Unexpected Lincoln - Chicago Convention Nominee Gravesite

By David J. Kent

Washington, DC

Thursday, April 30, 2026

You never know where you're going to run into Lincoln connections. Unexpectedly, I ran into one in my own hometown of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Twice.

I return to my hometown northeast of Boston periodically to visit family. This time I'm here for a series of presentations for my book about Lincoln's two trips to New England. Part of the concept started right here because a mural painted on the side of an old cotton textile mill includes this section featuring Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln, along with the panel next to him, reflects that people from Ipswich and other Massachusetts towns were among the first to respond to Lincoln' call for 75,000 volunteers after the attack on Fort Sumter. I knew about this Lincoln.

But during my current visit I discovered there is another connection to Lincoln in Ipswich. In the Old Burying Ground (opened in 1634, the year Ipswich was incorporated), at the top of an irregular set of stone steps, is the gravestone of Colonel Luther Caldwell. Caldwell is a big name in Ipswich, with an entire block of downtown built by Luther Caldwell. It was in the Caldwell Block building that two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer John Updike had an office and wrote many of his exceptional books. Luther Caldwell was born in Ipswich, later moving to New York State and becoming a journalist. The back of his gravestone in Ipswich shows that he was a member of the Republican National Convention in Chicago that named Lincoln as the 1860 nominee for president. [Spoiler: Lincoln won the election]

The stone also shows that Caldwell continued to be active in Republican political circles, being named Secretary of the Convention and called the roll of the states to nominate Ulysses S. Grant for president in 1868. He also served as Chief of the Bond Division of the US Post Office under President Benjamin Harrison. In 1898, Caldwell wrote a definitive account of Anne Bradstreet, the first poet of the United States.

Finding the gravestone mentioning Lincoln was especially unexpected given that the house I grew up in is literally across the street from the entrance to the Old Burying Ground. I used to sled down those steps during the snowy winters (back when I was more adventurous). I only learned about the Lincoln connection during a tour I took with one of the Ipswich Museum docents detailing the importance of Ipswich to the colonial and revolutionary periods of our nation's history.

Which shows it pays to tour even places you think you know well. You might even find an unexpected Lincoln.

More information on Luther Caldwell and the Caldwell block can be found here.

And information on Anne Bradstreet is here.