Further Notes On Link:

 

1. Mary Caroline, Harry and Heaton’s older sister, wrote in her autobiography “When Mr. Lincoln was bidding his friends goodbye on that fateful day that he left Springfield for Washington in 1861, my grandfather came down to see him off. Why Mr. Owsley, said the President. “I thought you were down South.”   l was,” my grandfather replied,  “but my daughter was so uneasy for fear I should be killed that I came home."  "Why are they so excited’?’ asked Mr. Lincoln. “Because they are so afraid you are going to free the Negroes. said my grandfather. Lincoln shook his head, saying “I fear that will never come in your life time or mine.”

 

 My grandfather died a short time after the assassination of the man he so much admired, and requested that he be buried in the same cemetery where his hero was laid.  “

 

2. In the article “The Rise of Abraham Lincoln and the Founding of Lincoln, Illinois (1853)”  by Darold Leigh Henson, Ph.D published on the web there is a short biography of John’s sister Ella Owsley Banierd which refers to the fact that they were aquaintances with Lincoln.

 

3. On a website on rare books about

Lincoln the following note: The Owsley home, Springfield, Ill... | Wall 1941 [illustration]. Cerise. Signed. 10 x 12.5 cm.

http://www.dsloan.com/online_ex/wall/A.1.34-FJW1-71-80.html

 

4. According to an article in American Hertiage Magazine published in 1955 a missing corner of the notes Lincoln used during the debate with Stephen Doulas in 1858 turned up in the remains of an estate in Charottesville, Virginia.  The missing corner was autogaphed to his young admirer Harry B. Owsley.

 

5. Even though Harry owned a large plantation near Walnut Flats in Lincoln County, Kentucky, he along with his close friend Cassius Clay became early advocates of emancipation.  According to the autobiography of Caroline Owsley Brown, “Childhood in Kentucky”, when Clay ran on the Emancipation Ticket in about 1841,  Harry would accompany him to political gatherings and stand behind him with a loaded pistol in each hand while he spoke.  Harry voluntarily freed his slaves, who remained devoted to him,  at a time it was not popular.

 

Lincoln was also an admirer of Cassius Clay.  Thw Todd family were also close friends with the Clay family in Kentucky.

 

6. Lincoln was friends with Albert Bledsoe, uncle of Henrietta Heaton, 2^nd wife of John Owsley.  His law office was next door to Lincoln’s and Albert and his wife resided at the Globe Tavern located on Adams street at the same time as Lincoln and his wife. 

 

It is rumored that he taught Lincoln to use the Saber and served as his 2^nd during a duel.

 

6. Lincoln also was close friends with Christopher C. Brown . 

 

Christopher was an member of the Stuart  & Edwards Law firm.  Judge Benjamin Edwards was related to Lincoln by marriage and Christopher’s first wife was Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of Major Stuart. 

In his autobiography he stated Lincoln was a wedding guest and that they played billards and handball together.

 

After Christopher’s first wife died, he rmarried Mary Caroline Owsley, daughter of John Owsley.  They remainded close with the Stuarts even living with them off and on and their children referred to Major Stuart as Grandfather.

 

He also wrote in his autobiography that after Major Stuart died that his wife burned letters between Stuart and Lincoln considering them too personal to be published.

 

7. William Owsley who boarded at the Owsley home from 1857 - 1859 read law with Lincoln.

 

8.  Caroline (Mary Caroline) Owsley Brown’s, daughter of John, account of Springfield is used as a source in multiple books on Lincoln’s life.

 

9.  Orange B. Heaton’s name, John Owsley’s Father-In-Law, appears in Lincoln’s legal papers.

 

10.  Former Springfield Residences:

 

1842

 

Lincoln and Wife reside at Old Globe Tavern which stood at 315 E. Adams Street on the north side  between 3^rd and 4th.

 

A. Bledsoe and his wife also resided there and were close friends.

 

1844-45

 

A. Lincoln and wife M. Todd purchase house at 8^th and Jackson

1857 Springfield City Directory

 

H. Owsley resides on Adams between

2^nd and 3^rd

 

J. Owsley resides on 2^nd between Jackson and Edwards

 

1857 Daily State Journal

 

Mr. John Owsley purchases residence of Mr. Post on Adams  3 blocks West of the Square

 

1881 City Directory

 

605 Sth 4^th Home of Bledsoe and Condell

 

312 Adams Residence of Bishop Seymour

 

441 South 2^nd  Ninian Edward residence

 

529 South 4^th Residence of C.C. Brown and Mary Caroline Owsley

 

1918 Book Lincoln In Illinois

 

residence of Bishop Seymour – the  former residence of John Owsley where Lincoln was often a guest

 

Edwards Home next door to home of John Owsley

 

Today

 

Edwards on Union between 4^th and 5^th now houses Springfield Art Museum