On April 15 , 1865 , the day President Lincoln died , a group of Springfield citizens formed the National Lincoln Monument Association and spearheaded a drive for funds to construct a memorial or tomb . Upon arrival of the funeral train on May 3 , Lincoln lay in state in the Illinois State Capitol for one night . After funeral and burial services the next day , his coffin was placed in a receiving vault at Oak Ridge Cemetery , the site Mrs. Lincoln requested for burial . In December , her husband 's remains were removed to a temporary vault not far from the proposed memorial site . The location of the temporary vault is today marked with a small granite marker on the hill behind the current tomb . In 1871 , three years after laborers had begun constructing the tomb , the body of Lincoln and those of the three youngest of his sons were placed in crypts in the unfinished structure
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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln Tomb