James
M. (1825-1886)
and
Katherine M.J.
Cotting
(1829-1908)
James
M. Cotting was born on March 18, 1825 in North Chatham, New York.
He
married Katherine M.J. Vanderpool on September 18, 1847 in New York.
Katherine was born in January 1829
in Albany, New York. Her family was from Holland
originally, but
was forced to leave because of religious persecution.
After James and Katherine married, they
moved to Springfield,
Illinois where they
lived for 1 ½ years. They
moved to Bloomington
in 1853 when the Chicago-Alton Railroad was being laid through the
city. They
lived in a house close to the rail yards at 613 N. Oak Street. James and
Katherine
never had any children.
James was one of the first engineers of
the Chicago-Alton Railroad and was one of only three engineers when the
company
first began. James was an engineer with the C&A Railroad for 14
years and
conductor for 6 years. As a highly skilled engineer, he was given
trains that
carried important passengers including General Ulysses S. Grant and the
Prince
of Wales, who was on a sightseeing and hunting trip throughout the United States.
Cotting
drove the Prince from Chicago to Dwight, IL and
then on to
St. Louis, Missouri.
Another notable passenger Cotting carried
was Abraham Lincoln. Cotting was engineer for the trains that carried Lincoln to Chicago
when Lincoln accepted the Republican
nomination for the
presidency, from Springfield to Chicago
after Lincoln was elected President,
and the
train that carried Lincoln’s body from Chicago to Springfield.
Katherine Cotting was also on Lincoln’s
funeral train from Bloomington
to Springfield.
She
had the special distinction of being the only lady from Bloomington on
the train, and also the only
woman outside the funeral party on the train.
He later
ran a stationary engine for a wholesale drug company house in Chicago
for
several years after retiring from work as a conductor and engineer.
Shortly
before his death in 1886, James suffered a stroke, which caused
paralysis. He
died on October 5, 1886 at the age of 62. He was buried in Bloomington
at EvergreenMemorialCemetery.
Katherine never remarried after his death and at every meal she kept a
place
setting for him at the table. She always spoke very highly of him
throughout
the rest of her life. She died on January 9, 1908 at the age of 82 and
was
buried next to James in EvergreenMemorialCemetery.
