A piece of Dixon history: The distinguished guests of the Nachusa House

The list of guests who were reported to visit the Nachusa House reads like a Who’s Who in American history: Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Stephen A. Douglas, Horace Greeley, Helen Keller, Billy Sunday, Gen. George McClellan, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Jefferson Davis, Dwight L. Moody, Frederick Douglass, William Jennings Bryan, J. Edgar Hoover and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Can any other hotel in Illinois claim such a guest list?

All of these reported guests are probably true, but verifying is difficult. For this article, I will elaborate on three of these notables: Lincoln, Grant and Reagan.

Lincoln in 1856

In 1992, two area librarians, Duane Paulsen and Nancy Gillfillan, produced a 23-page booklet on Lincoln in Dixon. Their research found no reason to dispute the long-standing story that Lincoln stayed at the Nachusa House on the night of July 17, 1856, following his speech on the courthouse lawn across the street in support of John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate.

A century after Lincoln’s visit, on May 18, 1956, Illinois Governor William G. Stratton came to Dixon and officially dedicated “the Abraham Lincoln Room,” where Lincoln stayed at the hotel. To add more credibility to the dedication, 200 members of the Illinois State Historical Society attended the event.

Strange bedfellows

Lincoln may have stayed at the Nachusa House on other occasions as well. In 1949, the Telegraph reported the “oft-told” story about Lincoln riding into Dixon one night, hoping to get a room at the Nachusa House.

“Ain’t no room in the house,” the clerk told Lincoln, “but if you don’t mind, you can share number 8 with Long John.”

Since hotel bed-sharing was a common practice at the time, Lincoln, a Republican, took the room. His “strange bedfellow” was John Wentworth, a long-time Democrat who served as a U.S. representative and Chicago mayor.

The story is plausible because Lincoln and Wentworth were certainly acquainted. As is commemorated on a historical marker in Polo, Wentworth and Lincoln both spoke there in 1856 and were guests in the famous Aplington House. The Nachusa House bed-sharing episode may have occurred on the night before or after that Polo visit.

At the Nachusa House, the small hotel bed must have been cozy for “Long John” Wentworth, who stretched out at 6 feet, 6 inches, and Lincoln at 6 feet, 4 inches. I can envision their large bare feet sticking out of the covers at the foot of the bed. Their discussions are not known, but it’s noteworthy that in 1857 Wentworth changed parties and ran as a Republican.

General Grant in 1880

On Aug. 26, 1880, the Dixon Telegraph carried this one-sentence news note on page 1: “General Grant and Mrs. Grant took dinner at the Nachusa House yesterday.”

In 1877, three years earlier, Grant retired from the presidency, having completed two terms as president. But only two months earlier, in June 1880, Grant attended the Republican National Convention in Chicago, where he narrowly lost an unprecedented run for a third term.

Now 58 and no longer stumping for votes, Grant’s 1880 low-key visit to Dixon was accompanied by no speech and no festivities. He and his wife simply enjoyed a quiet meal at the historic Nachusa House. After dinner, the Grants took the train from Dixon to their home in Galena, as was reported in the Galena newspaper.

Reagan at the Nachusa

Ronald Reagan certainly knew the Nachusa House in his youth in the 1920s. He was in the YMCA band, which was then located next door on the south side of the hotel. But he also visited the Nachusa House at least three times during his later visits to Dixon.

On Sept. 15, 1941, the 30-year-old hometown boy returned to Dixon for Louella Parsons Day. On a WBBM radio broadcast from the veranda of the Nachusa House, Reagan said, “There’s nothing like the beauty of the Rock River valley, and in the center of all is Dixon.”

During that same broadcast from the Nachusa House, he introduced the famous comedian Bob Hope, who was also at the hotel for the broadcast. For overnight lodging, however, these celebrities then stayed at the Walgreen’s Hazelwood estate.

On Aug. 22, 1950, when Reagan returned to Dixon for “Injun Summer Days,” he enjoyed a private lunch with Eureka College alumni at the Nachusa House dining room. During this visit, he famously led a horse parade, which is now memorialized by his equestrian statue on the Riverfront.

On April 29, 1963, the front page of the Telegraph carried a photo of Reagan checking into the Nachusa House. That evening, he appeared in the DHS cafeteria at a banquet honoring academic standouts and then gave his speech, “What Price Freedom,” in Lancaster Gymnasium.

Speaking from the veranda

Reagan’s 1941 appearance on the veranda of the Nachusa House points a spotlight on that unique outdoor balcony of the hotel. Other famous speakers used that same elevated vantage point to address Dixonites gathered below.

William Jennings Bryan, during one of his visits to Dixon, was said to have “stump-spoke from the hotel’s front porch.” On July 29, 1908, Illinois Governor Charles Deneen delivered a 2-hour speech from the hotel’s “north porch” to over 2,000 people on the hotel’s north lawn. At other times, the Telegraph reported that bands performed from the hotel’s long veranda to crowds on the courthouse lawn.

The Opera House connection

You might wonder why so many nationally and internationally known personalities would visit the Nachusa House. Dixon’s reputation as a historic landmark in northern Illinois had something to do with it, as did its pivotal location on two different railroads.

But another key factor was its proximity to the courthouse, the central hub of governmental activity for all of Lee County, as well as the hotel’s proximity to the town’s famous Opera House on Galena Avenue. From 1876 until it burned down in 1920, the Opera House was “the cultural and entertainment center of the city.”

Replaced by the Dixon Theater in 1922, the Opera House attracted a constant stream of renowned speakers and entertainers, as did Dixon’s Rock River Assembly. When these celebrities needed overnight lodging or a pleasant dining experience, the Nachusa House was often the first and best choice.

As the Nachusa stepped into the 20th century, it would be at the center of a controversy involving evangelist Billy Sunday. The ravages of time began to take a toll on this historic landmark, but several benefactors, such as the Telegraph’s Mabel Shaw, stepped forward to save it. I’ll tell these memorable stories on Feb. 6.