To Union for Lincoln Commemoration-- Part 2: Why We Meet Here

April 14, 2015

There was a full house in the former gymnasium of the school that serves as the McHenry County Historical Society's Museum in Union.  This was a joint meeting of the historical society and the McHenry County Civil War Round Table, to which I belong.  MCCWRT members got in for free with their membership cards.

Our regular meetings are always the second Tuesday of the month, which today falls on the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination 150 years ago.  Quite the coincidence.  When our leaders saw this, they decided to do something special for it, and this was it.

Our president got up and spoke a few words.  He said it was right that we meet here for this commemoration as there is a huge Civil War flag in the side of the gym which was presented by the Spence family of McHenry.

In addition, there was a young man from Union who, when the war began, raised a company of soldiers from the Union/Marengo area and was elected captain.  Henry Wayne, 38,  left a wife and child to go off to war and was killed April 6, 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh.  His home still stands a few blocks from the museum.

--Old Secesh