Lincoln Park
Ex-Governor and Mrs. Wm. Larrabee led a movement whereby the citizens of the whole township devised plans to raise funds for the erection of a Soldiers’ Monument in Clermont. Lots were secured across from the Rock Island Depot. Mr. and Mrs. Larrabee had seen a handsome bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln on their travels in Edinburgh, Scotland, and they secured the services of the same sculptor to duplicate this great piece of work for Clermont’s Lincoln Park.
On the pedestal of this monument there are four tablets which were designed and sculptured under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Larrabee. Two are of local and two of national interest. One represents “Tom Henderson bidding wife and children farewell on the eve of his departure with Company C of the 12th Iowa Regiment.” A second shows the Clermont soldiers in the thick of the fight at Shiloh, Captain Warner leading the charge and Doctor Lewis of Clermont caring for the wounded. In the third panel Farragut is seen strapped to the rigging of his flag ship in the advance of the fleet on Mobile Bay, with Dewey standing on the deck below in command of a gun squad. The fourth panel depicts the scene of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Grant and Lee are seated at a table in the foreground with their staff officers grouped behind them. In the granite base of the monument is this inscription: “Erected in 1902 in memory of Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War, 1861-65”
Taken from Historic Clermont – First Edition 1968 – A book compiled and written by the Clermont Historical Society
