PEKIN, Ill. – The history of Abraham Lincoln throughout Tazewell County and what, at Lincoln’s time, was the 8th Judicial Circuit is once again being honored.
Monuments to Lincoln in front of the Tazewell County Courthouse in Pekin, along with spots near Washington and Delavan, were rededicated Monday — Presidents’ Day — to mark the 100th anniversary of the monuments.
“There are seventeen courthouse markers that were placed at courthouses in what was then the Eighth Judicial Circuit,” said John Ackerman, Tazewell County Clerk. He says it was part of an effort to mark Lincoln’s travels throughout Illinois, and especially in that Eighth Circuit.
Lincoln’s travels throughout the circuit were documented in a book called “Looking for Lincoln in Illinois: A Guide to Lincoln’s Eighth Judicial Circuit,” authored by Guy Fraker, the keynote speaker at Monday’s event.
“The greatest thinker, I believe, in the history of America…occasionally told a lot of jokes, of course,” said Frakes. “But, then he would sort of turn in to himself, and his fellows on the circuit knew to just stay clear of him, because he was deep in thought.”
Did you know that, technically, one of Tazewell County State’s Attorney Stewart Umholtz’s predecessors in his job was Abraham Lincoln?
“Lincoln only prosecuted about seven or eight cases in his career as a lawyer,” said Umholtz. “One of those cases he was appointed as a special prosecutor in Tazewell County.”
It was one of more than two hundred cases, though, that Lincoln was an attorney for in Tazewell County.
Campaigning for political office can be exhausting — especially in the day of Abraham Lincoln.
Case in point, says Washington Mayor Gary Manier, when Lincoln was running for Senator, and was to campaign one night in Metamora, but stopped in Washington to rest.
“As word traveled, [people] thought, ‘how is he going to get from Washington to Metamora for this rally?'” said Manier. “Within two or three hours — this was without cell phones, folks — 53 wagons showed up, and they caravaned Abraham Lincoln to that rally.”
Lincoln is quoted many times for many reasons — even, in the time of a global pandemic — at least, in this case, by current 10th Circuit Chief Judge Katherine Gorman.
“As we transition in to the new normal, Lincoln’s words still resonate: ‘If the great American people will only keep their temper on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end,'” said Gorman.
After all, Gorman says, Lincoln’s words were often used to help heal a deeply-divided nation due to the Civil War.
Below is a map outlining where the Lincoln markers are in the former 8th Circuit.
(Source: Tazewell County Clerk)
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