Editing Springfield, Illinois (section)

===Pre-Civil War===
Settlers originally named this community as "Calhoun", after Senator [[John C. Calhoun]] of [[South Carolina]], expressing their cultural ties.<ref name="Callhoun">[http://www.usacitiesonline.com/ilcountyspringfield.htm#history Springfield history] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103004432/http://www.usacitiesonline.com/ilcountyspringfield.htm#history |date=January 3, 2007 }} Retrieved on February 21, 2007</ref> The land that Springfield now occupies was visited first by trappers and [[fur traders]] who came to the [[Sangamon River]] in 1818.<ref name="Quincynet.com">{{citation <!--EXISTING REFERENCE--> |url=http://www.quincynet.com/daytrips/springfieldNOlincoln/index.htm |title=Springfield, Illinois |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401190814/http://www.quincynet.com/daytrips/springfieldNOlincoln/index.htm |archive-date=April 1, 2012 |access-date=March 7, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first cabin was built in 1820, by John Kelly, after discovering the area to be plentiful of deer and wild game. He built his cabin upon a hill, overlooking a creek known eventually as the Town Branch. A stone marker on the north side of Jefferson street, halfway between 1st and College streets, marks the location of this original dwelling. A second stone marker at the NW corner of 2nd and Jefferson, often mistaken for the original home site, marks instead the location of the first county courthouse, which was later built on Kelly's property. In 1821, Calhoun was designated as the county seat of Sangamon County due to its location, fertile soil and trading opportunities.

Settlers from [[Kentucky]], [[Virginia]], and [[North Carolina]] came to the developing settlement.<ref name="Quincynet.com" /> By 1832, Senator Calhoun had fallen out of the favor with the public and the town renamed itself as Springfield.<ref name="Visit Springfield">{{citation <!--EXISTING REFERENCE--> |url=http://www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/About/Sketch.asp |title= A Brief Sketch of Springfield, Illinois |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305143316/http://www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/About/Sketch.asp|archive-date=March 5, 2012 |access-date=March 7, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to local history, the name was suggested by the wife of John Kelly, after Spring Creek, which ran through the area known as "Kelly's Field".<ref>John C. Powers, Jr. ''History of the Early Settlers of Springfield, Illinois'', 1876, reprinted 1998, {{ISBN|9780788410185 }}</ref>

[[Kaskaskia, Illinois|Kaskaskia]] was the first capital of the [[Illinois|Illinois Territory]] from its organization in 1809, continuing through statehood in 1818, and through the first year as a state in 1819. [[Vandalia, Illinois|Vandalia]] was the second state capital of Illinois, from 1819 to 1839. Springfield was designated in 1839 as the third capital, and has continued to be so. The designation was largely due to the efforts of [[Abraham Lincoln]] and his associates; nicknamed the "Long Nine" for their combined height of {{convert|54|ft|m}}.<ref name="Quincynet.com" /><ref name="Visit Springfield" />

The [[Potawatomi Trail of Death]] passed through here in 1838. The Native Americans were forced west to Indian Territory by the government's [[Indian Removal]] policy.

[[File:Lincoln Home Springfield 1865.jpg|thumb|[[Lincoln Home National Historic Site|Abraham Lincoln's Springfield home]] in 1865 during [[Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln's funeral]]]]
Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Springfield area in 1831 when he was a young man, but he did not live in the city until 1837.<ref name=amer/> He spent the ensuing six years in [[New Salem, Menard County, Illinois|New Salem]], where he began his legal studies, joined the [[state militia]], and was elected to the [[Illinois General Assembly]].

In 1837, Lincoln moved to Springfield, where he lived and worked for the next 24 years as a lawyer and politician. Lincoln delivered his [[Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum address|Lyceum address]] in Springfield. His farewell speech when he left for Washington is a classic in American oratory.<ref name=amer>{{Cite journal |title=Springfield, Illinois |journal=American History |volume=32 |issue=4 |page=60 |date=September–October 1997 |url=http://www.ulib.niu.edu:4513/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9710070017&site=ehost-live |issn=1076-8866}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Academic Search Premier, ([[EBSCO Information Services|EBSCO]]). {{dead link|date=March 2017 }}</ref>

Historian Kenneth J. Winkle (1998) examines the historiography concerning the development of the [[Second Party System]] (Whigs versus Democrats). He applied these ideas to the study of Springfield, a strong Whig enclave in a Democratic region. He chiefly studied poll books for presidential years. The rise of the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] took place in 1836 in opposition to the presidential candidacy of [[Martin Van Buren]] and was consolidated in 1840. Springfield Whigs tend to validate several expectations of party characteristics as they were largely native-born, either in New England or Kentucky, professional or agricultural in occupation, and devoted to partisan organization. Abraham Lincoln's career reflects the Whigs' political rise but, by the 1840s, Springfield began to be dominated by Democratic politicians. Waves of new European immigrants had changed the city's demographics and they became aligned with the Democrats, who made more effort to assist and connect with them. By the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln was barely able to win his home city.<ref>Winkle, (1998)</ref>

====Population====
Winkle earlier had studied the effect of migration on residents' political participation in Springfield during the 1850s.<ref name="winkle"/> Widespread migration in the 19th-century United States produced frequent population turnover within Midwestern communities, which influenced patterns of voter turnout and office-holding. Examination of the manuscript census, poll books, and office-holding records reveals the effects of migration on the behavior and voting patterns of 8,000 participants in 10 elections in Springfield. Most voters were short-term residents who participated in only one or two elections during the 1850s. Fewer than 1% of all voters participated in all 10 elections.<ref name="winkle"/>

Instead of producing political instability, however, rapid turnover enhanced the influence of the more stable residents.<ref name="winkle"/> Migration was selective by age, occupation, wealth, and birthplace. Longer-term or "persistent" voters, as he terms them, tended to be wealthier, more highly skilled, more often native-born, and socially more stable than non-persisters. Officeholders were particularly persistent and socially and economically advantaged. Persisters represented a small "core community" of economically successful, socially homogeneous, and politically active voters and officeholders who controlled local political affairs, while most residents moved in and out of the city. Members of a tightly knit and exclusive "core community", exemplified by [[Abraham Lincoln]], blunted the potentially disruptive impact of migration on local communities.<ref name="winkle">Kenneth J. Winkle, "The Voters of Lincoln's Springfield: Migration and Political Participation in an Antebellum City." ''Journal of Social History'' 1992 25(3): 595–611. {{ISSN|0022-4529}} Fulltext: [[EBSCO Information Services|Ebsco]]</ref>

====Business====
The case of John Williams illustrates the important role of the merchant banker in the economic development of central Illinois before the Civil War. Williams began his career as a clerk in frontier stores and saved to begin his own business. Later, in addition to operating retail and wholesale stores, he acted as a local banker. He organized a national bank in Springfield. He was active in railroad promotion and as an agent for farm machinery.<ref>Robert E., Coleberd, Jr. "John Williams: a Merchant Banker in Springfield, Illinois." ''Agricultural History'' 1968 42(3): 259–265. {{ISSN|0002-1482 }}</ref>

====Religion====
During the mid-19th century, the spiritual needs of German [[Lutherans]] in the Midwest were not being tended. There had been a wave of migration after the 1848 revolutions, but without a related number of clergy. As a result of the efforts of such missionaries as Friedrich Wyneken, Wilhelm Loehe, and Wilhelm Sihler, additional Lutheran ministers were sent to the Midwest, Lutheran schools were opened, and [[Concordia Theological Seminary]] was founded in [[Ft. Wayne, Indiana]] in 1846.

The seminary moved to [[St. Louis, Missouri]], in 1869, and then to Springfield in 1874. During the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]] succeeded in serving the spiritual needs of Midwestern congregations by establishing additional seminaries from ministers trained at Concordia, and by developing a viable synodical tradition.<ref>Roger Howard Dallmann, "Springfield Seminary." ''Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly'' 1977 50(3): 106–130. {{ISSN|0010-5260 }}</ref>