Monday, February 11, 2013

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!"

8 comments:

GardenOfDaisies said...

The event you are planning sounds wonderful!! So interesting to read how connected your family was to the Lincoln family.

Paulette said...

What a fascinating post, I enjoyed it !

Tete said...

Glad you are having fun with this. I guess we all take it all for granted living here. We have a lot of history in this area.

Unknown said...

Awesome! I love history and family history!

Marissa said...

Oh, I loved this post! I want more.......

Jacqueline~Cabin and Cottage said...

How exciting for you! How nice to live in the heart of history. I would love to see the cabin. We went to the Lincoln film twice. I know you will do a fantastic job on your riot!

Debbie said...

What a neat post, Ann!!!
How exciting!
Have fun with all of this.
xxoo

Unknown said...

I'm sure you will enjoy working on this project!! Sounds like so much fun! What city do you live in? I need to contact my cousin about her Dad's family history....I believe a relative was a law partner of Lincoln. Family history...so exciting!

chris