ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Inscription

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
PRESIDENT-ELECT PASSED THROUGH
CHURCHVILLE VIA NY CENTRAL RR
ON TRIP TO WASHINGTON DC FOR
1861 INAUGURATION. HIS FUNERAL
TRAIN TRAVELED SAME PATH 1865.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026

On February 11, 1861, Abraham Lincoln departed Springfield, IL on a journey to Washington, DC for his presidential inauguration. The 13-day trip brought the president-elect through small towns and cities throughout Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Crowds gathered along the route to welcome the new president, and over the course of the trip, Lincoln made periodic stops to offer brief remarks to citizens and greet local officials.

In New York State, Lincoln traveled from Buffalo to Albany via the New York Central Railroad, and then from Albany to New York City on the Hudson River Railroad. Churchville in Monroe County, a small village located between Batavia and Rochester, was one such community that saw Lincoln pass through via the New York Central on his way to Washington.

After the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, preparations were made to transport the president’s remains, along with the body of his young son Willie who had passed away in 1862, from Washington to Springfield, IL. The president’s funeral train began the long journey on April 21, 1865. The train had the right of the track over all other trains and ran at a slow rate of speed through towns and villages it passed, giving mourners a moment to pay their respects to the fallen president.

In the early morning hours of April 27, 1865, Lincoln’s funeral train traveled along the New York Central Railroad between Rochester and Buffalo, passing through Churchville along the same tracks Lincoln had traveled in February 1861. According to the historian John Carroll Power, people had gathered around bonfires waiting to see President Lincoln’s funeral train as it passed (Abraham Lincoln: His Life, Public Services, Death, and Great Funeral Cortege, 1889).

As of 2026, the railroad still runs through Churchville, now owned by CSX Transportation and in operation as the company’s Buffalo Terminal Subdivision.