Learning about Lincoln

Jo meets with President Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.

And so we came to New Salem, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln was formed. We drove north through the flat farmlands of Illinois into the capital city of Springfield. We moved on north a bit and came to the New Salem National Historic site. This is where Lincoln spent a few years as a young man.
Luckily, we were able to secure a site for our motor home at the campground at the site. After we got settled in almost unbearable heat (96 degrees with a heat index of 106 because of the humidity), we ventured out to the village.
It is peopled by re-enactors from the 1830s. I particularly enjoyed a young woman who said she was working off a $2 debt at the local doctor's office. She told me she had suffered from severe headaches. The doctor, who tends to like bleeding his patients, she said, chose instead to make up a potion of herbs and provided her with four glass vials of the potions. Each vial was 50 cents apiece which in 1834 was equivalent of a day's pay. So she was taking care of the doc's office while he was off at a birthing of a horse in the village. He also pulls teeth, the young girl said. She very kindly offered to bleed me with leeches if I was not willing to await the arrival of the doctor. I said I'd prefer to wait.
We chatted with her for a while, then Jo asked her about her job as a presenter. She agreed to step out of character and told us she was a student. She and four other students work at New Salem for a small stipend and they get three credits. She returned to character as we left and made light of Abe Lincoln whom I asked about. "Oh, he's probably gone to Springfield. He's such a politician," she said with a laugh. I suggested that a fine young woman like her might think about a man with Lincoln's character as a suitor. "Oh, I think I'll look farther," she said with a chuckle. She had little faith that Abe would amount to much.
At the Rutledge Tavern, I suggested to the elderly woman who sat in the shade quilting that she would do a land office business were she to sell cold beers. She stayed in character and said beer was not available on the frontier in the 1830s. She said the men would drink rye whiskey or peach brandy. A sign on the wall indicated the cost of room and board for the night was 37 and a half cents. I said that seemed like a decent price and she said that price was set by law and was as high as the tavern could charge. She said it was pretty expensive because people could expect to earn about 50 cents a day so they would tend to negotiate down on that 37 and a half cents.
I made a major faux pax by asking her if the colorful corn hanging on the wall of the tavern would have been used for feeding the birds. “Oh, sir. No. No. No. The birds must take of themselves. This is the choice corn that has been set aside for the next planting season. This is the new seed corn.” When I thought about it, it did seem silly to think of feeding the birds when you are on the edge of the prairie and survival is paramount for the humans.
We spent time chatting with Mr. Berry, who owned a store with Lincoln. He regaled us with yarns about Abe and how, when he joined the local militia, he was voted captain of the regiment, perhaps the first time he had a leadership role. He told us of their struggle to repay the debt of buying the store. Abe eventually sold his share to Berry but then Berry died of the consumption about a year later. Abe took responsibility for Berry's debts, as was the tradition of the time.

Tuesday: We drove 18 miles to Springfield, the capital. Destination: the new Lincoln Museum. This is a first-rate place. Not only are there numerous displays of Lincoln memorabilia, but there are many stage shows. “Ghosts in the Library” was an astonishing high-tech mixture of holograms and a live actor. It was so captivating and mind boggling that we made a second visit to see if we could figure out where humans left off and where the technology took up the story. But it was seamless and left us astonished.
We also attended a two-man play set in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., that struggled with the impact of the assassination of Lincoln in 1865. And the actors came on stage at the end to answer questions about the events.

One of the presentations in another theater took us through the life and events of the president. It was filled with outstanding effects, including vibrating seats that fairly lifted you up during the battles of the Civil War. Great production values that would capture people of every age.