Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln

If Abe was alive today he would be 204!

Sometimes those people from the past seem not 

too be real to me. Did that really happen?

I have been familiar with Abe my entire life

After all I live in "The Land of Lincoln"

His parents farm is in the country between the town where I was born and where I grew up

Lincoln Log cabin is alive and well today.

A great place to visit.

But the link to the Lincoln past is strong to be for many reasons.

I have been telling you about my ancestor

Young Ewing Winkler

he was born in Daviess County KY in 1811

Lincoln was born in neighboring county Hardin KY

Both families moved to Indiana in 

about 1816

They were neighbors

1820 Federal Indiana Census Record
Thomas Lincoln with check mark and 3 down is
David Winkler my 3rd Great Grandfather, Young's father.
They may of gone to school together, since they were neighbors
and Young was educated.
I have found books that mention the Winkler's as their neighbors.

|David died in 1822 and his widowed wife and
adult and younger children moved to IL the same
year the Lincoln's did in 1830.
The Winkler's in the North part of the county
the Lincoln's in the south part.

In 1842 Abraham Lincoln
was Young Ewing Winkler's lawyer
Patterson vs Winkler
I just viewed the court records, it is unfortunate but anything
with Lincoln's signature on it when to Springfield.
But how many people can say Abe was their family lawyer?

But somewhere down the line something happened
and they were on opposing sides of view during the
Civil War
hence the Charleston Riot

the courthouse in 1864

Luckily Dennis Hank's, Lincoln's cousin helped to
get all the charges dropped for the men involved.
Before he went to Washington DC in person to ask for the release,
this a letter he sent.

I get chills thinking of the
Civil War Lincoln in the White House reading this letter
why??
note the last sentence
"young e winkler was wounded"
Now if they were not very familiar with each other
Hanks would not of written that.
After all there were, 21 other people killed or wounded.

For what ever reason that caused their riff,
I so admire President Lincoln and think of him as one of our own
Not just in Illinois but in Coles County.
I get to walk where he walked.

this home still stands in Charleston where he spent the night
during the Lincoln Douglas debates in 1858
Lincoln stayed there so I am trying to get it on a
house tour for the Riot weekend.

My posts maybe sporadic over the next year since I will
be living and breathing Lincoln/Charleston/The Riot.
I hope you hang in there with me as I venture into
something I have never done before, planning a
major 3 day event for a town.

I just hope it a success and I see a bunch of people
running around with T-shirts that say........

"I had a Riot in Charleston, IL!"