The Daniel Dove Collins House in Collinsville, Illinois on Route 66 (built 1845).

The Collins House, now located at 703 West Main Street (both the Historic National Road {aka Cumberland Road} and Route 66 travel down Main Street), was the home to Daniel Dove Collins, the first President of the City of Collinsville. 

Built by D.D. Collins in 1845, the house is in Greek Revival style, a popular style between 1820 and 1850. The home was originally located at Main and Center Streets and moved to its second location a distance of six blocks to 621 West Main Street in the 1880s or early 1890s.

The house appears to be of post and beam construction. The porch spans the front of the house and has six Doric columns supporting the porch roof. The house has five openings on its front, 4 windows and a center entry door, each symmetrically between the columns. It's sided with a clapboard which is thought to be original. This home is one of the oldest in Collinsville and the only example of this architectural style in the area.

As the story goes, the main floor joist for the first floor may have been salvaged from a steamboat stranded on one of the Cahokia Mounds during the flood of 1844.

The original owner and builder of the house, Daniel Dove Collins, was a cousin of the Collins brothers who had founded the town. He came to Collinsville from Bangor, Maine, via Chicago. He served as the first village board president. He also served as an Associate Judge in Madison County and, for the rest of his life, was referred to as "Judge." He also served as the President of the Collinsville School Board and later as County Highway Commissioner. 

In 1998, the late Irving Dilliard purchased the D.D. Collins House, and donated it to the City of Collinsville. Mr. Dilliard's grandparents lived in the house at once, and he was interested in preserving the house. The City's Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) was tasked with restoring the Collins House. The HPC serves as the City's mechanism to identify and preserve distinctive architectural characteristics that represent the City's cultural, social, economic, political and architectural history.

Additionally, numerous individuals have generously contributed to the project. With Federal, State and local grants and private donations, the HPC has completed internal demolition, hazardous material abatement, required structural repairs, roof replacement, siding repair and replacement, exterior painting, and has opened original fireplaces. Exterior work has also included new guttering and door, window and shutter replacement.

The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 2002.

At the September 12, 2011, City Council meeting, the Council approved the expenditure of TIF funds for $150,000 to complete Phases I, II, and III of the renovations to the Collins House. With $58,000 remaining from a grant, these funds will be used to upgrade the HVAC system, install security and fire alarm systems, upgrade plumbing, remove and replace plaster walls and ceilings, paint the interior, and repair and refinish flooring. Additionally, the original fireplaces will be renovated, millwork completed, and an ADA-accessible restroom and ramp will be installed.

Plans also include the creation of an educational garden area. This will be the first historic home attraction for the City, and plans are to furnish it to the period of 1840-1860 and eventually have it open for public visitation and educational programs.

The Collins House was moved about 200 feet to the corner of Main and Combs Streets, now at 701 West Main Street.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLLINS HOUSE AND ITS OWNERS

In 1837, the first plat of the Town of Collinsville was executed and recorded by Elizabeth W. Collins (the widow of Willam B. Collins), Joseph Darrow, and Horace Look, all of the property owners.

On October 2, 1845, Elizabeth W. Collins, as guardian of the children/heirs of William B. Collins, sold and conveyed Lot 6, Block 1 of the Town of Collinsville, to Daniel D. Collins. This property was located on the northeast corner of Main Street and Center Street, 66 feet on Main Street and 148½ feet along Center Street, bordered on the rear by Wood Alley.

Upon this property, Daniel D. Collins built a house for himself and his new wife, Elizabeth Anderson Collins. The house was built on the rear portion of the property.

On March 17, 1849, Daniel D. Collins and his wife conveyed the property to Lewis Lancaster.

On April 1, 1856, Lewis Lancaster and his wife conveyed the property to Joseph Lemen Jr.

On July 22, 1856, Joseph Lemen Jr. and his wife conveyed the property to Andrew Edwards. In this transaction, he apparently financed this purchase by giving a mortgage to the seller, Joseph Lemen.

In October 1858, the property was purchased by the Chancery Court.

On May 8, 1860, the interest of Andrew Edwards and his wife was conveyed by a Master's Deed back to Joseph Lemen.

On December 2, 1861, Joseph Lemen and his wife conveyed the property to Oliver C. Look. During this time, Look may have built the building on the east 22 feet of Lot 6. An old photo exists of “D. W. Jones Candy and Confectionery Store” with the house on the west and set back from Main Street towards the rear of the building (as seen in the old photograph). Oliver lived on the property from 1861 to 1885.

On April 22, 1887, Oliver C. Look and his wife conveyed the property to James I. Dilliard (his son-in-law, married to their daughter Mary Look; Mary lived in the house as a child. James and Mary were the parents of Irving Dilliard, who purchased the house in 1998 and donated it to the City).

On April 29, 1887, James I. Dilliard conveyed the east 1/3 of Lot 6 Block One to David W. Jones.

On April 23, 1887, James I. Dilliard conveyed the west 2/3 of Lot 6 Block One to Charles Gindler.

On March 30, 1892, Charles Gindler conveyed to the State Bank of Collinsville the west 2/3 of Lot 6 Block One.

At that time, the west 2/3 of Lot 6 was vacant, except for the house, which had been constructed by Daniel D. Collins in 1845.

The Bank desired to build a larger commercial building to house the Bank on the first floor and other businesses on the second floor. This was when the house was moved seven blocks west to the 621 West Main Street location.

William and Agnes Bonn purchased the house about 1915, and the widow Agnes passed away in 1996, and in 1998 the house was to go to auction. Still, just before that happened, Irving Dilliard purchased the home and donated it to the City of Collinsville. It is the oldest surviving house in the City.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Maxims Attributed to Abraham Lincoln were penned 50 years after Lincoln's death.

One of author Ralph Keyes’ axioms of misquotations is “Famous quotes need famous mouths,” and the fulfillment of that need has, for the last several decades, put on the lips of Abraham Lincoln words that were not written until fifty years after Lincoln’s death, penned by an obscure person whose name is unknown to most living Americans.

The Rev. William John Henry Boetcker was a Presbyterian minister and notable public speaker. He served as director of the pro-employer, "Citizens’ Industrial Alliance," a position he held when, in 1915, he produced the booklet "Something about the inside. 120 Gold Nuggets from the Boetcker Lectures (1915)," which included his maxims such as “We cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong” and “We cannot help the poor by kicking the rich.”

Boetcker’s collection of maxims[1] eventually crystallized as the list of ten now familiar entries (variously known as the “Industrial Decalogue,” the “Ten Don’ts,” the “Ten Cannots,” “Ten Things You Cannot Do,“ or the “American Charter”) reproduced above:

01) You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
02) You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
03) You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
04) You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
05) You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
06) You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
07) You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
08) You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
09) You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10) You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Sources differ on exactly how Boetcker’s decalogue eventually came to be attributed to Lincoln, but the generally accepted explanation is that someone published a leaflet with Boetcker’s list of “cannots” on one side and authentic Lincoln quotations on the other, leading to an inevitable mix-up which resulted in everything printed on both sides of the paper being attributed to Lincoln.

(The leaflet in question is usually claimed to be a 1942 publication by the Committee for Constitutional Government entitled “Lincoln on Limitations,” with the confusion in attribution coming about either because one version of the leaflet omitted Boetcker’s name, because the printed credits mistakenly switched Boetcker’s name with Lincoln’s, or because readers glossed over Boetcker’s unfamiliar name and mistakenly assumed all the material in the leaflet originated with the much more familiar figure of Abraham Lincoln.)

Once the runaway train of misattribution got rolling, there was no stopping it. As William Boetcker faded from public memory and Abraham Lincoln grew ever larger in American historical legend, few people had an interest or desire in setting the matter right — in accordance with another principle set forth by Keyes: “If words we like can’t be credited to someone we’ve heard of, they might as well not have been said at all.”

Any chance of genuine history winning out over the fake version in this case was probably set back at least a generation when another U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, stood before a nationwide audience at the 1992 Republican National Convention and delivered a speech in which he also erroneously attributed four of Boetcker’s maxims to Lincoln:

"I heard those speakers at that other convention saying 'We won the Cold War,'  — and I couldn’t help wondering, just who exactly do they mean by we?" said President Reagan.

"And to top it off, they even tried to portray themselves as sharing the same fundamental values of our party! What they truly don’t understand is the principle so eloquently stated by Abraham Lincoln: You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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[1] Maxim; a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.