6 minute read
More in store for a local land of Lincoln
Linco n land of in store for Franklin Grove’s MORE
The home to a historic highway’s history is getting some home improvements, and a new name
When Henry Issac Lincoln built a dry goods store four score and 80 years ago in Franklin Grove he couldn’t have known that the road in front of his building would someday bear his family name, or that his store would someday become the home of a place that would celebrate that highway.
But it wasn’t Henry who the Lincoln Highway was named for, nor was it named for Henry’s son, Abraham. It was named for a certain, more well known Abraham Lincoln, who also happened to be a distant cousin of Henry’s.
Today, Henry Lincoln’s store at 136 N. Elm St., with its 1860 date stone still intact above the front door of the limestone building, is the national headquarters of the Lincoln Highway Association – but before that, it housed a post office, newspaper, dance studio, and even an arcade before it sat vacant for 20 years, threatened by neglect and falling into disrepair. That was before it was given a second life when a group of area residents banded together to save the piece of local history.
The building was restored in 1995 and became home to the Lincoln Highway Association, complete with a museum of highway photos and artifacts.
Now, nearly 160 years after it was built, the building is undergoing another set of renovations. Some of the remodeling work, done by volunteers, includes installing new windows, cleaning and repainting, as well as constructing a new boardwalk. Completion was scheduled for April, but the COVID-19 pandemic has, like it’s done with so many other things, pushed it to later this year.
When all is done, the building will reopen as the Lincoln Highway Interpretive Center under new management later this year, and souvenirs will be upgraded and expanded.
Highway Association board member Ron Colson witnessed the transition of a once fragile building into a downtown gem. Photo on page 7, story continued on page 8 STORY CODY CUTTER | FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING
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If you’re looking to learn more about a historic highway, all roads lead to Franklin Grove, and the headquarters of the Lincoln Highway Association at 136 N. Elm St. The 1860 building that first housed a dry goods store is getting some work done, and will eventually reopen as the Lincoln Highway Interpretive Center.
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8 summer 20
“It was a falling pile of rubble in ’95 when we started on it,” Colson said. “There were falling walls and caved-in roofs and things of that nature, but we felt that it was worth preserving for its history and wanted to reposition it as an asset to the area going forward.”
The place also is home to the Third Fridays concert series. The music is varied and includes country, bluegrass, blues, soft rock, folk, and mixes of other genres. Despite renovation work, concerts were planned in February and March, but are on hold until work is complete.
Switchback, an Americana and Celtic band led by Marty McCormick and Brian Fitzgerald, is among the concert’s most notable performers; it was honored by the Irish Music Association as a Top Duo in a Pub, Festival or Concert in 2008. The band is scheduled to return if work is complete by June.
The Lincoln Highway was the first coast-to-coast highway in the United States. Dedicated in 1913, the 3,000-mile highway runs from New York City to San Francisco. Like the road it was named for, The Lincoln Highway Association was originally created to promote the highway and good roads in general. Today, its mission is to preserve and celebrate the highway that stretches from sea to shining sea.
The Honest Abe connections don’t stop with the highway. The year of 1860 is an important one in Lincoln lore: One Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States, while another – Henry’s son – was born.
When the route was planned out in 1912, it paralleled the Chicago and North Western railway throughout much of its route west of Chicago. This included a trip through downtown Franklin Grove, in front of Henry Lincoln’s building. The secondgeneration route now runs along state Route 38, a few blocks north of the store (go to lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map to see the routes).
The railroad played a pivotal part in the establishment of Franklin Grove. Chaplin, a settlement about a mile southwest of present-day downtown, was established in 1849. The arrival of the railroad in the mid-1850s, however, dashed hopes for Chaplin’s success as residents and businesses moved further north in front of the railroad. Buildings from the former settlement have since been restored and are part of the Chaplin Creek Village historic site.
Chaplin’s former crossroads, at present-day State and Lahman streets, eventually became part of the Lincoln Highway. Most of the highway through Lee County from Prairieville to north of Ashton is complete, save a couple of reroutes due to new bridges and redesigned intersections.
Funding for the route was based primarily on community support, and most of that was done through the sale of pins to residents along the route. They were $5, quite expensive for the time, Colson said, and they were sold at Lincoln’s store, where meetings were held to round up the support for highway.
It is not known whether President Lincoln ever stepped foot in Franklin Grove, but he was at least a few miles from it at one time. Lincoln was a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War of 1832, when federal troops turned back resistance from the Sac Native American Chief Black Hawk, whose tribe once settled in the land. Lincoln’s troops followed Black Hawk along the Rock River from Rock Island to Stillman Valley, where the future president helped bury the dead from the Battle of Stillman’s Run.
Information about sites from the Black Hawk War, as well as that of the chief himself, will be among the nuggets of local history also to be shared at the new Lincoln Highway Interpretive Center. n L Lincoln Highway Association, 136 N. Elm St., P.O. Box 308, Franklin Grove E-mail: hq@lincolnhighwayassoc.org Online: lincolnhighwayassoc.org or find Lincoln Highway Association on Facebook
MORE INFO MORE TO DO
The Lincoln Highway Interpretive Center is just one of many tourist attractions in Lee County, and the Lee County Tourism Council is happy to tell you about all of them. See the story on the next page to find out more.
