If you go
What: Celebration of Lincoln’s 1859 visit to Hamilton
Where: Government Services Center, Hamilton
When: 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17
HAMILTON — Stanley Wernz was a music teacher in the North College Hill school district, doing his part for a schoolwide unit on the Civil War, when his students pointed out his resemblance to Abraham Lincoln.
So for a concert of period music to close out the study, he surprised the students by borrowing a top hat and putting together a costume to conduct the program in character.
That was in 1969, and since then, Wernz has made Lincoln impersonation a lifelong avocation, especially since his retirement from education in 2000.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, he will portray Honest Abe at a celebration honoring the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s train stop and speech in Hamilton.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the text of his speech in Hamilton,” Wernz said, “but we do have the speeches he gave in Dayton and Cincinnati on that same trip, so we’ve glued parts of those together.”
As part of the celebration, an exhibit of images and artifacts, titled “Circa 1859: Our Community, Our Country,” will be on display from 2 to 5 p.m. and for 30 minutes after the program in the Hamilton City Council chambers.
“We’ve also set up a reading station in Council Chambers with copies of the texts in the exhibit so people don’t have to stand in front of the displays for 15 minutes to read them all,” said Neil Sohngen, a volunteer from the Butler County Historical Society.
Historical exhibits also will be displayed Thursday at the Butler County Historical Society Museum, 327 N. Second St.; at the Soldiers, Sailors & Pioneers Monument, High and Monument streets; at Heritage Hall, 20 High St. at Monument Street, and at the Butler County Historic Courthouse.
The day’s celebration concludes 7:30 p.m. at Miami University Hamilton, University Boulevard, when Martin P. Johnson, assistant professor of history, will speak on “Lincoln at Hamilton and the New Birth of Freedom.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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