The Lincoln Funeral Ghost Train TARDIS*

*Trusted Archival Research Documents in Sequence

This photograph shows the engine “Nashville,” which “was used to haul President Lincoln’s funeral train from Cleveland, Ohio, to Springfield, Ill.,” according to a correspondence printed in the February, 1908, issue of Railway and Locomotive Engineering. The portrait of Lincoln and the dark draping would have been in place during the run. The photo was submitted by J.F. Walsh, an employee of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

This chronology is a “branch line” connected to my Railroad Hauntings You Can Still Visit project. My goal is to gather information about an annual spectral reenactment of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train. I hope to narrow down where and when the phantom train might be observed.

1865

April 15

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

April 21-May 3

John Carrol Power bestows the name “the Great Funeral Cortége” upon the train that carried Lincoln’s body along this route: “Washington to Baltimore, thence to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago to Springfield[, Illinois].” Checking Power’s extensive history of the trip against the excellent timeline titled “The Route of Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train” at Roger Norton’s Abraham Lincoln’s Assignation site, I plan to detail the route, offering paranormal investigators locations worth visiting. This will take time, so stop back occasionally.

This description of the physical funeral train is clipped from the April 21, 1865, issue of the The Evening Star, published in Washington, D.C.

May 4

Lincoln was buried in Springfield, Illinois.

This photograph shows “the Lincoln Funeral Train, taken as it passed through Chicago on May 2, 1865,” according to an article in the February, 1941, issue of Baltimore & Ohio Magazine. The photo originally belonged to “Tom Freeman, who was fireman on the engine that pulled the funeral train from Chicago to Springfield…”.

1872

According to Adam Selzer, March 23 was the day an article titled “Waiting for a Train” appeared in the Albany Evening Times. Through the rest of that year and into the next, this piece was reprinted in newspapers from Connecticut, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, and other states. It showed up in British newspapers, too. This is a key source, one that clearly spread the story about the Lincoln Funeral Ghost Train far and wide. As yet, I haven’t located the original article—or anything earlier that expressly discusses the spectral train—and I’d very much appreciate help in doing so. Until then, Selzer’s webpage and transcription of that first article is especially useful.

Below, I refer to this source simply as “the 1872 article.”

1879

The August 28 issue of the Utica [New York] Daily Observer offers a new spin on the story. Similar to the 1872 article, it’s couched as a (tall?) tale told by a retired switchman. The article is attributed to the New York Star.

Given its mention of the Hudson River Railroad, this story might be at the root of the folklore in and around Hyde Park, New York, tales that have resulted in a historical marker mentioning the ghostly case.

1929

In Myths After Lincoln, Lloyd Lewis retells the tale, leaning hard on the 1872 article. Lewis gives no indication that the phantom train had been seen subsequently.

1931

In Ghost Tales: Short Stories for Use at the Fireside and Campfire, Charles E. Brown (Madison, WI: C.E. Brown) devotes about a page to the case, shifting the railroad-employee storytellers from New York to the Midwest. Brown’s book is available at Hathitrust, but since access there is restricted due to copyright, those interested can find all five paragraphs reprinted in 1932 issues of The Milwaukee [Road] Magazine (pg. 14), Railway Age, and The Pullman News, appropriately railroad-related periodicals. Though not nearly to the extent of the 1872 article, Brown’s narration helped introduce a good many readers to the haunting.

Discover more “Railroad Hauntings You Can Still Visit” at the page for
After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore.

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