Lincoln Bible Comes Home to Port Byron
Louise Hoffman Broach / Wayuga Editor
Tuesday, January 12 2010
PORT BYRON - A Bible given by Port Byron farmer Amos Scott King to President Abraham Lincoln will be coming back home after 149 years on Feb. 4 for an afternoon of celebrations at Port Byron Central School.
Following events with the student body, The Dana L West Jr./Sr. High School will be hosting a public ceremony starting at 4 p.m. Seth Bongartz, executive director of Hildene, the Vermont summer home of the Lincolns where the Bible is kept, will be presenting the history of the home. A slideshow presentation of the King Bible by historian Dawn Roe will follow. The Port Byron Alumni Association will be serving refreshments.
The Bible gift was inspired when Amos Scott King read the then president-elect’s farewell address made at Springfield, Ill. on Feb. 11, 1861 as he bid farewell to his family and friends prior to boarding the inaugural train.
The Bible is not the same one used for Lincoln’s swearing in ceremony, which was borrowed more than a century and a half later by President Barak Obama. But still, Obama’s action brought attention to the King Bible from visitors to Hildene, in Manchester, Vermont. King’s Bible became a treasured family heirloom for three generations.
“Based on Lincoln’s well known affection for the book, Hildene guests were asking for more information on the Bible we had in our permanent Abraham Lincoln collection,” said Paula Maynard, public relations liaison at Hildene. “We explained that ours was not the Bible that Obama used, of course, but our interest was piqued regarding more of the history of the Hildene Bible.”
King, who lived from 1822 - 1908, had signed the inscription with his hometown, so Hildene officials contacted Roe to see if she could help garner more information about the Bible.
“She vigorously undertook the task of tracking down the history of the book,” Maynard said.
With some publicity, Roe found a relative who had the original letter from John Nicolay, the president’s secretary, a thank you from the president to King, proof positive that Lincoln received the Bible, Maynard said.
Roe also conducted exhaustive research into the Bible (see sidebar), and inspired Hildene to bring it back to Port Byron so residents in the area could see and learn about it and its connection to Lincoln.
“We are very much looking forward to our visit,” Maynard said.
The Bible is currently on display in Hildene’s new Lincoln exhibit entitled: “The American Ideal: Abraham Lincoln and the Second Inaugural.”
The Hildene estate, originally the home of Linoln’s son was registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Three generations of Lincoln’s descendants called it home for 70 years. Hildene opened to the public in 1978 three years after the death of its last Lincoln inhabitant, Peggy Beckwith. Since that time restoration efforts have been ongoing. There are no more direct Abraham Lincoln descendants.
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