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Timeline of Abraham Lincoln's Life
With addition of 5x ALSOP key dates

Abraham Lincoln: B-1809  D-1865 aged 56 years

1806 - Lincoln's parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks marry in Kentucky.
1807 - Lincoln's sister Sarah is born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
1809 - Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, 1809, Hardin County, Kentucky. "Lincoln Day."
1812 - Lincoln's brother Thomas dies in infancy.
1817 - Settled in Perry County, Indiana; father, mother, sister, and self.
1818 - October 5, Mrs. Thomas Lincoln (Nancy Hanks) died; buried Spencer County, Indiana. In 1901, a monument erected to her memory, the base being the former Abraham Lincoln vault. Schooling, a few months, 1819, '20 and '28, about six months' school.
1819 - Thomas (father of A. L.) marries again: Mrs. Johnson (Sarah Bush Johnson) of Kentucky.
1826 - Lincoln's sister Sarah marries Aaron Grigsby in Indiana.
1828 - Lincoln's sister Sarah dies in childbirth at age 20.
1830 - March, Lincoln family move into Illinois, near Decatur.
1831 - Works for himself: boatbuilding and sailing, carpentering, hog-sticking, sawmilling, blacksmithing, river-pilot, logger, etc., in Menard County, Indiana.
1831 - Election clerk at New Salem. Captain and private (re-enlisted) in Black Hawk War. Store clerk and merchant, New Salem. Studies for the law.
1832 - First political speech. Henry Clay, Whig platform. Defeated through strong local vote. Deputy surveyor, at three dollars a day, Sangamon County.
1834 - Elected to State legislature as Whig. (Resides in Springfield till 1861. Law partner with John L. Stuart till 1840.)
1835 - Postmaster, New Salem; appointed by President Jackson.
1835 - Clinton, Illinois. Founded by a pair of land speculators. Clinton was the county seat of DeWitt County.
Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and David Davis each left their marks on the community.
1838 to 1840 - Reelected to State legislature.
1840 - Partner in law with S. T. Logan.
1842 - Married Miss Mary Todd, of Kentucky. Of the four sons, Edward died in infancy; William ("Willie") at twelve at Washington; Thomas ("Tad") at Springfield, aged twenty; Robert M. T., minister to Great Britain, presidential candidate, secretary of war to President Garfield. His only grandson, Abraham, died in London, March, 1890.
1844 - Proposed for Congress.
1845 - Law partner with W. H. Herndon, for life.
1845 - John Alsop and wife and Mary emigrated to the U.S.A. with their son Levi and were living in DeWitt Co., 111
1846 - Elected to Congress, the single Whig Illinois member; voted antislavery; sought abolition in the D. C.; voted Wilmot Proviso. Declined reelection.
1848 - James Alsop decided to join his brother and family in DeWitt Co., Illinois. He left England in 1848, and became a lifelong resident of this area.
1848 - Electioneered for General Taylor.
1849 - Defeated by Shields for United States senator.
1851 - Lincoln's father Thomas dies in Illinois at age of 73.
1852 - Electioneered for General Scott.
1853 - James Alsop "fired" his council, Abraham Lincoln, circa 1853.
1854 - The first Illinois Central Railroad locomotive chugged into Clinton in 1854; by the end of the decade, it had transformed the town - both socially and economically - From a rough frontier settlement into a thriving "railroad town."
1854 - Won the State over to the Republicans, but by arrangement transferred his claim to the senatorship to Trumbull. October, debated with Douglas. Declined the governorship in favor of Bissell.
1856 - Organized the Republican Party and became its chief; nominated vice-president, but was not chosen by its first convention; worked for the Fremont-Dayton presidential ticket.
1858 - Lost in the legislature the senatorship to Douglas.
1859 - Placed for the presidential candidacy. Made Eastern tour "to get acquainted."
1860 - May 9, nominated for President, "shutting out" Seward, Chase, Cameron, Dayton, Wade, Bates, and McLean.
1861 - March 4, inaugurated sixteenth President; succeeds Buchanan, and precedes his vice - Andrew Johnson, whom General Grant succeeded. Civil War began by firing on Fort Sumter, April 12.
1862 - September 22, emancipation announced.
1863 - January 1, emancipation proclaimed. November 19, Gettysburg Cemetery address. December 9, pardon to rebels proclaimed.
1863 - Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
1863 - Miss Sarah Alsop age 21 of Derby arrived in Melbourne by the sailing vessel 'Robert Small'
1864 - Unanimous nomination as Republican presidential candidate for re-election, June 7. Reelected November 8.
1864 - James Alsop wrote to his daughter Sarah Alsop and said he would pay for her passage to join him in Clinton, Dewitt County, Illinois.
1865 - March 4, inaugurated for the second term. April 14, assassinated in Ford's Theater, Washington, by a mad actor, Wilkes Booth. April 19, body lay in state at Washington. April 26, Booth slain in resisting arrest, by Sergeant Boston Corbett, near Port Royal. April 21 to May 4, funeral-train through principal cities North, to Springfield, Illinois.
1869 - Lincoln's stepmother Sarah dies in Illinois.
1871 - Temporarily deposited in catacomb.
1874 - In catacomb, in sarcophagus. The completed monument dedicated.
1876 - To frustrate repetition of body-snatchers' attempt, reinterred deeper.
1882 - Lincoln's widow Mary dies in Sprngfield, Illinois at age 63.
1900 - A fifth removal; the whole structure solidly rebuilt, containing the martyred President, his wife, and their three children, as well as the grandson bearing Abraham's name.
1929 to 1940  - The Great Depression saw a sharp decline in the railroad's prosperity, so Clinton turned to the area's farmers to maintain the local economy. For the last half-century, Clinton has sought also to attract a variety of industry and manufacturing to preserve economic stability, thus attracting new residents ensuring Clinton's continued progress into the 21st century.
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