The town of Westfield, New York, claims no fewer than three close associations with Abraham Lincoln.
From 1835 until 1838, New York native William H. Seward lived in Westfield while he served as an agent for the Holland Land Company. Seward, of course, would later serve as Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State and was seriously wounded at his home in Washington, DC, the night that Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre. Like Lincoln, Seward had been targeted for assassination on that Good Friday. Ironically, it was another serious injury that saved his life–the metal neck brace that Seward was wearing that night as a result of carriage accident likely helped to prevent Lewis Paine from inflicting a fatal stab wound.
As Seward was conducting business during those Westfield years, young George Pullman was growing up in the nearby town of Brocton, New York. At age 14 Pullman went to work for a farm supply store in Westfield.
A few years later, during a late-evening journey by rail from Buffalo back to Westfield, Pullman pondered the need for better passenger comfort. His musings would eventually lead him to the Pullman Sleeping Car and the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago. In 1897, Robert Todd Lincoln became president of the Pullman Car Company; in 1911 he became chairman of its board of directors, a position he held until 1924.
Perhaps the most widely known Lincoln-Westfield connection, however, centers on a young lady named Grace Bedell. On October 15, 1860, eleven-year-old Grace studied a photo of presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln that had been given to her by her father. Something about Lincoln’s clean-shaven countenance gave her pause, and then Grace took up her pen and composed a letter to Lincoln in which she suggested he should let his whiskers grow: “. . . you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin,” she wrote. “All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.”
Lincoln’s reply, dated just four days later, hints at both amusement and appreciation. “Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received,” he began. As to the suggestion of growing a beard, he added, “. . . do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?” He closed with, “Your very sincere well wisher, A. Lincoln”
In February 1861, as his inaugural train made its way from Springfield to Washington, President-Elect Lincoln looked forward to a brief stop in Westfield. Appearing on the rear platform of the train to the cheers of the townspeople, he asked if Miss Bedell was in the crowd; he very much wanted to meet his young correspondent. Grace was soon helped to the platform and no doubt felt the scruff of his newly grown beard as Lincoln, bowing low, greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. “So Gracie,” he asked, “what do you think of these whiskers I’ve grown for you?”
Just over four years later, at 1:00 a.m. on April 28, 1865, another presidential train would stop in Westfield. Abraham Lincoln was aboard that time, too, his body lying in repose in a coffin covered in fine black broadcloth. Grace Bedell was just 15 years old then, so it is intriguing to consider that no evidence has been found to say that she was among the Westfield mourners that day