 | |
| Industry | General store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1832 |
| Defunct | 1834 |
Area served | New Salem, Illinois |
| Owner | Abraham Lincoln William F. Berry |
The Lincoln-Berry General Store was a general store that was co-owned by Abraham Lincoln. The store is one of the reconstructed 1830s buildings at Lincoln's New Salem, a state historic site. [1] It was and is the only frame (not log) building in New Salem. [2]
In January 1832, 23-year-old Lincoln and 21-year-old William F. Berry, a member of Lincoln's militia company during the Black Hawk War, purchased one of the three general stores in New Salem from James and Rowan Herndon. [3] The two men signed personal notes to purchase the business and a later acquisition of another store's inventory. [4]
The store sold general merchandise, such as apparel, dry goods, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of food, including takeout meals for stage passengers. For a short time, the two men were thriving merchants. Lincoln often slept in the back room of the store after a long night of reading. [5]
Lincoln described the store in his 1860 autobiography, writing in the third person: "He studied what he should do -- thought of learning the blacksmith trade -- thought of trying to study law --rather thought he could not succeed at that without a better education. Before long, strangely enough, a man offered to sell, and did sell, to Abraham and another as poor as himself, an old stock of goods, upon credit. They opened as merchants; and he says that was the store." [6]
In January, Berry applied for a liquor license costing 7 dollars, and the establishment became a tavern as well. As licensed bartenders, Berry and Lincoln sold liquor at 12 cents a pint. The venture added revenue to the business but was not enough to keep it profitable. [7]
By 1833, New Salem was no longer a growing community; the Sangamon River proved to be inadequate for commercial transportation and no roads or railroads allowed easy access to other markets. Adding to the stresses on the business, Berry became an alcoholic and was often too drunk to work, requiring Lincoln to run the store by himself. [8]
Historians have claimed that "local tradition maintained that disagreement over the sale of liquor caused the dissolution of the Lincoln-Berry partnership soon after they obtained the liquor license." [9] [10] Lincoln sold his share of the business to Berry in 1833, which closed the following year. [11] [12] After Berry's death in 1835, Lincoln was left with a business debt of $1,100.00 ( $40000.00 in 2024) that he was not able to pay off until becoming a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1847. [13] [14] [15]
At the first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates in Ottawa, Illinois, on August 21, 1858, Stephen Douglas derided Lincoln for operating a "grocery", a euphemism for a tavern.
Lincoln told customers when the quality of a particular product was not very good, and according to local legend, Lincoln once took 6 cents too much from a customer and walked three miles to return the money. [16] Lincoln's work as an everyman's store clerk and trustworthy business owner helped lead to his nickname as "Honest Abe". [17] [18] [19]
The 1930 film Abraham Lincoln features Lincoln's time as a storekeeper at the Lincoln-Berry store during the first act.
The 1933–1934 Chicago World's Fair included a replica building exhibit of the Lincoln-Berry store.
A 1928 Frank Schoonover painting of Lincoln working in the store is on display in the Norman Rockwell Museum. [20]
The opening scene of the 1939 film Young Mr. Lincoln is set in the Lincoln-Berry store.
Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defending the nation as a constitutional union, defeating the insurgent Confederacy, playing a major role in the abolition of slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.
Iuka is a village in Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 512 at the 2020 census.
Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical-drama film that depicts the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as president of the United States. In the UK, the film is known by the alternate title Spirit of the People. The film was adapted by Grover Jones and Robert E. Sherwood from Sherwood's 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. It was directed by John Cromwell.
Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site is a reconstruction of the former village of New Salem in Menard County, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln lived from 1831 to 1837. While in his twenties, the future U.S. President made his living in this village as a boatman, soldier in the Black Hawk War, general store owner, postmaster, surveyor, and rail splitter, and was first elected to the Illinois General Assembly.
William Henry Herndon was a law partner and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln. He was an early member of the new Republican Party and was elected mayor of Springfield, Illinois.
Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a play written by the American playwright Robert E. Sherwood in 1938, based principally on the 1926 biography Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years by Carl Sandburg. The play, in three acts, covers the life of President Abraham Lincoln from his childhood through his final speech in Illinois before he left for Washington. The play also covers his romance with Mary Todd and his debates with Stephen A. Douglas, and uses Lincoln's own words in some scenes. Sherwood received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1939 for his work.
Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the mother of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Her marriage to Thomas Lincoln also produced a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Thomas Jr. When Nancy and Thomas had been married for just over 10 years, the family moved from Kentucky to western Perry County, Indiana, in 1816. When Spencer County was formed in 1818, the Lincoln Homestead lay within its current boundaries. Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness or consumption in 1818 at the Little Pigeon Creek Community in Spencer County when Abraham was nine years old.
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is a designated U.S. historic park preserving two separate farm sites in LaRue County, Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln was born and lived early in his childhood. He was born at the Sinking Spring site south of Hodgenville and remained there until the family moved to the Knob Creek Farm northeast of Hodgenville when he was two years old, living there until he was seven years of age. The park's visitor center is located at the Sinking Spring site.
The Salem Maritime National Historic Site is a National Historic Site consisting of 12 historic structures, one replica tall-ship, and about 9 acres of land along the waterfront of Salem Harbor in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Salem Maritime is the first National Historic Site established in the United States. It interprets the Triangle Trade during the colonial period, in cotton, rum, sugar and slaves; the actions of privateers during the American Revolution; and global maritime trade with the Far East, after independence. The National Park Service manages both the National Historic Site and a Regional Visitor Center in downtown Salem. The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior.
Mordecai Lincoln was an uncle of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was the eldest son of Captain Abraham Lincoln, a brother of Thomas Lincoln and Mary Lincoln Crume, and the husband of Mary Mudd. He is buried at the Old Catholic or Lincoln Cemetery near Fountain Green, Illinois.
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring farm, south of Hodgenville in Hardin County, Kentucky. His siblings were Sarah Lincoln Grigsby and Thomas Lincoln, Jr. After a land title dispute forced the family to leave in 1811, they relocated to Knob Creek farm, eight miles to the north. By 1814, Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's father, had lost most of his land in Kentucky in legal disputes over land titles. In 1816, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, their nine-year-old daughter Sarah, and seven-year-old Abraham moved to what became Indiana, where they settled in Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana.
Denton Offutt was an American general store operator who hired future President Abraham Lincoln for his first job as an adult in New Salem, Illinois.
Sarah Bush Lincoln was the second wife of Thomas Lincoln and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln. She was born in Kentucky to Christopher and Hannah Bush. She married her first husband, Daniel Johnston, in 1806, and they had three children. Daniel Johnston died in 1816, and in 1819, she married widower Thomas Lincoln, joining his family with her three children.
William G. "Slicky Bill" Greene Jr. (1812–1894) was an American businessman who was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. He did business in Menard County, Illinois. Greene founded Tallula, Illinois in 1857, and Greenview, Illinois is named after him.
Lexington, Kentucky was a city of importance during the American Civil War, with notable residents participating on both sides of the conflict. These included John C. Breckinridge, Confederate generals John Hunt Morgan and Basil W. Duke, and the Todd family, who mostly served the Confederacy although one, Mary Todd Lincoln, was the first lady of the United States, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.
Abe is a musical in two acts based on the life of President Abraham Lincoln with book & lyrics by Lee Goldsmith, music by Roger Anderson and orchestration by Greg Anthony. The musical covers the life of Abraham Lincoln from his earliest attempts at self-improvement through the 1860 election which made him the 16th president of an already fracturing United States. Also explored is Lincoln's youth as a flatboat pilot on the Mississippi, his early love for Ann Rutledge, his troubled marriage to the difficult and mentally fragile Mary Todd, and his attempt to be a good father to his sons.
17 Lincoln Street is a historic building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located in the northeastern residential block of Reynolds Square, it is one of the city's oldest continuously running bars, having been in operation as such since 1852. Today, it is home to Abe's on Lincoln, a dive bar named for Abraham Lincoln. In a survey for Historic Savannah Foundation, Mary Lane Morrison found the building to be of significant status.
The Association of Lincoln Presenters is a membership organization founded by Dan Bassuk in 1990. It was established as a members' society for impersonators of 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The group has been the subject of a feature-length documentary and a photography exhibition by Greta Pratt.
Henry Brown was an American minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, abolitionist, and leader of the Underground Railroad.
