'Laughing Lincoln' sculpture sought for Naperville park
Artists are sought to create a "Laughing Lincoln" sculpture to adorn a Naperville park he might have helped create.
The public art group Century Walk Corp. is accepting proposals through Oct. 1 to create a sculpture of a jovial Honest Abe to sit facing the community band stage in Central Park at 104 E. Benton Ave.
Century Walk Chairman Brand Bobosky said the group is looking for a life-size Lincoln created by an experienced sculptor, preferably from Illinois, to place in the park in honor of a Naperville resident and former city council member who died this spring at age 87.
"Don Wehrli, citizen advocate, was the champion of keeping the original size of Central Park available for all citizens as a public park," reads Century Walk's call for artists.
Although the park has shrunk over the years as parking and a road has been added, it still has its place in history as DuPage County's first public square. And that's where the Wehrli family says the Lincoln connection comes in.
Lincoln may have helped in the establishment of Central Park as open space with a vote he took against his party in 1839, said Bryan Ogg, curator of research for the Naper Settlement. That year, Naperville's founder Joseph Naper was pushing to create a new county called DuPage out of nine townships in Cook County.
Lincoln voted against his party in favor of creating the new county. The move followed a vote three years earlier in which Naper crossed party lines to support Lincoln's initiative to move the state capitol from Vandalia to Springfield.
Ogg says it's impossible to tell if their party-crossing votes were part of a trade or a backroom deal, and Century Walk admits as much in its call for artists.
"Who can really ever untangle the motivations a politician has when it's time to cast their vote?" the request reads.
But the votes took place, the county was formed and with it, a county seat established in Naperville in what is now Central Park.
After Wehrli's death, his family asked for memorial donations to be made to Century Walk for the creation of a Lincoln sculpture.
"He'd like a statue of Lincoln where people can touch his nose and have that tangible connection to the man, to Abraham Lincoln, to the history of Central Park and the future of Central Park," one of Don's daughters, Mary Lou Wehrli, said this spring.
Century Walk is seeking a sculpture of Lincoln with the deed to Central Park positioned so viewers can sit next to the nation's 16th president and take photos with him. The laughing part of the requested theme is designed to show "a wise, content and understanding gesture of hard work, knowledge, irony, joy and patience."
Once artist submissions are received and the sculptor is chosen, Bobosky said Century Walk will continue raising funds for the piece in hopes of installing it next year.