Delphos

Delphos, an agricultural community, is the home of Grace Bedell Billings, who was Lincoln’s Little Correspondent. Grace Bedell wrote to Abraham Lincoln when she was a young girl and suggested that he should have whiskers. On Lincoln’s way to Washington following his election to the presidency, he went to visit Grace to show that he let his whiskers grow for her and then he kissed her. Grace Bedell moved 3.5 miles north of Delphos after she was married at age 19.

In downtown Delphos in earlier times, an old hotel used to stand on the lot north of the bank and an opera house was north of the hotel. Traveling stage shows would give performances as they traveled from town to town. One of the actors to appear in Delphos was Milburn Stone, who years later played “Doc Adams” on the popular TV series, “Gunsmoke.” While appearing in Delphos, Stone met Nellie Morrison who became his wife. They were married in the Presbyterian church in Delphos.