Bank check, 7.75 x 2.25, filled out and signed by Lincoln, payable to S. L. Whipple for Ills. College for $12.50, January 29, 1859. Unobtrusive cross-cut bank cancellation, two other small cancellation holes, and a few spots of foxing and soiling, otherwise fine condition. According to the consignor, this check descended in the family of Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, Lincoln’s great-grandson and the last of the president’s direct descendants.
Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois, in 1831, a town just 30 miles away from the town of Jacksonville and Illinois College. Over the years, he developed a friendship with many of the school’s students as well as with the school itself. In 1859, the year of this check, the college’s Phih Alpha Men’s Literary Society made Lincoln an honorary member, with the future president delivering an address, entitled Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements, on February 11, 1859. Though Mr. Whipple’s connection with Illinois College and Lincoln in these early days of 1859 is unclear, this check’s recipient is most likely Dr. Samuel L. Whipple, who in 1869 gave the college $10,000 for the founding of a preparatory school run in connection with Illinois College. Coincidentally, the week Lincoln wrote this check, he also represented the Illinois Central Railroad Company in what was to become one of the biggest cases of his legal career. Lincoln defended the railroad before the Supreme Court after the state of Illinois sued for back taxes on property owned by the company. Great association between the 16th president, Illinois, higher learning, and Lincoln’s legal career. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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