Abraham Lincoln was here? Geneva History Museum finds city record stating Lincoln spoke in Geneva

A 1912 Geneva city document suggests that Abraham Lincoln had visited the town and spoken outside a former courthouse.

Geneva History Museum Executive Director Terry Emma said the document was discovered recently when museum volunteers went through a box of papers donated by the city.

“I had to read it five times because of the way it’s written,” Emma said. “It’s the first time I’ve seen it in print that Lincoln actually spoke here.”

The typed document is a record by then-Geneva City Clerk Arthur L. Stimple of setting the cornerstone for the new city hall in December 1912.

“The site of this building holds claim to distinction in that upon this identical spot was built, in 1844, Kane County’s first permanent court house,” Stimple wrote.

“This building was in some respects the most important historically of the three erected by the County as permanent court houses,” Stimple wrote. “The revered Abraham Lincoln and the famous Stephen A. Douglas spoke on several occasions from its steps.”

That was the sentence: Historic proof that Lincoln visited Geneva.

According to Stimple’s document, the 1844 building stopped being used as a courthouse in 1856. “During the following twenty years the building was but little used, was finally abandoned and fell into decay,” Stimple wrote.

Stimple wrote that the city of Geneva acquired the building in 1891 and used it as a city hall until it was destroyed by a fire on April 11, 1912.

“The present building, of which this corner stone is a part, was erected in 1912-1913,” Stimple wrote. “This corner stone was laid on Dec. 7, 1912.”

He also lists the city officials of the day in charge of getting the new city hall built, which is still Geneva’s City Hall.

Emma said the city gave boxes of documents to the museum.

“We will preserve this and make it available to the community,” Emma said. “Who knows what would have happened to that box? It’s been there since 1912.”

Is Stimple’s document accurate about Lincoln?

“Did Abe Lincoln come to Geneva and speak here? Our newspaper records don’t go that far back,” Emma said. “This is the first time I have actual documented proof he spoke here.”

But they need more proof, she said.

“We will continue to dig to see if there is anything else out there,” Emma stated in an email.

The National Park Service does not list Geneva among the seven 1858 debate stops in Illinois while Lincoln was challenging incumbent Douglas for the U.S. Senate in 1858.

Stimple’s document does not state there was a debate, only that Lincoln and Douglas spoke from the steps of the 1844 courthouse.