When Lincoln went to Washington he had a sale of the furniture of the
Eighth street home at Springfield. Most of the articles were bought by
a well-to-do family named Tilton, who admired the President in such a
way as to make what had belonged to him things to be treasured. When the
troops passed through Springfield to the front they visited the house
“where Uncle Abe had lived,” and the Tiltons used to confer great favor
by permitting the boys in blue to sit down in the dining room and have
a glass of milk off the table from which Mr. Lincoln had eaten many
times. But the Tiltons moved away to Chicago. They carried with them
the furniture which had been in the Lincoln house, prizing it more than
ever after his death. In 1871 came the Chicago fire, and with it went
not only the Lincoln furniture, but the original document, which, if it
were in existence now, would be preserved with the zeal that guards the
Declaration of Independence--the Proclamation of Emancipation. The draft
of the proclamation had been sent to Chicago to be exhibited for some
purpose and was burned in that fire.