By Don Radebaugh – PITTSFIELD, Ill. – Looking for treasure? You don’t have to look far. You’ll find it in small town America.
Like the day I stumbled upon Pittsfield, Illinois. I knew that Abraham Lincoln spent time in Pittsfield, so I thought I’d breeze through and check it out. I’m talking two hours, at best. Besides, I had to get to my original destination in Hannibal, Missouri to visit with Sam Clemens, AKA Mark Twain. Clemens was a brand new fascination, and I was eager the get there.
But then I saw the gorgeous, majestic Pike County courthouse in the Pittsfield square and couldn’t believe my eyes. I’ve scoured every inch of Illinois “Looking for Lincoln”, but how’d I miss this gem? Then I discovered the beautifully-restored William Watson Hotel just across the street from the courthouse. The hotel was built in 1838 by William Watson. It was frequented by Lincoln and his contemporaries when practicing law in the old Pike County courthouse. Lincoln also spoke several times in the square throughout the 1850s. So much for my brief visit…this just turned into an overnight stay. https://www.facebook.com/WWHhotelier/?fref=ts
Just as soon as I got situated in my amazing upstairs hotel room, I set out on foot looking for Lincoln. It didn’t take me long to find him. I learned that Lincoln, more than once, stayed at the home of Pittsfield Mayor Reuben Scanland…the home still stands in a neighborhood near the square. You’d hardly know the home had any historical value, sitting there like all the rest. I must have walked by the house five times…some geeky tourist in annoying flip-flops, thinking to myself…how cool would it be to own a home where Lincoln slept. Apparently, I had walked by one too many times when the owner of the home stepped out the front door.
“Good afternoon,” he said. “Can I help you?”
“Uhhh…good afternoon sir. Uhhh, well, I was wondering, sir…if you were aware that…uhhh…Abraham Lincoln slept in your house?” His concern immediately melted away, and I was relieved to hear him say “of course I am.” In fact, he told me that he actually got a tax break because of it, which I thought was super cool. Then, the gentleman asked if I’d like to ring the original mechanical door bell, the same ‘ring-a-ling’ that Lincoln would have heard. There I stood on that stranger’s porch. I grabbed that lever – same one Lincoln held – as if I were controlling the payload door on the Space Shuttle. I pulled the cable attached to the original bell on the other side, and there it was…music to my ears. At that moment, I was connected with Lincoln, hearing the same sound he heard. I must have rang the bell a dozen times before I started to embarrass myself. I couldn’t thank him enough.
When I finally walked away, I thought about Steven Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln” and how his production team went to great lengths and huge expense to record the actual sound from Lincoln’s timepiece, and the same church bells that chimed in Washington when the 13th Amendment passed, and the sound of Lincoln’s carriage door closing on the same carriage that carried him for the final time to Ford’s Theatre. Spielberg brilliantly used the sounds in the movie to give it an authentic feel. I thought…all that fussing around, but I can simply find it for free right here in small town Pittsfield, or in any other small town across America.
One of the stories associated with the Scanland home is of Mrs. Scanland’s turkey dinner. Mrs. Scanland prepared an elaborate dinner for Lincoln and her husband’s political friends, but they did not return home from a local drugstore where Lincoln was telling stories for a crowd of men. The dinner was cold when they finally got there, and Mrs. Scanland called Lincoln “the laziest man there ever was. Good for nothing except to tell stories.” The bed he slept in at the home is in the Pike County Historical Society Museum at East Ward School, 400 E. Jefferson Street.
I soon discovered that Pittsfield was chock-full of small town treasure, like the home of Milton Hay, who studied law under Lincoln in Springfield. Hay’s nephew John Hay would become Lincoln’s private secretary during his presidency.
I also came upon the small, cottage-style home of Lincoln’s old New Salem (Ill.) friend John Shastid where Lincoln often visited. Upon hearing the news about his assassination, Shastid gathered his family in the front room of this house for prayer, the same room Lincoln helped himself to a dozen roasted pigeons in seven years before. Shastid soon overheard a boisterous young voice holler out joyfully, “Old Lincoln is dead.” 67-year-old Shastid then “knocked him to the ground in one solid punch and rendered him senseless.”
Shastid’s son Tom often told the story of his father returning from hunting with a dozen “wild pigeons” Tom and his siblings waited wide-eyed and hungry for the pigeons to cook. Suddenly, the door burst open, and there stood Lincoln. Mrs. Shastid ushered him to the head of the table and placed the platter of pigeons before him. At first, Lincoln talked vivaciously. Then, he fell completely silent and ate voraciously. One by one, the pigeons disappeared. After a short time, Lincoln, still abstracted, reached out his fork for the last pigeon, took it to his own plate, and began to eat it. At this juncture, little Tom burst into tears and cried out, “Abe Lincoln, you’re an old hog.”
That “old hog” also became the nation’s 16th President, steered the country through four years of bloody Civil War and kept the Union whole. “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”
Stay tuned for many more treasures in small town America.
Sources:
http://www.greatriverroad.com/quincy/pikelincoln.htm