WATERLOO -- Abraham Lincoln has been looking over Black Hawk County Auditor Grant Veeder's shoulder for more than two decades.

A portrait of the 16th president -- originally found tucked away in a storage area -- has been hanging on his courthouse office wall since he was first elected in 1988. And a copy of Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, a gift from former deputy auditor Ken Teisinger, was later placed nearby.

This year, Veeder's admiration of Honest Abe has him helping spearhead Iowa's role in the nation's yearlong celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday, which officially arrives Feb. 12, 2009.

"Some states really have to kind of grasp at straws to find connections to Lincoln," Veeder said. "But Iowa is fortunate because we do have a lot of significant connections."

Veeder has been appointed by the Iowa Association of Counties to serve as a member of the Iowa Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, created by the Gov. Chet Culver and the Iowa Legislature. Walter Reed, a former Waterloo Human Rights Commission director, is chairing the commission and serving as the liaison to the federal commission.

Veeder, who attended the national meeting on Reed's behalf in Louisville, Ky., last month, has been doing research and developed a brochure detailing Lincoln's ties to the Hawkeye state, including visits he made to Iowa before being elected president.

In 1856, Lincoln was hired as a lawyer to represent railroad companies in a case involving the first bridge constructed across the Mississippi River in Davenport. Riverboat owners sued the railroad seeking to dismantle the bridge as a hazard after a steamboat struck one of the piers and was destroyed by fire, but Lincoln proved the accident was caused by a failure of the steamboat's paddle wheel.

The case ended in a hung jury but was later set aside by the U.S. Supreme Court, opening the door to railroad commerce.

In August 1859, Lincoln visited Council Bluffs to make a political speech and met railroad engineer Grenville Dodge, who suggested the city should be the starting point for a Pacific railroad west. On Nov. 17, 1863, two days before the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln penned an executive order making Council Bluffs the eastern terminus of the construction that completed the first transcontinental railroad.

Lincoln visited Dubuque in 1859 with a group of Illinois Central Railroad officials and stayed at the Julien House. He also visited Burlington to make a political speech in 1858, a side trip in the midst of the legendary Lincoln-Douglas debates.

In 1865, Lincoln appointed Iowa Sen. James Harlan as secretary of the interior, but he was assassinated before Harlan assumed his duties. Lincoln's son, Robert, later married Harlan's daughter.

Harlan was a professor and president at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant and built a house near there in 1876. His daughter and grandchildren summered there through the 1880s, and Robert Lincoln visited occasionally. The Harlan-Lincoln house still stands in Mount Pleasant.

Veeder said Lincoln also owned land in Iowa as a result of his service in the Black Hawk War in 1832. Incidentally, that war was named after Sac and Fox Chief Black Hawk, namesake of Black Hawk County.

Congress rewarded Indian war veterans with land grants in 1850. Lincoln took title to 40 acres in Tama County and 120 acres in Crawford County, holding both parcels until his death. Robert Lincoln sold the land in 1892 for $13,000 but both sides are marked by plaques; the Tama County site is four miles north and two miles west of Toledo.

Veeder noted Iowa Gov. Samuel J. Kirkwood, who helped Lincoln during the 1860 Republican convention, went to visit Lincoln in Springfield, Ill., following his election as president. Lincoln wound up visiting Kirkwood's hotel.

"The president-elect of the United States went over to this guy's hotel room to talk about Iowa," Veeder said.

On a national level, states are planning a number of celebrations, and plays about Lincoln are being commissioned and put on. Iowa will host a banquet in February, and there is discussions about preparing a traveling exhibit.

Veeder said the state commission received only about $15,000 from the Legislature and is seeking donations and sponsors to help beef up the events. Organizations hosting Lincoln-related events can get endorsements from the state commission, including a listing on the state Web site and use of the Lincoln Bicentennial logo.

The state commission's Web site is at www.IowaLincoln200.org.

For Veeder, the year provides an opportunity to immerse himself in facts about a man he considers one of the country's, even the world's, greatest leaders.

"Lincoln was a really strong idealist when it was easier for people to look at things in a stark, practical way," Veeder said. "Not only did he lead us through the Civil War, but he got the country to understand that it was about slavery."

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.