Juniata County PA Archives Newspapers.....Sen. John J. Patterson meets Abe Lincoln 1850
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SAYS LINCOLN'S STORIES IN BARROOM WERE BEST
Former Senator Patterson tells of meeting Abe in Backwoods,
before he was known to Nation
The North American, Feb, 14 1909
Back in 1850, when Abraham Lincoln was still just an Illinois lawyer, unkown
even in name to the majority of his countryman, a youth from Pennsylvania, who
happened to be traveling through the western state, remote in the days of stage
coaches and few railroads, caught a picture of the future war President, which
remains with him to this day.
The youth now turned 80 years, but the mental images of several hours spent
in a dingy little room off the bar of an Illinois tavern and especially of the
figure which dominated it are still fresh with the vividness of life.
And those impressions, tinged and hue-heightened now, as everything in the life
of Lincoln, by his noble service to the Union and by his tragic taking off,
reveal the human Lincoln, the man before he became the appresses and melancholy
arbiter in a mighty war. They show him on his native heath, living his life as
his instincts bade him, rather than as his stern sense of duty compelled him to
live.
Comfortably seated in a great armchair at the Hotel Normandie in this city,
former, United States Senator John Patterson, a Pennsylvanian by birth, and
residence, but a senator from South Carolina during the reconstruction days,
told of the time when, as a youth of 20, he first saw Abraham Lincoln.
Chased a Cattle Thief
I was but a young chap, just out of college, and living in Juniata county,
Pennsylvania. When by freak chance I got the opportunity to take a trip out
through the western county, said Mr. Patterson. Or, rather, I made the
chance for myself. In those days there was but little actual money used in
business transactions back in the country, and it was usually a case of
bartering off one class of goods for another.
Now, a man in our town, Academia, walked off in one of these bartering
transactions with a herd of cattle, and took them down stream. Of course,
there was a big rumpus, but he got away from us and no one knew where he had
slipped to until about a year later, when a girl in the town got a letter from
him asking her to come out to Illinois to join and marry him.
He gave his residence as Berlin, Illinois, on the Fox River. It was a new
town and had just got a postoffice. When I got wind of the fact that the
cattle thief was out there the spirit of adventure seized me, and I put the
proposition up to the man from whom the cattle had been stolen that he should
pay my traveling expenses and let me go for the man.
After considerable hemming and hawing and persuasion of my parents I finally
got away. It was a big undertaking in those days, and I would never have
started as all if I had realized what I had to go through. Hundreds and
hundreds of miles had to be traveled on stage coaches, many of them without
springs and on abominable roads.
But I was game, after I had gone all the way out there I got the aid of the
first Govennor of Wisconsin, in the Indian reservation of which state my man
had taken refuge. I captured the fellow and brought him all the way back
home. Not so bad for a kid of 20, was it?
It was while on this trip that I hauled into Springfield, Ill. Late one
afternoon, after traveling two nights and a day in a mud wagon', the
abomination of road travelers in those days. Of course, we alighted at the
stage office, which was then the core of the town, the center for the reception
and distribution of all the news from the outside world. Here I happened to be
lucky enough to run into a man from my own state of Pennsylvania. We took
dinner together, and after dinner my chance companion, who was much older than
I was invited me into the bar. We went into a dingy, dirty little room back of
the barroom and I noticed that on the table in the room there were whiskey
bottles and green glasses. I remarked to my friend that this was strange, as
there was no one in the room at the time.
Distinguished Men in Bar
But it didn't take us long to find that there was nothing strange about it,
for in a short time men began to come in by twos and threes, and soon there
gathered a group that filled the room.
We took back seats and listened to the round of hilarity and funny stories
that soon began to fly as the whiskey was consumed in amazing quantities. My
friend pointed out in the company there were some of the distinguished men of
state, Stephen A. Douglas among them.
They were, all of them, good story tellers, and I roared until my sides ached
at their ludicrous yarns. In the middle of the room there was a big wood
stove, which almost completely hid my view a man who seemed to be telling the
stories that made the biggest hits of all. About all I could see of him were
his big feet, which were high in the air on the edge of the stove. They all
addressed him with the greatest of affection as 'Abe'.
"I did not realize how fast the time was flying, as they swapped their stories
of the happenings in the court at Galena and elsewhere. Finally the man on the
other side of the stove said he guessed he'd have to be going home, as it was
getting very late. The men protested vigorously and kept repeating Just one
more story before you go, Abe! That process was gone through several times,
each time with another story and a netter one, until the man pulled his
enormous feet off the stove and rose to leave, amid general protest.
I can see him now, standing over there. I had not realized what a big man he
was. He towered above everybody in that little room. He pulled put his watch
slowly and then smiled.
Well, boys, it's 11 o'clock now. I didn't know how late it was. But I reckon
Mrs. Lincoln is as mad now as she can get. So I might as well stay on a little
whole longer.
There was a shout of laughter and of approval and the big man wound himself up
once again and sank down back of the stove, his feet coming up once more into my
line of vision. And the stories kept on flying. Lincoln -when he mentioned his
wife's name, it was the first time I had ever heard the name in my life -had to
do most of the talking, for most of the others were too drunk. Lincoln didn't
drink anything.
The next day on top of the stagecoach I asked my traveling companion who
Lincoln was. He replied that he was the best criminal lawyer in the state, and
eas a sure comer, for he was always in demand wherever he went. I went on my
way and thought little more about it. Only the way he said that about Mrs.
Lincoln being as mad as she could get and that he might as well take the
fullest advantage of it remained in my mind as one of the funniest things, as
it was said, I had ever heard.
When I went back home I jumped right into politics and was in the state
Legislature from 1859 until 1861. When I heard of Lincoln in his famous
debates with Douglas I was curious to ascertain whether it was that big chap in
the back of the barroom. I didn't see exactly how it could be. For that man
hardly looked the caliber.
In the great convention that nominated Lincoln in Chicago I was a delegate
from this state. Pennsylvania had great deal to do to do in nominating
Lincoln. I kept inquiring about him to find out whether it was my friend of
ten years back, but I couldn't be sure until his portrait was carried through
the hall after he was nominated.
First Meeting with Lincoln
The first time I had a chance to talk with Lincoln was when, as a member of a
committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature, I went to meet him near Pittsburgh
and invite him over to Harrisburg. This was after his first election. His
train had been held up by a freight wreck and we had to go out to meet him on a
special. We found him seated in his car, his feet way up in the air over the
car seat in front of him. When we told him we wanted him to come over to
Harrisburg and that we were a committee of the Legislature, appointed to invite
him, he began to unwind himself. I thought his legs were going to go through
the roof of the car, they were so long. He turned, after he had risen, to one
of his officials, and said:
You're managing this show. Where do we exhibit next? Get out the engagement
book! Then he looked over his list of engagements and fixed on a date.
I'll come over, then, boys, if you'll let me, he said. I want to get
acquainted with you boys in Pennsylvania. You were mighty good to me in
Chicago
Then he insisted on our staying in his car with him and sending our special on
ahead. In no time we were the best friends possible, and he was telling us his
incomparable stories.
I mentioned to him the incident of the evening in the Springfield barroom and
he roared, particularly when I repeated the remark he made about Mrs. Lincoln.
Then he grew thoughtful. Y-E-S, he drawled. I did use to go down there with
the boys a lot, that's true!
And he looked in his eyes as thought he wished he still might be able to go
down in the evening, and shove his feet up on the edge of that wood stove and
just swap yarns.
NOTE: Sen. John J. Patterson's obit may be seen at
http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/juniata/obits/patterson-john1912.txt