Much of the local newspaper content that filters through my inbox involves small stories of long-dead and long-forgotten local residents.  This Columbus Dispatch article touches upon some of the middling players from the era’s national stage, also long-forgotten, but with some nifty personal anecdotes.

Formerly a Whig, he joined the new Republican Party and was named a delegate to the 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago.

Vocal demonstrations of support were important tools for candidates seeking to demonstrate strength at political conventions back then.

Lincoln, an underdog at the convention, didn’t secure enough delegates for the nomination on the first two ballots. When the roll was called for the third, Delano rose and delivered a one-sentence statement that electrified the crowd: “I desire to second the nomination of a man who can split rails and maul Democrats — Abraham Lincoln.”

via Ohioans loom large in lore of Lincoln | The Columbus Dispatch.