Homepage of "Mr. Lincoln, Route 66, & Other Highlights of Lincoln, IL"

Site Map

Testimonials

A Long-Range Plan to Brand the First Lincoln Namesake City as the Second City of Abraham Lincoln Statues

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in Lincoln, Illinois

1.
Abraham Lincoln and the Historic Postville Courthouse,
including a William Maxwell connection to the Postville Courthouse

2.
About Henry Ford and the Postville Courthouse, the Story of the Postville Courthouse Replica, Tantivy, & the Postville Park Neighborhood in the
Route 66 Era

3.
The Rise of Abraham Lincoln and His History and Heritage in His First Namesake Town,
also the founding of Lincoln College, the plot to steal Lincoln's body, and memories of Lincoln College and the Rustic Tavern-Inn

4. 
Introduction to the Social & Economic History of Lincoln, Illinois, including poetry by William Childress & commentary by Federal Judge Bob Goebel & Illinois Appellate Court Judge Jim Knecht

5.
"Social Consciousness in William Maxwell's Writings Based on Lincoln, Illinois" (an article published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, winter 2005-06)

5.a.
Peeking Behind the Wizard's Screen: William Maxwell's Literary Art as Revealed by a Study of the Black Characters in Billie Dyer and Other Stories

6.
Introduction to the Railroad & Route 66 Heritage of Lincoln, Illinois

7.
The Living Railroad Heritage of Lincoln, Illinois: on Track as a Symbol of the "Usable Past"

8.
Route 66 Overview Map of Lincoln with 42 Sites, Descriptions, & Photos

9.
The Hensons of Business Route 66

10.
The Wilsons of Business
Route 66, including the Wilson Grocery & Shell Station

11.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Lincoln Memorial Park (former Chautauqua site),
the Historic Cemeteries, & Nearby Sites

12.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Salt Creek & Cemetery Hill, including
the highway bridges, GM&O bridge, Madigan State Park, the old dam (with photos & Leigh's memoir of "shooting the rapids" over the old dam), & the Ernie Edwards' Pig-Hip Restaurant Museum in Broadwell

13.
The Historic Logan County Courthouse, Past & Present

14.
Route 66 Map with 51 Sites in the Business & Courthouse Square Historic District, including locations of historical markers
(on the National Register of Historic Places)

15.
Vintage Scenes of the Business & Courthouse Square Historic District

16.
The Foley House:  A Monument to Civic Leadership
(on the National Register of Historic Places)

17.
Agriculture in
the Route 66 Era

18.
Arts & Entertainment Heritage, including the Lincoln Theatre Roy Rogers' Riders Club of the 1950s

19.
Business Heritage

20.
Cars, Trucks & Gas Stations of the Route 66 Era

21.
Churches, including the hometown churches of Author William Maxwell & Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr

22.
Factories, Past and Present

23.
Food Stores of
the Route 66 Era

24.
Government

25.
Hospitals, Past and Present

26.
Hotels & Restaurants of the Railroad & Route 66 Eras

27.
Lincoln Developmental Center
(Lincoln State School & Colony in the Route 66 era), plus debunking the myth of Lincoln, Illinois, choosing the Asylum over the University of Illinois

28.
Mining Coal, Limestone, & Sand & Gravel; Lincoln Lakes; & Utilities

29.
Museums & Parks, including the Lincoln College Museum and its Abraham Lincoln Collection, plus the Heritage-in-Flight Museum

30.
Neighborhoods
with Distinction

31.
News Media in the Route 66 Era

32.
The Odd Fellows' Children's Home

33.
Schools

34.
Memories of the 1900 Lincoln Community High School, including Fred Blanford's dramatic account of the lost marble fountain of youth

35.
A Tribute to the Historians and Advocates of Lincoln, Illinois

36.
Watering Holes of the Route 66 Era

37.
The Historic 1953 Centennial Celebration of Lincoln, Illinois

38.
The Festive 2003 Sesqui-centennial Celebration of Lincoln, Illinois, including photos of LCHS Class of 1960 dignitaries & the Blanfords

39.
Why Did the State Police Raid Lincoln, Illinois, on October 11, 1950?

40.
The Gambling Raids in Lincoln and Logan County, Illinois,
During the Late Route 66 Era (1950-1960)
_______

Pages in this section tell about Leigh Henson's Lincoln years, moving away, revisits, and career:

About Lincoln, Illinois;
This Web Site; & Me

A Tribute to Lincolnite Edward Darold Henson: World War II U.S. Army Veteran of the Battles for Normandy and the Hedgerows; Brittany and Brest; and the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge)

For Remembrance, Understanding, & Fun: Lincoln Community High School Mid-20th-Century Alums' Internet Community
(a Web site and email exchange devoted to collaborative memoir and the sharing of photos related to Lincoln, Illinois)

Leigh Henson's Pilgrimage to Lincoln, Illinois, on
July 12, 2001

Leigh Henson's Review of Dr. Burkhardt's William Maxwell Biography

Leigh Henson's Review of Ernie Edwards' biography, Pig-Hips on Route 66, by William Kaszynski

Leigh Henson's Review of Jan Schumacher's Glimpses of Lincoln, Illinois

Web Site About
Leigh Henson's Professional Life
__________

Pages in this section are about the writing, memorabilia, and Web sites of other Lincolnites:

A Tribute to Bill and Phyllis Stigall:
Exemplary Faculty of Lincoln College at Mid-Twentieth Century

A Tribute to the Krotzes of Lincoln, Illinois

A Tribute to Robert Wilson (LCHS '46): Author of Young in Illinois, Movies Editor of December Magazine, Friend and Colleague of December Press Publisher Curt Johnson, and Correspondent with William Maxwell

Brad Dye (LCHS '60): His Lincoln, Illinois, Web Site,
including photos of many churches

Dave Armbrust's Memorabilia of Lincoln, Illinois

J. Richard
(JR) Fikuart
(LCHS '65):
The Fikuarts of Lincoln, Illinois, including their connections to the William Maxwell family and three generations of family fun at Lincoln Lakes

Jerry Gibson (LCHS '60): Lincoln, Illinois, Memoirs & Other Stories

Dave Johnson (LCHS '56): His Web Site for the Lincoln Community High School Class of 1956

Sportswriter David Kindred: Memoir of His Grandmother Lena & Her West Side Tavern on Sangamon Street in the Route 66 Era

Judge Jim Knecht
(LCHS '62): Memoir and Short Story, "Other People's Money," Set in Hickey's Billiards on Chicago Street in the Route 66 Era

William A. "Bill" Krueger (LCHS '52): Information for His Books About Murders in Lincoln

Norm Schroeder (LCHS '60): Short Stories

Stan Stringer Writes About His Family, Mark Holland, and Lincoln, Illinois

Thomas Walsh: Anecdotes Relating to This Legendary Attorney from Lincoln by Attorney Fred Blanford & Judge Jim Knecht

Leon Zeter (LCHS '53): His Web Site for the
Lincoln Community High School Class of 1953,
including announcements of LCHS class reunions

(Post yours there.)
__________
 

Highway Sign of
the Times:
1926-1960

The Route 66
Association of Illinois

The Illinois State Historical Society

Illinois Tourism Site:
Enjoy Illinois
 

Marquee Lights of the Lincoln Theater, est. 1922, Lincoln, Illinois

6. The Railroads and Streetcar Line at Lincoln, Illinois

The information on this page covers four topics: 

1. Summary of rail history in Lincoln, Illinois;

2. Abraham Lincoln, the railroad, and the town he named;

3. The railroad and the Abraham Lincoln legend; and

4. The living rail heritage in Lincoln, Illinois.
    

Summary of Rail History in Lincoln, Illinois

     Three rail systems and a streetcar line fostered growth and development in Lincoln. The most detailed, extant history of railroads in Logan County, and most likely the main source for subsequent accounts, is Stringer's "Chapter XX:  Transportational" in History of Logan County Illinois (1911).  An excellent contemporary history of transportation in Lincoln, Illinois, including the railroads and streetcar, is Paul Gleason's Lincoln:  A Pictorial History, pp. 20-29.

     The first railroad here was the Chicago and Alton in 1853.  The Chicago and Alton was absorbed by the GM&O in 1947.  In 1972 the GM&O merged with the Illinois Central, forming the Illinois Central Gulf (ICG), which became AMTRAK in 1971.  For more detailed history of the GM&O, see Jim's Railroad Page and the Web site of the GM&O Historical Society (Web site addresses in Sources Cited below). 

     A second railroad was the Illinois Central (IC).  Most likely the IC was descended from two other companies:  the Pekin, Lincoln, and Decatur Railroad, which was completed through Lincoln and Logan County in 1871 (Gleason, Lincoln: A Pictorial History, p. 20) and the Havana, Mason City, Lincoln, and Eastern Railroad, completed in 1873 (Gleason, p. 20). See the Illinois Central Historical Society Web site (address below) for more information.

     A third railroad was the Illinois Traction System (interurban), called the Illinois Terminal (ITS) after 1937 (Nancy Gehlbach, Our Times, fall 1998, pp. 2-3).  ITS passenger service lasted from 1907 to 1956; ITS freight Service ended in 1962 (Gehlbach, pp. 2-3).  In their prime technology, interurban trains were able to reach 60 mph (Gehlbach, p. 4).

     According to a map published in Paul Gleason's Lincoln: A Pictorial History (p. 23), the ITS connected Peoria, Lincoln, Bloomington, Urbana, Champaign, Danville, Decatur, Springfield, and Carlinville, Hillsboro, Staunton, Edwardsville, and St. Louis. (A separate ITS line connected Princeton, LaSalle, Ottawa, Joliet, and Chicago.)  Lincoln also had a streetcar system provided by another company.

Figure 6.1:  Electric Locomotive of the ITS

(photo from full-page ad of the Illinois Terminal Company in Dooley, ed., The Namesake Town, p. 78)

     The fall 1998 issue of Our Times contains a history of the streetcar system in Lincoln, Illinois.  The Lincoln Electric Street Railway Company existed from "Christmas Day of 1891" to May 15, 1928.  The station was at 211 S. Kickapoo, the power house on Clinton St. The streetcar originally "ran to the new Woodlawn subdivision, the Illinois Asylum for Feebleminded Children [later the Lincoln State School & Colony and then the Lincoln Developmental Center], and the Illinois Central depot on North Kickapoo St."  In 1907, the line was extended from the Asylum over a mile to the Chautauqua grounds.

The streetcar was a prominent part of life in Lincoln, Illinois, during the first and second decades of the Twentieth Century.  As indicated in several places in this Web site, some of William Maxwell's prose in this setting contains references to the streetcar and railroads there.         Maxwell narrates typical streetcar activity and  outlines the route:  "when the streetcars left the business district they kept to their course down Broadway, rocking and teetering and giving off overhead sparks.  Across the tracks of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, then past the Opera House [Grand Theater in the Route 66 era], past the high school.  At the corner where the grade school was [Central School], the two streetcar lines diverged.  One went off, at a slight angle, down Eighth Street, depositing passengers in front of their houses, or at the asylum, or the cemeteries, or, in July and August, the Chautauqua grounds.  The other line turned right and went down Union Street, past  the beginning of Ninth Street, and Tremont Street, past my Aunt Mabel's house, and on out to Woodlawn, which was newer than the rest of town, and so far out that people tended to forget it existed" (Ancestors, p. 189).	Figure 6.3:  Electric Streetcar on North Kickapoo Street at Intersection with Tremont Street (date unknown)      Note the horse and carriage at the left.  (Photo from Gleason, Lincoln:  A Pictorial History, p. 28).
During a conversation on June 8, 2002, with Darold Henson, 84, and Willie Aughton, 87, I learned also that between Eighth Street and the State School the streetcar turned left (south) from Eighth Street onto College Street for two blocks, then turned right (west) onto Sixth Street for one long block, then went left (south) onto State Street to the asylum (State School in the Route 66 era). On Kickapoo, the streetcar ran north to the Illinois Central depot near Stetson's China Company and south to Clinton Street, where the car barn was located near Washington School.       Darold Henson explained that in the early streetcar days mischievous kids would grease the tracks on the College Street hill, stalling cars climbing the grade.  Later, devices were added to the locomotive so the operator could sprinkle sand on the tracks for added friction that prevented stalling.
Maxwell describes his maternal Uncle Ted Blinn, who "was the superintendent of the Lincoln Electric Street Railway [streetcar company].  My grandfather [Judge Blinn] must have put him there, since he was a director and one of the incorporators of this enterprise.  One spur of the streetcar tracks went from the courthouse square  to the Illinois Central Railroad depot, another to a new subdivision in the northwest part of town, and still another to the cemeteries.  In the summertime the cars were open on the sides, and in warm weather pleasanter than walking.  Except during the Chautauqua season, they were never crowded.  The conductor stomped on a bell in the floor beside him to make pedestrians and farm wagons get out of the way, and from time to time showers of sparks would be emitted by the overhead wires. What did the superintendent have to do?  Keep records, make bank deposits, be there if something went wrong, and in an emergency run one of the cars himself (with his mind on the things he would do and the way he would live when he had money).  The job was only a stopgap, until something more appropriate offered itself.  But what if nothing ever did? [italics his]" ("The Man in the Moon," in All the Days and Nights, p. 253).	Figure 6.4:  Picture Postcard Showing Streetcar Just Past the Corner of Kickapoo and Pulaski Streets (Looking South on Kickapoo)      Just beyond the streetcar on the left, behind the bank, was the streetcar car barn, near Washington School.      The red-brick building housed the German-American Bank.  Paul Gleason notes this name was changed to the American National Bank during WW I (Lincoln: A Pictorial History, p. 48).
During Maxwell's undergraduate years at the University of Illinois (late 1920s), his Uncle Ted "on the strength of his experience with the streetcar company, . . .had managed to get a job in Champaign, working for a trolley line that meandered through various counties in central and southern Illinois" (p. 258).  This "trolley line" would have been the Illinois Traction System, described above.      In later years in Lincoln, "somebody had found him [Ted Blinn] a job running the elevator in the courthouse--where (as people observed with a due sense of the irony of it) his father had practiced law" (p. 259).  Then, finally, "my grandfather's headstone is no higher than the sod it is embedded in, and therefore casts no shadow over the grave of his son" (p. 264).

Abraham Lincoln, the Railroad, and the Town He Named

     The naming of this town for and by Abraham Lincoln was a result of his growing law practice:  "In the 1850s, the Illinois legislature chartered railroads, and many of them soon began construction. These events increased litigation over issues of right of way, stock subscriptions, fencing, and damages to real property. Lincoln generally supported the development of railroads all over the state, but that did not prevent him from opposing the railroad companies in the courtroom. He became involved in railroad litigation and represented individuals nearly as often as railroad corporations. The Illinois Central Railroad secured his legal services more often than any other railroad, and Lincoln opposed them in only a few cases" (Web site of the Illinois Historic Preservation agency, address below).

     Like many of his contemporaries, Lincoln was proud of American technology, including railroads:  "Russia has called on us to show her how to build steam-boats and railroads -- while in the older parts of Asia, they scarcely know that such things as S.Bs & RR.s. exist" (Abraham Lincoln, Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, Jacksonville, Illinois, February 11, 1859).

     The story of how Lincoln, Illinois, was named has been told and re-told by various local historians, including Logan County's most prominent historian, Judge Lawrence Stringer.  His account is a primary source used in a 56-paragraph christening history found in the 1953 Centennial Edition of the Lincoln Courier.  That account is described as "unfinished," and the author is unnamed.  The following is a summary of Paul E. Gleason's account, previously published in the defunct www.lincoln-il.com Web site:

1. August 24, 1853:  Founders and developers had Abraham Lincoln draw up the papers to designate him as their attorney in the course of selling lots in the newly established town.  Virgil Hickox, the oldest of the founders at 47, was "a friend and neighbor" of Attorney Abraham Lincoln, age 44, of Springfield.  Abraham Lincoln was also an attorney for the Alton and Sangamon Railroad (before it became the Chicago and Alton Railroad), as it was acquiring land through Logan County.  The founders asked Lincoln to bestow his name on the new town, and he consented.

2.  August 27, 1853:  Abraham Lincoln allegedly attended the sale of lots for the new town, occurring at Broadway and Sangamon Streets adjacent to the railroad tracks.  According to legend, after the sale, Abraham Lincoln split open a watermelon from a nearby stack of them, squeezed the juice into a cup, and poured it on the ground, christening the town in his name.

     The railroad transported Mr. Lincoln through Lincoln, Illinois, on an unknown number of occasions.  He must have used it on his business and political trips to Bloomington and Chicago, and the last two occasions were

1.  November 21, 1860.  President-elect Lincoln spoke to citizens from the rear of a train taking him to Chicago on his way to Washington, D.C.  The New York Herald on November 22 printed the brief speech (six sentences), which is reproduced in Paul Gleason's Lincoln.  Lincoln thanked the crowd for its "kindness toward me" and asked to be excused from political comment (Gleason, p. 16).

2.  May 3, 1865.  Lincoln's funeral train stopped at the train depot at approximately 7:00 a.m.  On May 4th the New York Herald printed this report:  "Lincoln, Ill. contains between two and three thousand inhabitants.  Lincoln had a direct interest in its origin. The depot is handsomely draped.  Ladies, dressed in white and black, are singing as we pass under a handsomely constructed arch, on each side of which is a picture of the deceased President with the motto "With Malice to none, with Charity for all."  The national and State flags are prominently displayed, and a profusion of evergreens, with black and white drapings make up the artistic and appropriate arrangements" (Raymond Dooley, ed., The Namesake Town:  A Centennial History of Lincoln, Illinois, p. 29).

 

The Railroad and the Abraham Lincoln Legend   

     The GM&O Railroad descended from the Chicago and Alton Railroad, whose location  in Logan County led to the founding of Lincoln, Illinois.  In honor of Abraham Lincoln, the GM&O named two of its five passenger "streamliner" trains the Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge.  The Abraham Lincoln was described as the world's most modern train (with the Lincoln tavern).  These trains, running from 1935 into the 1950s, provided premium passenger service, featuring "observation parlor cars, drawing-room parlor cars, buffet-lounge cars, dining cars, smoking cars with individual reclining seats.  Both had stewardess and registered nurses," according to the Web site of the National Railroad Museum (address below).  See this Web site for more detailed information about the GM&O streamliners, including depiction of the trains' "drumheads" (logo-symbols).
 

Figure 6.5:  The Locomotive of the GM&O Abraham Lincoln (Chicago, heading south, July, 1971). Source: www.umcycling.com/amtrak.htm 

Figure 6.6:  The Caboose of the GM&O Abraham Lincoln (no place or date given). Source:
www.trainweb.org/jimrail/gmoal.htm

Figure 6.7:  Tail Section of Observation Car

     (from Dave Randall and Gene Glendinning, "Abe 'n Annie," Part 1,  GM&O Historical Society News  1979, p. 17.  The caption of the photo in part reads, "Tail section was reminiscent of one's living room with individual wing chairs, comfortable couches and reading lamps.")

    
     The Abraham Lincoln locomotive above in Figure 6.5 bears the number 103-A.  My browsing of the Web reveals that the 103-A was made by EMD as Model E7A.  Seven EMD E7As were built beginning in 1945.  This locomotive had a 12-cylinder, 2,000 horsepower diesel engine.  The Web site titled the GM&O Diesel Roster (address below) lists six EMD E7As as sold for scrap to Premium National in March of 1975.  One EMD E7A was retired in 1971 and cannibalized.  Good news, however, is that the National Museum of Transportation, located at Kirkwood, MO (suburb of St. Louis), is reported to be restoring two passenger cars of the Abraham Lincoln.

     The 103-A was not the original locomotive of the Abraham Lincoln.  The Web site of the National Railroad Museum (address below) describes the original as first named the "Lady Baltimore, a unique 4-4-4 originally designed for the B&O [Baltimore & Ohio] Royal Blue service [and it] was transferred to the Alton and assigned to the yet to be inaugurated Abraham Lincoln.  Dedication of the locomotive occurred on May 15, 1935, at Springfield, IL.  The first run of the Abraham Lincoln occurred on July 1, 1935."     

     In response to my inquiry about the Abraham. Lincoln locomotive, I received the following detailed history on March 6, 2002, from Mr. Gene Glendinning, treasurer of the GM&O Historical Society.  He was unaware that I did not know that the 103-A was not the original locomotive of the Abraham Lincoln.  He describes the original:

     "I believe the diesel you're referring to was the B&O's box cab, which, along with two units the Santa Fe received from Electro Motive Co., then of Cleveland, the first road engines produced. It operated between Jersey City and Washington D.C. in the B&O's Royal Blue service before being transferred to the Alton to head the Abraham Lincoln in 1935. It was numbered 50. In 1937 a slanted nose was fabricated and added to the unit for added crew safety. The 50 continued to head the Abe until the early 1940's when the slanted nose was removed and no. 50 was paired with a B&O E6 (originally no. 52) as a "B" unit which lasted for the remainder of the war years.

     Around 1945, as the Alton began receiving its six EMD E7's, no. 50 was shopped and emerged as the no. 1200. It held down a local passenger run and local freight runs out of Bloomington before being used for a while in the 1950's as the power for the single GM&O suburban run between Chicago and Joliet. The unit was then retired and delivered to Pilot Bros., McCook, Illinois for scrap.

     The unit was saved from scrap and delivered to the National Transportation Museum at St. Louis, where it rests today. It was refurbished and painted in its original B&O dress. The museum is near Kirkwood and easily accessible. I hope this answers your question. Let me know if there's anything else I might provide. Regards,

Gene
Gene V. Glendinning"

     Figure 6.8  below is an artistic drawing of the1935 Abraham Lincoln showing its original B&O 50 locomotive (Gleason and Beaver, Logan County Pictorial History, p. 8).  (The drawing below has been enlarged through computer technology.)  The right side of the light on the top clearly shows the number 50, and the drawing also depicts the slanted front that had been added in 1937 when this unit was modified for the Abraham Lincoln. 

     Figure 6.9 below shows a 1982 photo of this locomotive at the National Museum of Transportation before restoration.  Again, the right side of the light shows the distinctive 50, but the slanted front had been removed in its post-Abraham Lincoln years.  This photo is a cropped version of a full photo at a Web page by S. Berliner (Web site address below). Mr. Berliner's Web site has a detailed history of this locomotive and a second photo of the B&O 50 prior to its restoration. 
 

Figure 6.8:  Drawing of the 1935 B&O 50

(Gleason and Beaver, Logan County Pictorial History, p. 8.)

Figure 6.9:  1982 Photo of the B&O 50

(S. Berliner)

  
     Visit the Web site of the National Transportation Museum (Kirkwood, Missouri, Web site address below) to see a photo of the restored B&O 50, the original locomotive of the Abraham Lincoln. 

The Living Rail Heritage in Lincoln, Illinois

     The GM&O, the Illinois Central, and the Illinois Traction System passenger and freight services were crucial to business and industry in Lincoln.  One of the largest commodities produced in Lincoln, Illinois, by weight and volume was sand and gravel.  Below is one of the most distinctive reminders of this industry. 

     The following locomotive photo was obtained from the Web site of Mr. Don Ross (address below).   According to Mr. Ross, this locomotive is a "44 ton locomotive built by Davenport in 1940, #2301, for Morrell Meat Packing Co.  In 1975 it was donated to the Monticello Railroad Museum."  Mr. Ross's Web site shows a second diesel locomotive used by the Lincoln Sand & Gravel Co.  Many Lincolnites who visited Lincoln Lakes will fondly remember the strange-looking workhorse below.  I recall it was very noisy.
 

    

Figure 6.10:  Locomotive of the Lincoln Sand & Gravel Company Used at Lincoln Lakes

(This locomotive is now located at the Monticello Railway Museum, which is east of Decatur, IL, on I-72 north of the city of Monticello. Web site address below. )

Figure 6.11:  Picture Postcard of the 
1911 Chicago and Alton Passenger Depot (later the GM&O) with Spanish Mission Design
 

Figure 6.12:  The GM&O Passenger Depot
Near Christening Site (south side)

(DLH photo, 6-02)

Figure 6.13: The Passenger Depot
Entrance (east side)

Figure 6.14:  GM&O Car as a
Restaurant Dining Room

Figure 6.15:  Sign Between Twin Cabooses
Reads "End of the Trail"
 

Figure 6.16:  The GM&O Freight House (Depot)
at Pekin and Sangamon Streets

(south end view, DLH photo, 7-01)

Figure:  6.17:  The GM&O Freight House (Depot)

(north end view, Stu Wyneken photo)

Figure 6.18:  Close Up View of
GM&O Freight House Sign

(from Stu Wyneken photo in Figure 6.16)
 

Figure 6.19:  A Freight Train Speeds from the North, Passing Through Town Next to the Old GM&O Freight House

(DLH photo, 8:30 a.m., 6-9-02)
 

Figure 6.20:  The ITS (interurban) Passenger and Freight Depot (1909) at 216 S. Chicago Street (note the courthouse dome at mid left).

(DLH photo, 6-02)

Figure 6.21:  Rare 1913 Picture Postcard of ITS Depot (right) and Passenger Car (center)

     Another scene at 216 S. Chicago Street.  The Commercial Hotel is immediately behind the depot.  The Lincoln House hotel is visible in the background.  At left is lumber stored on the yard of Spellman Lumber Company.

     One spur track, possibly two, ran between the depot and the hotel.  Lincolnite Willie Aughton says that from this spur track train cars could unload coal for the hotel.  He notes that the metal arm seen at the right front of the building supported an awning (shown in Figure 6.21).  Historian Nancy Gehlbach writes that passengers' luggage could be moved from the depot to the hotel by way of a "second-floor runway between the two buildings" (Gehlbach, "Riding the Rails," p. 2).  A close view of the full photo reveals an old wagon wheel in the right-front window.

Figure 6.22:  The ITS Freight Depot, Car Barn, and Power Station at End of Chicago Street

(This view faces South Kickapoo Street.)

Figure 6.23:  ITS Power Station and Depot,
Dock-Side View

Figure 6.24:  Fixtures (ceramic?) Used to Transmit Electricity Through Power Lines to the Locomotive (see Figure 6.1)

Figure 6.25: Switch House on South Kickapoo Street

(DLH photo, 7-01)

     The above facility was was used to direct loaded cars from the Lincoln Sand and Gravel to the main tracks.  The locomotive in Figure 6.10 was one of two that transported sand and gravel cars to the main line. Nancy Gehlbach refers to this building as "the little interlocking plant on the road to Lincoln Lakes. . . .  Manned by the Lincoln Sand and Gravel crews, it was lined for the interurban except when a LS&G train was crossing.  Lincoln Sand and Gravel shipped partly over the ITS, which had an active freight division."  She says that the interurban tracks were removed in the summer of 1978 ("Riding the Rails," p. 3).
 

Sources Cited

Amtrak 4:  www.umcycling.com/amtrak.htm

Berliner, S.,  Web site: http://home.att.net./~Berliner-Ultrasonics/boxcbo50.html

Dooley, Raymond, ed.  The Namesake Town:  A Centennial History of Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln, IL:
     Feldman's Print Shop, 1953.

Gehlbach, Nancy. "Riding the Rails:  Interurbans, Streetcars, and Steam Trains." Our Times, fall 1998.

Gleason, Paul E. Lincoln, A Pictorial History. St. Louis, MO:  G. Bradley Publishing, 1998

Gleason, Paul E., and Paul J. Beaver, Logan County Pictorial History. St. Louis, MO:  G. Bradley
     Publishing, 2000.

GM&O Diesel Roster (Web site without identification): 
http://www.dnaco.net/~gelwood/other/gmo-diesel.htm

GM&O Historical Society Web site:  http://www.gmohs.org/

Illinois Central Historical Society Web site:  http://icrrhistorical.org/

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency:  http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/narrative_overview.htm

Jim's Railroad Page:  http://www.trainweb.org/jimrail/history.html 

Lincoln Evening Courier Centennial Edition, Wednesday, August 26, 1953, section two, page 4.

Maxwell, William. "The Man in the Moon" in All the Days and Nights:  The Collected Stories. NY:
     Vintage Books, 1995.

National Railroad Museum:  www.nationalrrmuseum.org/

Monticello Railway Museum:  http://prairienet.org/mrm/homepage.html

National Transportation Museum:  http://www.museumoftransport.org/.  Click on "Come on Let's Get
    Moving."  Then in the left navigation panel, click "Things that Move."  Once there, scroll to the bottom
    of the page, click on "continue"; and then on the new page, scroll to the "Baltimore & Ohio 50"
    locomotive to see a magnificent machine that moved countless times through the namesake
    town of Lincoln, Illinois.

Randall, Dave, and Gene Glendenning, "Abe 'n Annie," Part 1,  GM&O Historical Society News,  1979.
     See Web site (address above) of the GM&O Historical Society for information about ordering back
     issues of the GM&O Historical Society News.

Ross, Don, Web site:   http://donross.railspot.com/dr115.htm  (Scroll to Lincoln Sand and Gravel Co.)

Stringer, Lawrence B. "Chapter XX:  Transportational" in History of Logan County Illinois (1911).
     Reprinted by UNIGRAPHIC, INC., Evansville, IN:  1978.
 

About Lincoln, IL, this Site, & Me