Located at the confluence of the Fox and Illinois River, the city of Ottawa is a community abundant with history.
Incorporated in 1853 along the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Ottawa’s claim to fame began in 1858 when US Senate candidates Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln chose Ottawa as the inaugural site of their famous debate series.
Dan Schott is the board secretary at the Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum. He says the debate cemented the city’s place in history.
“Lincoln’s voice really started here,” he said. “They took down every word, and they published it. That’s how Lincoln became nationally known.”
The city’s history doesn’t stop with its connection to Lincoln. In 1859, Ottawa civic leaders helped free of a runaway slave named Jim Gray who was facing extradition from the Fugitive Slave Act.
Three of those civic leaders, including Underground Railroad conductor John Hossack, were convicted in Federal Court in Chicago for violating the act.
They only served ten days in prison and were paraded around the city by Chicago’s Mayor John Wentworth.
Hossack’s house still stands in Ottawa and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Union Army Brigadier General W. H. L. Wallace is another celebrated figure in Ottawa’s extensive history.
Killed at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh in Savannah, Tennessee, Wallace was posthumously remembered as one of the Union’s greatest field commanders by Ulysses S. Grant.
Wallace’s remains are interred at Wallace-Dickey Cemetery on Ottawa’s north bluff.
On Thursday, Aug. 20 at 7:00 p.m., Ottawa’s VIP Roxy Cinemas is showing two locally produced documentaries on the lives of Hossack and Wallace.
The event is free to attend and is a part of the broader Debate Days celebration happening this week.
The nine-day America250 event commemorates that first Lincoln-Douglas debate held on Aug. 21, 1858. Ottawa Debate Days began on Aug. 15 and runs through Aug. 23.
Notable events include historic tours, an hour-long re-enactment of the famous debate in Washington Square Park, a citywide tasting contest, and longest beard competition.
To Dan Schott, Debate Days is fantastic opportunity for attendees to learn and interact with local history.
“Ottawa has so much history in this town,” he said. “We’re bursting at the seams with history. And if you’re a history buff, you’ve got to come to Ottawa.”
Saturday, Aug. 22, boasts the greatest number of events of the multi-day celebration, including the debate reenactment at 4 p.m.
