Sam then took the train from Alton to Springfield. The Alton and Sangamon Railroad, chartered February 27, 1847, in Illinois to connect Alton to Springfield in Sangamon County. The line was finished in 1852. The Chicago & Mississippi Railroad extended to Bloomington in 1854 and Joliet in 1855, not available for Sam’s journey.

August 19 Friday – At 8 AM Sam boarded a boat and started a journey by train and boat to New York. He did not tell his mother about the trip, which took about five days. From St. Louis to Alton, Ill by the sidewheeler steamer Cornelia, 11:00 AM, from Alton to Springfield on the partly completed Chicago and Mississippi Railroad; by Frink’s stage to Bloomington, Ind. [MTL 1: 5n2]. Dempsey notes that the train station was “just a few blocks” from the law office of Abraham Lincoln [232].