Long Nine Banquet Site
CITY:
Athens
COUNTY:
Menard
DEDICATED BY:
Long Nine, Inc. and The Illinois State Historical Society
DEDICATION DATE:
January 1, 1974 at 6:00:00 AM
The marker is located in Athens, adjacent to the Long Nine Museum, at the southeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and Jefferson Street.
In this structure, built about 1832, residents of the Athens area held a banquet on August 3, 1837, for the “Long Nine” – Abraham Lincoln and the other State legislators from Sangamon County. The men, whose height totaled fifty-four feet, were honored for their success in the tenth General Assembly in changing the State Capitol from Vandalia to Springfield. State offices were moved in 1839. At the Athens banquet Lincoln gave a toast: “Sangamon County will ever be true to her best interests and never more so than in reciprocating the good feelings of the citizens of Athens and neighborhood.”