Brief History of the City of Lincoln and Logan County

Lincoln, Illinois, established in 1853, was the only town named for Abraham Lincoln before he became President of the United States. Lincoln came to the new town site on August 27, 1853 at which time lots were to be sold. At this time he was regionally well known as a one-term Congressman and popular trial lawyer, though not yet nationally known. He had been asked prior to this to christen the town, and that he did on that day. Taking juice from a pile of watermelons stacked nearby, he poured the juiced on the ground, after which the town lots were sold.

Lincoln was no stranger to the area which would later become Logan County. In 1834 he surveyed the Samuel Musick Salt Creek Ferry Road through Middletown to New Salem and on towards Jacksonville, IL. Two years later he surveyed the site of Albany approximately 5 miles south of Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln assisted in establishing Logan as a county in 1839, in honor of friend Dr. John Logan, a southern Illinois Democrat whose support Lincoln needed in moving the capitol of Illinois from Vandalia to its current location in Springfield. Lincoln rode the Eighth Judicial Circuit in which Logan County was a part, from 1840 to 1860.

It was a in a letter dated March 4, 1864 to President Abraham Lincoln, in which one of the town’s proprietors Robert Latham wrote to the President informing him that a university had been established in Lincoln, IL in his honor. Latham wrote, "…the greatest difficulty will be to … build a house that will do justice to the name and place." We believe we have succeeded.

For more information on Abraham Lincoln’s role in the town and county, a documentary entitled From Surveyor to President: A. Lincoln in Logan County is available for purchase. It includes a combination of still images and re-enactments—from which the pictures you see on this page are taken. For ordering information on this video, contact Main Street Lincoln at 217-732-2929.