Lincoln Statue

Located at the Appellate Courthouse

14th & Main

Mt. Vernon, IL  62864

(618) 242-3120

A couple of significant anniversaries brought a group of Mt. Vernon community leaders together for a common cause and resulted in a 9-foot-tall bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln being placed on the front lawn of the Appellate Courthouse.  In 2009, the country will celebrate the 200th birthday of its 16th president, and the Appellate Courthouse has seen its 150th year.

The Lincoln statue was commissioned in October 2007 by the Mt. Vernon Lincoln Bicentennial Committee headed by attorney Mark Hassakis.  The Lincoln statue idea met with much community support and the statue and siting costs totaling more than $90,000 were funded through donations, student penny drives, and grants from the local Schweinfurth Foundation and from the Illinois Bicentennial Commission.

Ohio sculptor Alan Cottrill created the image of Lincoln at the age when he served as a lawyer traveling the circuit in Illinois.  In 1859, Lincoln argued an important tax case involving the Illinois Central Railroad at the Appellate Courthouse which was then used as a division of the Illinois Supreme Court.  The Appellate Courthouse contains the only remaining courtroom in which Abraham Lincoln tried a case that continues to be used to this day in the same manner it was used in the 1850s.

A dedication ceremony for the new statue was held on September 18, 2008.  The day included a panel presentation led by former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar on “Lincoln - The Prairie Lawyer”, and the Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments in the courtroom for the first time in 111 years.  The dedication ceremony began at 3 p.m. and included an introduction of the Supreme Court of Illinois and the 5th District Appellate Court with remarks by the 5th District Presiding Judge Bruce D. Stewart, greetings from the Illinois State Bar Association by Jack C. Carey, President, remarks from the Mt. Vernon Bicentennial Committee chairman, Mark Hassakis, remarks from the sculptor, and remarks from the Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald.  The Southern Illinois Children’s Choir presented a short musical program and the Independent Silver Band provided music for the ceremony.

“He was here,” Fitzgerald said.  “He was in this place.  He was hearing a case, just like the case we heard yesterday.  Abraham Lincoln is, and was, our colleague.  We can learn so much about how we should be from him.”