“Captain Dane Relates Interesting Stories of Lincoln”

Jerome Dane: 1828-1908

My second-great-grandfather, Captain Jerome Dane, was a colorful character who enjoyed an audience. He loved to tell stories about his life to the press. He gave his final interview to the Mankato Daily Free Press on July 17, 1907, just months before his death in February of 1908. In this interview, he claimed to have met Abraham Lincoln in the late 1840s when he spent several months living in Springfield, Illinois. Family members remembered this story—he had told it several times over the years before it was recorded by a reporter. But is it true? I don’t think I will ever be able to find real evidence to support his story, so it will probably remain a family legend. However, it is a great story—his recounting was full of detail. I like to believe it has a basis in truth.

I have transcribed the pertinent sections of the newspaper interview below:

“The Captain’s story is as follows: ‘I was discharged from the regular army at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis in the summer of 1848. From St. Louis I made my way to Springfield, Ill., reaching there in August. I spent some time chopping wood on the bottoms of the Sangamon River. A man whose name I cannot recall, offered me a team and wagon, agreeing to furnish half the feed, if I would use it in teaming and give him half of what I made. I found a lot of red oak logs, cut for saw logs which had lain two or three years and were pretty well water soaked. The party who owned the logs said I could have them if I would cut them up.

I cut them up into cordwood and hauled it to a vacant lot in Springfield in the fall while the roads were in good condition. The spring of 1849 was very wet and the streets were almost impassable. A great many people were out of wood. Then I went to hauling. The first load I hauled I sold to Lincoln. I had a wagon box full—perhaps a quarter of a cord—as the streets were too muddy to haul a full load. I was on the street with the wood, when mr. Lincoln came around and asked me if the wood was for sale. I told him that it was. He then asked me what kind it was and what I wanted for it. I replied that it was dead red oak and that I wanted $2 for the load. He replied that it looked like pretty tough wood, but that he would take it.

So I drove around and unloaded it in the rear of this house. A day or two after this Mr. Lincoln met me on the street and laughingly inquired if I had any more wood to sell, and added ‘that the load of wood you sold me was good dead oak sure enough. I can’t get fire enough under it to bring it to life.’”

I love the word play in the story—Lincoln’s comment at the end certainly sounds like the sort of dry wit he was known for.

Captain Dane recounted another meeting with Lincoln a little further down in the interview.

“I left Springfield in March, 1849, hiring out to a man by the name of Fox to take a drove of cattle through to Philadelphia. This man Fox had 1,200 head, divided into droves of 120 each. Fox took me with him to help get the cattle across the rivers. When I hired out to Fox we went into Lincoln’s law office to make out a contract. Lincoln wrote out an article of agreement. I asked him how much it was. He inquirether I would pay for it or Fox. I said that as I was the one who called for it, I supposed I would have to pay for it. He said: ‘If you are to pay for it I won’t charge you anything but if Fox is to pay for it I would charge $1.’”

This is another example of detail that might be true. I can imagine Lincoln might have had a soft spot for young men without resources, trying to make their own way in the world, just as he had done. Captain Dane wouldn’t have yet turned 21, while Lincoln was over a decade older. I can see him giving a young man a break on the cost of a simple contract.

Captain Dane had one final comment about Lincoln:

“I saw Lincoln frequently in Springfield. He was very tall, rawboned, had a large mouth and was always good-natured.”

What a charming and amazing story! It’s understandable that it captured the imaginations of Captain Dane’s descendants—his grandson, Ivan Macbeth, (my grandfather) passed the story along to my mother and mentioned it to me when I was a child and still too young to understand the significance of meeting Abraham Lincoln.

Are there any obvious flaws in Captain Dane’s timeline? Lincoln had served in the House of Representatives from 1846 to 1848. He left after serving a single term, returning to Springfield and his law practice. So he was back in Springfield during the spring of 1849, and could have purchased wood. As a practicing lawyer that spring, he could also have written up a simple work contract when asked. It sounds as if my ancestor was a friendly, garrulous sort, as Lincoln was. It is possible that the two would have enjoyed chatting had they met.

The timeline of Captain Dane’s military service also seems to fit the story. Jerome enlisted at 18 and served in the Mexican War, which lasted from 1846 until 1848. So his muster-out date of June 1848 sounds plausible. According to Wikipedia, the location also fit, for “upon the return of the triumphant U.S. forces in 1848, many were deployed to Jefferson Barracks due to its strategic location and healthful situation.”

Jerome’s claims that he didn’t return to his birthplace in New York after his discharge, or immediately tried to rejoin his siblings in Wisconsin are also possible. After all, he was unmarried, barely 21 years old, and had no responsibilities. Selling wood and droving cattle in the Springfield area would have provided both a living and some independence, along with a chance for adventure. Late in 1849, Dane did decide to head north to join his brothers and mother in Wisconsin, where he met and married his wife in 1850.