Lincoln portrait placed in Mahoning Co. Courthouse

YOUNGSTOWN — President Abraham Lincoln was the subject of more research and books than anyone in America or perhaps the world, second only to Jesus Christ, a historian and expert on the nation’s 16th president contends.

Suffice it to say he also will be the most-observed chief executive in the Mahoning County Courthouse.

“Nearly every moment of his life has been researched,” Dr. Ian Hunt, a historian with the Springfield, Ill.-based Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, told a large audience that filled the courthouse rotunda’s first and second floors.

Hunt spoke to hundreds of elected officials, Civil War re-enactors, members of the Second Brigade Vietnam Veterans and Leather Necks motorcycle clubs and others during today’s unveiling ceremony that showcased “America’s Story,” a 76-inch-by-5-foot painting of Lincoln by renowned Canfield artist Raymond A. Simon.

The one-hour gathering also recognized the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination and the end of the Civil War.

Simon’s portrait, which is accompanied by a plaque, also is the first piece of art to be on permanent display in the courthouse, noted county Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti, who was master of ceremonies.

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