By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – It will be 150 years ago on Sunday that Abraham Lincoln’s body was returned to his Central Illinois homeland after his assassination.
Local Lincoln author and historian Guy Fraker told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, some 5,000 people – more than half of Bloomington’s population at the time – came to see the train carrying Lincoln’s body as it passed through Bloomington.
“I think Bloomington was pretty rocked by this in a personal way,” Fraker said. “It think it was more than merely the President of the United States, it was one of our own coming home.”
Fraker said the train came through the city at about 5 a.m., two hours after church bells rang throughout the city to alert everyone of Lincoln’s arrival.
“At 3 o’clock in the morning, all the bells in town from the churches starting chiming to wake people up to go down to the train station,” Fraker said, noting the station was located on the west end of Chestnut Street.
Fraker noted there’s no indication the train stopped in Bloomington as it made its way to Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield for his funeral on May 4, 1865.
Fraker will host a discussion on Lincoln’s death and legacy at 10 a.m. Sunday at Wesley United Methodist Church in Bloomington.
The Illinois Symphony Orchestra will conduct a performance on Lincoln’s Legacy on Friday night at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. There are plenty of Lincoln events planned for Springfield on Sunday.
PODCAST: Click here to listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Fraker on WJBC.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
