Ruckel, Daniel E.

Born: 1811-XX-XX

Died: 1854-04-09 Springfield, Illinois

Alternate name: Ruckle, Rucker

Daniel E. Ruckel was a cabinet and furniture maker, most likely born in New York. On April 22, 1834, in DeWitt, New York, he married Catherine V. G. Forbes, with whom he eventually had at least four children. He most likely moved to Springfield, Illinois sometime in 1836, when his brother, Jacob, relocated there. He and Jacob opened a cabinet, furniture, and upholstering business. Abraham Lincoln ordered a custom-made, seven-foot long sofa from them, which he used in his Springfield law office for a time. Daniel made the sofa, and Jacob upholstered it. In 1850, Ruckel owned real estate valued at $650. He was a member of the Whig Party and took an active interest in local Whig politics. He died at age forty-three. After his death, Lincoln wrote that he had considered Daniel Ruckel "a dear friend."

U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989, 22 April 1834, DeWitt, NY (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014); Erika Nunamaker, "Lincoln's Pursuit of 'Egalitarian Refinement': Evidence from His Mahogany Sofa," Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 28 (Winter 2007), 39-41; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 106; U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2014); Donald Hoffman, Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana House: The Illustrated Story of an Architectural Masterpiece (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2013), 6; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 7 April 1852, 2:1; Curtis H. Hall to Abraham Lincoln.