On November 19, 2013, dressed as President Abraham Lincoln, Clarkson resident John Lemke prepares to read the Gettysburg Address, replicating an event that happened 150 years ago when President Lincoln read his now-famous text to a crowd gathered at the Soldiers National Cemetery.
Two years ago, John put together a play, “The Peacemakers,” as part of a Scottish Rite Masonic program that features scenes involving historic situations. John based the play on the fact that four peacemakers, President Lincoln, Union Generals Grant and Sherman and Admiral David Dexter Porter met on the steamship “The River Queen” in late March 1865, to draw up the terms of surrender for General Lee.
John grew a beard and played the role of President Abraham Lincoln in that event; a role he repeated in Perry, NY last December and will do again in Hornell in January. John also portrayed Lincoln in a talk he presented to the Avon Historical Society last year and did the same at a meeting of the Clio Lodge in Hilton November 19 shortly after this photograph was taken at the Spencerport Masonic Temple.
Photo by Walter Horylev
11/24/13
