Illinoisans celebrate our 16th president and defender of the Union on Feb. 12, a state holiday. The rest of the nation remembers Lincoln, along with George Washington, on Presidents’ Day on Feb. 16.

In Illinois, Honest Abe, who began his political rise in Springfield after moving to the area in 1830, is not the only president we embrace as one of our own. Lincoln is also celebrated by Indiana, where his family moved in 1816, and Kentucky, where he was born on Feb. 12, 1809, a native son. But then Kentucky also claims Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.

The revered Lincoln, who spent a night in Waukegan a few weeks before he was nominated for president in 1860, is buried in Springfield. He is honored in Waukegan with his bust on the west side of the Lake County Building, Lincoln Avenue and the Waukegan Unit School District’s Lincoln Center on North Sheridan Road at Glen Flora Avenue.

Also beloved in Illinois is Ronald Reagan, the nation’s 40th president, who originally hailed from Dixon before heading west to Hollywood and filmdom lore, along with our 44th president, Barack Obama, who was a state and U.S. senator from Illinois before his presidential elevation.

The Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, seven miles south of Chicago’s Loop and home to the 1893 World’s Fair, is set to finally open this June. Its architecturally stunning centerpiece overlooks the park’s 19-acre campus, which is expected to become a tourism draw.

Missing out on all this presidential love in Illinois is our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant, who lived for a time in Galena in Jo Daviess County. Before he defended the Union against seceding traitors from the South, Grant resided in the Driftless Area of northwest Illinois from spring 1860, following his first stint in the U.S. Army, until the outbreak of the Civil War.

Absent his home in Galena, a 1865 gift from grateful Illinoisans bestowed on then-Gen. Grant to celebrate his return to the city after the war, Illinois does little to recognize this president, who actually wanted to be buried in Galena, according to his will. Sure, there’s Grant Township in far west Lake County, Grant Park on Chicago’s Lake Michigan doorstep and the tall Grant Towers dorms at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

Compared to Lincoln, there is little else here for the man who graces the $50 bill. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency does manage the U.S. Grant Home State Historic Site in Galena, as the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Grant visited the red brick Italianate-style house, purchased by Galena boosters for $2,500, occasionally during his lifetime, and lastly in 1880. It was first given to Galena by his children, and the city in 1931 deeded the home to the state, which has been its caretaker over the decades.

Perhaps one reason Grant has been ignored is that his family decided against burying him in Galena because it was an area not easily accessible to the general populace. They also rejected Springfield, historians say.

Instead, he is buried at the General Grant National Memorial, aka Grant’s Tomb, along with his wife, Julia, in New York City, where he spent his final days. His resting place after his death in 1885 at age 63 is the largest mausoleum in the U.S. so far.

To make amends, Illinois needs a President Grant Day. We have Casimir Pulaski Day, which will be observed on March 2 this year. All the Polish émigrés did was get a rag-tag Continental Army into shape during the Revolutionary War.

Pulaski didn’t command an Army, defeat Confederate forces, or be president for eight years. He didn’t protect Black civil rights or found the first national park, Yellowstone. Although Grant’s policies toward Native Americans rankle some.

President Grant Day doesn’t need to be an official or legal holiday where Illinois state employees get the day off, like Lincoln’s Birthday. It can be just a “commemorative” day.

Ohio, the state where Grant was born, held its first Ulysses S. Grant Day in 2024 on April 27, the date of his birth. The state will hold a four-day Grant Days from April 23 to 26 this year.

Ohio followed Grant Day with James A. Garfield Day to honor another president from the Buckeye State on the date of his Nov. 19 birth. If this is a trend, they have six other presidents born in the state to consider and perhaps a vice president, J.D. Vance, who is eyeing a presidential run.

Although Grant’s roots aren’t as deep in Illinois as they are in Ohio, where he lived until he entered West Point as a young man, a day set aside in the Land of Lincoln wouldn’t take for granted the state’s gratitude for his profound leadership in an era of conflict.

Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. sellenews@gmail.com. X @sellenews.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/charles-selle-column-ulysses-grant/