Bloomington author offers guide book to Lincoln’s legal days in Central Illinois

Guy Fraker
Guy Fraker will present his new book “A Guide to Lincoln’s Eighth Judicial Circuit” next Tuesday night at the McLean County Museum of History. (Photo by Eric Stock/WJBC)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – The well-worn backroads of Central Illinois that Abraham Lincoln traveled on horseback during his days as a lawyer are depicted in a new book written by a Bloomington author.

Retired attorney Guy Fraker produced “A Guide to Lincoln’s Eighth Judicial Circuit” as a pictorial follow-up to his book which chronicled Lincoln’s rise to the presidency, which was entitled “Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency; The Eighth Judicial Circuit.”

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Fraker on WJBC.

“Central Illinois is now the tail on the dog in our state, but back then the population was coming from the south, so Central Illinois was probably the most influential area in the state at that time,” Fraker said. “Chicago was there, but that was about it.”

Fraker said many who read “Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency” asked him to see images from Lincoln’s travels.

The book includes 97 images of the places Lincoln visited and the roads he traveled for over two decades while he was an attorney. Fraker told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin it was in those 14 counties, including McLean, where Lincoln laid the foundation for an unlikely political career.

“He never went home, he stayed out and worked the people in the towns building this network that ultimately put him in the White House,” Fraker said. “That’s the importance of the story.

“Not only was he this lawyer – and he was a good lawyer , not someone who was a politician who used law a little bit. It was just the opposite.”

Fraker will present the book Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…