Week #47, Tuesday, 31 October 2017

During the night Bob remembered he had forgotten his Sunday clothes at home.  We were planning on attending various temples and he needed a white shirt.  Target was just across the street form where we were staying, so after breakfast, we went there and he found a white shirt.  We then went  to the Abraham and Mary Lincoln home.  It was a crisp 34º  with a light wind and plenty of sunshine.  We donned coats, gloves, hat, and ear muffs for the excursion.

The neighborhood where the house is has been preserved as it would have been when they lived there, 1840 - 1860.  We were impressed with the wide streets and all the trees.

This leaning tree is directly across the street from the house and is the only tree that would have been there during that time.

This was the first home Abraham Lincoln ever owned.  It started out with just one story and then he added the second story as well as other rooms in the back.  There are many pieces of furniture and artifacts in the home that actually belonged to the Lincoln's.

 This is the back of the house.  From the porch out is what was added on in the back, making two bedrooms, a kitchen and a pantry.  The kitchen in on the left on the ground floor and the pantry is across the porch.

These three pictures are of the parlor.  The table under the mirror is where their young son Edward's casket sat when he died.

It was in this section of the parlor where Abraham Lincoln was approached to be the candidate for the republican ticket for the presidency.  The bookcase was his.

 The living room is quite colorful and made to look as it would have then.  The mirror and the sewing table under it are original pieces of the family.

In the dining room are chairs the family used.

Mary enjoyed cooking and really used her stove.  She liked it so much that when they moved to the White House she wanted to take it with her.  She soon learned that her time in the kitchen would be very limited.

These are the original stairs with the banister being the very one Lincoln would use going up stairs each night.

This bed belonged to the Lincoln's but was not the one he slept in.  It has long since been gone.

This is the boy's room with original toys they played with.  They liked to climb out the window onto the porch roof and talk to people on the street or going by.  Lincoln knew the boys would climb out the window so he built the porch roof sturdy enough to hold weight and put a railing around it.  You can see it to the left in the picture of the back of the house.

Mary's commode.  

An original chest that is actually two pieces.

Lincoln's desk where he studied and wrote.

I always called this a lounge.  They say it is a fainting couch.  The throw belonged to Mary.

Mary's dresser she brought to the marriage.  It had belonged to her family when she was a child.  The wallpaper is an exact match to the wall paper that was in the room at the time.

This was a space at the top of the stairs where Mary would sew.  The window let in light and they used mirrors to help brighten up areas as well.

Walking back to the car we saw the dome of the current courthouse.

We finished our tour of the house and neighborhood and then headed to the Oak Ridge Cemetery to visit the tomb.

The monument could be seen just as we drove into the cemetery

 Some of the trees were changing colors. 

John Riley Tanner was the 21st governor of Illinois, 1897 - 1901.

Entering the monument, we saw this statue of Lincoln, making us think of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

President Lincoln's remains rest in a vault ten feet and just behind the monument.  Mary Lincoln and three of their sons are entombed in crypts in the wall opposite this monument.

Throughout the monument are statues of the various poses of Lincoln.

The Gettysburg Address

Back outside, we posed for a picture.  It was 37º by now.

The statues around the outside of the monument.

The two on the backside were interesting with the sun silhouetting them.

On the front.

His nose is shiny from everyone rubbing it.

We headed on to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend the temple there.  We called to say we would be attending the 6 p.m. session.  We got into town about 3:30 p.m., checked into a Fairfield Inn and found Red Lobster for dinner.  While eating I remembered I had left my family file cards in the computer bag at the hotel.  We didn't have time to go get them.  We finished up eating just after 5 .m. and went to the car.  Bob pulled up his phone to set the gps and saw the time was 6:06 p.m.  How could that be?  I checked mine and it said the same thing.  Well, we were in another time zone for reals!  The good news is we were able to go by the hotel and pick up the cards.  We got there in plenty of time to take pictures and attend the 7:30 p.m. session.