Page 44 - Abraham Lincoln Hearse Narrative

EIGHTH PROGRESS UPDATE APRIL AND MAY 2015 - ERIC HOLLENBECK
The next morning in front of the Old Capital,
with many more people than before lining the
streets, sits the hearse with the reproduction casket
on a stand next to it. An honor guard of civil war
Navy men are standing guard around the casket.
OK folks, here comes an unbelievable part of the
story. Mike Nickerson is one of the veterans of the
build team from Eureka. When his friends heard
he was going to Springfield, they went in together
and bought him an authentic 1859 Union Civil War
Mike Nickerson at attention guarding the Marine Corp uniform –complete with shoes! He is
coffin prior to the funeral, wearing an there with us when the honor guard changes from
authentic Union Civil War Marine costume ~
Well done, Mike! Navy to Marines and he walks up to the Marine
commander to say Hi and the commander says
“I’m so glad you are here. Would you please be
sworn in to this group and stand guard at the end
of the casket?” So Mike got to stand as honor guard
(at parade attention: the re-enactors slouched, but
not Mike!) until the shift changed to Army!!! With
the shift change Mike does the smartest about face
I have ever seen. You go Mike, you still got it.
Finally, after the speeches and the hoopla,
the casket is loaded in the hearse and starts the
3-mile journey to Oak Ridge Cemetery. It was here
the second huge miracle happened. Andrew is one
of the veterans on the build team and any of you Andrew Olufsen and his 3-year-old son, Logan,
watch the Funeral Procession.
who have read his comments in the news will know
he has said “I worked on this project to have something my kids and grandkids can say ‘My dad
worked on that’”. So as the hearse is pulling away, his son, who is sitting on Andrew’s shoulders,
puffs up his three year old lungs and yells “MY DADDY BUILT THAT!” But it don’t stop there.
Later on the Honorable Bruce Rauner, Illinois Governor, is making his way through the crowd
and as he passes, Viviana calls out “this is one of the builders of the hearse” pointing to Andrew.
Then the Gov. (that’s what you can call him after you’ve shaken his hand) comes over, shakes
Andrew’s hand, thanks him, and gets his picture taken with Andrew! Now that’s BIG.
Our festivities continued with tours of the Capitol building (including the Treasury and
Vault for unclaimed items). Special thanks to Paris Ervin Doyle for setting up that tour. The
building is exquisite and boasts the tallest cupola of any of our nation’s capitols.
Then we were hosted to a guided tour of the Lincoln Museum with Ian Hunt, the Lincoln
Historian. This was a real treat! He explained to us that the hope of the museum was that
now that the Lincoln Hearse could be seen in real life, it might help bring some other original
pictures out of hiding from attics around the country. “I just can’t believe that only one picture
was ever taken of that hearse even though we in our two-year search, couldn’t find any others”
Ian told us.

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