Author/scholar Ron Keller sheds new light on Abraham Lincoln's legislative influence forming Illinois

 

[July 01, 2019]   LINCOLN - It is said that Lincoln, Illinois, is the first town named after Abraham Lincoln. Some append that to say the first town named for Mr. Lincoln before he became famous. That may be true on a national level, but it certainly is not true on a state level.

Lincoln College Professor Ron Keller has just completed a book “Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois Legislature” about Mr. Lincoln’s time in the Illinois Legislature from 1834 until 1842. Abraham Lincoln was a successful lawyer, and a canny and skilled legislator, who was well known among his peers.

The Lincoln Heritage Museum (LHM) at Lincoln College held a book signing Thursday evening to welcome Keller’s investigation into this part of Abraham Lincoln’s life. LHM has a reputation for serious investigation into Abraham Lincoln’s life.

Ron Keller did not just sign his book, but wrote a lengthy and personal note to each person.

The college itself, first known as Lincoln University, was named for the sixteenth president a few months before his assassination. President Lincoln certainly knew about the event. Since then, Lincoln College has developed a reputation for serious Lincoln research and writing.

Ron Keller follows in the footsteps of a string of notable Lincoln scholars. Judge Lawrence Stringer founded the Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln College in 1942 with a donation of many of his personal items. The museum has grown over the years, and is now considered one of the ten best university museums in the country. It’s collection of unique Lincoln items is renowned. Stringer also wrote many articles about Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln College Professor Paul Beaver’s seminal book “Abraham Lincoln in Logan County” is one of the finest explorations of Mr. Lincoln’s life during his years in central Illinois. One of Paul Beaver’s books about Abraham Lincoln was so popular that it has sold out and is no longer available.

Now Ron Keller joins this eminent contingent of Lincoln scholars with his book “Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois Legislature.” This is a little documented part of Senator Lincoln’s life, but it may be argued had a profound effect on the man. “Even Mr. Lincoln himself gave short shrift about his time in the Illinois Legislature in his autobiographies of 1859, and 1860,” said Ron Keller.

One other book has been written on this subject but was published more than forty years ago. The author of that one was the late Senator Paul Simon.

“When Southern Illinois University Press approached me about writing this book, I had read Paul Simon’s biography of Mr. Lincoln’s time in the Illinois Legislature. There were certain aspects of it that I felt needed to be changed, to show Mr. Lincoln in a new light,” said Keller.

During his remarks to the audience, Mr. Keller spoke of Abraham Lincoln’s time in the Illinois Legislature and the impact it had on the future of Illinois and the United States.

“Think of it, during Mr. Lincoln’s time in the Illinois Legislature, the young man and young state were undergoing immense change,” said Keller. Mr. Lincoln’s first term began in 1834 when he was twenty-five and the state had a population of 160,000. During Mr. Lincoln’s last year in the Illinois Legislature, 1842, the state’s population had more than tripled, grown to 500,000 in only eight years.

“Events called for a pro-active legislature to craft laws that would guide the state into a rapidly changing world, and a young legislator, Abraham Lincoln, was called upon to craft those laws and work to get them passed by the legislature,” said Keller. Lincoln’s name does not appear on many bills during this period, but his handiwork as a shrewd legislator insured their passage.

Ron Keller’s book “Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois Legislature” is an incisive exploration of an important time in the great man’s formative years, how his experience in the Illinois Legislature formed the man, and his effect on the young state.

“Abraham Lincoln was many things in his life, but at heart, I feel that he was most focused on, felt most fulfilled by being a legislator,” said Keller.

In addition to his duties as a professor of history at Lincoln College, Ron Keller serves as an alderman on the Lincoln City Council, and on several nationally known organizations dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. Additionally, he is director of the Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development at Lincoln College. He also was at the center of the team that crafted the current design of the Lincoln Heritage Museum, which has achieved national renown.

[Curtis Fox]