On my most recent Chasing Abraham Lincoln trip I stopped in Beardstown, Illinois to visit the site of one of Lincoln’s most famous cases – the Almanac Murder Trial. Beardstown has the only active courthouse that Lincoln practiced in, and the 1858 trial was both sensational and controversial.
I arrived at the Beardstown Courthouse Museum around 3:50 pm. The sign said it was open only until 4 pm, so I rushed in to find a nearly empty foyer and some locked doors. As my hopes began to fade I encountered a resident volunteer guide named Paula Woods. I felt intrusive as I told her I would like to see the museum, as she fumbled for an old-fashioned keychain reminiscent of a jailhouse. Before we were finished, I actual did see the jailhouse cell that had held Duff Armstrong, the man charged with murder.
Even before she opened up the first door leading to a small room filled with Lincoln and trial-related artifacts, the visit turned into something special. In the foyer Paula pointed out a tall sign highlighting the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area and the Looking for Lincoln campaign. I had indeed heard of it, I said, and had in fact just participated in the LEAD: Spirit of Lincoln Leadership Academy program (hence my late arrival to Beardstown). It turns out Paula isn’t just a volunteer, she is the Chair of the Commission that runs the courthouse museum and other historical locations in Cass County. She is also on the LEAD program Board!
The 4 pm closing time quickly sped away as Paula showed me the exhibits and then unlocked the door to the stairs leading to the second floor courtroom. The court is still in session, she explains, with cases heard about once a month. Entering the doorway I was standing in the very court where Lincoln defended Duff Armstrong. The key witness in the trial claimed he clearly saw the fight by “the light of a high moon” around 10 or 11 pm that night. Aha, thought the scientifically minded Lincoln and produced an almanac showing the moon “runs low” that night and was already setting by the time of the incident. Having shown the witness lying, Duff Armstrong was acquitted. On the wall is a large painting depicting the moment Lincoln pointed out the discrepancy to the jury, the almanac clear on this point.
The almanac most often depicted was the Old Farmer’s Almanac for that date, although no one actually knows if it was that one or another of the several available at the time. There is even a suggestion that the almanac was forged, but modern recalculations show the moon would indeed have been unusually low that night, part of an 18.6-year lunar cycle that affects lunar declination.
As people started to show up for a pre-arranged community meeting in the courtroom, Paula took me around other parts of the courthouse, including the jailhouse. It was here that Duff Armstrong spent his days and nights waiting for his trial to start. Lincoln had been friends with the Armstrong family for many years and wrote Hannah Armstrong as soon as he heard about her son Duff’s predicament. Lincoln refused payment, citing his work as thanks for all the favors done by the Jack and Hannah over the many years of Lincoln’s life.
Long after the official closing time I thanked Paula for staying late on my behalf. We discussed the work of the LEAD program and Heritage Area, as well as how my book has successfully brought Lincoln to a broad swath of the American public. Having started the day with the LEAD students, it was time to head north for more adventures Chasing Abraham Lincoln.
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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