Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a photocopy of a letter from John J. Stevens to Judge Lawrence B. Stringer, recalling the 1853 dedication of the town of Lincoln, Illinois.
John J. Stevens (born 1840) was from St. Louis, Missouri and visited Middletown, Logan County, Illinois, in 1847. Lawrence B. Stringer (1866-1942) was a lawyer and politician from Illinois. Originally from New Jersey, Stringer moved with his parents to Lincoln, Logan County, Illinois, in 1876. He became a lawyer before getting involved in state and national politics, serving as a U.S. Representative from 1913 to 1915. Stringer lived in Lincoln for most of his life and was elected judge of Logan County in 1918, a position he held until his death.
The collection contains a photocopy of a five-page typed letter from John J. Stevens to Judge Lawrence B. Stringer. In the letter Stevens recalled visiting Middletown, Logan County, Illinois in 1847 and described Abraham Lincoln's 1853 dedication of the town of Lincoln, Logan County, Illinois.
John J. Stevens's great-grandson, Rolland E. Stevens of Urbana, Illinois, donated the photocopied letter and an outline of the Stevens family tree to the Illinois Historical Survey (predecessor to the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections) circa 1970.