LINCOLN CITY – Local Lincoln historian and collector of Lincoln memorabilia Robert F. Henderson attended the 100th Lincoln Day on Sunday, February 11, with other Southern Indiana Lincoln Community members.
The event, held at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, drew a large audience to mark the special occasion.
Ceremonies to honor Abraham Lincoln and his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, have long been a tradition at the site. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these were reunions by surviving Civil War Veterans. Beginning in 1924, the Boonville Press Club began sponsoring annual programs. Initially held at the pavilion built near Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s grave site in 1909, the ceremony was later moved to the memorial building in 1944.
The keynote speaker for this year’s program was Dr. Christian McWhirter, Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL. Following the program was the traditional Pilgrimage to the Pioneer Cemetery led by the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War and the placing of memorial wreaths at the gravesite of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
Henderson is an active member of several Lincoln organizations and groups and has regularly contributed to various Lincoln-related publications and newsletters through the years.
