Wayside exhibit to be unveiled Friday

[November 05, 2008]  Elkhart Cemetery, which has a significant link to Abraham Lincoln, is the site of the unveiling of a new interpretive Abraham Lincoln wayside exhibit on Friday at 11 a.m.

The exhibit is one of four new Looking for Lincoln interpretive panels to be installed and dedicated in Logan County by the end of the year. The other new wayside exhibits will be unveiled at separate events in Mount Pulaski, Middletown and Atlanta. These will accompany the two existing Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits in the county -- one at the Lincoln, Ill., christening scene and the other at the Mount Pulaski Township Historical Society Museum.

The Elkhart wayside exhibit was made possible through special funding provided by the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition, which will preside over the recently designated Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area in Illinois, a federal designation that will eventually deliver $10 million into the central Illinois areas in which Lincoln lived, worked and traveled. Hal Smith, the executive director of Looking for Lincoln, is expected at the event.

Several thousand dollars in additional funding for the exhibit was provided by the Elkhart Historical Society, which has been very active in preserving and promoting the Abraham Lincoln history of Elkhart.

The wayside exhibit covers the Lincoln connection with Illinois Gov. Richard J. Oglesby, who is buried in Elkhart Cemetery. Lincoln's surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was part of the governor's funeral procession that crossed the bridge at Elkhart Hill in 1899 (site of the current arch bridge today). Oglesby also was in Washington at the time of Lincoln's death and stayed at his bedside until the 16th president died.

The exhibit also discusses Lincoln's travel through the region known as Edwards Trace and his stays at the Kentucky House on Elkhart Hill. Finally, the exhibit relates the story of Lincoln's interaction with cattleman John D. Gillett, who was instrumental in founding the city of Lincoln in 1853.

The public is invited to the ceremony at 11 a.m. Friday at the cemetery, located on County Route 10 in Elkhart.

The Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce will conduct a ribbon-cutting for the event.

For more details, call 217-732-8687.

[Text from file received from Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County]