John Carroll Power

John Carroll Power (September 19, 1819–January 11, 1894) was an American historian who served as the first custodian of the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois from its opening in 1874 to his death in 1894.

Biography

Power was born near Flemingsburg, Kentucky, into a struggling farm family. After failed attempts at working the land in Kansas, Power gave up farming and moved to Springfield, Lincoln's long-time hometown, where he took up writing on the history of the city and Sangamon County, as well as on the life of Lincoln. He married Sarah A. Harris in her native town of Aurora, Indiana on May 14, 1845, and remained married to her until her death in 1891; they had no children.

On October 28, 1874, the day before it opened to the public, the Lincoln Monument Association named Power the first custodian of Lincoln's tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery. Power maintained a collection of Lincoln relics in the Memorial Hall (now the entrance vestibule in the modern tomb) and often gave guided tours of the tomb.

The attempted theft and the Guard of Honor

In 1876, as the nation celebrated its centennial, a gang of counterfeiters based out of Chicago concocted a plan to steal Lincoln's body from the tomb and hold it hostage in exchange for a pardon for their imprisoned engraver and a cash reward. On the morning of November 7, Power was visited by Secret Service detective Patrick D. Tyrrell, who told the custodian of what he had learned of the plot, and asked for his assistance in arranging the stakeout; Power agreed without hesitation. That afternoon, two of the grave robbers, Jack Hughes and Lewis Swegles, visited the tomb and received the guided tour, not realizing that Power was aware who they were and what they planned. That night, Power and the detectives waited in the Memorial Hall until tipped off by Swegles, who was Tyrrell's informant; though the criminals escaped, the detectives were successful in preventing the theft of the body.

Disturbed by how close the grave robbers had come to stealing Lincoln's remains, Power and John Todd Stuart, Mary Todd Lincoln's cousin and head of the Lincoln Monument Association, both agreed that Lincoln's body had to be hidden, and thus the coffin was carried into the basement. On February 12, 1880, on what would have been Lincoln's 71st birthday, Power and his associates formed into what became known as the "Lincoln Guard of Honor", with Power serving as secretary; the organization was formed both for public ceremonies at Lincoln's tomb, as well as the private work of protecting the remains of the President and his family.

Later life and death

Power wrote an account of the plot to steal Lincoln's body, as well as a history of the services of the Guard of Honor, in 1890. On January 11, 1894, while waiting for the street car to take him to the tomb, Power suffered a stroke, and was taken to his home in Springfield, where he died. He was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery next to his wife Sarah, who had died three years earlier; his gravestone notes that he "was on duty the night of Nov. 7, 1876 when ghouls attempted to steal the body of President Lincoln".

Works

• The Rise and Progress of Sunday Schools: A Biography of Robert Raikes and William Fox (1863)
• History of Springfield, Illinois: Its Attractions as a Home and Advantages for Business, Manufacturing, Etc. (1871)
• Abraham Lincoln: His Life, Public Services, Death and Great Funeral Cortege; With a History and Description of the National Lincoln Monument (1875)
• History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (1876)
• History of an Attempt to Steal the Body of Abraham Lincoln (Late President of the United States of America) Including a History of the Lincoln Guard of Honor, with Eight Years Lincoln Memorial Services (1890)