Seth Kinman's Eagle Hotel

One of Pekin's early hotels was the Eagle Hotel, located on the south side of Court Street at the intersection of Front Street (now within Pekin Riverfront Park). Pekin's pioneer historian William H. Bates confusingly claimed Tazewell House/Bemis House was later located on the same site, but Tazewell House was on the north side of Court Street, across the street from where the Eagle had previously been. The Eagle Hotel first opened its doors in 1848, and it was owned and operated by a Tazewell County pioneer named Seth Kinman (1815-1888), who later headed out West and became a renowned mountain man and hunter in California.

Abraham Lincoln is not known to have stayed at the Eagle during his visits to Pekin. Nevertheless, Seth Kinman was a friend and great admirer of Lincoln. On 26 Nov. 1864 during a visit to the White House, Kinman presented the president with a unique chair that he had made out of elk horn and bear claws. As sharp as the antlers and claws were, Lincoln probably would have had to take special care if he'd ever tried to sit in them. Presumably these unusual gifts were meant to be decorative only.

The following year, Kinman returned to Washington, D.C. Kinman claimed to have been a witness to Lincoln's assassination, and newspaper reports on Lincoln's funeral mention that Kinman walked in Lincoln's funeral procession.

Pioneer historian Bates preserves this colorful anecdote of Seth Kinman from his days as proprietor of the Eagle Hotel in Pekin:

"A traveler came off a boat one day, and went to the Eagle Hotel. There had been a little western ‘scrimmage’ at the ‘Eagle’ the night before, and though things had not yet been put in order, the proprietor, Seth Kinman, was sitting in front of the door, playing his favorite tune, the ‘Arkansas Traveler,’ with the greatest self-satisfaction. The stranger, stopping, said to Seth: ‘Are you the proprietor here?’ Seth, without resting his bow, replied, ‘Wall, I reckon I be, stranger.’ ‘Do you keep tavern?’ ‘Of course I do; keep tavern like hell,’ said Seth, fiddling away with all his might. ‘Just pile in; hang your freight up on the floor, and make yourself at home. The boys,’ continued Seth, ‘have been having a little fun, but if there’s a whole table or plate in the house, I’ll get you some cold hash towards night.’ The stranger didn’t like the place, and took his departure, leaving the ‘proprietor’ still enjoying his violin.”