Henderson County Historical Society

Henderson County Historical Society's Artifact of the Week

It was 161 years ago today, April 15, 1865, that President Abraham Lincoln died. The night prior, Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were enjoying a performance of “Our American Cousin" at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. when Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer.  Lincoln was carried across the street to a boarding house where he died the next morning at 7:22 a.m.

Although we do not have an original newspaper from the time of the assassination, on display at the Henderson County Museum is the front page of a New York Herald reproduction edition.  This reproduction is likely greater than 135 years old as they were printed between the 1880’s and 1900.  At the time they were new, no one mistook them for original 1865 newspapers.

Fun Fact:  Abraham Lincoln visited Henderson County, Illinois in October of 1858 during his U.S. Senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas.  He spoke at the Henderson County Courthouse in Oquawka, just days after Douglas spoke at the same venue.  Lincoln was a friend of the family of Alexis Phelps, a prominent local figure.  The Alexis Phelps House proudly still stands today, in Oquawka, on the banks of the Mississippi River and is a property owned and managed by the Henderson County Historical Society.