President Lincoln and family attended this church during his
Administration. The pew that they occupied is still preserved in its
black walnut trimmings, though the rest of the sanctuary has been
refurnished.
Lyman Whitney Allen, born at St. Louis, November 19, 1854. Bachelor of
Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, 1878; later Master of Arts,
Princeton Theological, 1878-80; Post-graduate studies at Princeton
University; (D.D., University of Wooster, 1897). Ordained Presbyterian
Minister, 1882; stated supply Kimmswick, Missouri, 1881-3; DeSoto,
Missouri, 1883-5; Pastor-elect Carondelet Church, St. Louis, Missouri,
1885-9; Pastor South Park Church, Newark, New Jersey, since 1889.
Director Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian; Chaplain New Jersey
Society D. A. R.; Member Society American Authors; New Jersey Society
S. A. R. Club, Princeton (New York). Has written many poems and
articles, including the New York _Herald's_ $1,000 prize poem which
was published in 1895.
Rev. Dr. Lyman Whitney Allen of Newark, New Jersey, had for his guest
Chief Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford of the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia. Judge Stafford addressed the Men's Club of Dr.
Allen's church one evening, and next day, in company with his host,
visited the Lincoln statue on the court-house plaza. On the train that
bore him back to Washington that day, Judge Stafford wrote the poem on
the Statue. (See page 236).
A few weeks thereafter Dr. Allen visited his friend, the judge, in
Washington, and they made a little pilgrimage to the New York Avenue
Presbyterian church. In the Lincoln pew Dr. Allen sat and meditated,
and on his way back he wrote the verses.
"I had seen the Lincoln statue many times," says Dr. Allen, "but,
somehow, I could not get started on the poem I knew could be written
around it." And Judge Stafford wrote to his friend in Newark: "I had
seen the Lincoln pew a score of times without poetic result, yet you
come on a one-day visit and carry away the inspiration needed."