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Julia.

[A woman’s letter on a visit to Springfield, Illinois for Abraham Lincoln’s funeral].

Virden, Illinois, 7 May 1865. 12mo (8” x 5”). 4 pp. of manuscript.

Writing after her return to Virden Illinois, from Springfield, the author, one Julia, here addresses her friend Martha J. Tompkins (1843–1926) of Piasa, Illinois. This evocative letter reads in part:

You requested me to tell you if I went to Springfield to the funeral and if so to write and tell you about it … I will give a full discription of it … In the first place after we got up there we went to see the president. He was in the Court house which was beautifully decorated in mourning and evergreen. They all marched in a posesion [sic] and had soldier guards about every six feet apart … I forgot to say in the first place that we went up Wednesday the day before the funeral. We thought if we waited until Thursday we would not get to see the corps[e] at all. He looked very natural. His coffin was the nicest one I ever see. Then we went to see his house. It was a plane looking two story painted brown decorated with Mourning and evergreen. I see his desk and book case and stand and the old cook stove and got a limb off of an apple tree he set out himself. I will send you a leaf from there. We went to govenor Madison house. I have been in nice houses before but they was nothing compared with that. I could not begin to discribe it to you. On the right hand side of the door as you go in the hall is a statue of Douglass…

Julia proceeds to offer a detailed account of Madison’s house and the horses that drew Lincoln’s hearse. She continues:

We see the hearse. It was trimmed beautifully. They said that just the trimming cost 15.00. It had a silver plate on each side with the initials of Lincoln’s name on it. It was such a pretty thing. From there we went back to look at the hours for the train. You had better believe I was glad to get home … I never injoyed a day any better in my life.

In a postscript Julia notes “the darkes of this evergreen is what come off of Lincoln’s house.” The specimen Julia enclosed no longer accompanies the letter.

A woman’s vivid account of her visit to Springfield, Illinois for Abraham Lincoln’s funeral.

CONDITION: Good, no losses to the text.

Item #5963

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