Chris Schwemlein found the information for this train.

DeKalb County made another contribution to the Friendship Train.  How this idea was germinated was not determinable, but one aspect of the thought was to honor Abraham Lincoln.  The Chamber of Commerce in DeKalb County met to organize and plan for the food collection.  Members set a monetary goal of $5,000, ascribing that figure to the approximate cost of a carload of corn.  Corn itself was not a commodity which could be shipped.  The Committee decided to use the funds to purchase CARE packages to send to Europe reasoning that one package would feed a family of four for one month.

Boxcar image courtesy of Gerald Edgar of the CB&Q Historical Society

In charge of collecting in rural Sandwich were Alvin Sherman and Lloyd Wesson.  Responsible for collections in the business sector were Mrs. I. H. Easter and William Freehan.  Church agencies also handled the collection of the foodstuffs.  Some of the businesses contributing to the donations for Europe’s needy were Sid’s Shoe, Cooper’s Furniture House, and Sanitary Cleaners.   Some of the individual donations were Mr. & Mrs. Schaeffer, Faith Merwin,  D. Page, and Mrs. Charles Hammon.  As was frequent throughout the United States, school children also contributed and often helped in the collecting.  The donations to the FT left New Salem on February 12, 1948.  Honorary chairman of the Train was Carl Sandburg, Lincoln’s biographer.  State chairman was Gov. Dwight Green.

A ceremony for the Train’s departure was held at New Salem State Park at a village where Lincoln began his political career.  The Train followed the route Lincoln took on his first inaugural address.  The counties through which he had travelled pledged a carload of their main crop. The contributions were too late for the original Illinois train departure which occurred on November 22, 1947.

Quaintly reminiscent of times past, a team of oxen pulled some of the foodstuffs to the train.

List of Works Consulted

“Many Donate for the Abraham Lincoln Friendship Train” Sandwich Free Press Feb. 12, 1948: 1.