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THIS DAY IN LINCOLN HISTORY On May 27, 1854, in Danville, IL., Lincoln participates in two jury trials.

In first, his client is found guilty of keeping disorderly house and fined $20.

In second, jury returns verdict against defendant, whom Lincoln and Lamon represent, and assesses plaintiff's damages at $127.54.

The Lamon Home is an unique location to visit in the Danville, IL area. Probably the oldest frame residence in Danville, Built in 1850 by Joseph and Melissa Beckwith Lamon, Melissa was the daughter of the man after whom Danville was named -- Dan Beckwith.

Her husband, Joseph Lamon, was the cousin of Ward Hill Lamon, a Danville attorney who was for four years the law partner of Abraham Lincoln, and who later went to Washington, D.C. with Lincoln to act as the friend and bodyguard during the Civil War (1861-1865).

Find out more about visiting the Lamon home at:
https://vermilioncountymuseum.org/lamon-house/

THIS DAY IN LINCOLN HISTORY On May 24, 1863, President Lincoln and Republican U.S. Senator James R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, visit three Washington, D. C. hospitals.

A newspaper reports, "The President expressed his gratification at the excellent condition of the hospitals and the comfortable condition of the patients. He shook hands with over one thousand soldiers, nearly all of whom were able to stand up. The soldiers seemed highly delighted as the President grasped them by the hand."

From the New York Herald, 26 May 1863

Photo is of the Washington, D.C. Sanitary Commission Home Lodge, with convalescent soldiers and others outside quarters, c. 1862-1865, from the Library of Congress collection.

Info from www.thelincolnlog.org

THIS DAY IN LINCOLN HISTORY On May 22, 1849, Lincoln’s patent, No. 6,469, was granted on May 22, 1849, for a device for "Buoying Vessels Over Shoals," when he was back in Springfield practicing law after one term as an Illinois congressman in Washington. It was applied for March 10, 1849.

His idea, to equip boats with inflatable bellows of "india-rubber cloth, or other suitable water-proof fabric" levered alongside the hull, came as a result of river and lake expeditions he made as a young man, ferrying people and produce on area rivers. At least twice his boats ran aground on sandbars or hung up on other obstacles; given the Big River's ever-shifting shallows, such potentially dangerous misadventures happened often.

Freeing a beached vessel usually involved the laborious unloading of cargo until the boat rode high enough to clear the snag. According to Harry R. Rubenstein, chair of the Division of Politics and Reform at NMAH, Lincoln "was keenly interested in water transportation and canal building, and enthusiastically promoted both when he served in the Illinois legislature." He was also an admirer of patent law, famously declaring that it "added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius."

Full info at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abraham-lincoln-only-president-have-patent-131184751/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRjl6FleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE2cmxQSHVyMWp2MHVhaGo4c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHp_BMFgx9VWclc-S14lWA-B7VT6rizOr0WfVczcFqb775ht3el66cRSVSsHx_aem_cqpRNW5I6_kkoJK3Ol-Iow

Photo and info is from the same article.