ment and soon into Bowling Green where he conducted a general store, ran a tavern and bought hogs which he drove to Peoria. His guests at the tavern included Asahel Gridley, Judge David Davis, Reverend Peter Cartwright, Judge Samuel Treat and Abraham Lincoln. By 1850 he was back on a farm and elected constable. When Kappa was founded, he moved there where he ran a hotel for three years. In the spring of 1857 he moved to El Paso and opened the Union House, sometimes called the Central House on the northwest corner of First and Cherry Streets, the first to open as a hotel. We know also that Willis worked for a time in the building of the Illinois Central railroad, just when he could have done that in his busy years we do not know. He finally was admitted to the bar and practiced law in El Paso.

Election day in Bowling Green was an occasion for celebration and heavy drinking. The traditional barrel of whiskey with its handy tin of cups or gourds was within easy reach of everyone. Whiskey was so plentiful that every shoe shop and tavern kept a supply. It retailed at about fifteen cents per gallon. Lincoln did not use it. In the 1846 campaign in which Peter Cartwright, pioneer Methodist preacher and Democrat ran against Lincoln for congress, the importance of Bowling Green as a battleground was recognized. Lincoln was against the annexation of Texas and the extension of slavery and in favor of a protective tariff, the sale of public lands at a low figure and a system of grants for river and harbor improvement. People came out from Peoria, Washington and Bloomington to hear the issues of the day debated. Despite the logic and fervor of Lincoln's talk, few in the crowd seemed sympathetic or convinced. The reason was that most of those listeners were members of the other political party. By clever strategy, however, the homely rail splitter gathered a sizable group into Hughes’ blacksmith shop the following morning, and while perched on an anvil block told such humorous and forcible stories that he managed to win friends to his side of the issues.

The late Mrs. Robert Hitch of El Paso, who as fifteen year old Mary E. Ellis worked in the kitchen of the hotel operated by William Denman at Bowling Green, recalled Honest Abe as a man who didn't care too much about variety in his food so long as it was tasty and served in liberal quantities. For years she had some dishes from which she had on occasion served Lincoln at this Bowling Green tavern. One time he stopped over there and put up at the lodging house ran by John Bolliman. Completely exhausted from his trip he fell on the bed without bothering to remove his boots. The sharp eyed lady of the house found dirt on the bed spread and gave the shamefaced lawyer a scolding.

It was inevitable that the back country towns like Bowling Green should be hit hard when the Illinois Central and other rail lines came through other areas. Its decline could not be halted. A few buildings were moved away and some were dismantled to furnish material for

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