aid of local bonds. By 1877 the new railroad was doing $21,600 worth of business, while the older Chicago and Alton Railroad was handling $61,578 worth of goods. A second and larger courthouse was built. During Independence Day celebrations on 4 July 1874, stray fireworks started a blaze which burned the courthouse, the Union Block, and the Phoenix Block. Undaunted, Livingston County set out to find the best possible architect to design a new and more splendid building. They settled on J.C. Cochrane, known for his work on the Capitol building in Springfield and for the Richland County courthouse. The building was finished in 1875 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Continued growth By 1880 no one could doubt that Pontiac was a success. Improvements continued at a rapid pace. The first electric lights were installed in 1882. In 1891 the old wooden bridge over the Vermilion was replaced by an iron span. In 1892 Pontiac built a municipal water works. Between 1875 and 1900 new buildings were erected around the courthouse square. From its beginnings Pontiac had been a political town and it would remain one. Abraham Lincoln visited Pontiac in the 1840s and again in February 1855, when his train was snowbound on the nearby tracks, and he was taken by sled to spend the night at the home of Mr. John McGregor. On 25 January 1860 Lincoln was again in town when he addressed the Young Men's Literary Association. In 1858 Stephen A. Douglas and Owen Lovejoy, the famous abolitionist, both visited Pontiac. In 1880, when local people learned that former president Ulysses S. Grant would pass through Pontiac on his way to visit his son, they begged the general to stay over for breakfast, and a large reception committee quickly arranged a celebration. William Jennings Bryan came to Pontiac on 27 October 1896 and returned on several other occasions. On 3 June 1903, during his whistle stop tour through central Illinois, Theodore Roosevelt spoke in Pontiac and unveiled the soldier's monument. He spoke there again in 1910. Automobile age In the American Midwest new highways often parallel early railroads. This happened at Pontiac. The Chicago Mississippi, linking St. Louis with Chicago, was Pontiac's first railroad. In 1922 and 1923, Route 4, the first paved highway between Chicago and St. Louis, followed almost exactly the same route as the railroad. Local