mayor Chris Reichert speaks during the Aug. 1 History and Hog Roast event in Athens. Standing next to him are Sameer Somal and Long Nine Museum Board Chair Joe McMenamin. PHOTO BY DAVID BLANCHETTE
When Somal first started Blue Ocean Global Technology, he cold-called acclaimed attorney and public relations executive Richard Levick. Their initial meeting led to the two men becoming friends and business partners. This relationship introduced Somal to the field of expert witness testimony. Ten years later, Somal has consulted on more than 500 legal cases where he is called to quantify the monetary value of personal and business reputation, as well as intellectual property, especially in the context of internet defamation.
Involvement in the legal profession accelerated Somal’s admiration for perhaps the most famous lawyer in American history, Abraham Lincoln. He began by twice reading Carl Sandburg’s six-volume Lincoln biography.
“Over the next 15 years, I read a lot about Mr. Lincoln, and I applied the things I had learned. He said, ‘Whatever you’re going to be, be a good one.’ Mr. Lincoln has this power that the more you study him, the better person you become,” Somal said. “I’ve always tried to build relationships in the business world like Mr. Lincoln. He gave without remembering and received without forgetting.”
In 2024, Somal attended his first Abraham Lincoln Association Banquet in Springfield. Two years later he was elected to the organization’s board of directors. Somal is also on the board of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, which bills itself as the most active and largest continuously serving Lincoln study organization, and is the founder of a Lincoln-focused nonprofit, Abraham Lincoln Scholars.
On his next visit to Springfield, Somal was introduced to McMenamin, the Long Nine Museum’s board president, by Mike and Trudy Naylor of the Abe’s Old Hat antique store. McMenamin introduced Somal to the Long Nine Museum and the Athens community, and it was love at first sight.
“I think Athens should have that cute little thriving Main Street where people don’t necessarily have to drive 15 miles to get to a grocery store or a pizza place they want,” Somal said. “A thriving Main Street where families can bring their children, where there is a recognition and celebration of Abraham Lincoln.”
“It’s got to be authentic.”
Somal has already invested in the Athens community. He purchased an abandoned church building at 301 S. Main St. under his nonprofit, Abraham Lincoln Scholars. The location may become the headquarters of that organization, which is dedicated to the education and inspiration of younger generations to preserve history. The building itself is not historic, but it is contiguous to other historic properties Somal hopes to highlight and celebrate.
“I’m also very committed to establishing another museum in Athens that would be focused on Mr. Lincoln’s law career, probably a museum sponsored by Abraham Lincoln Scholars,” Somal said. “I think the town would benefit from a museum in addition to the Long Nine that has original Lincoln writings. With two museums, more people are going to have to visit Athens.”
That new museum could feature a collection that Somal recently purchased along with history enthusiast Anthony Cichetti, the Alfred Orendorff Archive of treasures from Lincoln’s legal career. The collection includes Lincoln’s original deed for his first land purchase in New Salem, signed by a secretary in the President Martin Van Buren administration; an original fee book that Lincoln signed multiple times when he was practicing law with John T. Stuart; affidavits from the McLean County vs. the Illinois Central Railroad case, where Lincoln was pitted against the mighty railroad; and eight pages of notes from Lincoln’s 1858 Senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas. The collection also features the desk from the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices on which Lincoln wrote his “House Divided” speech.
Sameer Somal, left, listens as Long Nine Museum Board Chair Joe McMenamin tells a room of investors about the institution. PHOTO BY DAVID BLANCHETTE
Somal is also the co-founder of Legal Experts AI, a company dedicated to connecting expert witnesses to lawyers and their clients. The new company bears Lincoln’s image in the logo and currently has offices in Springfield, though Somal plans to open an Athens office in 2027.
“When you use Mr. Lincoln’s image to depict a company, it’s got to be authentic,” Somal said. “When I started talking to people in Athens locally about it, including Joe McMenamin and Athens Mayor Chris Reichert, they encouraged me to establish offices here, which I plan to do.”
“In an endeavor like this, you have to take Lincoln’s philosophy and walk slowly, but never walk backwards. I’ve let folks know that I want to do good in their community,” Somal added. “I don’t really have a master plan for it. It’s more about being able to lay some bricks and build a foundation, and I think we’ve started that.”
Part of that foundation-building was a three-day event that Somal organized for a number of out-of-state friends and clients, many of whom had never been to the Lincoln sites in central Illinois. The group toured the Lincoln Home and Lincoln Tomb, and spent an afternoon and evening at the Long Nine Museum’s History and Hog Roast.
“It wasn’t really hard to convince people to come. Many of them told me they’ve always wanted to come to the Springfield area,” Somal said. “I didn’t bring investors just to say, ‘Here’s a pitch or an investment idea.’ I brought them to the region to show how I think investing in small towns and partnering with locals and helping to revitalize – specifically Athens – can be a noble cause. But it can also be one that makes business sense.”
“Just a little spark waiting to be ignited.”
The investors who toured the Lincoln sites and enjoyed the Aug. 1 event in Athens were impressed by what they saw, but all of them credited Somal for bringing the opportunities in Athens to their attention.
“I knew about as much as the casual person about Abraham Lincoln until Sameer got it on my radar. And he knows me, that if you give me a thread, I’m going to pull it,” said Matthew Chancey from Orlando, Florida, the founder of Tax Alpha Companies. “People can choose to live in a small town like Athens if they want to. You can work remotely and you don’t have to be in a major city anymore. You can still participate in the economy in a meaningful way and don’t have to move to a big city.”
Dr. Richard Williamson from Lincoln, Nebraska, is a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry and worked with Somal on some expert witness cases.
“I think that this Long Nine Museum and developing another museum centered around Lincoln are going to bring people in,” Williamson said. “They will see the value of that history and they will want to live in a nice, quiet environment, and there are businesses that can thrive in areas like this.”
Williamson wouldn’t have even known about Athens if it weren’t for Somal.
“I love being with Sameer because he gets an idea and then he makes it happen. He’s so excited about whatever he does that it’s inspiring,” Williamson said. “Whatever fire that you’ve got, maybe that’s just a little spark waiting to be ignited. Sameer does that for you.”
Louisville, Kentucky, business owner and U.S. Special Forces veteran Jair Matis said Somal’s enthusiasm is infectious.
Sameer Somal, left, talks with local citizens during the Aug. 1 History and Hog Roast in Athens.
PHOTO BY DAVID BLANCHETTE
“He can really rally the troops. He has good intuition, can read people and make them feel special,” Matis said. “He knew I was an Abraham Lincoln fan, and Sameer called me randomly and invited me here. It was only four hours away so I said, ‘Hey, I’m down.’”
“Athens has a beautiful small-town feel, good people and good community, very proud of Abe,” Matis added. “Like this Long Nine Museum, I mean, they definitely respect and honor that man. It’s very humbling, and good to see.”
Another admirer of Athens is Alexandra Reed Lajoux, co-founder of the expert witness search company Capital Expert Services, which is now part of the network of enterprises and nonprofits affiliated with Legal Experts AI. Lajoux is a direct descendant of signers of the Mayflower Compact and fighters in the Revolutionary War.
“Central Illinois in general, and Athens in particular, is an ideal place to reset personal and professional goals,” Lajoux said. “Athens is not just any small town. It is a carrier of a history that defines the truest American values.”
Jon Dudas, who also attended the gathering, is a consultant who was formerly the undersecretary for intellectual property and director of the Patent and Trademark Office during the George W. Bush administration. He now lives in Oak Island, North Carolina, but was born and raised in Springfield.
“I’ve always loved Lincoln. Some of it was infused in me, I consciously understood where Lincoln stood, your sense of duty and how to follow that,” Dudas said. “Sameer talks about Abraham Lincoln and the values that Lincoln had and the things he did, and he’s got amazing magnetism. He’s a combination of goodwill, good cheer and good ideas.”
Dudas sees the value in developing Athens into a combination of tourist destination and living space.
“Athens has a wholesomeness, a place where people want to raise their family,” Dudas said. “I’ve lived in a bunch of different places and I’ve found very few places that replicate what it was like when I was growing up in and near Springfield, Illinois. I had a real chill when I came back and saw what small-town America looks like.”
New Orleans resident Tom Leggett is a writer and Abraham Lincoln researcher working directly with Somal. Leggett accompanied the group on the Aug. 1 visit to Athens.
“I was here in February for the grand reopening of the Long Nine Museum and that really inspired me to learn more about Lincoln and for the project to be exposed to this kind of scholarship,” Leggett said. “Some of the foremost Lincoln scholars in the world are right here, and just to see the history in Springfield and Athens really brought it to life and made it more real for me.”
“The future looks bright for Athens.”
Somal’s interest and investment in the Athens area have created a lot of buzz among residents, officials and historians.
Doug Kirby is a direct descendant of Jack Armstrong, Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in the legendary New Salem wrestling match, and Jack’s son, Duff, whom Lincoln later successfully defended pro bono in the famous Almanac Murder Trial in Beardstown. During that trial, Lincoln used the Farmer’s Almanac to prove that the supposed eye witness to the murder could not have seen Duff, given the moon’s phase that night.
Duff Armstrong is his third great-grandfather, so as Kirby observed, “You could say that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Lincoln.”
“I don’t like seeing any of these old buildings go down, so if we can help these buildings out, that’s fantastic,” said Kirby, a Mason City resident who attended the History and Hog Roast event at the Long Nine Museum. “I’m an avid history buff, and these investments are for the future. The kids need to learn about what’s happened around here.”
Athens Mayor Chris Reichert is thrilled with the renewed interest in the community.
“The current Long Nine Museum board of directors has done an incredible job of gathering the right individuals to bring life back into this museum,” Reichert said. “Revitalizing the museum will increase tourism, which will create more retail activity on Main Street. I’m very optimistic; the future looks bright for Athens.”
Lincoln historian and author Bob Lenz from McLean County attended the History and Hog Roast and was pleased with what he saw.
“This event is full of young people, and that’s an anomaly at the majority of Lincoln events,” Lenz said. “I’ve always tried to expand the Lincoln message and recruit young people to join organizations and attend events. With gentleman like Sameer joining, with his connections and commitments, he’s bringing a lot to the table. We need a lot more of that.”
Somal hasn’t established residency in Athens or central Illinois yet but said, “It’s inevitable.” He feels his mission is to listen to the community and deliver results.
“I’ve heard from residents of Athens about what they want and what should be there, and I think the way I looked at it six months ago is very different from today,” Somal said. “I have to balance everything with pragmatism. I want to do something to revitalize a small town and balance that with monetary realities. I’m just trying to find good folks who I can work with who care about the same things I do and figure it out together.”
“A great mentor of mine, Matthew Chancey, who joined us for the History and Hog Roast event, told me that sometimes you need to do things in life that are going to make you happy, and when you look back on your life you are going to value those accomplishments above all others,” Somal added. “That made me realize I don’t have to do this for the money, although I need to do it so that it’s financially sustainable.”
The one certain thing in Somal’s mind is that the legacy of Abraham Lincoln must run through everything that’s being planned in Athens.
“Mr. Lincoln has the power where you can mention his name and it’s a mic drop,” Somal said. “People want to hear about Abraham Lincoln. There’s a respect, people want to know more.”
This article appears in September 10-16, 2026.
