On February 12, 2009, our nation will celebrate the 200th birthday of one of its greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois (1809-1865). From his youth, through his professional career and into his years in the White House, Lincoln had a variety of contacts with Iowa and Iowans. This website reviews a handful of these in the hopes of encouraging Iowans and their guests to visit, learn about, and celebrate some of the Iowa sites that had significance in Lincoln's life.

Little is known about the purpose of Abraham Lincoln’s visit to Dubuque, Iowa in late April or early May, 1859, but it’s a good guess that he was traveling on railroad business: he was in the company of several officials of the Illinois Central Railroad, one of his most faithful clients.

By now one of Illinois’ best-compensated attorneys, Lincoln had just lost a narrow election to nationally-renowned Senator Stephen Douglas in 1858. Although in demand as a political speaker, there is no indication that Lincoln gave a speech while in Dubuque. The visit appears to have been a side trip during some railroad-related court proceedings in nearby Galena, Illinois.

Lincoln and the railroad officials spent a day and a night at the Julien House (above). Their visit may have been due to the Illinois Central’s hope to extend its line through eastern Iowa. While Lincoln made no public appearances during his visit, he did meet with a group of local attorneys anxious to see the rising star. Few considered Lincoln a likely presidential candidate at the time, but barely a year later, he received the Republican nomination for the 1860 election.

The Julien House expanded into the Julien Hotel after the Civil War, but was destroyed by fire in 1913. The current Julien Inn stands on the same site at the corner of Second and Main Streets.

In the midst of the legendary Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Abraham Lincoln made a side trip to Burlington, Iowa to make a political speech.

Campaigning for the senate seat held by Douglas, the two candidates crisscrossed Illinois making frequent speeches, over 150 in Lincoln’s case. Part of his strategy was to speak in a town after Douglas had been there, and this was Lincoln’s reason for visiting Burlington, where he addressed twelve to fifteen hundred people on Saturday, October 9, 1858.

Lincoln spoke at the Grimes House, a hall owned by Governor (and later Senator) James W. Grimes. He stayed at the Barrett House hotel, where he handed the clerk a package, the sum total of his luggage, and said, “Please take good care of that. It is my boiled shirt. I will need it this afternoon.”

No record of Lincoln’s speech remains, but the Burlington Hawk-Eye assured its readers that it was “a logical discourse, replete with sound argument, clear, concise, and vigorous, earnest, impassioned and eloquent.”

Lincoln stayed until Sunday the 10th, and after leaving Iowa he moved on to the last two debates with Douglas, at Quincy on October 13 and at Alton on the 15th.

Abraham Lincoln’s skill as a lawyer had a dramatic effect on Iowa’s early growth. The first bridge across the Mississippi River (above), built in 1856, connected Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, and was a major breakthrough for western travel and commerce. Fifteen days after the bridge’s gala opening, a steamboat, the Effie Afton, struck one of its piers and was destroyed by fire. The owners of the steamboat sued the railroad company that built the bridge, saying it was a hazard to navigation and should be dismantled.

The case would be a crucial test between the established river traffic forces and the upstart railroads. Lincoln had experience working for both sides, but in this case was retained by the railroad companies. In characteristic fashion, he traveled to the bridge site and familiarized himself with details like the dimensions of the bridge and the speed of the river current. At the trial, he was able to prove that the accident occurred not because the bridge was a hazard but because the Effie Afton’s starboard paddle wheel failed. The trial resulted in a hung jury. Further litigation ended when the U.S. Supreme Court set aside the case, making it safe for railroads to build more bridges and advance trans-Mississippi settlement.

The current Government Bridge is near the original bridge site. The Government Bridge was completed in 1896 and is the fourth to cross what is now Arsenal Island from Rock Island to Davenport.