The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-11
David Sears Tells Incidents
OF His Fathers Friendship
With Lincoln: Were Old Pals
BRAHAM LINCOLN was sol

~ very ordinary looking, that
one who entered his untidy
office would never have believed
that he was one of the greatest liv-
ing men, one who was always full
OF ideas.
At least, this is what the late Da-
vid B. Sears, one of the first set
tiers in this community, thought
or his close friend, Abraham Lin
coin, and \what he always told his
son, David Sears, aged 81 years.
who now lives at 4409 Fourteenth
street, Rock Island.
Lincoln and David B. Sears were
old pals. When both were chill
cren they lived and played togeth-
er in southern Illinois near the
Wabash river. Later Lincoln be-
came Mr. Sears attorney on Spring
field business. Both were old line
Wings, and both were strong Re
publicans. assisting the organiza-
ton of the Republican party in Hi
nois.
"Lincoln's office was never in or
der. Yet he was so pleasant and
sociable that one would not i'm
agine that he was more than an
everyday Citizen Mr.. Sears said
in speaking of the stories that his
father always told him of his
friend. But when one knew him,
he was just chock full of ideas, and
my father always thought Lincoln
was one of the greatest men that
ever lived"
Lincoln Letters Destroyed.
Many personal and official letters
written by Lincoln to Mr.. Sears
were destroyed when the old mill
owned by the Sears family was
wrecked by fire in 1858.
Mr.. Lincoln served as legal ad-
visor in cases which affected this
community on several occasions
In the early SOS, Thales Lindsey of
Washington, D. c., succeeded IN
getting a bill passed through the
Illinois state legislature to con-
struct dam providing for a pas
sageway from the east end of the
island Of Rock Island to the Dav-
export shore.
This was not considered feasible
by men of authority, and a group
OF Moline business men and those
interested in water power service
in Moline retained David Sears to
20 to Springfield and file objec-
tons. Mr.. Sears secured Lincoln
as his attorney, and at Springfield
| the young lawyer succeeded. with
the help OF Mr.. Sears, in having the
bill reconsidered and rescinded 1t
was believed a detriment because
the dam was provided with a chute
e. ~ oK-
would have been impractical.
Had Pnrt in Bridge.
Again Lincoln represented an In
terest in local construction when
| he was an attorney in the case of
steamboat owners against a local
| bridge construction company. II is
believed, Mr.. Sears said, that Lin
coin was the attorney from the
steamboat association.
! In the construction OF the bridge
across the north shore of the island
of Rock Island to the Davenport
side. which was the first bridge
built across the Mississippi. the
construction company was sued by
the steamboat owners association
in the United States court. The
steamboat owners objected to the
bridge for the reason 1t injured
navigation. the drop pier having
been built diagonally across the
channel, which did materially in
terfere with navigation. Mr.. Sears
said.
Lincoln called on David B. Sears
for his judgment in the matter
Mr.. Sears contended that the bridge
was an obstruction to navigation.