John Brown Jr. was just 18 when news came to San Bernardino that
President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. The event had a
strong impact, not only on the young man who would eventually
help found the San Bernardino Pioneer Society, but on the
community, according to his journal entries. With Stephen
Spielberg’s “Lincoln” grabbing a lot of box office attention
these days, it seems like a good time to look at how the local
folks reacted to the news of their fallen leader. It’s important
to note that not everyone saw him as their leader. If you think
today’s political divisions are bad, things were worse in 1865.
At least we’re not engaged in a civil war – well, not yet
anyway. And while California sided with the Union in the war,
there was a substantial population of Southern sympathizers in
the West. In fact, some people were concerned that those
elements might create problems by celebrating Lincoln’s death.
In his “Heritage of the Valley,” George Beattie writes that the
headquarters of the Department o