08/25/2025
This is a momentous day in Unforgettable Forgottonia history for it was on this date, August 25, 1858 that a young Illinois politician made the first of three stops in , Illinois during his campaign for the U.S. Senate. But it wasn't Abraham Lincoln's first time in Macomb, he had been here before as a soldier and lawyer, but it was significant for many reasons.
There was the rousing campaign speech Lincoln made to the community at the McDonough County Courthouse, and then sitting for one of the earliest the photographic images taken of him by local photographer Wm. Painter Pearson of which a copy we're sharing here. Abe was reluctant to sit for the photo but the encouragement of local newspaper man James K. Magie and future father of one Lizzie Magie - Macomb's Inventor of Monopoly changed Lincoln's mind.
But most importantly it was in Macomb's Randolph House Hotel that after much discussion with Magie and famous Chicago Tribune publisher Joseph Medill that Lincoln honed a strategy for his next debate with Douglas, that came to be know as the "Freeport Question."
It was a tactic that would not only changed the course of his political career, but opened the door to the White House and Lincoln’s preservation of the nation during the Civil War.
Find out more the more about Lincoln's visits to Macomb and what made McDonough County an Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area through our Living Lincoln Topiary Monument & Looking For Lincoln Tour at https://arcg.is/X5Xm1
And learn more at www.visitforgottonia.com
