When Abraham Lincoln Came To Evanston

This story was written and reported by Jordan Graham. 

Some 163 years ago, Abraham Lincoln came to Evanston.

He greeted residents at a home at Ridge Avenue and Church Street, then gave a speech on the lawn, called outside by a group of people singing and blowing horns.

Lincoln visited in early April 1860, more than three years before Evanston was officially incorporated as a town and six weeks before Abraham Lincoln was nominated to run for President of the United States, he reluctantly visited the community for an evening of entertainment.

Details of the visit are told by various witnesses in the 1914 text, “Abraham Lincoln’s Visit to Evanston in 1860,” a 16-page pamphlet published by the Evanston City National Bank and written by J. Seymour Currey, who was then president of the Evanston Historical Society.

Sometime between April 5 and April 12, after a week of working in Chicago as a defense counsel, Lincoln visited Evanston at the invitation of Julius White, a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and soon-to-be Union Army brigadier general who lived on the northwest corner of Ridge Avenue and Church Street (at the current location of the Evanston YWCA).

Reluctant to visit

Lincoln initially tried to avoid the trip.

Mr. Volk, a Chicago-based sculptor who for two years had been trying to get Lincoln to “sit for a bust”, recollected in an 1881 Century Magazine article that Lincoln was reluctant to go to Evanston.

“I'd rather come, and sit to you for the bust than go there and meet a lot of college professors and others, all strangers to me,” Lincoln said, according to Currey’s account of the magazine piece.

Lincoln told Volk to ask White to excuse the statesman from the scheduled engagement, but White refused, saying that guests for the engagement would be disappointed.

Getting to know Evanston

Upon his arrival, Lincoln toured Evanston via carriage. According to the text, at the time of the visit, Evanston had only 1,200 residents and Northwestern University (which was established in 1851) consisted of only a single building.

After the ride, Lincoln returned to White’s house, where he greeted visitors by a fireplace in the drawing room. However, he was soon drawn outside by residents on the home’s front lawn, who had taken to “blowing horns, singing and shouting” and, eventually, calling for the famed orator to make a speech.

“He spoke in a high, clear voice explaining his standpoint in politics and the reason for it, making a special point that he had been guided by his sense of right,” Dr. Henry M. Bannister said of the speech.

“The Great Soul Within”

By most accounts, Lincoln was far from stiff during his visit.

“He stood shaking hands with admiring friends while a stream of wit and humor, and story and laughter, came bubbling up from the great soul within,” said Martin Mohler, a former Northwestern University student, according to a 1903 Evanston Index article.

White’s daughter, Emma White Bannister, later recalled how Lincoln endeared himself to all the children in attendance.

Lincoln reportedly sought out the tallest man in attendance, J. Watson Ludlam, and compared their heights by standing back to back, eventually concluding that they were both 6 feet, 4 inches.

After listening James D. Ludlam sing, Lincoln told him, “Young man, I wish I could sing as well as you. Unfortunately, I know only two tunes, one is “Old Hundred” and the other isn’t.”

Six weeks after his visit, Lincoln was nominated to run for President, and in November, he was elected.

“Mr. Lincoln's visit to Evanston was made when he had reached a period in his life when all was fair,” Currey wrote in the text’s conclusion. “He was at the height of his fame as the most distinguished political orator of his time, he had become the rising hope of the new Republican party, and was often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.”

Other notes

• Not all accounts say Lincoln visited a home on the northwest corner of Ridge Avenue and Church Street. Other suggested locations include 1513 Greenwood Blvd., 1465 Elmwood Ave. and 1028 Judson Ave, but Currey dismisses these claims.
• Years after Lincoln’s visit to Evanston, when he was president and James D. Ludlam was a major in the Union army, Lincoln reportedly invited Ludlam to the White House and asked him to sing the same songs as when the two first met in Evanston.
• When James D. Ludlam sang to Lincoln, those in attendance asked a young woman to accompany him on the piano. Ludlam and the woman had never met before then. A year later, they were married.
• Several of the men at the gathering later joined the Union army.
• Much of Currey’s text was compiled from magazine articles and interviews in other texts.