Illinois farmland once owned by Lincoln sells for $300,000

CHARLESTON, Ill. – A plot of Illinois farmland that President Abraham Lincoln once owned has sold at auction for $300,000.

A retired farmer in the central Illinois city of Charleston sold his family’s 590-acre farm, which includes the 30-acre plot once owned by the nation’s 16th president.

The (Charleston) Times-Courier and Mattoon Journal-Gazette report s that the remaining 560 acres sold for $3.9 million Tuesday morning, or about $7,000 an acre.

The land once owned by Lincoln went for $10,000 an acre. A representative says the buyer wants to remain anonymous. Plans for the land have not been revealed.

Lincoln bought 40 acres in 1841 from his cash-strapped father. Six acres became part of the current Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. The remaining 34 acres were eventually sold.

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Information from: Mattoon Journal-Gazette, http://www.jg-tc.com