The 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln on Thursday brings to mind his cousin, Romulus Lysurges Hanks, a former postmaster of Elgin and now buried in the Elgin Cemetery.

There has been a recently flurry of interest in “Rome” Hanks because of a book which was written about him in 1944, right in the middle of the paper shortage caused by World War II.

“The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters” was, indeed, published in 1944 but the printing and distribution were quite limited, therefore not financially successful. Yet it was known among New York magazine and publishing houses as a best seller.

An armed forces edition was published which made the rounds to military personnel who were much more interested in reading magazines from home and paperback books that were easy to carry in backpacks.

Written by Kansas author Joseph Stanley Pennell, “The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters” was given high acclaim by Harpers Magazine and other magazines geared for literary and military history audiences. It was edited by famous editor Maxwell Perkins.Today it is a hot item on Ebay, Amazon.Com and other book distributors.

It has been acclaimed as one of the best books to chronicle the day-to-day events in the life of a Civil War soldier. And, Rome Hanks had four years of such days to offer, having received his first taste of combat during the Mexican War from 1846 to 1848. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he joined the 117th Iowa Infantry as a captain. The first major battle he fought was April 1862 at Shiloh, where his brother, Remus, a lieutenant in the regiment, was mortally wounded.

To view more of this story, see this week’s edition of the Prairie Star.