Lincoln Monument at the Entrance to Lincoln Park, Kennedy Boulevard and Belmont Ave.
Photo: P. Shalhoub, 2001

As it has done for every year since 1867, the Lincoln Association of Jersey City commemorates the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, on February 12 of each year. On the morning of the anniversary, the association holds a ceremony and places a wreath at the foot of the Lincoln Monument at the entrance of Lincoln Park at Kennedy Boulevard and Belmont Avenue. Later in the evening, the association continues the tradition of a celebratory dinner to honor Lincoln and reflect on his contributions to the American nation through recitations of his writings and honorary speeches.

The formation of the Lincoln Association occurred amidst controversy that lingered from the division among city residents on the support of Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War, its purpose and conduct. Lincoln supporters called themselves "patriots" and referred to Lincoln as the Great Emancipator, who struggled to save the Union and restore the status of the South within the Union. During the war they held public meetings to demonstrate their loyalty to Lincoln and his administration against his detractors.

The city's newspapers took sides during the war, representing differing positions on slavery, abolition, and secession of the southern states. The Jersey City Courier and Advertiser and the American Standard were pro-slavery and opposed to Lincoln's presidency. Major Z.K. Pangborn and his partners William B. Dunning and Joseph A. Dear, who were to found the The Evening Journal (now Jersey Journal), were pro-Lincoln and supported abolition and the preservation of the Union.

On February 12, 1867, two years after Lincoln's assassination, eight Jersey City leaders met at the Zachau's Union House, then located at 146 Newark Avenue, in Lincoln’s remembrance and formed the association on May 3, 1867, with the election of officers. Later that year it held a banquet called "The Lincoln Ball" on Christmas Eve, December 24. It took place at Library Hall on the corner of (704) Grand Street and Ivy Place. The Bergen Library Associates built the hall to hold Bergen’s lending library and an auditorium. The building later became M. Michael’s Furniture Store.

Jersey City's divided position on Lincoln and the Civil War reflected New Jersey's opinion about Lincoln's presidency--Lincoln lost New Jersey in the elections of 1860 and 1864. On the other hand, Jersey City gave witness to two noteworthy events at the beginning and end of Lincoln's presidency--one on route to his first inauguration in 1861 and the other as part of memorial services held for the president in 1865.

On February 21, 1861, the president-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped in Jersey City. He was traveling by train from his home in Springfield, Illinois, to his inauguration in Washington, DC He arrived in Jersey City from New York City on the ferry John P. Jackson at the depot of the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company at Hudson Street and Exchange Place. Aboard the ferry to accompany him were the President of the Jersey City Board of Aldermen A.A. Hardenbergh and New Jersey Attorney General William L. Dayton, the former Republican 1856 vice presidential candidate and Lincoln's future ambassador to France, among others. In Jersey City a reported crowd of 25,000 gave Lincoln an enthusiastic reception along with Mayor Cornelius Van Vorst, former Mayor Dudley S. Gregory and other dignitaries. Lincoln extended a special handshake to Gregory with whom he previously served in the US Congress. From Jersey City Lincoln continued to Washington, DC aboard the special train "Governor (William) Pennington" constructed in New Jersey

After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, a train transported the president's body from Washington, DC, west to Springfield, Illinois, making several stops for American citizens to pay their respects to the slain leader. The funeral train made its way to Exchange Place station on April 24, 1865. Here the funeral railway car was placed on a barge and towed by the ferryboat Jersey City to New York City, where it lay in state at City Hall.

The success of the Lincoln Association's first dinner started the tradition of the annual Lincoln day event. Over the years it has been held at various places: Taylor's Hall, now the site for the Commercial Trust Company at Exchange Place; the Washington Hotel, now St. Mary's Residence at 240 Washington Street; Jersey City Club, now the Masonic Club at Crescent and Clinton avenues; the Carteret Club, now St. Dominic's Academy at Kennedy Boulevard and Duncan Avenue; and most recently, Casino-in-the Park in Lincoln Park. Among the association's distinguished speakers to offer their appraisal and appreciation of Lincoln's legacy have been Ambassador Ralph J. Bunche of the United Nations, New Jersey Governor Edward Casper Stokes, Chief Justice Clarence E. Case, and Charles Osgood of CBS television.

In the 1920s, the Lincoln Association, with the assistance of school children, raised funds to build the Lincoln Monument. From their donation of pennies and nickels, the children contributed $3500 for the structure. James Earle Fraser, noted for his design of the buffalo nickel and sculpture End of the Trail, was commissioned by the Association to design and build the park memorial. It was dedicated on June 14, 1930. The association also successfully obtained the renaming of the (West Side) park for the President Lincoln.

Lincoln Highway

The placement of the Fraser's Lincoln Monument in Jersey City on Hudson Boulevard (now Kennedy Boulevard) had been part of the proposed Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast highway dedicated to the "age of the automobile." The Lincoln Highway Association intended for the route to start in Times Square, New York City, and follow across the continent to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, CA, where Fraser's End of the Trail would be placed. In New Jersey the highway would turn west off Bergen Hill and cross the Meadowlands into Newark and continue west across the state and beyond. By the late 1920s, however, New Jersey replaced the Lincoln Highway concept in Hudson County with an alternate road that became US Route 1. Included in the highway development was the Pulaski Skyway as an overpass from the Holland Tunnel to the Meadowlands connecting Jersey City and Newark. The Lincoln Highway project for the nation never came to fruition.

References:

Grundy, J. Owen. "Lincoln Unit Faithful 104 Years." Jersey Journal 12 February 1971.
Olszewski, Anthony. "Abraham Lincoln Spoke in Jersey City." Get NJ, 2000 http://www.cityofjerseycity.org/lincoln/index.shtml
Richardson, W.H. "The Beginnings of the Lincoln Association, the 1873 Dinner." ts, New Jersey Room, Jersey City Public Library.