John DeLoss Brown and Lincoln

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

One way to find stories about ancestors is through newspaper clippings. An example in point is the clipping about the time that John Deloss Brown shook hands with Abraham Lincoln:

This clipping relates that John D. John shook hands with Lincoln at Tolono when the president's train stopped there for ten minutes.

The next step is to search for additional context for this event. As luck would have it, I did not have to look far for long. It turns out that Tolono is a village in Champaign County, Illinois. There is a historical marker in Tolono, indicating where the event happened, and an informative article in The News-Gazette. 

Shortly after John Deloss Brown married Nancy Johnson in Pike County, Illinois in 1857, they moved to Champaign County, Illinois. I'm not sure exactly where they lived in the county. 

Tolono was a railroad intersection where people routinely changed trains. The layover between trains might be for several hours. Because Lincoln's step-mother lived in Charleston, he would catch the train in Springfield, get off in Tolono, and change trains to go on to Charleston in Coles County. During his layover, he might play horseshoes with a resident of Tolono or play chess with the telegraph operator. 

However, on 11 February 1861, the newly elected President's train arrived in Tolono at 11 a.m. so that Lincoln could give a twenty-minute speech on slavery and saving the union. Even though it was raining, about 1,000 had gathered to greet the train. They were waving handkerchiefs as the train pulled into the station. The village leaders fired off canons in celebration. 

Lincoln had planned to give this speech in Danville, but he was so taken by the turn out in Tolono that he delivered the speech there instead. 

President Lincoln gave the speech from the platform of the rear car. A few minutes afterward, he was off again. He may have stepped down for a few minutes, but he most likely leaned down shook hands with those closest to him. 

John Deloss Brown must have been very nearby if he had the opportunity to shake Lincoln's hand. John D. Brown may have been a resident of Tolono at that time, or he may have traveled several miles to meet Lincoln's train. Since I have not found him on the 1860 census, I don't know. Almost exactly six months after this speech, on 12 August 1861, John D. Brown enlisted in the 2nd Illinois Cavalry and served for the next three years.

11 February 1861 was the last time President Lincoln was in Tolono, Illinois, and it was the last formal speech that he delivered in Illinois.