With the celebration today of the seventy-first anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debate, the Brewster house, where Lincoln was a guest at the time of the debate, becomes a center of interest. This venerable hostelry bears a plate at the front marked "1858". The hotel was begun in 1856 but not completed until 1858. An item in the Freeport Journal of Nov. 16, 1856, stated that the fourth story was then going up. A group of business men financed its erection. It was considered a remarkably fine hotel for a town of the sixe of Freeport at the time. The first guests were admitted Aug. 25, 1857, and the list as printed in the Freeport Journal of Aug. 26, shows they were from Chicago, Buffalo, Rochester, Springfield, Mass., Madison, Wis., and as well as Freeport and nearby towns, For many years is was the social center of Freeport. All important functions of the town were held there. July 4, 1858, a great fourth of July celebration was held at Freeport. The Declaration of Independence was read in both English and German and there were orations in English and German, In the evening a big banquet was held at the Brewster House and the mere list of toasts as given filled a column. THe new hotel was then conducted by Clark & Ferris, and the toast as proposed to the new hotel was: "The Brewster House - Under the management of the present gentlemanly proprietors and their amiable wives, it must ever be a favorable resort to the weary and travel-stained." In but little more than a month was to come the distinction that was to cling to the place throughout all after years. The choice by Stephen A. Douglas of Freeport as one of the points for a joint debate with Abraham Lincoln on the issue of slavery, was to bring to Freeport and to the Brewster not only the largest crowds they had ever known but a future president himself. Moreover, a great turning point in American history may be said to have been passed there, for it was at Freeport that Lincoln forced Douglas to take the stand which all historians agree split the democratic party and resulted in Lincoln's election two years later, And it was in his room at the Brewster according to his friends present, that Lincoln decided, and against their advice, to put his now famous questions to Douglas that were to undo the "Little Giant." It is said he wrote out their final form there. According in S. L. Friedley, present proprietor of the Brewster House, Lincoln was assigned to what is now Room 56, on the third floor, at the corner of Stephenson and State earlier Mechanic streets. The ground floor of the building was used for stores and offices by C. L. Little and W. Hyde. A long straight stairway led from the front entrance to the second floor where were the hotel office, a circular bar, the parlors and dining room. The bedrooms were on the third and fourth floors. On the second floor was a balcony along the two streets and it was from this that Lincoln and Douglas spoke to their partisans who welcomed them and where they also appeared together in the evening. This balcony was taken down by Mr. Friedley years ago to prevent accidents from circus crowds overloading it. Douglas and his friends had rooms opposite Lincoln's, but Douglas stayed over night at Postmaster Brawley's. When the hotel was opened it was conducted by Areen Clark and Orrin Ferris under the firm name of Clark & Ferris, Mrs. Charles F. Stocking is a granddaughter of Mr. Clark, and Mrs. W. E. Boyington is a daughter of Mr. Ferris. It was then one of the largest hotels west of Chicago, but Freeport was then an important railroad point on the Galena-Chicago line. In its palmy days elaborate menus were served, as shown by menu cards still preserved there. Of course, when Lincoln was there the hotel had no modern conveniences, no electric lights or telephones, no running water in the rooms, no steam heat, no elevators, no signal bells, no fire escape, no Gideon Bibles. Water was originally obtained from a spring between the hotel and the Pecatonica river. Tin wash pans hung on the walls. The rooms were heated in winter with wood stoves of which there were over 70, and were lighted with candles or sperm oil lamps as kerosene had not yet become a commercial commodity. Huge cisterns were built in streets for fire protection.

In the course of its long history the hotel has had various proprietors, and for a brief time it was closed. For a time it was known as the Howard House. For many years if was conducted by Col. and Mrs. J. S. Gates, who restored the name of Brewster House to it. Col. Gates also had the hotel office moved from the second floor to the ground floor and the dining room to the basement. Col. Gates died in 1893. His widow later married Samuel Friedley, the present proprietor. In the room occupied by Lincoln hands a large picture of the old Lincoln log cabin near Farmington, Ill., presented to the hotel by Mrs. Eleanor Gridley, Lincoln writer and author of "From Log Cabin to White House." The picture an inscription by her. Mrs. Gridley was a guest at the Brewster some years ago and may attend the unveiling ceremony here Aug. 27. In a recent letter to the Lincoln-Douglas society she writes: You will find in the Brewster House, which has been delegated as headquarters for your association during the coming celebration a large picture nicely framed of the log cabin built by Abraham Lincoln and his father in the year 1831, and which as my personal property I presented to the management of the hotel to be hung in the room occupied by Abraham Lincoln when in Freeport on the occasion of that famous debate. I lived in this log cabin for several weeks while writing my story of Abraham Lincoln, "The Journey from the Log Cabin to the White House. This picture, I am confident, will be an object of interest to visitors during the anticipated celebration." Beginning with Lincoln and Douglas, many famous men, gave been guests or visitors at the Brewster including General Gran, General John A. Logan, "the black eagle of Illinois, Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune, E. W. Washburne, Robert R. Hitt, congressman; General Ben Butler, Robert T. Lincoln., William J. McKinley, before elected president Leonard Sweet, Bon Ingersol, William J. Bryan, John L. Sullivan, Senator J. Johnson, Robert M. Lafollette, Judge W. M. Landis, Gen Len Small and others. Some years ago the late Senator Wilke of Ohio, and former Governor Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania were guests there. President Roosevelt called at the Brewster when here in 1903. General Grant came to Freeport Oct. 14, 1862 to visit Gen. Shaeffer. He was then the republican candidate for president and remained at the Shaeffer home a day or two. He was also in Freeport after he was president. It is probable that the names of a considerable number of noted women could be added to this list of celebrities associated with the Mrs. Amy Davis Winship, who grew up and lived for many years int he vicinity of Cedarville, tells of visits to Freeport in early days of such famous leaders in women's movements as Lucy Stone, Mary A. Livermore, Anna Dickinson, Susan B. Anthony, Tennessee Claflin, and Frances Willard. She also recalls a visit and lecture by Emerson. Some of these at least, were guests at the Brewster. Mrs. Winship tells of taking Susan B. Anthony on a muddy drive to visit an old friend in the country near Freeport. The Claflin sisters, who afterwards married into the English nobility, were generally regarded with abhorrence here because of their belief in spiritualism and their advocacy of personal liberty, yet rose to favor and distinction in England, while Anna Dickinson, the most popular woman speaker of her time, was soon forgotten. All Lincoln associations with Freeport cluster about the Brewster which may thus fittingly be called a Lincoln shrine, and it is expected that many thousands will visit it during the 71st anniversary celebration of the famed Lincoln-Douglas debate.
August 27, 1929 clipping from Karen Fyock