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33-697: The Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial is a 162-acre (66 ha) state park located on the Sangamon River in Macon County near Harristown, Illinois , United States. The state memorial is believed to contain the site of the homestead , from March 1830 until March 1831, of pioneer Thomas Lincoln and about 12 members of his extended family , including grown son Abraham Lincoln . The Lincolns moved to this location, west of Decatur, Illinois , from Indiana in March 1830. Using local logs, they constructed

66-588: A 16 foot by 16 foot (4.8 m by 4.8 m) cabin along the river. The following year in 1831, he canoed down the river to homestead on his own near New Salem in Menard County northwest of Springfield. Later that year he floated down the river with companions on a flatboat to the Illinois River , and then following the Mississippi River to New Orleans . Lincoln was impressed by the navigational difficulties on

99-480: A 18-by-18-foot (5.5 m × 5.5 m) log cabin on the site. It was here that Abraham split rails for his father's 10-acre (4.0 ha) field, and also "hired out" to split rails for neighboring pioneer farmers, inspiring his later political nickname, the Rail Splitter . Split-rail fences were used by pioneer farmers to confine their stock, or to prevent free-range livestock from getting into and damaging

132-575: A conflict between the Illini and Fox as part of the larger French and Iroquois Wars . French traders were active in the region throughout the middle 18th century when it was part of the Illinois Country . The first U.S. settlers arrived in the region in the 1810s. In 1821, Elijah Iles built a log-framed store, the first commercial building in Springfield. Groups of Cumberland Presbyterians settled

165-504: A crop field. The settlement was not successful. The Lincoln family's corn crop produced a disappointing yield, partly because it was planted directly in the sod of the tallgrass prairie , and many of the members of the family then developed severe cases of malaria associated with living in the Illinois wetlands. Following this came the winter of 1830–1831, known to pioneers as the Winter of

198-617: A guide and axeman. In later years, he told of taking a steamship three miles (5 km) into the prairie after losing his way on the Sangamon during a flood. During his first campaign for the Illinois General Assembly in 1832, he made navigational improvements on the river a centerpiece of his platform. From 1848 to 1860, Lincoln practiced law in the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit, which meant he regularly crossed

231-644: A low of 17 °F (−8 °C) in January to a high of 88 °F (31 °C) in July, although a record low of −25 °F (−32 °C) was recorded in February 1905 and a record high of 113 °F (45 °C) was recorded in July 1954. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.95 inches (50 mm) in February to 4.54 inches (115 mm) in July. As of the 2010 United States Census , there were 110,768 people, 45,855 households, and 29,326 families residing in

264-547: A new farmstead at what is now the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site near Charleston, Illinois . Young Abraham hired out as a flatboatman , on the Sangamon, locating a new home for himself in New Salem, Illinois . See also: Abraham Lincoln's early life and career . The abandoned Lincoln cabin remained on the site and was re-used as a school house and a farm building. It was ignored until 1865 when it

297-618: A small flour mill. The state memorial, created in 1938 on the Whitley site, now serves as a park and picnic area for the greater Decatur, Illinois metropolitan area . The park contains mature second-growth bottomland timber, including black walnut trees; the Whitleys' pioneer cemetery; and the remains of the flour mill and dam on the Sangamon River. The park was formally dedicated in 1957. Archeologists have not yet discovered any evidence of

330-705: Is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois . According to the 2020 United States Census , it had a population of 103,998. Its county seat and most populous city is Decatur . Macon County comprises the Decatur, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area . Macon County was formed on January 19, 1829, out of Shelby County . It was named for Nathaniel Macon , a Colonel in the Revolutionary War . Macon later served as senator from North Carolina until his resignation in 1828. In 1830, future US President Abraham Lincoln and his family moved to Macon County. According to

363-536: The Laurentide Ice Sheet covered about 85 percent of Illinois, including the Macon County area. The subsequent thaw of the region and retreat of the ice sheet left central Illinois with its present characteristic flat topography . Because of its central location, Macon County is often referred to as "The Heart of Illinois." In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Decatur have ranged from

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396-589: The Sangamon River State Fish and Wildlife Area , Lincoln's New Salem , Saybrook, and the Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area . The river was mentioned in Sufjan Stevens 's song "Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!". Singer songwriter Ben Bedford references the Sangamon in several of his songs, one of which is titled after it. Macon County, Illinois Macon County

429-625: The US Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 586 square miles (1,520 km ), of which 581 square miles (1,500 km ) is land and 5.2 square miles (13 km ) (0.9%) is water. Macon County is primarily flat, as is most of the state and all of the surrounding counties, the result of geological activity during the Pleistocene epoch. During the Illinoian Stage of the Pleistocene,

462-601: The Deep Snow . It was a particularly harsh winter for the area, with lengthy periods of sub-zero temperatures and snowfall totalling 6 feet (180 cm). The Lincoln clan faced serious hunger. According to one report, "Abraham rode to nearby homes seeking food for his family." The hard winter and miserable conditions broke up the Lincoln family. In March 1831, Thomas Lincoln and his wife Sarah Bush Lincoln , Abraham's stepmother, moved southeast to Coles County ; they eventually built

495-544: The Democratic Party again due to its strong industrial base. Macon County voted for the winner in every election from 1920 through 1996 save in 1960, 1968, and 1988, in two of which it voted for a losing Democrat over a winning Republican ( Humphrey over Nixon in 1968 and Dukakis over George H. W. Bush in 1988 ). In 2000, Macon voted for a losing Democrat for the third time since the New Deal, as Al Gore narrowly held

528-522: The Democratic Party, voting for it in every election through 1860. Republican Abraham Lincoln won the county in the 1864 election, and from then until the Great Depression Macon County became solidly Republican, only giving a narrow plurality to Woodrow Wilson in 1912 when the GOP was divided by Theodore Roosevelt's splinter–party run. The FDR-era New Deal saw the county become more amenable to

561-542: The Lake Michigan Glacial Lobe advanced rapidly, leaving a terminal moraine parallel to the modern Sangamon River. The ice stagnated and melted behind this moraine, without the meltwater overtopping the terminal moraine. Along this stretch, the eastern part of the watershed of the Sangamon therefore consists of short creeks, two to three miles (3–5 km) in length, that drain the face of the moraine. This forms an asymmetric watershed typical of rivers formed along

594-507: The city was forced to warn people not to allow babies to consume water in Decatur because of "blue baby syndrome", Methemoglobinemia . Decatur has now installed nitrate treatment to avoid this problem. The upper Sangamon, between Mahomet and Monticello, runs along the face of a terminal moraine within the Lake Michigan Glacial Lobe, which ranges in age from 28,000 to 12,000 BP. During the glacial Woodfordian Substage (middle Wisconsin Stage), ice of

627-416: The county, but since then the county has once again trended Republican, as George W. Bush carried the county over John Kerry in 2004 with the same vote share as Reagan in his 1984 national landslide. Illinois native Barack Obama did carry the county with a plurality in his sweeping 2008 triumph, but was convincingly defeated by Mitt Romney in the county in 2012 . In 2016 , Hillary Clinton got

660-399: The county. The population density was 190.8 inhabitants per square mile (73.7/km ). There were 50,475 housing units at an average density of 86.9 per square mile (33.6/km ). The racial makeup of the county was 79.3% white, 16.3% black or African American, 1.0% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.7% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.9% of

693-417: The east just north of Beardstown . The Sangamon is impounded in Decatur to form Lake Decatur , constructed in 1920–1922 to provide a water supply for Decatur. This lake, formed by damming the main stem of the river, with no control over upstream land uses, has had major problems with siltation and agricultural pollution . The lake often has excessive nitrate levels from agricultural runoff. Many times

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726-611: The exact location of the Lincoln family's 1830–1831 cabin, and the cabin may have been located within or slightly outside the state memorial boundary. Abraham Lincoln himself described his life at the Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial in this 1860 account, which he wrote for John L. Scripps of the Chicago Press and Tribune to be used as a campaign biography: March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his twenty-first year, his father and family, with

759-455: The face of a terminal moraine. The river was home to many different groups of Native Americans in the centuries before the arrival of Europeans . The name of the river comes from a Pottawatomie word Sain-guee-mon meaning "where there is plenty to eat." In the 18th century, groups of the Kickapoo settled along the river. In the middle 18th century, the region near the river was the scene of

792-452: The families of the two daughters and sons-in-law of his stepmother, left the old homestead in Indiana and came to Illinois . Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn by ox-teams, and Abraham drove one of the teams. They reached the county of Macon , and stopped there some time within the same month of March. His father and family settled a new place on the north side of the Sangamon River, at

825-612: The first or only rails ever made by Abraham. Sangamon River The river rises from several short headstreams in southern McLean County that arise from a glacial moraine southeast of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois . Part of the moraine is publicly owned as the Moraine View State Recreation Area . The river's course forms a large arc through central Illinois, first flowing east into Champaign County, Illinois , south through Mahomet , then west through Monticello and Decatur , then turning northwest to flow along

858-410: The junction of the timberland and prairie , about ten miles (16 km) westerly from Decatur. Here they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke the ground, and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year. These are, or are supposed to be, the rails about which so much is being said just now, though these are far from being

891-401: The north side of Springfield . It receives Salt Creek at 40°7′33.24″N 89°49′30.36″W  /  40.1259000°N 89.8251000°W  / 40.1259000; -89.8251000 , approximately 25 miles (40 km) north-northwest of Springfield; then the river turns west, forming the southern boundary of Mason County with Menard and Cass counties. It joins the Illinois River from

924-428: The population. In terms of ancestry, 21.7% were German , 17.0% were American , 12.9% were Irish , and 10.8% were English . Of the 45,855 households, 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.7% were married couples living together, 14.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.0% were non-families, and 30.9% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size

957-496: The river as he traveled around the circuit. The Potawatomi Trail of Death passed through here in 1838. Despite its environmental problems, the Sangamon River is a focus of recreation for the people of Central Illinois. Key parklands along the river, moving from upstream to downstream, include Shady Rest , Robert Allerton Park , the parks bordering Lake Decatur, Rock Springs Conservation Area , Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park, Springfield's Carpenter Park and Riverside Park,

990-448: The river valley beginning in 1825, giving the region a distinctive culture identified and described at the turn of the 20th century by Edgar Lee Masters . Abraham Lincoln arrived with his family in the area in 1830 to settle a section of government land bisected by the river. The site, now Lincoln Trail Homestead State Memorial , was selected by Lincoln's father after the family migrated from Indiana . The 21-year-old Lincoln helped build

1023-453: The river, especially during the arrival of the first steamship , the Talisman , a 150-ton steamer, up the river to Springfield in March 1832. Some sources state that Lincoln himself piloted the first steamship up the Sangamon to Springfield, accomplishing this feat with many men, almost as large as Lincoln, with axes to chop through whatever trees impeded the journey. More likely Lincoln acted as

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1056-501: Was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.89. The median age was 40.3 years. The median income for a household in the county was $ 44,337 and the median income for a family was $ 57,570. Males had a median income of $ 48,570 versus $ 31,568 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 24,726. About 10.3% of families and 15.7% of the population were below the poverty line , including 26.1% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over. In its early years Macon County favored

1089-525: Was dismantled and shipped for public viewing to Chicago; Boston Common ; and finally the private museum in New York City operated by showman P.T. Barnum . After that, the cabin was lost to history and its ultimate fate is unknown. The abandoned Lincoln farmstead was later settled by the Whitley family, who lived at the site for several generations; the Whiteleys built a dam across the Sangamon River to power

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