Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death. In 1922 and 1923, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (or D.A.R. for short) erected 19 markers in Central Illinois commemorating the route Abraham Lincoln traveled on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. On June 14, 1922, the DAR unveiled one of these Eighth Circuit markers in front of the McLean County Courthouse (now home to the McLean County of History). Although Lincoln did not practice law in this 1903 courthouse, he was a regular visiting attorney to the county's second courthouse, which was located on the same public square. Bloomington resident Julia Green Scott, at the time honorary president of the national D.A.R., gave the welcoming remarks. "It is one of the happiest occasions of my life," she said at the time. This marker, by the way, is still standing in its original location.
