Death came to Ezra M. Prince, at Brokaw Hospital, Normal, Illinois on August 27, 1908.
Mr. Prince was a many sided man. He interested himself in all the phases of life and his views on politics and religion, and most especially on matters of local history, were always sought and ever of value to his fellows. He was a friend of the early members of the bar in McLean County, and his life was contemporaneous with Abraham Lincoln, Judge David Davis, Judge Weldon, Leanard Swett, and many other men who have made eminent history in the Bloomington bar. Of late he had largely discontinued discontinued the practice of his profession and seldom appeared in the prosecution of cases in court.
But his active mental facilities would not permit him to be laid upon the shelf in the life of the community. On the contrary he took up a work which few men would have the knack or the qualifications to accomplish. This was the preservation in permanent form the history of the people and customs which have made McLean County an empire of almost regal proportions. His position as secretary of the McLean County Historical Society gave him the vantage ground from which he prosecuted his inquiries along this line. And in that capacity he did a work which should of itself make his name one of permanent honor in the annuls of the county.
With the building of the new court house in 1901, Mr. Prince was one of the most active of those who advocated the setting aside a room in that splendid building for the preservation and custody of the invaluable documents and relics of the Historical Society.
Mr. Prince was born at Turner, Maine on May 27, 1831. He studied law at Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1855.
In April, 1856 he came to Bloomington, Illinois where he ever after resided. The only public offices he ever filled were four years as Master in Chancery, (officer of the court) in McLean County and two years as member of the board of education in Bloomington.
He was a member of the Republican party ever since its organization and was a member of the Unitarian Church.
Mr. Prince was one of the officers of the Bloomington Library Association from its organization, and for several years taught at the Wesleyan law school.
He was married in Pittsfield, Illinois on July 2, 1866 to Barbara Maria Miller who died on May 2, 1908. Five children were born to them, two of whom preceded him in death Leonard Morton Prince and Grace Emily Prince. Surviving children were Robert T. Prince, Edward P. Prince and Horace F. Prince.
An account of his ancestry that he left with his children is Job Prince, fifth in descent from Elder John Prince, founder of the family in this country, moved to Maine in 1788. In the war of 1812 he served in Captain Blake's Company. Mr. Prince's father's name was Job Prince and he was born in Maine in 1795. He was a stalwart man of great physical courage. At one time he arrested an armed desperado who had defied the town officials. The father was a successful school teacher, and a man of great intelligence. He had several children but E. M. Prince was the last survivor of the family. The father was a Democrat until the rise of the anti slavery party, when he allied himself with that, and was an earnest supporter the rest of his life.
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)
28 Aug 1908, Page 8
---------------------------------
Ezra Morton Prince was the son of Job Prince and Zilpha Spalding Prince. He had two brothers, Leonard and Rufus, and one sister, Zilpha. He was a frail child having been born with his right leg shorter and smaller than his left. Later in life he said that for this reason, “he was designed for a professional life.”
In April of 1856 he came to Bloomington at the behest of his cousin Leonard Swett. Like Prince, Swett was also a lawyer. Swett came to Bloomington in 1849 and established a law practice. Swett was also a lawyer on the Eighth Judicial Circuit and this was how he met and became good friends with Abraham Lincoln. It was Swett who introduced Prince to Lincoln.
Prince recalled later in life that “one May morning [in 1856],” while he was in Swett’s office, he looked out the window and saw Lincoln’s “striking figure” walking to the courthouse in downtown Bloomington. Prince recalled that Lincoln was a “tall, gaunt man, sallow complexion, coarse dark hair, an old battered stove pipe hat, set on the back of his head, coarse rough boots, innocent of blacking, baggy pants, much too short for his legs, and a rusty old bombazine coat that hung loosely about his frame.” Soon after this, Prince and Lincoln became well acquainted since Lincoln was a regular on the Circuit coming to Bloomington often until he became President. They even traveled the Eighth Circuit together on occasion.
Prince was also a staunch supporter of the Republican Party having been a member since its organization in Illinois in the summer of 1856. The Republican Party was created in opposition of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which was created by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. This act stated that the settlers of a new territory could decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery in their territory. The newly founded Republican Party was strongly against this act or any act that would allow the expansion of slavery.
Shortly after his first encounter with Lincoln, Prince attended the May 29, 1856 Anti-Nebraska State Convention of Illinois which was held in Major’s Hall in Bloomington. This was the convention that organized the Republican Party of Illinois. This was also the convention where Lincoln gave his now famous “Lost Speech.” In this speech, Lincoln was said to have spoken out against the expansion of slavery and said it was slavery that was the root cause of the country’s problems. Towards the end of his life, Prince contributed and edited the book The Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society: Volume III, which commemorated this convention and Lincoln’s legacy in McLean County.
In October of the same year, Lincoln came to Bloomington on his way to Tremont, Illinois to make a speech campaigning for the Republican candidates, (John Freemont and William Dayton) during the election of 1856. Bloomington was the closest railroad station to Tremont, as Tremont did not have its own. When he arrived in Bloomington, Lincoln rented a carriage and asked his friend Prince to take him to Tremont. Because they did not start the journey until noon that day, this would be an overnight carriage trip. They followed the Peoria Road called the “Great Line through Central Illinois for Western Emigrants.” Parts of this road still exist today which follows Route 9 in western McLean County. All along their journey, “the road was lined with emigrant wagons,” which they called “Prairie Schooners.” This being near the end of the 1856 election, politics was on the mind of all who traveled this road. As Lincoln and Prince rode past these wagons, (their wagon being lighter than those of the emigrants) the people in those wagons would yell out their favorite candidates: “Buchanan and Breckinridge!” or “Fremont and Dayton!” Lincoln and Prince would shout back “Freemont and Dayton!,” who were the anti-slavery candidates. Prince later wrote in his account of this “Day with Abraham Lincoln” that he “wondered whether Mr. Lincoln had any idea then that in four years from that time people would be cheering his name for the presidency as we were then that of Freemont?”
They stopped at a place called “Mickens,” which was three miles west of Danvers, Illinois. There they stayed at a tavern where the “conditions were primitive and poor” even for a “way-side tavern of the time.” Lincoln and Prince shared a bed and Prince described the food as vile. But Prince said Lincoln was never heard to complain of his food. The cost for lodging, supper, breakfast and horse keep was about seventy-five cents. As they drove off, Lincoln said that was pretty cheap, but then Prince said he must have remembered the “muddy coffee and yellow biscuit” they had for breakfast, and with a laugh said “but perhaps considering what we got, it was enough.”
Prince also recalled that Lincoln was “an ideal traveling companion. If you wanted silence you could have it, if conversation you could have it and on your own ground. To Mr. Lincoln was himself the most interesting topic of conversation, and he was perfectly ready to satisfy my Yankee curiosity.” Prince’s friendship with Lincoln would continue until Lincoln’s death some nine years later.
His major contribution to McLean County was most likely his written records of county history. He contributed to and edited all three volumes of the Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society. He also edited the 1908 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McLean County and contributed to two other histories of McLean County. In addition, he wrote hundreds of column inches of information for The Daily Pantagraph about his travels out West, about Lincoln, or about the history of McLean County in general. He also wrote and read many papers for the Historical Society.
Source: http://www.mchistory.org/research/resources/ezra-morton-prince.php
Author: Candace Summers, 2009
-----------------------------------
Burial Date: August 29, 1908
Mr. Prince was a many sided man. He interested himself in all the phases of life and his views on politics and religion, and most especially on matters of local history, were always sought and ever of value to his fellows. He was a friend of the early members of the bar in McLean County, and his life was contemporaneous with Abraham Lincoln, Judge David Davis, Judge Weldon, Leanard Swett, and many other men who have made eminent history in the Bloomington bar. Of late he had largely discontinued discontinued the practice of his profession and seldom appeared in the prosecution of cases in court.
But his active mental facilities would not permit him to be laid upon the shelf in the life of the community. On the contrary he took up a work which few men would have the knack or the qualifications to accomplish. This was the preservation in permanent form the history of the people and customs which have made McLean County an empire of almost regal proportions. His position as secretary of the McLean County Historical Society gave him the vantage ground from which he prosecuted his inquiries along this line. And in that capacity he did a work which should of itself make his name one of permanent honor in the annuls of the county.
With the building of the new court house in 1901, Mr. Prince was one of the most active of those who advocated the setting aside a room in that splendid building for the preservation and custody of the invaluable documents and relics of the Historical Society.
Mr. Prince was born at Turner, Maine on May 27, 1831. He studied law at Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1855.
In April, 1856 he came to Bloomington, Illinois where he ever after resided. The only public offices he ever filled were four years as Master in Chancery, (officer of the court) in McLean County and two years as member of the board of education in Bloomington.
He was a member of the Republican party ever since its organization and was a member of the Unitarian Church.
Mr. Prince was one of the officers of the Bloomington Library Association from its organization, and for several years taught at the Wesleyan law school.
He was married in Pittsfield, Illinois on July 2, 1866 to Barbara Maria Miller who died on May 2, 1908. Five children were born to them, two of whom preceded him in death Leonard Morton Prince and Grace Emily Prince. Surviving children were Robert T. Prince, Edward P. Prince and Horace F. Prince.
An account of his ancestry that he left with his children is Job Prince, fifth in descent from Elder John Prince, founder of the family in this country, moved to Maine in 1788. In the war of 1812 he served in Captain Blake's Company. Mr. Prince's father's name was Job Prince and he was born in Maine in 1795. He was a stalwart man of great physical courage. At one time he arrested an armed desperado who had defied the town officials. The father was a successful school teacher, and a man of great intelligence. He had several children but E. M. Prince was the last survivor of the family. The father was a Democrat until the rise of the anti slavery party, when he allied himself with that, and was an earnest supporter the rest of his life.
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)
28 Aug 1908, Page 8
---------------------------------
Ezra Morton Prince was the son of Job Prince and Zilpha Spalding Prince. He had two brothers, Leonard and Rufus, and one sister, Zilpha. He was a frail child having been born with his right leg shorter and smaller than his left. Later in life he said that for this reason, “he was designed for a professional life.”
In April of 1856 he came to Bloomington at the behest of his cousin Leonard Swett. Like Prince, Swett was also a lawyer. Swett came to Bloomington in 1849 and established a law practice. Swett was also a lawyer on the Eighth Judicial Circuit and this was how he met and became good friends with Abraham Lincoln. It was Swett who introduced Prince to Lincoln.
Prince recalled later in life that “one May morning [in 1856],” while he was in Swett’s office, he looked out the window and saw Lincoln’s “striking figure” walking to the courthouse in downtown Bloomington. Prince recalled that Lincoln was a “tall, gaunt man, sallow complexion, coarse dark hair, an old battered stove pipe hat, set on the back of his head, coarse rough boots, innocent of blacking, baggy pants, much too short for his legs, and a rusty old bombazine coat that hung loosely about his frame.” Soon after this, Prince and Lincoln became well acquainted since Lincoln was a regular on the Circuit coming to Bloomington often until he became President. They even traveled the Eighth Circuit together on occasion.
Prince was also a staunch supporter of the Republican Party having been a member since its organization in Illinois in the summer of 1856. The Republican Party was created in opposition of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which was created by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. This act stated that the settlers of a new territory could decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery in their territory. The newly founded Republican Party was strongly against this act or any act that would allow the expansion of slavery.
Shortly after his first encounter with Lincoln, Prince attended the May 29, 1856 Anti-Nebraska State Convention of Illinois which was held in Major’s Hall in Bloomington. This was the convention that organized the Republican Party of Illinois. This was also the convention where Lincoln gave his now famous “Lost Speech.” In this speech, Lincoln was said to have spoken out against the expansion of slavery and said it was slavery that was the root cause of the country’s problems. Towards the end of his life, Prince contributed and edited the book The Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society: Volume III, which commemorated this convention and Lincoln’s legacy in McLean County.
In October of the same year, Lincoln came to Bloomington on his way to Tremont, Illinois to make a speech campaigning for the Republican candidates, (John Freemont and William Dayton) during the election of 1856. Bloomington was the closest railroad station to Tremont, as Tremont did not have its own. When he arrived in Bloomington, Lincoln rented a carriage and asked his friend Prince to take him to Tremont. Because they did not start the journey until noon that day, this would be an overnight carriage trip. They followed the Peoria Road called the “Great Line through Central Illinois for Western Emigrants.” Parts of this road still exist today which follows Route 9 in western McLean County. All along their journey, “the road was lined with emigrant wagons,” which they called “Prairie Schooners.” This being near the end of the 1856 election, politics was on the mind of all who traveled this road. As Lincoln and Prince rode past these wagons, (their wagon being lighter than those of the emigrants) the people in those wagons would yell out their favorite candidates: “Buchanan and Breckinridge!” or “Fremont and Dayton!” Lincoln and Prince would shout back “Freemont and Dayton!,” who were the anti-slavery candidates. Prince later wrote in his account of this “Day with Abraham Lincoln” that he “wondered whether Mr. Lincoln had any idea then that in four years from that time people would be cheering his name for the presidency as we were then that of Freemont?”
They stopped at a place called “Mickens,” which was three miles west of Danvers, Illinois. There they stayed at a tavern where the “conditions were primitive and poor” even for a “way-side tavern of the time.” Lincoln and Prince shared a bed and Prince described the food as vile. But Prince said Lincoln was never heard to complain of his food. The cost for lodging, supper, breakfast and horse keep was about seventy-five cents. As they drove off, Lincoln said that was pretty cheap, but then Prince said he must have remembered the “muddy coffee and yellow biscuit” they had for breakfast, and with a laugh said “but perhaps considering what we got, it was enough.”
Prince also recalled that Lincoln was “an ideal traveling companion. If you wanted silence you could have it, if conversation you could have it and on your own ground. To Mr. Lincoln was himself the most interesting topic of conversation, and he was perfectly ready to satisfy my Yankee curiosity.” Prince’s friendship with Lincoln would continue until Lincoln’s death some nine years later.
His major contribution to McLean County was most likely his written records of county history. He contributed to and edited all three volumes of the Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society. He also edited the 1908 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McLean County and contributed to two other histories of McLean County. In addition, he wrote hundreds of column inches of information for The Daily Pantagraph about his travels out West, about Lincoln, or about the history of McLean County in general. He also wrote and read many papers for the Historical Society.
Source: http://www.mchistory.org/research/resources/ezra-morton-prince.php
Author: Candace Summers, 2009
-----------------------------------
Burial Date: August 29, 1908
Death came to Ezra M. Prince, at Brokaw Hospital, Normal, Illinois on August 27, 1908.
Mr. Prince was a many sided man. He interested himself in all the phases of life and his views on politics and religion, and most especially on matters of local history, were always sought and ever of value to his fellows. He was a friend of the early members of the bar in McLean County, and his life was contemporaneous with Abraham Lincoln, Judge David Davis, Judge Weldon, Leanard Swett, and many other men who have made eminent history in the Bloomington bar. Of late he had largely discontinued discontinued the practice of his profession and seldom appeared in the prosecution of cases in court.
But his active mental facilities would not permit him to be laid upon the shelf in the life of the community. On the contrary he took up a work which few men would have the knack or the qualifications to accomplish. This was the preservation in permanent form the history of the people and customs which have made McLean County an empire of almost regal proportions. His position as secretary of the McLean County Historical Society gave him the vantage ground from which he prosecuted his inquiries along this line. And in that capacity he did a work which should of itself make his name one of permanent honor in the annuls of the county.
With the building of the new court house in 1901, Mr. Prince was one of the most active of those who advocated the setting aside a room in that splendid building for the preservation and custody of the invaluable documents and relics of the Historical Society.
Mr. Prince was born at Turner, Maine on May 27, 1831. He studied law at Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1855.
In April, 1856 he came to Bloomington, Illinois where he ever after resided. The only public offices he ever filled were four years as Master in Chancery, (officer of the court) in McLean County and two years as member of the board of education in Bloomington.
He was a member of the Republican party ever since its organization and was a member of the Unitarian Church.
Mr. Prince was one of the officers of the Bloomington Library Association from its organization, and for several years taught at the Wesleyan law school.
He was married in Pittsfield, Illinois on July 2, 1866 to Barbara Maria Miller who died on May 2, 1908. Five children were born to them, two of whom preceded him in death Leonard Morton Prince and Grace Emily Prince. Surviving children were Robert T. Prince, Edward P. Prince and Horace F. Prince.
An account of his ancestry that he left with his children is Job Prince, fifth in descent from Elder John Prince, founder of the family in this country, moved to Maine in 1788. In the war of 1812 he served in Captain Blake's Company. Mr. Prince's father's name was Job Prince and he was born in Maine in 1795. He was a stalwart man of great physical courage. At one time he arrested an armed desperado who had defied the town officials. The father was a successful school teacher, and a man of great intelligence. He had several children but E. M. Prince was the last survivor of the family. The father was a Democrat until the rise of the anti slavery party, when he allied himself with that, and was an earnest supporter the rest of his life.
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)
28 Aug 1908, Page 8
---------------------------------
Ezra Morton Prince was the son of Job Prince and Zilpha Spalding Prince. He had two brothers, Leonard and Rufus, and one sister, Zilpha. He was a frail child having been born with his right leg shorter and smaller than his left. Later in life he said that for this reason, “he was designed for a professional life.”
In April of 1856 he came to Bloomington at the behest of his cousin Leonard Swett. Like Prince, Swett was also a lawyer. Swett came to Bloomington in 1849 and established a law practice. Swett was also a lawyer on the Eighth Judicial Circuit and this was how he met and became good friends with Abraham Lincoln. It was Swett who introduced Prince to Lincoln.
Prince recalled later in life that “one May morning [in 1856],” while he was in Swett’s office, he looked out the window and saw Lincoln’s “striking figure” walking to the courthouse in downtown Bloomington. Prince recalled that Lincoln was a “tall, gaunt man, sallow complexion, coarse dark hair, an old battered stove pipe hat, set on the back of his head, coarse rough boots, innocent of blacking, baggy pants, much too short for his legs, and a rusty old bombazine coat that hung loosely about his frame.” Soon after this, Prince and Lincoln became well acquainted since Lincoln was a regular on the Circuit coming to Bloomington often until he became President. They even traveled the Eighth Circuit together on occasion.
Prince was also a staunch supporter of the Republican Party having been a member since its organization in Illinois in the summer of 1856. The Republican Party was created in opposition of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which was created by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. This act stated that the settlers of a new territory could decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery in their territory. The newly founded Republican Party was strongly against this act or any act that would allow the expansion of slavery.
Shortly after his first encounter with Lincoln, Prince attended the May 29, 1856 Anti-Nebraska State Convention of Illinois which was held in Major’s Hall in Bloomington. This was the convention that organized the Republican Party of Illinois. This was also the convention where Lincoln gave his now famous “Lost Speech.” In this speech, Lincoln was said to have spoken out against the expansion of slavery and said it was slavery that was the root cause of the country’s problems. Towards the end of his life, Prince contributed and edited the book The Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society: Volume III, which commemorated this convention and Lincoln’s legacy in McLean County.
In October of the same year, Lincoln came to Bloomington on his way to Tremont, Illinois to make a speech campaigning for the Republican candidates, (John Freemont and William Dayton) during the election of 1856. Bloomington was the closest railroad station to Tremont, as Tremont did not have its own. When he arrived in Bloomington, Lincoln rented a carriage and asked his friend Prince to take him to Tremont. Because they did not start the journey until noon that day, this would be an overnight carriage trip. They followed the Peoria Road called the “Great Line through Central Illinois for Western Emigrants.” Parts of this road still exist today which follows Route 9 in western McLean County. All along their journey, “the road was lined with emigrant wagons,” which they called “Prairie Schooners.” This being near the end of the 1856 election, politics was on the mind of all who traveled this road. As Lincoln and Prince rode past these wagons, (their wagon being lighter than those of the emigrants) the people in those wagons would yell out their favorite candidates: “Buchanan and Breckinridge!” or “Fremont and Dayton!” Lincoln and Prince would shout back “Freemont and Dayton!,” who were the anti-slavery candidates. Prince later wrote in his account of this “Day with Abraham Lincoln” that he “wondered whether Mr. Lincoln had any idea then that in four years from that time people would be cheering his name for the presidency as we were then that of Freemont?”
They stopped at a place called “Mickens,” which was three miles west of Danvers, Illinois. There they stayed at a tavern where the “conditions were primitive and poor” even for a “way-side tavern of the time.” Lincoln and Prince shared a bed and Prince described the food as vile. But Prince said Lincoln was never heard to complain of his food. The cost for lodging, supper, breakfast and horse keep was about seventy-five cents. As they drove off, Lincoln said that was pretty cheap, but then Prince said he must have remembered the “muddy coffee and yellow biscuit” they had for breakfast, and with a laugh said “but perhaps considering what we got, it was enough.”
Prince also recalled that Lincoln was “an ideal traveling companion. If you wanted silence you could have it, if conversation you could have it and on your own ground. To Mr. Lincoln was himself the most interesting topic of conversation, and he was perfectly ready to satisfy my Yankee curiosity.” Prince’s friendship with Lincoln would continue until Lincoln’s death some nine years later.
His major contribution to McLean County was most likely his written records of county history. He contributed to and edited all three volumes of the Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society. He also edited the 1908 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McLean County and contributed to two other histories of McLean County. In addition, he wrote hundreds of column inches of information for The Daily Pantagraph about his travels out West, about Lincoln, or about the history of McLean County in general. He also wrote and read many papers for the Historical Society.
Source: http://www.mchistory.org/research/resources/ezra-morton-prince.php
Author: Candace Summers, 2009
-----------------------------------
Burial Date: August 29, 1908
Mr. Prince was a many sided man. He interested himself in all the phases of life and his views on politics and religion, and most especially on matters of local history, were always sought and ever of value to his fellows. He was a friend of the early members of the bar in McLean County, and his life was contemporaneous with Abraham Lincoln, Judge David Davis, Judge Weldon, Leanard Swett, and many other men who have made eminent history in the Bloomington bar. Of late he had largely discontinued discontinued the practice of his profession and seldom appeared in the prosecution of cases in court.
But his active mental facilities would not permit him to be laid upon the shelf in the life of the community. On the contrary he took up a work which few men would have the knack or the qualifications to accomplish. This was the preservation in permanent form the history of the people and customs which have made McLean County an empire of almost regal proportions. His position as secretary of the McLean County Historical Society gave him the vantage ground from which he prosecuted his inquiries along this line. And in that capacity he did a work which should of itself make his name one of permanent honor in the annuls of the county.
With the building of the new court house in 1901, Mr. Prince was one of the most active of those who advocated the setting aside a room in that splendid building for the preservation and custody of the invaluable documents and relics of the Historical Society.
Mr. Prince was born at Turner, Maine on May 27, 1831. He studied law at Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1855.
In April, 1856 he came to Bloomington, Illinois where he ever after resided. The only public offices he ever filled were four years as Master in Chancery, (officer of the court) in McLean County and two years as member of the board of education in Bloomington.
He was a member of the Republican party ever since its organization and was a member of the Unitarian Church.
Mr. Prince was one of the officers of the Bloomington Library Association from its organization, and for several years taught at the Wesleyan law school.
He was married in Pittsfield, Illinois on July 2, 1866 to Barbara Maria Miller who died on May 2, 1908. Five children were born to them, two of whom preceded him in death Leonard Morton Prince and Grace Emily Prince. Surviving children were Robert T. Prince, Edward P. Prince and Horace F. Prince.
An account of his ancestry that he left with his children is Job Prince, fifth in descent from Elder John Prince, founder of the family in this country, moved to Maine in 1788. In the war of 1812 he served in Captain Blake's Company. Mr. Prince's father's name was Job Prince and he was born in Maine in 1795. He was a stalwart man of great physical courage. At one time he arrested an armed desperado who had defied the town officials. The father was a successful school teacher, and a man of great intelligence. He had several children but E. M. Prince was the last survivor of the family. The father was a Democrat until the rise of the anti slavery party, when he allied himself with that, and was an earnest supporter the rest of his life.
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)
28 Aug 1908, Page 8
---------------------------------
Ezra Morton Prince was the son of Job Prince and Zilpha Spalding Prince. He had two brothers, Leonard and Rufus, and one sister, Zilpha. He was a frail child having been born with his right leg shorter and smaller than his left. Later in life he said that for this reason, “he was designed for a professional life.”
In April of 1856 he came to Bloomington at the behest of his cousin Leonard Swett. Like Prince, Swett was also a lawyer. Swett came to Bloomington in 1849 and established a law practice. Swett was also a lawyer on the Eighth Judicial Circuit and this was how he met and became good friends with Abraham Lincoln. It was Swett who introduced Prince to Lincoln.
Prince recalled later in life that “one May morning [in 1856],” while he was in Swett’s office, he looked out the window and saw Lincoln’s “striking figure” walking to the courthouse in downtown Bloomington. Prince recalled that Lincoln was a “tall, gaunt man, sallow complexion, coarse dark hair, an old battered stove pipe hat, set on the back of his head, coarse rough boots, innocent of blacking, baggy pants, much too short for his legs, and a rusty old bombazine coat that hung loosely about his frame.” Soon after this, Prince and Lincoln became well acquainted since Lincoln was a regular on the Circuit coming to Bloomington often until he became President. They even traveled the Eighth Circuit together on occasion.
Prince was also a staunch supporter of the Republican Party having been a member since its organization in Illinois in the summer of 1856. The Republican Party was created in opposition of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which was created by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. This act stated that the settlers of a new territory could decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery in their territory. The newly founded Republican Party was strongly against this act or any act that would allow the expansion of slavery.
Shortly after his first encounter with Lincoln, Prince attended the May 29, 1856 Anti-Nebraska State Convention of Illinois which was held in Major’s Hall in Bloomington. This was the convention that organized the Republican Party of Illinois. This was also the convention where Lincoln gave his now famous “Lost Speech.” In this speech, Lincoln was said to have spoken out against the expansion of slavery and said it was slavery that was the root cause of the country’s problems. Towards the end of his life, Prince contributed and edited the book The Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society: Volume III, which commemorated this convention and Lincoln’s legacy in McLean County.
In October of the same year, Lincoln came to Bloomington on his way to Tremont, Illinois to make a speech campaigning for the Republican candidates, (John Freemont and William Dayton) during the election of 1856. Bloomington was the closest railroad station to Tremont, as Tremont did not have its own. When he arrived in Bloomington, Lincoln rented a carriage and asked his friend Prince to take him to Tremont. Because they did not start the journey until noon that day, this would be an overnight carriage trip. They followed the Peoria Road called the “Great Line through Central Illinois for Western Emigrants.” Parts of this road still exist today which follows Route 9 in western McLean County. All along their journey, “the road was lined with emigrant wagons,” which they called “Prairie Schooners.” This being near the end of the 1856 election, politics was on the mind of all who traveled this road. As Lincoln and Prince rode past these wagons, (their wagon being lighter than those of the emigrants) the people in those wagons would yell out their favorite candidates: “Buchanan and Breckinridge!” or “Fremont and Dayton!” Lincoln and Prince would shout back “Freemont and Dayton!,” who were the anti-slavery candidates. Prince later wrote in his account of this “Day with Abraham Lincoln” that he “wondered whether Mr. Lincoln had any idea then that in four years from that time people would be cheering his name for the presidency as we were then that of Freemont?”
They stopped at a place called “Mickens,” which was three miles west of Danvers, Illinois. There they stayed at a tavern where the “conditions were primitive and poor” even for a “way-side tavern of the time.” Lincoln and Prince shared a bed and Prince described the food as vile. But Prince said Lincoln was never heard to complain of his food. The cost for lodging, supper, breakfast and horse keep was about seventy-five cents. As they drove off, Lincoln said that was pretty cheap, but then Prince said he must have remembered the “muddy coffee and yellow biscuit” they had for breakfast, and with a laugh said “but perhaps considering what we got, it was enough.”
Prince also recalled that Lincoln was “an ideal traveling companion. If you wanted silence you could have it, if conversation you could have it and on your own ground. To Mr. Lincoln was himself the most interesting topic of conversation, and he was perfectly ready to satisfy my Yankee curiosity.” Prince’s friendship with Lincoln would continue until Lincoln’s death some nine years later.
His major contribution to McLean County was most likely his written records of county history. He contributed to and edited all three volumes of the Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society. He also edited the 1908 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McLean County and contributed to two other histories of McLean County. In addition, he wrote hundreds of column inches of information for The Daily Pantagraph about his travels out West, about Lincoln, or about the history of McLean County in general. He also wrote and read many papers for the Historical Society.
Source: http://www.mchistory.org/research/resources/ezra-morton-prince.php
Author: Candace Summers, 2009
-----------------------------------
Burial Date: August 29, 1908
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