Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Lincoln Town Hall at Cascade Campus re-scheduled

Photos and story by James Hill

The Lincoln Town Hall event originally scheduled has been re-scheduled.

The Cascade Campus (705 N. Killingsworth St.) at Portland Community College is hosting the revised Lincoln Town Hall Meeting at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 12, in the Auditorium of the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building. The event is touring the state in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.

The event, presented by the Lincoln Bi-Centennial Commission of Oregon, features Steve Holgate as President Lincoln enacting a “Lincoln Press Conference.” It is free and open to the public. Organizers will have a trivia contest about Lincoln and prizes will include 1909 Lincoln pennies and authentic copies of the New York Times from 1864.

Lincoln will discuss what his concerns were in 1865 and will answer questions from the press (audience). Musician “Illinois” Doug Tracy perform songs from the era, including Lincoln’s 1860 campaign song. A community discussion with Lincoln scholars Richard Etulain and Elliott Trommald will follow Lincoln’s Town Hall.

In addition, the Sons of the Union Veterans, Colonel Edward Baker Camp, will be on hand. These are groups of men and women who had relatives who participated in the Civil War. They perform at various functions as guards and color guards, and are devoted to maintaining graves of Civil War vets buried in Oregon. They will also set up a Civil War tent and display table in the lobby with Civil War era rations and camp gear.

For more information, contact Michael Burton, Vice Provost of Portland State University, at (503) 725-5087, or at burtonml@pdx.edu.

History of the Lincoln Town Hall:

In 2000, Congress created the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Act to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth on Feb. 12. Each state was asked to establish a state organization to help in the celebration. In Oregon, the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was formed.

The commission was established to celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and Lincoln’s connections to Oregon and the West. As geographic names of the counties around the state demonstrate, Oregon and Abraham Lincoln have close ties.

Abraham Lincoln turned down the governorship of the Oregon Territory in 1849. When Lincoln became President in 1861, Oregon had been a state for just two years, but there were already four counties in the state with links to Lincoln. In 1893, the Oregon Legislature established Lincoln County and in 1965, Lincoln City was formed.