The Story of Captain Abraham Lincoln.

The life of American Revolution Captain Abraham Lincoln (1744-1786), the paternal grandfather of the esteemed 16th President, is a tale woven with the threads of both the expansion and the dangers of the American frontier.

Abraham Lincoln was born May 13, 1744, in what today is Berks County, Pennsylvania. Young Abraham was John Lincoln's son, a tanner and farmer. The Lincoln family had made its way to the New World from England a century before, establishing themselves among the industrious settlers shaping the colonies. Though his formal education was limited, Abraham would inherit a strong spirit and a thirst for a better life.

Abraham was the first child born to John and Rebekah Lincoln, who had nine children in all: Abraham, born 1744; twins Hannah and Lydia, born 1748; Isaac, born 1750; Jacob, born 1751; John born 1755; Sarah, born 1757; Thomas born 1761; and Rebekah born 1767.

Abraham married Bathsheba Herring (c1742–1836), a daughter of Alexander Herring (c1708-c1778) and his wife Abigail Harrison (c1710–c1780) of Linville Creek. Bathsheba was reputed to be practical and resilient, and together, they built a family. The assertion that Abraham was first married to Mary Shipley has been refuted.

Abraham's father, John Lincoln, purchased land in the Shenandoah Valley in the colony of Virginia in 1768. He settled his family on a 600-acre tract on Linville Creek in Augusta County (now Rockingham County). John and Rebekah Lincoln divided their tract with their two eldest sons, Abraham and Isaac. Abraham built a house on his land across Linville Creek from his parents' home in 1773.

In the mid-1700s, word spread like wildfire of the fertile lands of Virginia—the Shenandoah Valley beckoned with its promises. The Lincolns, ever seeking opportunity, uprooted their lives and headed south, settling in Rockingham County, Virginia.

But the frontier did not surrender its bounty easily. This new land demanded resourcefulness and a willingness to defend one's claim. Abraham became a captain in the Virginia militia, his life taking on the dual roles of farmer and protector. Amidst the labor of raising crops and children, the specter of conflict with Indian tribes was a constant undercurrent.

Abraham served as the Augusta County militia captain during the American Revolutionary War (1765-83). With the organization of Rockingham County in 1778, he served as a captain for that county. He was in command of sixty of his neighbors, ready to be called out by the governor of Virginia and marched where needed. Captain Lincoln's company served under General Lachlan McIntosh in the fall and winter of 1778, assisting in constructing Fort McIntosh in Pennsylvania and Fort Laurens in Ohio.

In 1780, Abraham Lincoln sold his land on Mill Creek, and in 1781, he moved his family to Kentucky, which was then a district of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The family settled in Jefferson County, about twenty miles east of the site of Louisville. The territory was still contested by Indians living across the Ohio River. For protection, the settlers lived near frontier forts, called stations, to which they retreated when the alarm was given. Abraham Lincoln settled near Hughes' Station (Central Kentucky) on Floyd's Fork and began clearing land, planting corn, and building a cabin. Lincoln owned at least 5,544 acres of land in the richest sections of Kentucky.

One day in May 1786, Abraham Lincoln was working in his field with his three sons when he was shot from the nearby forest and fell to the ground. 

The eldest boy, Mordecai, ran to the cabin where a loaded gun was kept, while the middle son, Josiah, ran to Hughes' Station for help. Thomas, the youngest, stood in shock by his father. From the cabin, Mordecai observed an Indian come out of the forest and stop by his father's body. The Indian reached for Thomas, either to kill him or to carry him off. Mordecai took aim and shot the Indian in the chest, killing him.

Tradition states that Captain Abraham Lincoln was buried next to his cabin, now the Long Run Baptist Church and Cemetery site near Eastwood, Kentucky. A stone memorializing Captain Abraham Lincoln was placed in the cemetery in 1937. A stone honoring Captain Abraham Lincoln was placed in a cemetery near Eastwood, Kentucky, in 1937.

Bathsheba Lincoln was left a widow with five underage children. She moved the family away from the Ohio River to Washington County, where the country was more thickly settled, and there was less danger of an Indian attack. Under the law then operating, Mordecai Lincoln, as the eldest son, inherited two-thirds of his father's estate when he reached the age of twenty-one, with Bathsheba receiving one-third. The other children inherited nothing. Life was hard, particularly for Thomas, the youngest, who got little schooling and was forced to work at a young age.

In later years, Thomas Lincoln recounted the day his father died to his son, Abraham Lincoln, the future sixteenth President of the United States of America. "The story of his death by the Indians," the President later wrote, "and of Uncle Mordecai, then fourteen years old, killing one of the Indians, is the legend more strongly than all others imprinted on my mind and memory."

The story of Captain Abraham Lincoln is one of grit and ambition. It speaks of the tumultuous era when a nation was being forged and the sacrifices made on the altar of expansion. While his life was cut tragically short, he left an indelible mark. His determination and spirit would be echoed in the following generations, shaping the character of one of America's most beloved Presidents.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, the first woman to head a medical division at a coeducational university, Loyola University Medical School.

Born on March 26, 1863, Bertha Van Hoosen spent her early years on her parents' farm in Stony Creek Village, Michigan. Free to roam about and observe the life cycle of the animals on the farm, she later recalled that the toughness of farm life gave her a practical, realistic outlook. As a young girl, she attended several public schools close to her home before graduating from high school in Pontiac, Michigan, at age 17. Following the example of her older sister Alice, she enrolled in the literary department at the University of Michigan in 1880. She met two women who had decided to study medicine here, and their enthusiasm inspired her to follow in their footsteps. Despite her parents' refusal to finance her education, she enrolled in Michigan's medical department after receiving her bachelor's degree in 1884. To pay her way, she earned money teaching calisthenics at a high school, serving as an obstetrical nurse and teacher, and demonstrating anatomy. Four years later, she graduated with her doctor of medicine degree.

Dr. Van Hoosen accepted a series of residencies, first at the Woman's Hospital in Detroit, then at the Kalamazoo, Michigan, State Hospital for the Insane, and finally at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston. She felt ready to begin private practice after four years of additional hospital training.

With money saved from her previous jobs, young Dr. Van Hoosen opened a private clinic in Chicago in late 1892. Like most new practices, hers grew slowly. To keep the practice afloat, she taught courses in anatomy and embryology at the Woman's Medical School of Northwestern University. At the same time, she continued her postgraduate training, accepting a clinical assistantship in gynecology at the Columbia Dispensary in Chicago (later reorganized as the Charity Hospital and Dispensary), where she received further instruction in surgery and obstetrics. As her medical expertise grew, Dr. Van Hoosen's private practice flourished, and she was in great demand as a teacher. 

Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen

In 1902, though her appointment was opposed by the male faculty, she was made a professor of clinical gynecology at the Illinois University Medical School, a position she held until 1912.

In 1913, Dr. Van Hoosen was appointed head of the gynecological staff at the Cook County Hospital, thus becoming one of the first women in the United States to receive a civil service appointment. In 1918, she was awarded a prestigious post as head of obstetrics at Loyola University Medical School, making her the first woman to head a medical division at a coeducational university. Dr. Van Hoosen continued to maintain her private practice and to serve as an attending physician at several additional Chicago hospitals.

Dr. Van Hoosen devoted herself to treating women and children throughout her career. In addition to helping develop better methods of prenatal care, she lectured widely on sex education as a member of the Chicago Woman's Club Committee on Social Purity. In addition, she pioneered the use of scopolamine-morphine anesthesia during childbirth. Popularly known as "twilight sleep," this form of anesthesia rendered patients unconscious without inhibiting their reflexes. Dr. Van Hoosen delivered thousands of healthy babies and published a book and several articles detailing her research.

Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen's Surgical Training.

An outspoken feminist, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen grew increasingly vocal over the medical establishment's discriminatory treatment of women. Barred from membership in the Chicago Gynecological and Obstetrical Society and discouraged by her isolation within the American Medical Association, she called for a meeting of medical women in Chicago. Their panel led to the formation of the American Medical Women's Association in 1915, with Van Hoosen as the organization's first President.

In 1947, Bertha Van Hoosen, M.D., published an autobiography detailing her pioneering role in medicine and her abiding interest in women's health issues. After more than sixty years, she had done much to advance the position of women in medicine—training physicians, fostering closer ties among her women peers, and serving as a model for those striving to enter fields previously closed to women. In addition, Dr. Van Hoosen could reflect on a rewarding career teaching and practicing obstetrics.

Throughout her career, Dr. Van Hoosen trained several dozen women surgeons. She maintained close ties to her female colleagues, offering surgical assistance to her female peers throughout the United States and her travels through Europe and Asia. 

After retiring from practice in 1951 at age 88, she died of a stroke on June 7, 1952. She is buried at Old Stoney Creek Cemetery in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen's Illinois State Historical Society marker is located in the
South Lobby of the Fine Arts Building at 410 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
GOOGLE MAP

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

John Kinzie and Potawatomi Chief Black Partridge Bravery During the Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chicago, August 15, 1812.

Sculpture of the Fort Dearborn Massacre. The sculpture portrays the rescue of Margaret Helm by Potawatomi Chief Black Partridge. Monument by Carl Rohl-Smith (1893).

During the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, American settlers and Indian tribes tensions were high in the region.

In August 1812, the U.S. military ordered the evacuation of Fort Dearborn due to the imminent threat of an attack by Indians. As the evacuation took place, a group of Potawatomi warriors attacked the evacuating troops and settlers, resulting in the Fort Dearborn Massacre, occurring on August 15, 1812. 

Amidst the chaos, John Kinzie and his family were residing near the fort. When Kinzie realized that Nau-non-gee (aka Catherine), Potawatomi Chief Black Partridge's daughter, was being held captive by the attackers, he risked his own life to rescue her. 

Kinzie's positive relationships with Chief Black Partridge and other tribal leaders came into play. Kinzie approached the attackers and pleaded for the young girl's release. Due to his reputation and the respect he garnered, Kinzie was able to convince them to let her go unharmed. He escorted Catherine to safety. Returning her to her father, he earned the gratitude of Black Partridge, demonstrating his influence and diplomacy during that tumultuous time.

Margaret Helm, the wife of Fort Dearborn’s second-in-command and stepdaughter of John Kinzie. Black Partridge is reported to have stayed the hand of a warrior about to strike Mrs. Helm, saying he himself would dispatch her. Instead, he took her to the lake and pretended to drown her for appearance’s sake, ultimately escorting her to a waiting boat where the Kinzie household took her to safety at St. Joseph, Michigan.

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Margaret Helm's lurid story of her salvation by Chief Black Partridge was pure fabrication, if Kinzie is to be believed. Certainly, he would have given his explorer (hearers) if this tidbit had it actually occurred. All she did was run into the lake in fright and walk out again. She hardly left her father's side.

His intervention did not end there. Prisoners had been taken to various Indian villages, and Black Partridge was able to locate and negotiate the release of some. One of these was Lieutenant Linai Taliaferro Helm, the wounded husband of Margaret Helm. Having obtained ransom from the U.S. Indian Agent, Thomas Forsyth, Black Partridge added to it personal gifts: a pony, rifle, and a gold ring. He then escorted Lieutenant Helm to St. Louis and released him to Governor William Clark (of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame).

This lesser-known episode highlights John Kinzie's bravery and ability to navigate intercultural relations' complexities during a violent period in Chicago's history.

ADDITIONAL READING:

John Kinzie's Narrative of the Fort Dearborn Massacre.

The History of Fort Dearborn #1 and #2.

Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812; a Historical Account & In-Depth Analysis.

Fort Dearborn Massacre by Lieutenant Helm, One of the Survivors. pub:1814

Copyright © 2023 Neil Gale

Chinatown History, Chicago, Illinois.

Looking to escape the anti-Chinese violence that had broken out on the west coast, the first Chinese arrived in Chicago after 1869 when the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed. By the late 1800s, 25% of Chicago's approximately 600 Chinese residents settled along Clark Street between Van Buren and Harrison Avenues in Chicago's Loop. 

In 1889, 16 Chinese-owned businesses were located along the two-block stretch, including eight grocery stores, two butcher shops and a restaurant. 

In 1912, the Chinese living in this area began moving south to Armour Square. Some historians say this was due to increasing rent prices. Others see more complex causes: discrimination, overcrowding, a high non-Chinese crime rate, and disagreements between the two associations ("Tōngs") within the community, the Hip Sing Tōng and the On Leong Tōng.

Guey Sam Restaurant.

The move to the new South Side Chinatown was led by the On Leong Merchants Association in 1912, which had a building constructed along Cermak Road (then 22nd Street) that could house 15 stores, 30 apartments and the Association's headquarters. While the building's design was typical of the period, it also featured Chinese accents, such as tile trim adorned with dragons.

In the 1920s, Chinese community leaders secured approximately 50 ten-year leases on properties in the newly developing Chinatown. Because of severe racial discrimination, these leases must be secured via an intermediary, H.O. Stone Company. Jim Moy, then-director of the On Leong Merchants Association, decided that a Chinese-style building should be constructed as a strong visual announcement of the Chinese community's new presence in the area. 

With no Chinese-born architects in Chicago then, Chicago-born Norse architects Christian S. Michaelsen and Sigurd A. Rognstad were asked to design the new On Leong Merchants Association Building in the spring of 1926. Michaelsen and Rognstad drew their final design after studying texts on Chinese architecture. When the building opened in 1928 at the cost of a million dollars, it was the finest large Chinese-style structure in any North American Chinatown. 

The On Leong Association allowed the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association to put its headquarters in the new building and use it as an immigrant assistance center, a school, a shrine, a meeting hall, and office space for the Association itself. It was often informally referred to as Chinatown's "city hall." 

In 1928, Michaelsen and Rognstad designed two other buildings in the area—Won Kow Restaurant, Chinatown's oldest restaurant, and the Moy Shee D.K. Association Building, the former receiving a two-story addition in 1932.

Guey Sam's Chinese Restaurant, on Wentworth Avenue in Chicago's Chinatown, is shown in 1928 during a celebration of the anniversary of the Republic of China. Chop Suey palaces like Guey Sam were targeted for closing earlier in the 1900s. 

The Chinatown Gate was built in 1975 at the intersection of Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road. It is the entrance to Chinatown's oldest and most compact section. The colorful gate is known for the ornamental street lamps and Chinese dragon carvings on the sidewalks. A Chinese inscription on the gate declares, "The world is for all."

During the late 1980s, a group of Chinatown business leaders bought 32 acres of property north of Archer Avenue from the Santa Fe Railway and built Chinatown Square, a two-level mall consisting of restaurants, beauty salons and law offices flanked by 21 new townhouses. 

Additional residential construction, such as the Santa Fe Gardens, a 600-unit village of townhouses, condominiums and single-family homes still under construction on formerly industrial land to the north.

VISIT OUR CHICAGO CHINATOWN SOUVENIR SHOP

Why Chinese Restaurants Nearly Became Extinct in Chicago.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Elijah Lovejoy, an Abolitionist and Newspaper Publisher, Murdered in Alton, Illinois, on November 7, 1837.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Silhouette of Elijah P. Lovejoy

Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1802-1837), owner and editor of the Alton Observer Newspaper, accepted the delivery of his third new printing press on November 7, 1837, at 3:00 AM. 

In the 1820s, Elijah Lovejoy was a reform-minded northeastern transplant to the Midwest. Americans uncomfortable with the transformation wrought by the Market Revolution turned to various reform movements in the early 1800s. The temperance movement emerged alongside many others, including mental health reform and Transcendentalism (character, thought, or language). At the same time, other Americans formed utopian communities that challenged mainstream views, like individual property ownership and monogamy. All were trying to come to terms with life in a modern industrial society, and Lovejoy was no different.

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The first attempt to organize a national movement for women's rights occurred in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. Women's suffrage movements began in Illinois as early as the 1860s, although attempts to grant women the right to vote as part of the 1870 Illinois constitution failed. In 1873, a statute was passed giving women the opportunity to run for any school office not created by the Illinois Constitution.

Elijah's father, Rev. Daniel Lovejoy, was a Congregational minister. His mother, Elizabeth Pattee, was the daughter of respectable parents in one of the adjoining Maine counties where Elijah had grown up in Albion, Maine.

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Congregationalism in the United States consists of Protestant churches in the Reformed tradition that have a congregational form of church government and trace their origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England. Jesus Christ alone is the head of the church.

Lovejoy threw himself into civic life in Alton. Among other activities, he started a lyceum, an institution for popular education providing discussions and lectures for the public regarding important issues. His paper's circulation steadily increased, from fewer than 1,000 subscribers to the first issue to more than 2,000 by early 1837. At the same time, Lovejoy was becoming more actively involved with the organized anti-slavery movement and becoming still more absolute in his views. On February 9, 1837, he sent a letter to Asa Cummings of the Portland, Maine-based "Christian Mirror" newspaper. Lovejoy wrote one of his most potent descriptions of slavery. To be a slave, Elijah wrote:

“Is to toil all day … with the bitter certainty always before me, that not one cent of what I earn, is, or can be my own. … My first-son, denied even the poor privilege of bidding his father farewell, is on his way, a chained and manacled victim, to a distant market. … It is to enter my cabin, and see my wife or daughter struggling in the lustful embraces of my master, or some of his white friends, without daring to attempt their rescue.”

After five years of running his school, Lovejoy's life changed. 

Lovejoy drew public wrath in St. Louis in 1833 as editor of a Presbyterian newspaper, the St. Louis Observer. His object of vituperation (verbal abuse or castigation) was Catholicism. He soon expanded his list of targets to include "the Irish and pro-slavery Christians." The city's slaveholding leadership wasn't amused. Lovejoy used the paper to preach against slavery and argue for its abolition. He immediately faced death threats from the city's pro-slavery residents. 

The final break came on April 28, 1836, when a mob dragged a free Negro man from the St. Louis jail and burned him to death on a tree near 10th and Market streets. The victim was Francis L. McIntosh, a steamboat cook who had stabbed a sheriff's deputy to death after being arrested in a scuffle on the levee.

Lovejoy's St. Louis Observer described the lynching by fire as an "awful murder and savage barbarity." It published the gruesome details as local leaders sought to bury the story. The Observer attacked Judge Luke E. Lawless (his real last name), an old adversary whose instructions to the grand jury virtually assured no charges would be filed. And there weren't any charges enforced.

Many reform movements were fed or inspired by a new religious enthusiasm sweeping the United States. During this Second Great Awakening, Preachers, also anxious over changes wrought by the Market Revolution, offered hope that individuals could choose between right and wrong and impact the world for good. In the North, much of this religious fervor condemned slavery. Lovejoy was swept up in this religious fervor and left the Midwest to enter the Princeton Theological Seminary. 

On July 21, a pro-slavery mob ransacked Lovejoy's office at 85 Main Street (beneath today's Gateway Arch) and tossed the printing press into the Mississippi River. 

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Although Illinois was a free state, it was hardly a friendly place for abolitionists. Most Illinoisans thought abolitionism was a form of New England extremism. In 1837, the Illinois General Assembly denounced abolitionism. Illinois' Negro Laws.

The Lovejoys moved from slaveholding Missouri to Alton, Illinois' free and supposedly safer streets in 1836.

Lovejoy obtained another printing press and resumed attacks on slavery. After an extra edition announcing his arrival and intentions, the first regular issue of the Alton Observer appeared on September 8, 1836. In it, Lovejoy repeated his declaration that "The system of American Negro Slavery is an awful evil and sin" and that he would never surrender "the rights of conscience, the freedom of opinion, and of the press." From there, his paper became only more anti-slavery.

On August 7, 1837, a mob gathered at the Alton Observer's office and destroyed Lovejoy's printing press. Lovejoy was fortunate to receive immediate support in Alton from two of the wealthiest men in town, a pair of merchants named Benjamin Godfrey and Winthrop S. Gilman. The two men agreed to finance a new printing press to replace the one that had been wrecked. Opponents immediately seized this printing press and dumped it into the Mississippi River.

Lovejoy faced a fierce backlash when he served as chairman of a series of meetings in Alton to form the "Madison County Anti-Slavery Society" in August of 1837.

On August 21, 1837, a mob wrecked his new printing press. The destruction of Lovejoy's second press occurred at an inopportune time, even for Lovejoy's wealthy backers, as the Panic of 1837 was shaking the financial system of the United States.

Even Winthrop Gilman, one of Lovejoy's most loyal backers, had doubts about the wisdom of Lovejoy continuing and wrote him a personal letter saying that he felt he could provide no more aid to him. Instead, Lovejoy was forced to appeal to the public at a time when many were increasingly turning against him.

Lovejoy wrote a letter to "The Friends of the Redeemer in Alton," offering to resign from the editorship of the Alton Observer if the paper's supporters would agree to assume his debts. In response, fifteen men met and debated two resolutions. They decided that the Alton Observer should continue but were divided on the question of whether Lovejoy should remain as editor.

The last significant event preceding Lovejoy's murder was the turn taken by a planned convention in Alton to establish a statewide anti-slavery society. Among his supporters, Lovejoy could count Edward Beecher, the President of Illinois College and an influential figure within the state. (Beecher was also the brother of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin). Although he did not favor immediate abolition at the time, Beecher strongly supported the freedom of the press. Beecher believed the growing threats to Lovejoy's rights and livelihood represented a critical juncture, and the time called for a reframing of the issues. He proposed that the upcoming anti-slavery convention in Alton be opened to all who supported the freedom of the press.

The practical effect of this, however, was not as intended. When the convention met, as planned, on October 26, it was essentially hijacked. The Presbyterian Church at Upper Alton was packed that afternoon by well-known opponents of Lovejoy, who, citing the invitation to all "friends of free discussion," claimed a right to be seated. The opposition to Lovejoy was dominated by Usher F. Linder, a rabid anti-abolitionist, a successful lawyer and a status-seeking politician who had recently been the Illinois Attorney General. Over the next two days, with Linder calling most of the shots, the assembled convention passed a series of resolutions declaring sentiments such as one stating that Congress had no power to abolish slavery, and then the convention adjourned.

When the third printing press arrived on November 7, 1837, at 3 o'clock in the morning, Lovejoy was ready to defend it. Besieged but defiant, Lovejoy and his friends guarded the new printing press inside a Mississippi riverfront warehouse. A mob surged toward them, and everybody had weapons.

"Burn 'em out," someone outside shouted. "Shoot every damned abolitionist as he leaves."

When a man with a torch climbed onto the roof, defenders of the printing press opened fire, killing one rioter and scaring some others into retreat. It was eerily quiet. Elijah Lovejoy stepped outside for a look.

The illustration depicts a mob trying to set the warehouse roof on fire as Lovejoy's men shoot at the arsonists.

A woodcut engraving depicts the destruction of the abolitionist printing press of the Alton Observer on November 7, 1837. The press was attacked, and the editor, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, was shot and killed by a drunken mob.

Five shots riddled him. "Oh God, I'm shot," he yelled as he fell. Lovejoy died outside Winthrop Gilman's warehouse at the foot of William Street in Alton. The St. Louis Commercial, a pro-slavery newspaper, lamented accurately that Lovejoy's "martyrdom will be celebrated by every abolitionist in the land." He was buried secretly in Alton. In 1865, his remains were moved to the old Alton City Cemetery. 

Lovejoy, known for righteous and unforgiving prose against slavery, was almost 35 when he was killed. The mob tossed that printing press into the Mississippi River, too. 

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Why wouldn't the pro-slavery  newspaper, or any other newspaper or print shop just kept Lovejoy's brand new printing press, instead of throwing it away? After all, the owner is dead.

That was the fourth printing press that Lovejoy had lost to people who hated his words. He soon became a martyr to the nation's small but rising wave of abolitionism. In Illinois, a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln decried the mob violence.

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Abraham Lincoln was one of six dissenters to the Illinois House of Representatives resolution.

Lovejoy's murder galvanized the abolitionist community and shocked others. During his Lyceum Address in 1838 that responded to the murder of a Negro man in St. Louis, Abraham Lincoln, no doubt referencing Lovejoy as well, warned the audience:

"Whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last."

Elijah Lovejoy, the man who, with nothing to gain but the approval of conscience and everything to lose but honor, stands forth against overwhelming odds in defense of a great and precious principal and finally lays down his life in that defense, surely deserves from his fellow-men, at least, grateful and everlasting remembrance. 

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Abraham Lincoln ridiculed State Auditor James Shields, who challenged Lincoln to a duel to the death in 1842.

This 97-foot monument was dedicated to Elijah Lovejoy in 1897. It towers above the Alton Cemetery as a monument to a martyr in the causes of abolition, free speech, and freedom of the press.

A piece of Lovejoy's last printing press from the night he was murdered. It was recovered from the Mississippi River shortly after he was murdered.

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Narrative of riots at Alton in connection with the death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. pub: 1838 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Mary Todd Lincoln's Life, a Timeline Summary, (1818-1882).

1818

On December 13, Mary Ann Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky. She was often called Molly. Her parents, Eliza and Robert Smith Todd were members of a socially and economically prominent Kentucky family. Robert Smith Todd had 16 children: seven with his first wife, Eliza Parker, and nine with his second wife, Elizabeth Humphreys.

1825

Mary's mother, Eliza, passed away on July 5.

1826

On November 1, Robert Todd married Betsy Humphreys. Mary entered Shelby Female Academy (aka John Ward's) located in Lexington. During nine of the next ten years, Mary attended school, first at Shelby and later at Madame Mentelle's. There she lived at school during the week and at home on weekends. The curriculum stressed the French language and the art of dancing. Mary excelled in school and was considered one of the best students in the class.

1832

On February 29, Mary's older sister Elizabeth married Ninian Wirt Edwards, the son of the man who had been Illinois' territorial governor, United States Senator, and later Governor of Illinois. At the time, Ninian was a student at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Mary entered Madame Mentelle's boarding school for girls.

1833

Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards moved to Springfield, Illinois.

1836

Mary's sister, Frances, moved to Springfield.

1837

Mary spent three months in the summer visiting her sister Elizabeth in Springfield. Most likely, she did not meet Abraham Lincoln during this visit. In the fall, Mary returned to Ward's, not as a student but as an apprentice teacher helping Sarah Ward with the younger children.

1839

Mary went to Springfield, Illinois, to live with the Edwards family. Mary was clever and intelligent and soon became prominent in society. She met a rising lawyer/politician named Abraham Lincoln (most likely at a ball).

1840

In the summer, Mary traveled to Columbia, Missouri, to visit her uncle, Judge David Todd. She became a good friend of the judge's daughter, Ann. Mary became engaged to Abraham Lincoln.

1841

Mary and Abraham broke up on January 1. Mary started dating others, including a rising political star named Stephen A. Douglas. Rumors that she became engaged to Douglas were false, however.

1842

Mary and Abraham got back together again. On the rainy evening of November 4, Reverend Charles Dresser married them in the Edwards' home. Abraham placed a gold wedding ring on her finger, and the words "Love is Eternal" were engraved inside the ring. She wore this wedding band until the day she died. At first, the Lincolns boarded at the Globe Tavern in Springfield, from 1842-1844, for $4.00 a week.

The Globe Tavern, Springfield, Ill.

1843

The couple's first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born on August 1 at the Globe Tavern, and he was named after Mary's father. After Robert's birth, Lincoln sometimes called Mary "Mother." At times he called her "Molly." On occasion, he endearingly referred to her as his "child-wife." She often called him "Mr. Lincoln." Sometimes it was just "Father." (Rarely did she call him Abraham and never just "Abe.") The family moved and rented a three-room frame cottage at 214 South Fourth Street in Springfield late in the year.

1844

The Lincolns purchased (from Dr. Charles Dresser) a one-story house in Springfield for $1,500. It was located at the corner of Eighth and Jackson Streets, and this would prove to be the only house the Lincolns ever purchased.

1846

On March 10, the Lincolns' second child, Edward ("Eddie"), was born. The Lincolns had their first picture (a daguerreotype) taken by a photographer in Springfield.

1847

Mary and the children went to Washington, D.C., with Abraham, who was elected to the House of Representatives. In the fall, they stopped to visit the Todds in Lexington on the way (a three-week stay). In Washington, the Lincolns lived at Mrs. Ann G. Sprigg's boardinghouse. (The Library of Congress occupies this site today.)

1848

During the summer, Mary, Abraham, Robert, and Eddie traveled through New York State, visited Niagara Falls, and took a steamer from Buffalo across the Great Lakes. Mary did not return with Abraham to Washington for the 2nd session of the Thirtieth Congress, and she and the boys stayed in Springfield.

1849

Abraham's term in the House ended, and his political career stalled. The Lincolns once again were together in Springfield. Mary's father, Robert Smith Todd, died July 16, apparently of cholera.

1850

In January, Mrs. Eliza Parker, Mary's grandmother, passed away. The Lincolns' son, Eddie, died on February 1. The Lincolns' third child, William Wallace ("Willie"), was born December 21.

1851

Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's father, a man Mary never met, passed away.

1853

The Lincolns' last child, Thomas ("Tad"), was born on April 4.

1857

In September, the Lincolns traveled to New York. They toured New York City and revisited Niagara Falls and other points in the East.

1858

During the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Mary did her "campaigning" in Springfield. To anyone who would listen, she called Stephen Douglas "a very little giant" beside "my tall Kentuckian." In mid-October, Mary traveled to Alton to hear the last of the debates (the only one of the seven she attended). Robert Lincoln also was present. At Alton, Mary witnessed one of Abraham's best performances during the debates. It was a cloudy, threatening day, and Douglas was hoarse, which helped Abraham.

1860

Abraham was elected president in the fall election. On Election Day, when the outcome was inevitable (which he heard at the Springfield telegraph office), Abraham immediately decided to go to his home. He said, "I guess there's a little lady at home who would like to hear this news." As he neared the Lincoln residence on 8th Street, he yelled, "Mary, Mary, we are elected."

1861

The Lincoln family traveled to Washington, D.C. and took up residence in the White House. Mary refurbished the White House but overspent Congress's appropriation money for this task.

1862

Willie died in the White House on February 20. Mary was never quite the same again. She ceased social activities until the following year. She never again entered the room in which Willie died. Mary's half-brother, Sam Todd, was killed fighting for the Confederacy in the Battle of Shiloh. Frequently with Tad at her side, Mary visited wounded soldiers in hospitals. She took them fruit and flowers and stopped at each bed for conversation. She helped in fundraising efforts for the wounded. Helping comfort the soldiers, they helped comfort her broken heart over Willie's death.

1863

On July 2, 1863, Mary was involved in a carriage accident in which she was thrown to the ground and hit her head hard on a rock. The wound became infected, and she required nursing care for three weeks. Mary's half-brother, Aleck Todd, was killed fighting for the Confederates at Baton Rouge. Another Confederate half-brother, David, was wounded at Vicksburg and died in 1867. The husband of one of Mary's younger half-sisters (Emilie), General Benjamin Hardin Helm, was killed at age 32 in the Battle of Chickamauga. Mary assisted in raising funds for the Contraband Relief Association.

1864

Mary began showing increasing signs of irrationality, especially in matters concerning money. She worried that her wild spending would be discovered if Abraham lost the Election of 1864. More time was spent in seances with mediums and clairvoyants. At least eight seances were held in the White House (during Mary's time as First Lady). Abraham was curious about the spiritualists but was not a believer.

1865

Mary and Abraham attended the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre on April 14, and John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham. Mary entered a period of extreme grief.

1866

In January, the Congressional Committee on House Appropriations began investigating whether Mary had taken White House property such as bedding, utensils, china, table linen, etc. The investigation was terminated when no wrongdoing was discovered. Mary was depressed by a statement made by William Herndon, Abraham's former law partner, and Herndon claimed Ann Rutledge was the true love of Lincoln's life. Mary bought a home at 375 W. Washington Boulevard in Chicago for $17,000, and she moved out and rented it the following year.

1868

Mary and Tad traveled to Europe and spent much of the next three years in Frankfurt, Germany. Tad was a student at Dr. D. Hohagen's Institute near Frankfurt from October 1868 to April 1870. On September 24, 1868, Robert Lincoln married Mary Eunice Harlan.

1869

Mrs. Lincoln vacationed in Scotland during July and August.

1870

On July 14, Congress passed a bill granting Mary a $3,000 annual lifetime pension.

1871

The Lincolns returned to the United States. In Chicago, on July 15, Tad died of complications resulting from fluid in the lungs. Tad was at the Clifton House when he passed away. Services were held at his older brother's home on Wabash Avenue. Tad's remains were carried by train to Springfield for burial in the Lincoln Tomb.

1875

Mary's only surviving son, Robert, instigated a hearing in which Mary was declared insane by a jury of 12 men. The court admitted that "the disease was of unknown duration; the cause is unknown." (The night after the verdict, Mary may have tried to commit suicide.) Mary, now 56, spent several months in a private asylum in Batavia, Illinois, but she was released with the help of Myra Bradwell.

1876

After her release from Bellevue, Mary went to Springfield to live with her sister, Elizabeth Edwards. On June 15, a second court hearing reversed the insanity ruling of the first one. Mary was now a free woman again, free to make her own decisions. On June 19, she wrote a letter to Robert in which she unleashed all the resentment she had harbored against him for a long time. Worried that her friends would still regard her as a lunatic, Mary once again traveled to Europe and spent much of the next four years living in Pau, France.

1877

Mary visited Marseilles, Naples, and Sorrento.

1879

At age 60, in Pau, France, Mary fell from a stepladder and injured her spinal cord. In pain, she traveled to Nice, France.

1880

On October 16, Mary boarded a ship (l'Amerique) bound for New York City. On board the ship, she was about to take yet another fall down a steep stairway, but actress Sarah Bernhardt, another passenger on the ship, saved her. When Sarah told her she might have died, Mary replied, "Yes, but it was not God's will." Mary returned to Springfield and again began living in the home of her older sister, Elizabeth Edwards. Physically, she had a cataract in her right eye, her weight had declined to approximately 100 pounds, and her arthritis was getting worse.

Amerique, C.G.T. Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (French Line).

1881

A variety of physical ailments caused Mary's health to decline rapidly. She was nearly blind. On a Sunday in May, Robert and his daughter visited her. Mary traveled to the mineral baths at St. Catherine and then to New York. A doctor diagnosed her with kidney, eye, and spinal sclerosis. Some researchers feel she has had diabetes for years.

1882

In January, Congress raised Mary's annual pension from $3,000 to $5,000. They also voted for a donation to Mary of $15,000. Mary lived in a darkened room in Elizabeth's home with the shades always pulled. On July 15, the anniversary of Tad's death, she collapsed in her bedroom. Mary may have had a stroke. 

The next day, a Sunday, Mary passed away at 8:15 P.M. Thus, she died in the same home she was married in. Mary was still wearing her wedding ring with "Love is Eternal" engraved on the inside when she passed away. Her estate was worth $84,035 (mostly in bonds). She died without leaving a will (like Abraham). Mary was buried in a white silk dress that the Edwards family quickly ordered from Chicago. She was 63 years old at the time of her passing. The funeral was delayed until Robert, then Secretary of War could reach Springfield from Washington. Services were held at the First Presbyterian Church at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, July 19, with Reverend Dr. James Armstrong Reed presiding. The pallbearers included the governor of Illinois. Mary was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, with all of the family members except Robert. 

Robert died in 1926 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Celebrating the First Day of Black History Month 2023 — The Obama Kissing Rock, Chicago, Illinois.

Sitting in front of a Subway sandwich franchise at 53rd and South Dorchester in Chicago is a straightforward rock with a metallic plaque installed in it. It may not seem like the most romantic place in the country, but it is where President Barack Obama first planted one on his wife, Michelle. 

East 53rd Street and South Dorchester Avenue, in Chicago's Hyde Park Community.

While today it is a tiny little green space with flowers and a flagpole, the "Obama Kissing Rock" was once the site of a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop. Future-president Barack and future-first-lady Michelle visited the Hyde Park franchise on their first date in the summer of 1989 and shared more than just two scoops on the curb outside the store, namely their first kiss.

The plaque is attached to a 3,000-pound (1.5-ton) boulder installed on the corner of the strip mall in 2012.

I find it disgusting that there can't be a landmark plaque celebrating African Americans without racists defacing it.

It tells the sweetest story straight from Barack's lips:

"On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb. I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate." President Barack Obama from an interview in "O," The Oprah Magazine, February 2007.

Most presidential monuments are devoted to wars or politics, but this one celebrates the first couple as people. People who still seem to share an unshakable love to this day.

Before You Visit: The Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Shop has since been replaced by a Subway restaurant, and is now co-located inside the Dunkin Donuts shop, in the same strip mall.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.