WEIK, Jesse - Putnam

Source: Indianapolis Star 12 Feb 1939 (Sunday p 19)

Greencastle, Feb 11 – Comparatively few people realize the important work performed by an Indiana citizen in searching for and preserving many of the facts concerning the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The Hoosier was the late Jesse William Weik, a native of Greencastle. Mr. Weik was born in Greencastle in 1857 and while a boy was deeply interested in Lincoln, who was serving as President at that time. As a student in DePauw University (then known as Asbury) young Wek began a correspondence with William H. Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner which later led to the two collaborating in preparing and writing, “The Life of Lincoln,” considered by many as the most intimate picture of the great emancipator’s life from his childhood to the presidency. At 18 Weik graduated from DePauw with the class of 1875 and a short time later visited Lincoln’s law partner at Springfield. By that time Herndon was along in years; and becoming infirm; he needed the help of a younger man. He told Weik his first idea had been to publish a series of newspaper articles telling what he knew of Lincoln as he had known him during the 20 years he had been his law partner and most intimate friend.  (Spent 5 years) - But when Weik saw the importance of a complete account of Lincoln’s life up to the time he became president, and realizing the among of information Herndon already had gathered in this matter, the Greencastle man prevailed on him to incorporate it in book form.  Accordingly, in the early 80s Weik and Herndon started out to get more complete data on Lincoln and spent nearly 5 years at the task. Under Herndon’s direction Weik covered the migration of the Lincoln family from Kentucky, through Indiana and to Illinois interviewing everyone he could find who knew or remembered Lincoln.  Numerous writers before Weik and Herndon had attempted to present the complete life of Lincoln, but very little was known to these writers of the early history of the man. (Herndon Best Qualified) With few persons able to agree on Lincoln’s characteristics, Mr. Herndon was regarded as the best qualified to give the facts of the early life of the President. Immediately after Lincoln’s death, Herndon began collection facts, giving as much time to it as his law practice would permit for the next 20 years. During the last 5 years of the period he was aided by Mr. Weik.  After these years of research Mr. Herndon came to Greencastle in the summer of 1887 and remained several weeks. He and Mr. Weik during that period assembled and prepared for their publisher the manuscript of the Abraham Lincoln, the True Story of a Great Life.  They made their headquarters in a second story room on the public square and this room, practically in the same condition as it was in 1887, today is occupied by Mr. Weik’s brother, Albert Weik.  (Gets Extensive Criticism) – Following the publication of Abraham Lincoln, the True Story of a Great life, Herndon was subject of extensive criticism, Herndon’s factual statements, because they conflicted with what Claude G. Bowers termed, “The process of canonization and deification,” aroused the wrath of the myth makers and the politicians. Senator Albert J. Beveridge, who regarded Herndon’s information on Lincoln the most reliable available, wanted Weik to write a biography of Herndon. The work was started but owing to illness was not completed. During a conference with three Lincoln students, Weik was persuaded that the great need was for a study of the President presenting his human, everyday character, as contrasted with the mythology then beginning to form about Lincoln.  After that time his earnest endeavor was to learn and record the truth as it developed in a careful study of the emancipator’s life. To that end he wrote, “The Real Lincoln, a Portrait.”  Mr. Weik, doing his writing in Greencastle, had the work completed by August 1921 and the book, which he referred to as a “truthful history of the real Lincoln,” was published in 1922.  (Collected 2,000 items) Among the scholars who visited Jesse W. Weik to discuss Lincoln were Senator Beveridge, Senator John J. Ingalls of Kansas, Horace White, Miss Ida M. Tarbell and others. Lord Charnwood of England had considerable correspondence with Mr. Weik on the subject.  Mr. Weik, his brother said considered Lord Charnwood’s biography of Lincoln one of the best written. The Lincolniana collected by Mr. Herndon and Mr. Weik was possibly the most extensive in existence.  It consisted of more than 2,000 items, for the most part legal documents of the firm of Lincoln & Herndon and monographs about Lincoln written by Herndon. This collection was sold recently to an unnamed purchaser and will reportedly be made a gift to the Congressional Library.  Mr. Weik left Greencastle in 1925 and lives in New York with his only daughter, Mary Weik, also a writer of considerable importance.  His death there Aug 18, 1930, ended a life devoted to gathering and saving the facts of the early life of Abraham Lincoln.