BLOOMINGTON - Central Illinois and its people helped forge Abraham Lincoln into the man he needed to be to become president, end slavery and lead America through the bloody Civil War, according to a new docudrama on his life here. | Upcoming local Lincoln events | Seeking Lincoln, and finding the Lincoln Memorial | PFOP: Beyond the imagery and marble casts

The importance of Lincoln's days as a lawyer in the 8th Judicial Circuit, which included Bloomington, is portrayed in "Lincoln: Prelude to the Presidency." The program was produced by WILL-TV, the public television station in Urbana. Lincoln scholar Guy Fraker, a Bloomington lawyer, was consultant.

The hour-long film, which combines re-enactments and interviews with Lincoln experts from across the country, will premiere at 8 p.m. Monday. More than 100 PBS stations across the United States have scheduled airings to coincide with the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on Thursday.

When Fraker first approached WILL, he pitched the project as a travelogue to highlight the many Lincoln sites in Central Illinois. But co-producers Alison Davis Wood and Tim Hartin envisioned a docudrama. Lincoln portrayer Joe Woodard plays the 16th president.

WILL teased the audience with a shorter, well-received segment on its "Prairie Fire" program. The Illinois Bicentennial Commission gave the project two grants totaling $70,000. Country Financial donated $15,000. Several groups, including the University of Illinois Law School and chancellor's office and the Illinois State Bar Association gave smaller amounts.

"The story of Lincoln as a lawyer in Central Illinois is central to understanding Lincoln," said Fraker, who is writing a book on the subject and appears in the docudrama. "It's never been fully told. This documentary is a big step in that direction. It covers Lincoln's nights in the taverns, Lincoln in court, Lincoln riding across the prairie, Lincoln's relationship with the people of Central Illinois. It shows his sense of humor as a storyteller."

"That's where he really got a sense of the various kinds of problems people faced," agreed noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who appears onscreen. "He got a sense of the exuberance of their dreams and their hopes. In a certain sense, I think it was the root of his political education."

Wood said she has been fascinated by Lincoln since her childhood in Springfield. But history tends to portray Lincoln as a little boy and later as president. Little attention is given to the two decades he spent in Central Illinois where he arrived as a 21-year-old unpolished young man and emerged as national figure of timeless importance, she said.

"People fly over this period," said Wood. "But there is this whole middle section. …This area really shaped him and I want people to appreciate what Central Illinois did for Lincoln."

Other Lincoln experts who appear include Michael Burlingame, author of a recently published 2,000-page biography of Lincoln. Fraker called him "perhaps the preeminent Lincoln scholar in the country." Others are: Judge Frank Williams, co-chairman of the national Bicentennial Commission; Doug Wilson of Knox College; Edna Greene Medford of Howard University; Dan Stowell, editor of the Lincoln Papers Project; Illinois state historian Tom Schwartz; and James Cornelius, curator of the Illinois Lincoln Collection.

Back in the day

The 8th circuit encompassed 10,000 square miles from the Illinois River eastward to the Indiana border.

The people who lived here were mostly racist at the time, Fraker said.

As a result, Lincoln learned to moderate his anti-slavery views - a fact that helped him win his party's presidential nomination.

"Lincoln spent so much time on the circuit, as much as he did in Springfield, that he learned to listen to the people," said Fraker. "His views on the issues of the day were moderated by the people. … His knowledge of human nature and dispute resolution was sharpened by being among the people."

David Davis, whose mansion still stands in Bloomington, was the circuit judge who traveled with Lincoln along the circuit twice a year from 1837 to 1860.

They completed the 400- to 500-mile loop in 11 weeks. President Lincoln eventually named Davis to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The documentary features Marcia Young, site superintendent of the mansion that remains open through private funding despite an order last fall by former Gov. Blagojevich to close it, along with a dozen other state historic sites.

Area backdrops

Funks Grove near Shirley, southwest of Bloomington-Normal, provides the backdrop for several scenes in the documentary. The chapel transforms to an exterior shot of Lincoln outside a pioneer courthouse. The Funk family home substituted for Lincoln's home. The Sugar Grove prairie at Funks Grove reflects the Illinois landscape as Lincoln would have seen it.

"To see Abraham Lincoln riding through a tall grass prairie is a moving site, and I doubt it's ever been filmed before," Fraker said.

The Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site, one of the two surviving 8th Judicial Circuit courthouses where Lincoln actually practiced law, also is featured.

An 1850's farmhouse located in a natural area in Decatur was used as an inn.

Fraker hopes the excitement surrounding the Lincoln Bicentennial sparks other ideas, too, such as a Lincoln festival in the Twin Cities and development of a state-sponsored tour of Lincoln sites in the 8th Judicial Circuit.

"It's important for us here to have the Central Illinois story told because we shaped Lincoln," he said.