LINCOLN - A small idea has turned into one of the more fascinating Abraham Lincoln re-enactment scenarios to date.

Fricke-Calvert-Schrader Funeral Home will host "Now He Belongs to the Ages: A Presentation of Abraham Lincoln's Life, Death and Funeral." The event is an official part of the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial.

"We originally thought it would be a nice event to kick off the Logan County Railsplitter Festival and hold it in conjunction with that," said Geoff Ladd, the director of the Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau. "But once we started, we kept receiving more input and more help and it's going to be more realistic than we ever imagined it might be at the start."

Organizers decided to expand the public viewing times on Saturday.

"The response has been unbelievable and unexpected," said Chuck Fricke, lead organizer of the event. "The Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield has really stepped up and provided us with three replicas of the casket used to carry Lincoln and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has donated several items as well. This has turned into something much more than what our original idea was."

The Friday night ceremony - an official re-enactment of Lincoln's funeral - has been closed to the public and will be witnessed only by invited guests. On Saturday, the public is invited to tour the funeral home and view the displays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Fricke promised officials will stay as long as necessary.

"We won't turn anyone away," Fricke said. "We'll stay here all afternoon if we have to. This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime situations and there's going to be so much history and memorabilia here it should give people a real sense of what it was like during that time."

Among those expected to speak and be available for history lessons are Virgil Davis, a past president of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, one of the driving forces in founding the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. Noted Lincoln historian Paul Beaver, a founder of the Logan County Abraham Lincoln Heritage Foundation, and Lincoln historian Ron Keller also are on the list of featured speakers.

One of the featured artifacts is the actual mourning fan used by Mary Todd Lincoln at her husband's funeral. It is on display from Lincoln collector Betty Hickey of Elkhart.

"This was very common in those days because, of course, they didn't have air conditioning and they wore dark clothes," Hickey said. "It belongs in a display such as this re-enactment, though. Something as well put together as this doesn't happen very often."