Judge John Pitcher, Mt. Vernon, Ind.


By Waldhorn

Judge John Pitcher
The Real Lincoln; a Portrait A Portrait By Jesse William Weik

I think John Pitcher is the most influential person buried in Mt. Vernon. Ok, here is the skinny on John Pitcher.

He has been mentioned in MANY books written from the 1870s to now.

He gave fiery campaign stump speeches well into his 80s in the Mt. Vernon area...

His son was a pretty active general in the civil war and was the superintendent of West Point for several years after the war.

His 2 grandsons were also Generals.

An author doing research in the 1880s wrote to people in Mt. Vernon trying to figure out who the famous “Judge Pichard” was, they had his name wrong.

He was a long, long serving Judge in Mt. Vernon...

During the Civil war he visited the White House twice I think to discuss the situation with Lincoln.

Before the civil war he met and was impressed by a young lad named Hovey who wanted to study law with him. He spent much time with Hovey in Mt. Vernon and introduced and taught him both the Law and politics. He was Hovey's mentor in both areas. Hovey later became a general and governor of Indiana.

(Ok that would almost be enough for some fame at least)

There may be much more that is impressive about his life but all the above isn't enough to have a town rebuild his office from scratch and then refurbish it twice....

Here is the BIGGIE!

Before he moved to the greener pastures of Mt. Vernon he had a law office in Rockport. Remember what he did with Hovey..... he had another younger student in Rockport. Abe Lincoln!!!

John Pitcher was the man Lincoln walked 20 miles to borrow books from. Lincoln wanted to study law even before he moved to Illinois but he didn't have the money and was needed on the farm too much to do so. Instead Pitcher started loaning him books and mentoring him when he could, it is generally thought that Pitcher got Lincoln interested in both the law and politics. He did all this with no pay and no hint of future reward.

Ok, take Pitcher out of the picture. Maybe Lincoln stayed on the farm and Hovey never left Mt. Vernon? Yea gads! We only have one past so we can't really predict what would have happened if Pitcher told Lincoln that the books were off limits, and that the law was for rich folk.

About his grave and the lack of respect Pitcher gets in Mt. Vernon. You have all been to his grave and maybe even read it as I did..... it's located behind the old Jr. High school in the Leonard cemetery. The grave stones are gone, I heard the city pulled them but I am not sure about that. Can you get much less respect from a city?

Up in Rockport there is a very well done Lincoln village in their city park, Pitcher's office was rebuilt there in the 30s. The Rockporters have done a very nice job bringing it back to the original concept. I understand the park was designed by a real bigwig in architecture back in the 30s and it is very authentic.

This guy deserves at least a historical marker in Mt. Vernon. The way he mentored Lincoln and Hovey he should have a school named after him, the way he lent books they should rename the library.

I only found out recently about Pitcher being Hovey's mentor, that was a big surprise. I look forward to continued research. Really, I was skeptical at first. My dad showed me the markers in the 60s and told me the story about Lincoln but I had to still check everything out. Would Lincoln really walk 20 miles? On the map it looks much further than 20 miles from Rockport to the Lincoln farm but I did a mileage check on Google and it was right on the money.... 18.5 miles. Everything checks on this.

Pitcher may be Mt. Vernon's only link to Lincoln, this would be a great year to get the guy out of the dustbin.

We saved this spot for your ad.