A movement was started shortly after the burial of Lincoln to raise
funds sufficient to build a monument over his grave. Contributions
were made by various States and societies, and about sixty thousand
Sunday-school scholars contributed the sum of eighteen thousand
dollars. Ground was broken on the 9th of September, 1869, and the
monument was dedicated on the 15th of October, 1874, at a total cost
of two hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
James Judson Lord, born at Berwick, Maine, in 1821. He had the
advantage of an excellent early education followed by years of
research. During his preparatory studies at Cambridge he met
Longfellow, who loaned him books from his own library. For a time he
studied art under prominent masters, but his health failing, after a
time of forced leisure he went into the mercantile business in Boston,
which vocation he afterward followed. In 1851 he went to Illinois;
finally, after his marriage, settling in Springfield. There he knew
Mr. Lincoln, with whom he was on terms of closest friendship.
The poem submitted by Mr. Lord was selected for reading at the
dedication of the National Lincoln Monument in a competition which
brought contributions from many leading poets.
He was the author of several dramas, and from time to time contributed
poems to leading magazines and newspapers of the country. He died
January 3, 1905.