Lerna, IL

Lerna is a village in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The 2020 census counted 226 residents. Lerna is part of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area. Thomas Lincoln, the father of President Abraham Lincoln, spent the later part of his life on a homestead a few miles from Lerna, which is now preserved as the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. The through line in Lerna is the way its history and present-day settings remain visible on the same map. Lerna makes the most sense through those concrete details, with its history still visible in the settings people use today. Thomas Lincoln and his second wife Sarah Bush Lincoln are buried in Shiloh Cemetery south of town.