BISMARCK - Next month, North Dakota will celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth the same way it did 100 years ago when Lincoln's centennial was marked.
In 1909, the North Dakota Legislature went into joint session to mark the 16th president's 100th birthday. And come Feb. 12 this year, the state House and Senate will convene in a joint session for an hourlong program, part of the state's commemoration of Lincoln's 200th birthday.
Lincoln was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Kentucky, entered law practice and politics in Illinois and was elected president in 1860 and 1864, serving until his assassination in April 1865.
The program from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. in the Legislature will feature fourth-grade students from the six Lincoln elementary schools in the state reading the Gettysburg Address and a medley of Lincoln-era music played by the Fauske Fiddlers of Bottineau.
North Dakota State University President Joseph Chapman will present "Lincoln and the Morrill Land Grant Act," in honor of NDSU's founding as a land grant college, and retired University of North Dakota philosophy and religion faculty member George Frein will portray Lincoln.
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A similar program will be at the Heritage Center on the Capitol grounds, starting at 5 p.m. Feb. 12. Also appearing at the Heritage Center program is UND professor emeritus Jerry Tweton, appearing as William Jayne, the first governor of Dakota Territory, who was appointed by Lincoln in 1861.
In Fargo, a free one-man show, "Mister Lincoln," is to be performed at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in Askanase Auditorium, NDSU.
Also during February, a special edition of the State Historical Society's quarterly journal North Dakota History will feature Lincoln. It will include former Lincoln bodyguard Smith Stimmel's memories of the president.
Stimmel practiced law in Fargo from 1882 to 1922 and is buried there. The memoir was first published in the journal in 1927.
For a complete list of the Lincoln Bicentennial activities, see www.history.nd .
gov/events/calendar.html.
For more information on the show at NDSU, see www.ndsu.nodak.edu/finearts/theatre/index.shtml
