‘Abe Lincoln’ Desk Missing in Teaneck Found Outside District Office

A missing desk believed to have been used by Abraham Lincoln turned up in pieces on the steps of the Eugene Field School Thursday morning, the school district said.

School maintenance staff put the desk back together and it is now housed in the Superintendent’s wing of the Central Office, according to the district.

Record columnist Mike Kelly featured the desk’s disappearance in a column Sunday, calling the case an “embarrassing mystery.” School officials said they weren’t sure what happened to the desk, and it was unclear how long it had been missing.

Some believe Lincoln used the desk when he was an Illinois legislator. The history of the disappearing desk is unclear, since there is no record of Lincoln visiting the township. In the column, some say the desk was donated by a resident in the 1950s.

“But was the desk really Lincoln's? Who knows?” the Record’s Kelly wrote. 

In another story Thursday, Kelly reported Teaneck school officials would try to authenticate the so-called Lincoln desk.