Joshua Wagenseller's House

Joshua Wagenseller, a prominent Pekin merchant, was a leading member of the local Whig Party (later a Republican) and a good friend of Abraham Lincoln, who several times visited or stayed at the grand and beautiful Wagenseller house during his visits to Pekin. Lincoln is reported to have given at least one speech from the front porch of the Wagenseller house, which was located at a spot that is now the southwest intersection of Second Street and Broadway. Lincoln and William Kellogg, then a U.S. Congressman, visited Joshua Wagenseller's home on 5 Oct. 1858 during the period of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln and Kellogg then gave speeches at the courthouse square -- Lincoln in the afternoon (introduced by Judge Bush), Kellogg in the evening.

Wagenseller, whose dry goods store was located at 48 Court Street, built his house in 1856. This point of interest's associated images include an old photograph of the Wagenseller house (including some of Joshua Wagenseller's grandchildren), and a detail from an 1877 aerial depiction of Pekin showing the Wagenseller house at the corner of Broadway and "Market Street" (now South Second Street).