Lorain Journal Front Page – Lincoln's Birthday, Feb. 12, 1924

Did you know that Lincoln's Birthday has never been a U. S. Federal Government holiday? It's easy to assume that it was, until being mashed together with the birthday of the Father of Our Country to form Presidents Day. Nope, Honest Abe never had his own federal holiday.

And the Old Rail Splitter still doesn't. The 'third Monday in February' federal holiday that many states refer to as Presidents Day is officially called Washington's Birthday by the U. S. Government. (This website has a good explanation of the whole thing.)

Sorry, Abe. You might get a mention in the news on your actual birthday – February 12 – if you're lucky. And one hundred years ago today you did, on the front page of the Lorain Journal (shown above). It was a legal holiday in Lorain back then.

Front and center is our martyred President. What's interesting is that the Lincoln Memorial (shown behind him) had only been dedicated two years earlier. So it was relatively new at that point.

Here's a postcard from 1927 showing the still-new monument.

For more Lincoln's Birthday fun, visit some of my past posts: "The Woman Who Saw Lincoln Twice"; "They Both Saw Lincoln"; "Are You in There, Honest Abe?"; and the story of a Lorain County man who wrote The Lincoln Encyclopedia.

As for the rest of that front page, there are plenty of interesting stories: the saga of the three gunmen who robbed the store in Lorain a few days earlier and then fled to Brownhelm, where they divided the loot amongst themselves at the farmhouse of Henry Standen; the discovery of a body in the ruins of an apartment in Cleveland that had burned down; the gruesome discovery of body parts in a carload of cinders in a railcar at Weirton Junction, W. Virginia; the opening of the lid of King Tut's tomb; and the promotion of Helen Steiner to the state chairmanship of the Women's Public Information bureau of the National Electric Light association.

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I appreciate the well-wishes and concerned comments last week when I took time off from the blog. It's very frustrating to practice healthy habits at home and at work, be current on all recommended shots and vaccines – and then still get sick anyway! I'm nostalgic for the days when being sick meant it was either a cold, the flu or (worst case) pneumonia. Nowadays, it's almost always some sort of infection where you have to wait for it to go away. And I've got a lot of waiting to do.

But even though Mom's been gone for almost a year now, I'm still taking her advice and opened up a jar of the favorite Brady remedy (below).