Published August 2, 2025
By Arlis Dittmer
“Services appropriate to the great calamity which has befallen the nation will be observed at the First Congregational Church to-morrow.” So said the April 15, 1865 Quincy Daily Whig and Republican. The First Presbyterian Church said they would have, ”A discourse in reference to the assassination of President Lincoln…” in the same paper. General H. H. Dean sent out Special Order, No 81 stating, “All saloons in this city will be closed immediately this day and remain closed until Monday morning.”
Page three of the April 15 Daily Whig and Republican was full of brief notices: “Secretary Seward is dead,” “ Secretary Seward’s throat cut,” “Secretary Seward is not dead but in a critical condition,” “Assassins escaping to Canada,” “Booth arrested,” “Inauguration of Vice President Johnson.” All of these notices were hurriedly sent by telegraph and hastily printed. Interspersed with them was war news. Even though Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, other Confederate armies continued fighting.
The War Department sent out official messages, clearly timed such as, “The President continues insensible, and is sinking” at 4:10 am, and later, “Abraham Lincoln died this morning at 22 minutes after seven o’clock,” signed by Edward M. Stanton, the Secretary of War.
Abraham Lincoln had been shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14 while in Ford’s Theater in Washington D C, watching the play, “Our American Cousin.” He was carried across the street to a house where he died the following morning. While serving in the Union Army, Quincyan George V. Rutherford was a witness to the unfolding events and sent telegrams back to Quincy newspapers.
News from Washington about the assassination traveled by telegram and provided constant updates to the Quincy newspapers. The Daily Whig and Republican said on April 15, “Such are the terrible tidings borne to us on the swift wings of the lightening this morning. How the woful [sic] words fall upon our ears as the leaden hail of death.” The article described the thousands of flags at half-mast, “inverted, and bordered with crape.” Businesses were closed. Vehicles and public buildings and residences were draped in black. Church bells were tolling. “A national calamity most frightful and humiliating has befallen us.” Yet, the paper ends its account with “Even amid these dark clouds of our affliction we see the light breaking through and the promise of a better day is coming. Peace shall yet wave her bright pinions over our land…”
Colonel Rutherford sent a much more detailed report about the President’s death, written April 15 but not received and published by the Quincy Whig and Republican until April 24. Ironically Rutherford was returning to Quincy on the same train as the dispatch to the paper. He begins, “After a loss of thirty-three hours sleep, … I attempt to give you a hastily written description–no, not a description, for the atrocity of the deed beggars description—but to inform you of the facts connected with the most diabolical demoniacal, obdurate and truculent assassination known to the history of the world.”
After lying in state in the United States Capitol, Lincoln’s body was put on the train to Springfield. Accompanying the body were five relatives, including Robert Todd Lincoln, several dignitaries, and Union Army personnel. Mrs. Lincoln was not on the train. Her physician felt she was too unwell to accompany the body to Illinois. The train made 13 stops along the way, arriving in Springfield on May 3. Lincoln was buried on May 4 in Oak Ridge Cemetery in that city at Mrs. Lincoln’s request. She remembered Lincoln telling her he wanted a quiet place to be buried at Oak Ridge.
One hundred years after Lincoln’s death, an article appeared in the April 15, 1965 Quincy Herald Whig. The newspaper had interviewed the daughter of Elbridge K. Stone, who was 14 at the time of Lincoln’s assassination. The story of her father’s activities in Quincy on the day Lincoln died was a story that had been passed down in the Stone family. Miss Mary Stone was the last surviving child of the four Elbridge Stone children. The story was about ringing the bell at the Congregational Church.
During the 19th century, church bells were rung to celebrate and to mourn. The bells had rung jubilantly in Quincy just one week before to announce Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox Court House, signaling an end to the Civil War. This time, they were rung to announce Lincoln’s death. According to the Stone family story, four people were in the belfry of the Congregational Church, John Wood, Charles H. Bull, Elbridge Stone Sr., and 14-year-old Elbridge Jr. The four had come to the church from the Quincy House Hotel where the telegraph manager had told them the news of Lincoln’s death. Mr. Bull wanted John Wood to ring the bell, but he refused, saying, “Let Elbridge do it. He will remember it far longer than we will.” Elbridge did remember it during all of his remaining life, dying in 1938.
Elbridge Stone Jr. remembered other important Quincy occasions during his long life, including witnessing the Lincoln Douglas Debate in Washington Square. Plus he was the person who rang the Congregational Bell when Lee surrendered. His father, Elbridge Sr., was a deacon and a trustee of the church
The bell also had a storied history in Quincy, arriving by steamboat in 1834 for the Lord’s Barn, the first church in Quincy. The bell stood between two poles outside of the crude wooden church used by the Congregationalists on Fourth Street south of Maine Street. The bell was too heavy to hang inside of the church. The bell was moved to subsequent Congregational church buildings in Quincy until it was given to the Historical Society of Quincy in 1898. Since 1908, the bell has hung in the alcove on the south side of the Governor John Wood Mansion at 12th and State Streets.
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 developed an interest in medical and nursing history—two topics that are frequently overlooked in history.
Sources:
“At Historical Building.” Quincy Herald-Whig, April 15, 1965, 3.
“Bell Tolled Lincoln’s Death 100 Years Ago.” Quincy Herald Whig, April 15, 1965, 3.
Eighinger, Steve. “Quincy Oldest Church Bell to Ring Sunday.” Quincy Herald Whig, September 25, 2010, 25.
“First Congregational Church.” Quincy Daily Whig and Republican, April 15, 1865, 3.
“The Latest News.” Quincy Daily Whig and Republican, April 15, 1865, 3.
“President Lincoln Assassinated. Quincy Daily Whig and Republican, April 15, 1865, 3.
” Nelson, Iris. “Colonel Was An Eyewitness to Lincoln’s Death.” Quincy Herald Whig, April 12, 2015.
Rutherford, George V. “The Assassination of President Lincoln.” Quincy Daily Whig and Republican, April 24, 1865, 2.
