âMr. Horlick was one of the very best citizens I have ever known. He was a great benefactor and the people of Racine are under heavy obligation to him for his many contributions to the advancement and improvement of the city. He was a man of high ideals, and his death will be one of the greatest losses Racine has had for many years.â
â Henry C. Baker
While his name lives on at William Horlick High School on Rapids Drive and several blocks away at Horlick Athletic Field on High Street, today little is known about William Horlick, the man behind the name.
in february 1862 when willie was 11 1/2 years old, by which time abraham and mary todd lincoln were president and first lady of the united states, february 20th, 1862, the lincolns lost yet another son. willie lincoln, aged 11 1/2, died in the white house while his father was president and mother was first lady. also of childhood illness, typhoid fever. president and first lady were plunged into profound grief. abraham lincoln is believed by modern scholars whoto have suffered with profound depression in life and presidency. but what he and his wife went through in 1862 was something different. they had lost a first son in 1850, then a second son who had been born just after they lost
in this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all and to the young with bitterest agony, it takes them unawares. older have lrned to ever expect it. i m anxious to aleve some of your distress. you cannot now realize that you will ever feel better. is this not so? and yet it is a mistake. you are sure to be happy again. to know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. i have had experience enough to know what i say. the memory of your dear father, instead of an agony will yet be a sad, sweet feeling in your heart. of a pure and holier sort than you have known before. then he signs off, please present kind regards to afflicted mother, sincere friend, a. lincoln. one page. that s how it s done.