Published February 8, 2025
By Arlis Dittmer
Several years ago, my family came upon some architectural salvage from the Brant House in Columbus, Illinois. Of the items we acquired, I am particularly fond of a salvaged oval window. The window was high on the front of the house under the eaves.
The Brant House was built in 1837 by Frederick Collins. The house was known by many names and supposedly held many secrets about Abraham Lincoln and the Underground Railroad. The old brick house was three stories high with 10 rooms, various hallways, and some mysterious small areas in the upper rooms.
Columbus was platted as a town in 1835. Frederick Collins moved there, opened a general store and built his large home which the community called a mansion. At the time the house was built, the town was growing. The town could have been the county seat as it was located closer to the geographic middle of the county. State law dictated that the courthouse should be centrally located. However, Columbus was outmaneuvered by Quincyan Willard Keyes who somehow got the state commissions lost as they were looking for the center of the county. He took them through bogs as they searched. Returning to Quincy, they designated it as the county seat.
The Collins family members, originally from Connecticut, were some of the earliest settlers in Illinois. Frederick’s older brothers established the town of Collinsville in Madison County. As the Collins brothers moved further north in Illinois, they built businesses in Naples, Columbus, Liberty, and Quincy. Frederick’s 1878 obituary in the Daily Quincy Herald describes him as “… no ordinary man. Possessing rare business ability, he was always successful.”
As Columbus grew to be prosperous, they hosted the Whig Convention in 1840. Frederick Collins was a Whig who became involve in the abolition movement. The anti-slavery organization was formed in Illinois in 1837. It began as a philosophical organization and wished to change society’s view of slavery. Moving escaped slaves was a dangerous job because of the Fugitive Slave Act and the laws of Illinois which made it a crime to help escaped slaves. But the stories grew that the old Brant house was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Frederick Collins eventually moved to Quincy. The house was sold a few times before J. W. Moore bought the house in 1865 and turned it into a hotel, although some stories say that Collins ran the house as a hotel. The mansion was called many names over the years, the Columbus Inn, the “Old Lincoln Inn,” and the Brant Hotel are a few names that were recalled by old settlers and mentioned in the newspapers. There were two such Inns in Columbus with the stage coach passing through daily each way from Quincy to Mt. Sterling, Rushville, and Springfield.
One Daily Journal writer went out to Columbus in September 1895. He talked to Mrs. H. N. Moore who was home visiting relatives. She remembered when Collins built the house and said it cost $3, 200. Mrs. Moore also said Governor Ford gave a speech in front of the house looking for volunteers to go to Nauvoo and “help drive out the Mormons.”
Is this a story or the truth? The Brant house and Columbus have many claims to fame according to the old settlers. Was it a stop on the Underground Railroad utilizing the hidden room on the third floor as a station? Did Frederick Collins help escaped slaves and drive them further north to Augusta in Hancock County?
Today we think of the Underground Railroad as a series of stops at homes, but it was more likely a chain of people who knew people who would help and so on up the state to Chicago and further into Canada.
Another story was that Lincoln, as a young lawyer, stopped there while he was riding the Eight Judicial Circuit. The reality is that circuit did not include Columbus. Did he sleep there after the Lincoln Douglas Debate held in October 1858? Mrs. Moore, who was quoted in 1895 newspaper article, did not mention Lincoln being in town at any point or the house being a stop on the Underground Railroad.
But the myths grew. Twenty years later the 1915 Quincy Whig article by Crotty said that Lincoln had stayed in the Brant house many times. Crotty described the Mansion as the center of the county social life with dances and parties. He also said that Columbus was the county seat using the Mansion as the Courthouse. Towards the end of his article he states that both Lincoln and Douglas stopped there before the October 13, 1858 debate and “the old timers around here remember well that historic discussion.” Crotty was embellishing this story as it was logistically improbable. The previous debate was held in Galesburg. Neither Lincoln nor Douglas could have passed through Columbus on their way to Quincy from Galesburg as they took the train.
In the February 11,1923 Quincy Whig-Journal, R. C. Stokes described the house as “… a shrine fraught with tender recollections and sacred memories.” According to the article, Lincoln had come to Columbus to give a speech the day after the debate in Quincy. Some people say he stayed in the upper corner room on the right side and that they remembered Lincoln’s visit. But according to Orville Browning’s diary, Lincoln stayed with him in Quincy after the debate. Also contradicting the newspaper story is the website, The Lincoln Log. The Log quoted the October 18, 1858 Chicago Tribune, which said that Douglas and Lincoln boarded the steamer The City of Louisiana from Quincy and reached Alton, the site of the last debate, the next day.
By the time these two newspaper articles were written in 1915 and 1923, the house was owned by Eva Brant. The census described her as a housekeeper as she ran the house as a hotel. But the stories about Lincoln and the Underground Railroad continued well into the mid-20th century. Unfortunately, they are mostly fiction.
Arlis Dittmer is a retired health science librarian and former president of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County. During her years with Blessing Health System, she became interested in medical and nursing history—both topics frequently overlooked in history.
Sources:
Ankrom, Reg. “Quincy Outmaneuvers Columbus for Courthouse,” Quincy Herald Whig, March 18, 2012.
“Columbus.” Quincy Daily Journal, November 11, 1895, 3.
“Death of Frederick Collins.” Daily Quincy Herald, February 16, 1878, 3.
Deters, Ruth. The Underground Railroad Ran Through My House! Quincy IL: Eleven Oaks Publishing, 2008.
The Illinois Preservation Agency, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The Lincoln Log.
“The Late Frederick Collins.” Quincy Weekly Whig, February 21, 1878, 8.
“Old Historic Mansion Told Of By Crotty.” Quincy Whig, Novemer10, 1915, 10.
Quincy and Adams County History and Representative Men. Edited by David F. Wilcox, Chicago IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1919.
Reyburn, Phil. “Frederick Collins: Liberty Part Candidate.” Quincy Herald Whig, September 20, 2020, 25.
Stokes, R. C. “’Old Lincoln Inn’ Where Lincoln Stopped in ‘58, Quincy Whig-Journal, February 11, 1923, 16.
