Wills House Auction Of Lincoln Room Items Benefits Borough
By Deborah Fitts
Feb./March 2005

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - An auction of Lincoln memorabilia from the historic Wills House netted $48,000 for the Borough of Gettysburg.

The Nov. 20 event, held at an auction house north of town, "generated a good bit of interest," said Walter Powell, the Borough's historic preservation officer. About 75 people joined in the bidding.

The auction closes nearly the last chapter of the Lincoln Room, a small museum that opened in 1938 at the Wills House. The 1816 building on the Square, where Lincoln stayed during his landmark visit to the battlefield in November 1863, will undergo a $5.7 million restoration in the coming months.

According to Powell, two Lincoln autographs were gaveled down at over $11,000. A "Congressional Chair" went for $17,500. Powell said the ornate Victorian chairs, boasting congressional seals, were built in 1857-59 and were used as studio props by photographers like Mathew Brady.

Several items remain on display and the museum will continue to be open to the public until restoration begins, possibly later this year. "The operation will stay open to the very last," Powell said.

Jackie White, a well-known local businesswoman and owner of the Dobbin House in Gettysburg, has run the Lincoln Room for the last several years. She bought back a bed and dresser that had been on display in the room where Lincoln stayed, and they will continue to be exhibited.

Other pieces of furniture formerly on loan to the Lincoln Room will also continue to be displayed. And the Borough held back several items from the auction, and they will be on exhibit as well. Among them are two books belonging to Lincoln's host, lawyer David Wills, bearing his signature; a telegram received by Lincoln while at the Wills House; towels with the Wills family monogram; and a pillow sham believed to have been in the bedroom during Lincoln's visit.

The items retained by the Borough will be conveyed to the National Park Service later this year. NPS purchased the Wills House from the Borough in March 2004 and will reopen the building as a visitor center and museum possibly as early as 2006.

Powell, who is a member of the project team for the restoration, said he has been working for several years "privately and discreetly" to contact Wills family descendants in search of as many items as possible relating to the Lincoln visit.

"We have identified in the last three years, with the help of the Wills family - particularly three great-great grandsons - almost every item in the Lincoln bedroom," Powell said. He added that the family was gratified by the federal acquisition of the Wills House and the plans for the museum, which will focus not so much on Lincoln but on David Wills and his impact on the Gettysburg battlefield. Wills was instrumental in early preservation of the battlefield.

Among the items that will go on display after the restoration is completed will be the actual bedroom furniture used by Lincoln. A Wills descendant in Ohio, Dr. Allyn Reilly, will donate the bed, dresser and nightstand that were in the room during Lincoln's stay, Powell said. A Wills descendant in Connecticut is providing figurines and a coverlet. Another is donating a handwritten description by Wills of a visit by U.S. Grant in 1867.

Other items likely to come back to the Wills House, according to Powell, are a portrait of Wills's father, James Jack Wills, signatures of visitors to the Wills House on Nov. 18 and 19, 1863, during Lincoln's stay, a pass given to Wills during the battle signed by Confederate Gen. Richard Ewell allowing Wills to travel outside town, and original letters to Wills by former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Everett, including one changing the date of Everett's address at the dedication of the new national cemetery to Nov. 19.