From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Mar. 5, 1911:

“Fifty years ago today, a Lawrence man, J. B. Watkins, stood in the center of the square at Washington and heard Abraham Lincoln deliver his first inaugural address. With the exception of J. B. Usher also of Lawrence, there is probably not another Kansas man who saw Lincoln on that memorable occasion. He had a point of vantage within sixty feet of Lincoln, and directly in front of the president. He heard clearly every word uttered on that memorable occasion…. Another Lawrence resident has vivid memories of that inauguration a half century ago. Mrs. Margaret Usher, 93 years old, attended the inaugural ball in the White House that night. She still has the dress she wore on that occasion, packed tenderly away with other mementos of her early girlhood. Her husband, Judge Usher, was afterwards secretary of the Interior.”