County linked to Lincoln legacy

Published 6:50 am Thursday, February 12, 2009

Today is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and signs of America’s 16th president abound in Snohomish County.

There’s the Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the Everett Silvertips hockey mascot, and there’s also Abraham Lincoln, a 23-year-old Marysville man named for the president.

Motorists can take Lincoln avenues in Mukilteo, Snohomish and south Everett or Lincoln Street in Lowell or Lincoln Way near Lake Serene.

The county’s very founding is linked to Lincoln.

The area became Snohomish County in the weeks between when Lincoln was elected and when he was inaugurated, and the new president’s Republican supporters helped shape this far corner of country.

“You could almost argue the county was created to establish the geographic political base to support Lincoln Republicanism in the territorial government,” said David Dilgard, a historian with Everett Public Library’s Northwest Room.

This morning, the U.S. Mint is releasing new pennies featuring four new designs, marking different aspects of Lincoln’s life. Earlier this week, the United States Postal Service issued four new Lincoln stamps commemorating the man who led America through its darkest days in the Civil War and freed a race of people from slavery and fulfilled the promises made by the Founding Fathers.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat and the nation’s first black president, frequently

invokes the Great Emancipator in his speeches, announced his candidacy in Lincoln’s former home of Springfield, Ill., and used the Lincoln’s Bible for his oath of office.

Two centuries after his birth, Lincoln is still admired for his principles.

Abraham Lincoln — the Marysville Abe — traces his family back to the president of the same name. He said Lincoln’s genius is found in his political pragmatism.

“I think he was very well-rounded in the decisions he made, because he was willing to listen to the other side,” said Lincoln, a 2007 graduate of the University of Washington who studied political science. “Also his personal integrity helped make him the great leader.”

The young Lincoln, a Republican, spent three months in Washington, D.C., during his senior year, interning for a consulting company owned by former Republican Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts.

Lincoln, a Lake Stevens High School graduate, is now working as a paralegal in Arlington and is considering becoming a lawyer, like his presidential namesake. He’s also interested in public service.

Growing up as an Abraham Lincoln wasn’t as tough as some might imagine, Lincoln said.

“The person behind the name is so well-respected, it’s easy to go with,” he said.

Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the president’s likeness is everywhere. Framed portraits hang in officers’ quarters and there’s even a sculpture of Lincoln sitting on a bench on the ship’s mess deck, where sailors eat their meals.

Chief Petty Officer Jason Ogle is the curator of an Abraham Lincoln museum inside the aircraft carrier.

“Almost everything in here is from the time period,” he said of the 150-square-foot room commemorating the life and time of Honest Abe.

It includes a framed copy of the Gettysburg Address, a Lincoln bust, books, a musket and a revolver, as well as a replica of Lincoln’s silver dinnerware. Now and then they even have actual Lincoln artifacts on loan from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.

Jim Shipman, a retired general manager of the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett and a Civil War buff, is reminded of Lincoln’s presence whenever he walks past the north end of the sprawling burial grounds or gazes at the shelves of his personal library.

More than 150 Civil War veterans — men from both sides — are buried at the cemetery. Each year dozens of people pay tribute to them at an annual Echoes of Blue and Gray ceremony.

Shipman has 50 to 60 books about Lincoln at his home. They are part of a collection of hundreds of Civil War books.

“Lincoln is a daily figure in my life and many people’s lives,” Shipman said. “Many of us know his presidency and his cabinet members better than those who are now in control in Washington, D.C. Perhaps we’re too much in the 19th century, but it was the defining time of America and it made America what it is today.”

Dilgard, the Everett historian, said the fortunes of Lincoln supporters in what is now Snohomish County were buoyed by his election.

Pioneer Emory C. Ferguson, a Lincoln man among a few dozen Jacksonian Democrats who lived in the area, petitioned to the Washington Territorial Legislature to carve out Snohomish County from the mainland chunk of what then was Island County.

He and his backers in Steilacoom got their wish in January 1861, two months after Lincoln’s election and two months before Lincoln’s inauguration.

Ferguson, or “Old Ferg,” was a political ally of William H. Wallace, a Washington Territory Congressional delegate whom Lincoln appointed to governorships in the Washington and Idaho territories. He didn’t serve in Washington, but he did in Idaho.

Wallace and his wife were among several people who declined an invitation from Lincoln to join him at Ford’s Theatre on the night Lincoln was assassinated during a performance of “Our American Cousin.”

Ed Morrow, 74, a former Everett City Councilman and a retired school principal, in no way considers himself a Lincoln scholar, but he has always considered his hero to be a remarkable orator who led the country through tumultuous times in pursuit of equality.

Morrow has five pictures and two small statues of Lincoln in his den.

“He was a brilliant, brilliant man,” Morrow said. “I do love the man.”

David Chircop: 425-339-3429, dchircop@heraldnet.com.