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Tours of Oak Ridge CemeteryAbraham Lincoln’s Friends, Associates and In-laws
Dozens of Abraham Lincoln’s relatives and associates are interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery, This tour introduces a few of the most important and relevant, including his greatest biographer, three of Mary Lincoln’s sisters who lived in Springfield, and others. All are buried in the older section of the cemetery.
Much credit goes to Linda Baker and Mary Barringer, ORCF board members, for their extensive research and recording for this tour.
This tour may be done by car, on foot, or as a combination. Distance following the suggested route is about three-quarters of a mile, one way. Walking difficulty: Herndon to Butler, moderate (hills); remainder level and easy.
Grave-finding at Oak Ridge
The city of Springfield website includes an interactive map of Oak Ridge Cemetery. Use grave locations noted below to find individual burial sites. (If the map’s search function doesn’t work, you can drag and scroll through the map to find the correct block and site.)
However, be aware that many gravestones lie flat with the ground; that may make it harder to find a specific grave even when you’ve located it using the map.
WILLIAM HERNDON (1818-1891), Block 14 GPS 39.82507N, 89.65593W
Abraham Lincoln’s third law partner and biographer. A roadside marker points the way to Herndon’s grave.
William Herndon’s biography (co-written with Jesse Weik), Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, along with notes Herndon made of interviews with his many informants, make up the bulk of what scholars today know about Lincoln’s pre-presidential life. Herndon’s Lincoln was controversial in its time “because of Herndon’s observations about Lincoln’s religion, his family life, and his alleged romance with Ann Rutledge,” a later historian wrote. Recent scholarship, however, supports many of Herndon’s conclusions.
Herndon faced financial difficulties when he died, so he originally was buried in an unmarked grave. The monument you see today was dedicated on May 30, 1918. Among those in attendance were three of Herndon’s daughters and Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay.
More information: SangamonLink.org.
Photos: Mr. Lincoln & Friends (Herndon); Oak Ridge Cemetery Foundation (gravestone)
WILLIAM BUTLER (1797-1876) Block 7 GPS 39.82626N, 89.65710W
Abraham Lincoln’s mentor, landlord and friend.
William Butler befriended Lincoln when both served in the legislature (Butler and Lincoln were two of the “Long Nine,” the group of legislators, all of them tall, who helped make Springfield the state capital). Butler paid off the young Lincoln’s crippling debts from New Salem, which freed Lincoln to study law, and refused Lincoln’s repeated offers to pay him back. Lincoln boarded with the Butler family for most of the period from 1837, when Lincoln moved to Springfield, until Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842. Butler was one of Lincoln’s seconds in Lincoln’s abortive duel with James Shields and acted as one of Lincoln’s representatives at the 1860 Republican presidential convention.
Butler served as state treasurer from 1859 to 1863. Camp Butler National Cemetery east of Springfield is named after him.
More information: “Mr. Lincoln & Friends,” the Lehrman Institute.
Photos: Dickinson.edu (Butler); ORCF
STEPHEN T. LOGAN (1800-1880) Block 7 GPS 39.82645N, 89.65701W
Abraham Lincoln’s second law partner.
Stephen Logan, who partnered with Lincoln from 1841 to 844, “was recognized as the best all-round lawyer in Sangamon County, if not the State,” Lincoln biographer Benjamin Thomas wrote. Both men benefited from their partnership. Lincoln got a sophisticated legal education, while, as Logan himself once said, Lincoln was “exceedingly useful to me in getting the good will of juries.”
Note: Also at this site is the grave of Sally Lamon (1834-1892), Stephen Logan’s daughter. Her husband was Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln’s redoubtable volunteer bodyguard in both Springfield and Washington, D.C. (Lincoln had sent Lamon on an errand elsewhere the night the president was shot.)
More information: SangamonLink.org.
Photos: Wikimedia (Logan); ORCF
ELIJAH ILES (1796-1883), Block 7 GPS 39.82605N, 89.65729W
Springfield’s first merchant and most dynamic pioneer.
From his autobiography, Sketches of Early Life and Times in Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois,
which Iles wrote in 1883:
“After I got to Springfield in 1821, and explored the country to some extent, I determined to make this section my permanent home; my intention was farming, but as the land was not yet in market, I erected a cabin, sixteen feet square, with sheds, and went to St. Louis and bought a general assortment of goods, and opened the first store in Springfield, in June, 1821. (I had no competition for two years.)”
Iles was one of the four men who bought the land that today makes up central Springfield, he contributed to bringing the state capital to the city, and he played a prominent role in virtually every initiative in the city’s early development.
Iles was a captain during the Black Hawk War of 1832; among those in his regiment was a New Salem resident named Abraham Lincoln. Iles also was one of Lincoln’s pallbearers.
More information: Sketches of Early Life and Times in Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois is straightforward, candid and often humorous. Also see SangamonLink.org.
Photos: Wikipedia (Iles); ORCF
JOHN WHITFIELD BUNN (1831-1920) Block 10 GPS 39.82560N, 89.65766W
Banker, investor, friend and ally of Abraham Lincoln.
With his older brother Jacob, John W. Bunn was one of early Springfield’s most dynamic investors and developers. Lincoln banked with the Bunns’ bank, then titled the Springfield Marine & Fire Insurance Co. “I am proud to say that I was one of his (Lincoln’s) junior political agents,” J.W. Bunn once told an interviewer. “Like very many others, I was always glad to do for him anything that I could do.”
Bunn added: “Many fictions of a later day have grown up about Mr. Lincoln … All representations of Mr. Lincoln as a clown or a buffoon are false, and these things, to the real friends of Lincoln, men who really knew him well, are very offensive.”
More information: SangamonLink.org, Mr. Lincoln & Friends
Photos: SangamonLink.org (Bunn); ORCF
JOHN TODD STUART (1807-1885) Block 10 GPS 39.82552N, 89.65754W
Abraham Lincoln’s first law partner.
John Todd Stuart, a cousin of Mary Lincoln, arrived in Springfield from Kentucky in 1828 and, aside from his association with Lincoln, his recollections provide important insights into the history of early Springfield. Stuart met Lincoln while both were serving in the Black Hawk War of 1832, and they roomed together in Vandalia as members of the Illinois legislature. Stuart encouraged Lincoln to study law, and the two were law partners in Springfield from 1837 to 1841.
Stuart later became a Democrat and political opponent of Lincoln; among other differences, Stuart opposed the Emancipation Proclamation. Upon Lincoln’s death, however, Stuart became president of the Lincoln Monument Association, which spearheaded construction of Lincoln’s Tomb.
More information: SangamonLink.org
Photos: Dickinson.edu (Stuart); ORCF
ANN TODD SMITH (1820-1891) Block 10 GPS 39.82522N, 89.65767W
Sister of Mary Lincoln
Ann Maria Todd, the youngest of the four Todd sisters who emigrated to Springfield from Kentucky, married one of the city’s most successful businessmen, Clark Moulton Smith. At one point, C.M. Smith owned five stores – dry goods, clothing and shoe stores on the Adams Street side of today’s Old Capitol Plaza and a drug store and grocery store around the corner on Sixth Street, all connected by passageways. Store account books show C.M. Smith sold shoes to the young Lincolns, as well as a silk hat to their father, among other items. C.M. Smith also was involved with the development of Oak Ridge Cemetery. As such, he may have played a role in Mary Lincoln’s decision to have her husband buried at Oak Ridge.
The Todd sisters all lived within a few blocks of each other. Despite some disputes, that created a female support network during their early years of marriage and child-raising.
Note: As you walk through this area, you will also see the grave of Dr. John Todd (1787-1865); he was the uncle of the Todd women, the family patriarch in Springfield, and sometimes the mediator when they had disputes.
More information: Mary Lincoln’s Family, a “Looking for Lincoln” historical marker on the southwest corner of Lincoln Library, Springfield’s public library, Seventh Street and Capitol Avenue.
Photos: lincolncollection.org (Smith); ORCF
FRANCES TODD WALLACE (1817-1899) Block 10 GPS 39.82515N, 89.65769W
Sister of Mary Lincoln.
One year older than Mary Lincoln, Frances Todd met Dr. William S. Wallace while visiting her sister Elizabeth Edwards in Springfield; the couple married in 1839. William Wallace, the Lincoln family physician, followed Lincoln to Washington, D.C., at the start of the Civil War and was an army major and paymaster. He was stationed in Missouri and later Mississippi, where he contracted dysentery from which he never recovered. Abraham Lincoln’s son, William “Willie” Wallace Lincoln (1850-1862), was named after Dr. Wallace.
The Mary Lincoln’s Family historic marker in downtown Springfield reports some people considered Frances “taciturn, cold and indifferent,” but her newspaper obituary says, “Her quiet home was a central place for the entire neighborhood, and young and old alike loved to seek her society.” Of the four Todd sisters in Springfield, Frances was the last to die.
Note: The Wallace grave marker has eroded and is hard to read.
More information: Findagrave.com.
Photos: Wikitree (Wallace); ORCF
ELIZABETH TODD EDWARDS (1813-1888) Block 10 GPS 39.82554N, 89.65811W (look for roadside sign for Edward Lewis Baker)
Mary Lincoln’s sister, confidant and caregiver.
The oldest of the four Todd sisters in Springfield, Elizabeth also was the one closest to her sister Mary. Mary lived with Elizabeth and her husband, Ninian Wirt Edwards, until Mary’s marriage to Abraham Lincoln, and their marriage took place in the Edwards home (since demolished).
Elizabeth consoled Mary in the White House after the death of the Lincolns’ son Willie, and Mary was put in Elizabeth’s care after being released from an asylum in 1875. In her last months, with her health failing, Mary returned to live with Elizabeth. She died in the Edwards home in July 1882.
Ninian Wirt Edwards was a legislator (and another member of the “Long Nine”). He also served terms as Illinois attorney general and superintendent of public instruction. He was not, however, a reliable political ally of his brother-in-law, and during the Civil War, allegations that Edwards was corrupt frequently embarrassed the president.
Note: Don’t confuse Ninian Wirt Edwards with either his father, also named Ninian Edwards, or with his grandson, Ninian Wirt Edwards II. The first Ninian Edwards was Illinois’ territorial governor and later the state’s third elected governor. All are buried in the Edwards family plot, the centerpiece of which is the monument to Gov. Edwards.
More information: Mr. Lincoln & Friends, The Mary Lincoln Enigma (book).
Photos: lincolncollection.org (Edwards); ORCF
REV. CHARLES DRESSER (1800-1865) Block 9 GPS 39.82615N, 89.65830W
Officiated Lincoln marriage, first owner of Lincoln Home.
Rev. Charles Dresser is known as both the minister who celebrated the marriage ceremony of Abraham and Mary Lincoln and the man who first owned the cottage at Eighth and Jackson streets that became the Lincolns’ home for 17 years.
Dresser, who became rector of Springfield’s Episcopal Church in 1838, had the house at Eighth and Jackson built in 1839. It originally was a 1½-story, five-room structure. Dresser sold the cottage to the Lincolns for $1,500 in May 1844. They later expanded the home.
The Lincolns originally were to be wed in the Dresser house, but Mary’s sister Elizabeth Edwards – who opposed the marriage – at the last minute offered her family’s more opulent home on Second Street as the wedding site. Dresser nonetheless conducted the ceremony.
More information: Lincoln Home National Historic Site, SangamonLink.org.
Photos: Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, Mississippi State University (Dresser); ORCF
PHOEBE ROUNTREE FLORVILLE (1804-1897) Block 5 GPS 39.82646N, 89.65884W
Wife of William Florville, Abraham Lincoln’s barber and friend.
Phoebe Florville was born in Kentucky, the daughter of an enslaved woman, Lucy Rountree; her father probably was Henry Rountree, the man who enslaved her mother. Lucy Rountree and her children were released from slavery shortly before they accompanied Henry to Sangamon County in 1829. Phoebe married William Florville (1807-1868), a Springfield barber, in 1832.
William Florville, often known as “Billy the Barber,” also was a sagacious businessman, and Lincoln handled many of Florville’s legal affairs. In turn, according to tradition, Florville cut Lincoln’s hair, with the two men telling jokes and stories as he did so.
Lincoln and Florville remained friends after Lincoln became president. “Tell Taddy that his and Willie’s dog is alive and kicking, doing well,” William Florville wrote in an 1862 letter to the president.
William Florville’s investments helped make the Florville family Springfield’s wealthiest Black family for decades after his death. Phoebe Florville’s elaborate “broken tree” gravestone, the creation of premier local stonecarver Edward Levanius, is a sign of that prosperity.
Note: William Florville, a Haitian immigrant and Catholic, is buried in Calvary Cemetery, the Catholic cemetery that borders Oak Ridge to the north.
More information: Dictionary of American Negro Biography (book); SangamonLink.org
Photo: ORCF (no photo exists of Phoebe Florville)
)REV. HENRY BROWN (1823-1906) Block 5 GPS 39.82653N, 89.65908W (look for Underground Railroad graveside plaque)
African Methodist Episcopal Church evangelist, Underground Railroad conductor.
Rev. Henry Brown is best known to history because of photographs taken not of him, but of Abraham Lincoln’s horse, “Old Bob.” The photos were taken on May 4, 1865, the day of Lincoln’s funeral. Brown and another local AME minister, Rev. W.C. Trevan, were asked to lead Old Bob in the funeral procession.
The horse, draped in a mourning blanket, walked just behind the honorary pallbearers and ahead of carriages bearing Lincoln’s relatives, including the president’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln. As a result, Brown and Trevan appear to have been the only Black marchers not relegated to the end of the parade. Even then, newspaper reports named Old Bob but identified Brown and Trevan only as “two grooms.”
Brown deserved more. He had devoted his life to organizing AME congregations, traveling – often on foot – throughout Illinois to camp meetings and revivals. “He was a man of immense physique, being six feet, three inches in height and weighing 250 pounds, a fact that enabled him to withstand many hardships,” the Journal said in his obituary. “In those early days, it was not an easy matter for a stranger to secure accommodations, especially if he was colored.”
Before the Civil War, Brown also worked with the Underground Railroad network between Quincy and Springfield, helping runaways escape bondage in the South. “His idea of the golden rule was illustrated by one instance when he gave his own coat and vest to a poor fellow who was without one,” the Journal obituary said.
More information: coloredconventions.org
Photos: lincolncollection.org (Henry Brown); ORCF
JAMES H. MATHENY (1818-1890) Block 7 GPS 39.82679N, 89.65751W
Best man at the wedding of Abraham and Mary Lincoln.
“On the morning of his wedding on November 4, 1842, Mr. Lincoln woke up James Matheny, told him he was getting married that night and asked him to be his best man” – Mr. Lincoln & Friends (The Lehrman Institute).
Matheny met Lincoln in the 1830s, when Matheny worked in the Springfield post office and Lincoln was postmaster of New Salem. Both would go on to become lawyers, friends and sometimes political opponents (Matheny, originally a Whig like Lincoln, joined the American Party – the “Know-Nothings” – after the Whigs broke up; he later became a Democrat).
Their close association as young men, as well as Matheny’s candor, made Matheny a valuable source when William Herndon (see Site 1 above) was compiling information for his biography, Herndon’s Lincoln. Among other things, Matheny contended Lincoln was forced to marry Mary Todd – “Lincoln looked and acted like he was going to the slaughter,” Matheny told Herndon – and that Lincoln was an “infidel” when it came to religion.
Matheny had a long and distinguished career of his own. He served as a lieutenant colonel during the Civil War, was elected Sangamon County circuit clerk, and held the office of Sangamon County judge from 1873 until he died.
More information: Mr. Lincoln & Friends
Photos: Sangamon Valley Collection, Lincoln Library, Springfield (Matheny at cards, 1840s);ORCF