Lincoln's presence felt in many suburban locations

Illinois may be the land of Lincoln, and you don't need to travel around the state to find connections to President Lincoln when there are several right here in the suburbs.

• Mary Todd Lincoln was committed to the Bellevue Place mental institution in Batavia for three months in 1875 after suffering hallucinations caused by laudanum, which she was prescribed for sleep problems and spending too much money. Bellevue Place has been converted to apartments and still stands at 333 S. Jefferson St., Batavia. The Batavia Depot Museum, 155 Houston St., has the dresser and bed she used at the sanitarium.

• Mary Todd Lincoln is rumored to have stayed at The Howard House Hotel, 123 S. Third St. in St. Charles. Apartments now occupy the building.

• Lincoln, then a state representative, joined Naperville founder Joe Naper in the fight to split DuPage County off from Cook County. Rumor has it that Lincoln gave a speech on the issue from the roof of the Pre-Emption House in Naperville.

• Lincoln's bodyguard on his inauguration train trip to Washington was none other than the famous detective Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton lived in Dundee, at what is now the southeast corner of South Third and Main streets in West Dundee, and was the deputy sheriff of Kane County in 1848. After the inauguration, Lincoln hired Pinkerton to set up a "secret service" to get military information on the south during the Civil War.

• While Stephen A. Douglas made a few speeches during the campaign in the collar counties, there is little record of Lincoln campaigning here. The main reason, says Lincoln historian Bryan Andreason, is the town and rural folks outside Chicago were solidly Republican and solidly anti-slavery. He already had their votes.

• Lincoln had a law client named Charles Hoyt in Aurora and visited him there. The Aurora Historical Society, 20 E. Downer Place, has a letter he wrote to Hoyt. Lincoln also visited the Hoyt store on River Street and stayed at the Wilder House on North River Street.

• Lincoln would have traveled on the train through the South suburbs regularly on his way to Chicago. One item in an 1886 edition of the Wilmington Advocate recounts an episode where Lincoln, traveling with Leonard Sweat, fell into the ashpit along the tracks. According to Mrs. John J. Camp of Wilmington, Lincoln was going to say a few words to the gathering, took off his stovepipe hat, stepped backward, and fell on his back into the pit.

Life in the suburbs in 1809

Illinois wasn't even recognized as a state until 1818. In 1809, though, the area had grown enough to merit a split from the Indiana Territory to become the Illinois Territory. Lands in Lake County were occupied by various Indians, with only a few fur traders wandering into the region (Lewis and Clark's famed expedition didn't reach Illinois until 1804). The Potawatomie Indians had established four major villages along local rivers in what is now DuPage County. In 1816, the Potawatomi ceded land on both sides of the Des Plaines River to the U.S. government.

• Sources: For more information, visit the Chicago History Museum, Aurora Historical Society, Batavia Depot Museum, the Illinois History Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

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