SCOTT: Winchester looking ahead to U.S.’s 250th anniversary

By Editor | August 13, 2025 |

By Carmen Ensinger

Submitted photo
LEFT: Andy and Trish Wallace present Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire (center) with a check for $2,000 to go towards the Lincoln statue that the city wants to put on the square next to Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln came to Winchester in 1854 to debate Douglas on the Kansas-Nebraska act. So far there has been over $12,000 raised for the purchase of a statue.

This great nation will celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026 and Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire has a great way for the city to celebrate this monumental occasion – have an Abraham Lincoln statue placed next to the Stephen Douglas statue.

This is something McIntire has been working on for the last two-and-a-half years and two major donations towards this statue has given him an incentive to keep promoting the idea of bringing a statue of the man who debated Douglas on the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854.

“I think it would be a great idea to have the statue ready to put on display for the celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary,” McIntire said. “We have 11 months to get one and get it up and we have raised quite a bit already.”

McIntire included a letter in the last utility bill asking for donations for the statue and got several more donations, including a $2,000 donation, a $1,000 and several smaller donations to bring the grand total collected so far to $12,009.05.

McIntire said while that is enough to get a statue made in China, he wants to hold out for an American made statue.

“We found one for $6,000, but it was made in China and we don’t want that,” he said. “I talked with a woman who is with the Lincoln program in Springfield and asked if there was any way she could use her contacts to find us a statue.”

McIntire even said they are open to a used statue, citing the statue that was taken down in Boston because people were protesting it because it depicted Lincoln with a slave at his feet.

“There might be other communities who are either updating their statue or just getting rid of it for one reason or another,” he said. “I want a statue we can be proud of, but that isn’t going to be cheap unless we can manage to find a used one.”

McIntire said that Scheels in Springfield has a very nice statue of Lincoln seated, but that statue cost around $75,000.

“We probably can’t get something like that, but I want it in bronze – something that will last,” he said. “I think we should get one worthy of our town.”

There are several reasons this is important for McIntire.

“Not only would something like this put a spotlight on our beautiful historic community, but I feel it would also benefit our businesses,” he said. “We have businesses here in town who are trying to survive and you bring in a statue of Lincoln and all of those people who are ‘Looking for Lincoln’ are going to come here and those people are going to spend money. That is almost as important to me as commemorating the fact that he spoke here. It could be something really important for Winchester but can also be really important to our businesses.”