A deed prepared by Abraham Lincoln concerning property in Bloomington has been discovered in a University collection in Japan. The Lincoln Library in Springfield sent someone to Meisei University in Tokyo to inventory a Lincoln center there and found papers dealing with four lots in Bloomington bought by Lincoln's African American Springfield Barber. McLean County Museum of History Director Greg Koos says the story concerning the Haitian immigrant William Florville is well known already.
Koos says Florville eventually sold the land between Center and Main where Locust Street is today to Illinois Wesleyan University at a nice profit. Koos says Florville worked in Bloomington and Peoria before setting in springfield and was buying in a location settled by African Americans. Researchers found 60 some other Lincoln documents, some of them previously unknown.
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