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Looking for Lincoln: Virgil Hickox Home:
Virgil Hickox was one of many local people who disagreed politically with Abraham Lincoln.
Raised in the traditions of Jeffersonian Democracy as a youth in New York, he settled in Springfield in 1834 and became a prosperous merchant, railroad promoter, and banker. He was an important supporter of Stephen Douglas. Republicans attacked him during the 1858 Senatorial contest for having his railroad company provide Douglas with a private train car for use in his statewide canvas against Lincoln. "Huge corporations... [are making] electioneering machines of themselves," critics complained. Hickox insisted that the arrangement was not free (Douglas reportedly spent $50,000 on the Senate campaign -- a tremendous sum in those days; some of it probably compensated the railroad). Hickox was among the Sangamon County majority that opposed Lincoln in 1858 and in both presidential elections (Lincoln never carried his home county in these contests). Politics didn't provide Lincoln and Hickox from enjoying cordial provisional relations, however. "I have always found Mr. Hickox a fair man in his dealings," Lincoln once wrote a law client.
The Virgil Hickox House: Hickox built it in 1839 and enlarged it several times afterwards. It is the oldest single family residence still standing in downtown Springfield. Hickox died in 1880, but the home's notoriety as a political hang-out continued. It housed Springfield's first private men's club; during prohibition there was a "speakeasy" in the basement. From Lincoln's time to the present, many prominent Illinois politicians have congregated here. |