Scott Werner saw Ford as "a common person, like the guy next door you could go to a ballgame with or have a beer with."

To Phil Montalvo, Ford was a family man with Midwestern values.

This morning, all of them discussed their connections to the former president who died Tuesday evening at age 93 in California.

Ford made a campaign stop in Lincoln Oct. 16, 1976, aboard the Amtrak train "Honest Abe." Although it was a whistle stop tour, from Joliet to Alton, Ford stayed in Lincoln more than two hours and ate lunch at the Hotel Lincoln before continuing his trip.

After telling a crowd gathered around the Amtrak train that brought him that he was "glad to be in Pontiac," Ford quickly corrected himself.

For Beaver, Ford's visit was both thrilling and disconcerting.

"I got a call in late July or early August of 1974, from Congressman Ed Madigan's office," said Beaver, who had been a classmate of Madigan. "He said a gentleman wants to meet you at the old Lincoln Hotel."

That was all Beaver knew until he arrived at the hotel and was introduced to a member of the Secret Service.

"He said the president would make a visit and that the congressman had assured him that I would help get things started," Beaver said.

He learned that Ford would arrive by train, and that before the visit, the Secret Service planned to do background checks on about 30 prominent Logan County citizens.

When Beaver commented his own name wasn't on the list, the agent replied, "Oh, we checked you out a month ago."

Beaver was told the background checks were policy following the assassination of President John Kennedy, but the secret investigation unsettled him nevertheless.

The other part of the visit that still disturbs him was the sight of sharpshooters atop buildings near the depot.

"They were unsmiling," Beaver said. "Some of them were on the building on the west side of the depot and two were on the roof of where the Remax building is today."

When Beaver forgot and covered the special badge he had been given with a jacket, he was immediately grabbed by Secret Service agents.

"They told me they didn't care where I wore the badge, I could put it on my nose if I wanted to," Beaver said, "but it had to show."

Beaver said he worked on arrangements for Ford's visit with Charlie Ott, who portrayed Abraham Lincoln for many years, the late Les Sheridan, who founded the Logan County Heritage Committee, and Daris Knauer, a founder of the Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Association.

"We set up all of the things at the railroad station," Beaver said.

Ford's train followed an Amtrak engine, which was sent in advance to check the tracks.

After campaign remarks, Ford split a log into rails, then walked through an area where members of Lincoln's Logan County Arts and Crafts Guild were demonstrating 1800s crafts.

"Charlie Ott split rails with Ford and got to talk to him," Beaver said.

Beaver said Ott, Sheridan and Knauer got to do quite a bit of visiting with the president, but he was busy and only got to shake Ford's hand. He did more talking with Secret Service agents.

"They knew the president was going to get out and shake hands with hundreds of people," Beaver said. "They were nervous."

Ford's car had been flown from the White House to Springfield and was then driven to Lincoln and cleaned up at Wayne Sheley's FS Station. The car took him from the railway station to the Hotel Lincoln, where the president ate lunch.

After lunch, Ford returned to the train and re-christened the town with watermelon juice as Abraham Lincoln had done Aug. 27, 1853.

"Les talked the Secret Service man into letting him re-christen the town," Beaver said. "Sam Madonia was asked to the be a chairman, too, and Bill Smock brought the high school band. The place was a mob."

The late Chuck Bennis had played football against Ford. Bennis was in the line for the University of Illinois when Ford played center for Michigan.

"Bennis gave Ford a football he had from that game," Beaver said.

As a reward for his help with the planning, Beaver was invited to ride the presidential train - along with Hugh O'Brien who played Wyatt Earp on television, gymnast Kathy Rigsby and astronaut Allen Shepherd - into Springfield.

"It was a whole history class rolled up into a morning," Beaver said.

As Ford moved west, another Lincolnite, Scott Werner, did advance work west of the Mississippi with the President Ford Committee. Werner worked mostly in Missouri.

"When Ford came through Illinois on the train, there was a big rally in St. Louis under the Arch," Werner said. "I was one of the main organizers. I helped plan a couple of big events."

Werner said Ford will go down in history as "a president who got us through some troubling times and healed the country.

"He was probably one of the most down-to-earth, honest presidents we ever had. When he pardoned Richard Nixon, he closed the chapter on Watergate and tried to heal the country."

Phil Montalvo of Lincoln also did political advance work for Ford during his campaign.

"I traveled throughout the country with Jack and Susan Ford (the president's children) doing campaign events," Montalvo said. "They were doing a lot of stops in college towns."

Montalvo attended the Republican convention in Kansas City in the spring of 1976, and finally got to meet the president at a state dinner for the president of Finland, which took place during the country's 1976 bicentennial celebration.

"When we met, he thanked me profusely for all the work I did," Montalvo said. "He was a gracious and good man and was very, very kind."

Montalvo said the other thing that stands out in his mind about the Fords was their weekly family meetings.

"Every Sunday, regardless of where we were, they had a conference call - the brother and sister and Mr. and Mrs. Ford," he said. "They would patch them all together and they'd have a visit - catch up on family stuff.

"They'd talk for a half an hour or so. They were really a very close family."