The paternity of Abraham Lincoln; was he the son of Thomas Lincoln? An essay on the chastity of Nancy Hanks

k "ON

GIFT OF
JANE Ko

THE PATERNITY OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WILLIAM E. BARTON

THE PATERNITY OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WAS HE THE SON OF THOMAS LINCOLN?

AN ESSAY ON

THE CHASTITY OF NANCY HANKS

BY

WILLIAM E. BARTON

AUTHOR OF " THE SOUL OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN," ETC.

NEW XHr YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

<,

COPYRIGHT, 1920,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

TO THOSE WHO HONOR ABRAHAM LINCOLN
AND DESIRE TO KNOW THE TRUTH

434549

PREFACE

A LARGE portion of this volume was written before the author
realized that it had begun. In the preparation of his former
book, The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, the author undertook
a painstaking study of Lincoln's successive environments,
which involved, incidentally, inquiry into his heredity. This
latter aspect was of secondary interest, nor was the author
greatly interested at the beginning in the various theories
which he encountered as to Lincoln's paternity. While he
made careful notes of all material which came to him in his
researches, he had no occasion to utilize any of the subject
matter in his preparation of the other volume, nor did he
expect to write this one.

As he proceeded, however, he was surprised to find a num
ber of intelligent collectors of Lincoln books and students of
his history who believed that Abraham Lincoln was not the
son of Thomas Lincoln. He also found that while Mrs. Hitch
cock had done enthusiastic work with reference to the pater
nity of Nancy Hanks, and several people had entered the lists
as champions of her chastity, no one so far as he could learn
had compiled the various theories adverse to Thomas Lin
coln's paternity of Abraham and subjected them to a critical
examination.

Moreover, the author found himself at length compelled
to ask of himself the question, What if these reports are true?
And he pursued his investigations with an open mind, and,
as he hopes and believes, in accordance with the true spirit
of historical inquiry.

The author had frequent occasion to visit the county of
Lincoln's birth and other portions of Kentucky in quest of
material for his previous book, and he made careful inquiry
on the ground, by personal interview, supplemented by ex
tended correspondence with all persons there and elsewhere

vii

viii PREFACE

who seemed at all likely to be able to give him any informa
tion favorable or unfavorable to the view which he per
sonally was disposed to accept.

All this material was reduced to writing as it accumulated,
and carefully preserved with the large quantity of Lincoln
matter which was assembled in the course of an industrious
study of the whole life of Lincoln; for, in addition to the book
already published entitled The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, and
the present monograph, the author hopes and expects to issue
a work more strictly biographical and containing a character
study of America's great commoner and liberator.

By the time the author had arrived at a definite, and as it
appears to him, a final, opinion regarding the paternity of
Lincoln, it became evident that he had in his possession
material for a book, and that no such book was already in
existence.

The author has endeavored to trace every rumor and re
port relating to the birth of Abraham Lincoln, to assemble all
the available evidence in favor of it and against it, to judge
each one of these reports upon its own merits, and to render
what, he believes, is a judgment from which there can be no
successful appeal.

From the time it became evident to his own mind that he
must write a book on this subject, the author determined to
make it unnecessary for any one else ever to do so; and he
sincerely believes that in this he has succeeded. It appears to
him quite certain that no previous writer has made anything
approaching a thorough investigation of this subject, though
many have treated it more or less confidently.

There exists in some quarters an impression that the stories
concerning the birth of Abraham Lincoln which were once
widely current were completely disposed of by the discovery
of the marriage bond and the minister's return of marriage
of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. The discovery of that
document was important, as this book will show; but it is
probably true that those stories were never so widely current
as they are today. They have passed the acute stage of curious
gossip, and have their respectable place in literature and

PREFACE ix

oratory. At least one man is even now busy in the preparation
of a book intended to prove that Abraham Lincoln was not the
son of Thomas Lincoln, and there may be ten men at work on
books, more or less conclusive, intended to prove that he was.
The English biographies of Lincoln, now appearing in con
siderable number, including Charnwood's, and the Encyclo
pedia Britannica, give serious attention to these reports; and
American authors do not feel at liberty to publish their
books without somewhere intimating that they are at least
familiar with these stories. Beside books formally devoted
to the study of Lincoln, a very large number of other volumes
are issued in which some reference to Lincoln occurs, and
many of these make more or less direct allusion to these re
ports. Colonel Watterson's interesting autobiography, " Marse
Henry, " devotes a half dozen pages to " that calumny " and
to the like report concerning Andrew Johnson.

As for oratory, the temptation is far too great for the
average speaker to resist, and it offers an attractive field to
orators who are beyond the average. In Chicago, on Lin
coln's Birthday in 1920, the Sons of the American Revolu
tion listened to an able address by a distinguished lawyer, him
self the author of a valuable book on Abraham Lincoln, a
considerable part of which address was devoted to the state
ment and refutation of these stories; but he did not succeed
in refuting them. That address the author of this volume
heard; it was a notable address, but in this portion it failed
completely. The old Presiding Elder in the Methodist Church
gave wise advice to a young minister who was much given to
superficial refutations of the arguments of infidelity, — " Never
raise the devil unless you are sure you can lay him."

At the same hour and in the same city where the address
referred to in the preceding paragraph was delivered, another
distinguished lawyer, a man of high character and large ability,
was delivering an address on " The Lineage of Lincoln " at a
patriotic gathering held in Memorial Hall in the Chicago Pub
lic Library. It was an address that displayed great industry of
the painstaking sort which characterizes the work of this emi
nent attorney and has won him wide repute at the bar, but it

x PREFACE

was inconclusive. He did not know all the facts which he
needed to know.

What happened in Chicago probably occurred on the same
day in other cities; such addresses are to be numbered by the
hundred if not by the thousand. They are delivered with the
best of intentions, but their zeal is not always according to
knowledge, and they serve to disseminate yet more widely the
stories which they inconclusively oppose.

We are not at liberty, therefore, to treat the subject of the
paternity of Abraham Lincoln as one that may safely be dis
missed with silent contempt. If any one knows the truth about
this matter, he ought to tell it.

The present author believes that he knows the truth about
the paternity of Abraham Lincoln. His investigation has in
volved no little travel and research. He believes that the
truth ought to be known, and that the truth is better than either
falsehood or uncertainty. That is why he has decided to
pursue to the end the rather unwelcome task which grew out
of his previous study, and which this book completes. And he
does not expect to refer to it in any subsequent book about
Abraham Lincoln; nor does he apprehend that such reference
will be necessary.

This volume may be considered as a footnote to the au
thor's book, The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, and a suppressed
preface to the Life of Lincoln which he hopes to publish at
some future date. In that volume he does not now intend
to make any extended reference to the material in this book,
but its conclusion will be assumed.

The author believes that he has gathered all important
material bearing upon the question of Abraham Lincoln's
paternity, and this volume contains all the material which a
diligent search has brought to his knowledge bearing upon that
subject. Pursuing these investigations with an open mind, he
has reached for himself a definite conclusion, which together
with the evidence upon which it rests, he submits herewith in
confidence that on the more important aspects of the question
there remains henceforth not very much more to be said.

As compared with my previous book on Lincoln, the

PREFACE xi

preparation of this work has called for comparatively little
use of books. My obligations for such books as I have used,
and some measure of my indebtedness to correspondents, is
indicated in the text; but I shall not be able to acknowledge
in full my debt to those who have made researches for me. I
venture to name some of those to whom my obligation is
largest.

Among libraries and librarians, I owe much to Miss Caro
line M. Mcllvaine, and the Library of the Chicago Historical
Society; to Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber and Miss Georgia L. Os-
borne, and the Library of the Illinois State Historical Society
at Springfield; to Mr. A. P. C. Griffin, Chief Assistant
Librarian, and the Library of Congress in Washington; to
Mr. J. H. Turtle and the Library of the Massachusetts His
torical Society ; to Miss Euphemia B. Corwin and Mrs. Florence
Ridgway of the Library of Berea College, Kentucky; to Mrs.
Charles F. Norton and the Library of Transylvania Univer
sity of Lexington, Kentucky, and to Miss Helen Bagley and
the Oak Park Public Library.

For assistance in correspondence and research I name
among those who have helped me most:

Mr. O. M. Mather, Mr. L. B. Handley, Judge Richard W.
Creal, Mr. Charles F. Creal, Mr. Robert Enlow and Rev. Louis
A. Warren, all of Hodgenville, Kentucky; Mr. G. H. Geiger
of Anderson, South Carolina; Hon. James H. Cathey of
Sylva, North Carolina; Mr. D. J. Knotts of Swansea, South
Carolina; Mr. L. S. Pence of Lebanon, Kentucky; Mr. George
Holbert of Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Mr. Jesse W. Weik of
Greencastle, Indiana; Hon. Clinton L. Conkling, Hon. Hardin
W. Masters, Hon. G. W. Murray and Mr. H. E. Barker of
Springfield, Illinois; Mr. Hugh McLellan of Champlain, New
York, Mr. Truman H. Bartlett of Boston; Hon. Daniel Fish of
Minneapolis; Mr. Arthur E. Morgan of Dayton, Ohio; Mr.
Judd Stewart of New York City; Mr. F. H. Meserve of New
York City; Mr. Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago; Mr. Charles
F. Gunther, deceased, of Chicago ; Mr. Joseph Polin of Spring
field, Kentucky; and Mr. O. H. Oldroyd of Washington. Mr.
Stewart died as this book was nearing press.

xii PREFACE

This is far from being a complete list. Some additional
names will appear in the text. As for the others, I can only
say that I have endeavored to secure information from every
one from whom it seemed possible to obtain any, and I thank
all who assisted me.

The author is not unaware that it is easy for writers to
overestimate the importance of their own writings, and to
attach undue weight to their conclusions. Nevertheless, he
wishes to affirm that in the preparation of this book he has
reached a complete and final answer to the many questions
which were forced upon him at the beginning and at different
stages of its preparation. He is sending this volume to the
press with the profound conviction that it contains the truth,
and the whole truth, and that its conclusions are irrefutable.

W. E. B.

First Church Study,
Oak Park, Illinois,
August, 1920.

CONTENTS

PART I: THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE

INQUIRY

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE SEVEN SIRES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN . . 17

II Is SUCH AN INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? . . 22

III THE SOIL IN WHICH THESE STORIES GREW . 35

IV WHAT DID LINCOLN THINK ABOUT IT? . . 38
V WHAT DID LAMON THINK ABOUT IT? . . 41

VI WHAT DID HERNDON THINK ABOUT IT? . . 49
VII THE COLEMAN PAMPHLET 55

PART II: THE STORIES AND THE EVIDENCE IN
SUPPORT OF THEM

VIII ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN COUNTY, KEN
TUCKY 65

IX GEORGE BROWNFIELD 69

X ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON COUNTY, KEN
TUCKY 72

XI ABRAHAM ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA . . 74

XII THE HARDIN STORY 105

XIII CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL AND ANDREW . . 107

XIV JOHN C. CALHOUN 113

PART III: A CRITICAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE
ANALYSIS

XV THE BURDEN OF PROOF 149

XVI ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN COU.NTY, KEN
TUCKY 157

xiii

XIV

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XVII ABRAHAM ENLOW OF ELIZABETHTOWN . .186

XVIII GEORGE BROWNFIELD 189

XIX ABRAHAM LINCOLN OF OHIO 192

XX ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON COUNTY . . 195

XXI THE HARDIN STORY 200

XXII ABRAHAM ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA . . 203

XXIII CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL AND ANDREW . . 207

XXIV JOHN C. CALHOUN 214

XXV Do THESE STORIES SUPPORT EACH OTHER? . 227

XXVI A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 231

XXVII A FEW FIXED DATES 244

XXVIII WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THOMAS LINCOLN . 257

XXIX WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT NANCY HANKS . . 272

XXX DID LINCOLN HONOR His FATHER? ... 287

XXXI DID LINCOLN HONOR His MOTHER? ... 298

XXXII A FINAL WORD ABOUT HERNDOIN ... 303

XXXIII THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF THESE STORIES . 312

PART IV: APPENDICES

I REV. JESSE HEAD . . . . . . . 325

II WITNESSES TO THE MARRIAGE OF THOMAS AND

NANCY LINCOLN 336

III THOMAS LINCOLN AS A LANDHOLDER . . . 345

IV HERNDON'S ATTITUDE TOWARD LINCOLN . . 360
V THE SUPPRESSED PAGES OF THE REED LECTURE . 367

VI WASHINGTON COUNTY AFFIDAVITS . . . 372

VII LA RUE COUNTY AFFIDAVITS 377

VIII WHERE WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN BORN? . . 384

IX DOCUMENTS OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY . . 395

X HANKS MEMORANDA 400

XI WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN A GERMAN? . . . 409

INDEX 411

PART I: THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE
OF THE INQUIRY

PART I: THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE
OF THE INQUIRY

CHAPTER I
THE SEVEN SIRES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WHEN, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln became a candidate for the
Presidency of the United 'States, but little was known of him
in his own nation and in the world, and less concerning his
antecedents. The biographical sketches which he furnished to
Jesse W. Fell in 1859 or 1860 and somewhat later to John
Locke Scripps, exhibited marked reserve on the subject of
his family history, especially on his mother's side. In these
sketches furnished by Lincoln himself, the Lincoln line was
indicated for several generations, from Berks County, Penn
sylvania, through Virginia to Kentucky, whence in his own
childhood his father had migrated in 1816 into Southern In
diana, and in 1830, the year of Abraham's majority, into
Illinois.

The meagerness of the information did not escape comment
at the time, and vague and nebulous rumors were current in
the campaign of 1860 that Abraham Lincoln had little occa
sion for pride in his birth. In 1864, the campaign was waged
with great bitterness, the Copperhead press stopping at noth
ing that would belittle him, and the rumors became more
widely extended. So far as the writer is aware, however, these
did not emerge into print. The writer has seen a considerable
body of hostile political literature, much of it issued by the
Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge, of which
Prof. S. F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, was President,
and while Lincoln is mercilessly criticized, lampooned and
caricatured, the writer has not seen in print any direct charge
that Abraham Lincoln was illegitimate, or that his mother

17

18 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

was illegitimate, that was published during either of the
two campaigns in which Lincoln was running for the Presi
dency. That the rumors were in circulation by 1864, is, how
ever, certain.

The gravamen of these rumors, and the definite charges
subsequently printed in various forms, is two-fold. The first
of these is that his mother, Nancy Hanks, was a bastard.
Her mother, Lucy Hanks, it is alleged, being at that time
unmarried, bore her, in Virginia, in 1783. Subsequently
Lucy Hanks married Henry Sparrow, and the illegitimate
daughter of Lucy was, by the Hanks family, called Nancy
Sparrow. But that, it is affirmed, was not her name. Her
father, so it is alleged, and so her son Abraham Lincoln is
alleged to have believed, was a Virginia planter of good
family, through whom Nancy inherited qualities which dis
tinguished her as superior to her own family, qualities which
she transmitted to her son, Abraham, and which largely made
him the great man whom he afterward became.

The other rumor, which has become a definite allegation,
printed in several forms, is that Abraham Lincoln was an
illegitimate child; that his mother, Nancy Hanks, either be
fore or subsequent to her marriage with Thomas Lincoln, if
indeed she was married to him, became the mother of a son
whose father was other than Thomas Lincoln.

In some forms this rumor alleges that she was pregnant
when Thomas Lincoln married her; in others that the child
was already born, but an infant; in others that he was " old
enough to run around," and that " he sat between Thomas
and Nancy when they went away to be married." In others
the implication is that he was begotten in adultery, Lincoln
and his wife having been married, and she proving unfaithful
to her marriage vows.

The name of Abraham Lincoln's father is variously given
by those who hold to the truth of this rumor. He is alleged
to have been a grandson of Chief- Justice John Marshall, or a
son of John C. Calhoun; and several other names, noted in
Kentucky and the older states to the east of it, are men-

SEVEN SIRES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 19

tioned each with more or less confidence as that of his father.

Certain family names that were current in the immediate
vicinity of his birth have also been mentioned, among them
that of Abraham Enlow, Mow or Enloe. According to a
very widespread rumor, current in various forms in several
sections of the South, Lincoln received his name of Abraham
from his real father, Abraham Enlow, Enloe or Inlow, and
his surname from his putative father, Thomas Lincoln, who
either than was or later became the husband of Nancy Hanks,
the mother of the future President.

With the first of these two questions the present book has
no concern. Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock published in
1899 her little book entitled " Nancy Hanks," and she and
Miss Ida M. Tarbell in their researches obtained information
which satisfied them that Nancy Hanks was of legitimate birth.
The large work of Lea and Hutchinson, while following
primarily the Lincoln line in England, practically confines
its American research concerning the immediate progenitors
of Lincoln to the work already done by Mrs. Hitchcock,
and accepts her conclusions apparently without independent
investigation of the maternal line of Abraham Lincoln's an
cestry.

The present writer has no occasion to traverse this ground.
It is not the field of his chief interest, nor, so far as he can
judge, is it the more important half of the inquiry. We
should be glad to know that Abraham Lincoln's grandmothers
and great-grandmothers were virtuous to all generations; but
we know that few families can go back many generations
without finding the bar sinister somewhere upon the family
escutcheon; and every man or woman who boasts of descent
from William the Conqueror confesses with more or less
of pride to that condition of his own family register. Each
receding generation divides by two the feeling of moral ob
liquity, and each quarter century of remoteness lessens the
feeling of disgrace. If Nancy Hanks was born in lawful
wedlock, the fact is of interest; but it is nothing like as im
portant as it is to find whether she herself was a virtuous

20 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

woman, and her son, the President of the United States,
the legitimate son of her husband, whose name Abraham
Lincoln bore.

This book, therefore, confines itself wholly to the ques
tion of the paternity of Abraham Lincoln.

" Regarding the paternity of Lincoln a great many sur
mises and a still larger amount of unwritten or, at least, un
published history have drifted into the currents of western
lore and journalism. A number of such traditions are extant
in Kentucky and other localities."

So wrote William H. Herndon in 1889 in the first volume
of the first edition of his much discussed Life of Lincoln.
He added that his associate, Mr. Jesse W. Weik, had devoted
much time to investigating one of these traditions, which he
outlined, and which we shall have occasion to consider in de
tail. This paragraph is interesting for many reasons. Among
others, it shows that on Herndon's first investigation there
was more than one story. There are several now. The
author of this present volume has made diligent search, and
has tabulated all the rumors and definite charges which he
has been able to secure. Some of them are too vague to
be certainly identified, but even these will be alluded to, with
whatever is to be said for and against them. The chief
stories permit of grouping under seven definite heads, and
they charge that Abraham Lincoln was not the son of Thomas
Lincoln, but was the son of another man, who is named with
evidence, in some cases more and in other cases less circum
stantial, intended to show that some man other than Thomas
Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln's father.

The author has catalogued these allegations. The seven
men, other than Thomas Lincoln, who are credited with the
paternity of Abraham Lincoln, and whose claims to that
honor we shall consider at length, are the following:

1. Abraham Enlow, a farmer, of Hardin County, Ken

tucky.

2. George Brownfield, a farmer, of Hardin County, Ken

tucky.

SEVEN SIRES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 21

3. Abraham Inlow, a miller, of Bourbon County, Ken

tucky.

4. Andrew, an alleged foster son of Chief -Justice John

Marshall.

5. Abraham Enloe, of Swain County, North Carolina.

6. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina.

7. Martin D. Hardin, of Kentucky.

It would have been possible to increase the number be
yond seven, but several stories that at first appeared to be
distinct resolved themselves into separate forms of the same
story. These several forms will all be considered either in
the presentation of the evidence or in its analysis. We will
also consider one or two of these stories that had more or
less vogue for a time and then disappeared. This book under
takes to be complete, so far as the author's information and
research have enabled him to gather material, and he thinks
that he has discerned and here recorded all that is of any
value, and some beside. But he has kept the number of
Lincoln's alleged fathers down to seven, in addition to Thomas
Lincoln, who also is to be considered.

" Seven cities strove for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread."

Seven men are now adduced as the alleged fathers of
Abraham Lincoln, few if any of whom, if living in 1860,
would have voted for him. But that does not settle the ques
tion of his paternity. It only illustrates the complexity of
the task which he assumes who undertakes to trace these
rumors and discover what truth, if any, lies at their root.

CHAPTER II
IS SUCH AN INQUIRY WORTH WHILE?

THE reader of the foregoing chapter will be quite certain
to ask himself at this point, Is any such inquiry worth while?
What does it matter, anyway ? Why not let all such rumors
alone ?

Let him be assured that the author has asked himself the
same questions and many others. The answers that have
come to him are, first, that it does matter, and that the truth
is better than any form of falsehood, and very much better
than so many kinds of falsehood that one cannot be sure
which of them to choose.

But a more important answer is that we are not per
mitted to choose whether these rumors shall die out or not.
They persist. They were in active circulation before the
death of Lincoln, and troubled him; and they have to be
reckoned with by every serious student of the life of Lin
coln. It is better, so the author has come to believe, that
these be dragged into the open, and met on their merits. If
Abraham Lincoln was not the son of Thomas Lincoln, it is
time the world knew whose son he was. If he was the son
of Thomas Lincoln, those who deny that fact should be
refuted.

Abraham Lincoln had his own homely phrase for inves
tigations of this character. He used it more than once, and
always effectively. In 1864 a story was industriously cir
culated, for which General George B. McClellan must have
been in some measure personally responsible, that Lincoln,
visiting the field of A'ntietam just after the battle, caused
himself to be amused by the singing of vulgar songs within
sight and hearing of the burial of the dead. This story was
published in New York papers, and, while grossly untrue,

225

IS THE INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? 23

had in it just enough of truth to make it difficult to refute.1
Lincoln's associate in this affair, and the man who actually
sang, though not while the burials were in progress,

"I've wandered to the village, Tom,

I've sat beneath the tree,
Upon the school-house playground,
That sheltered you and me ", —

was Colonel Ward Hill Lamon, who, when the story ap
peared in New York papers, wished to rush into print with
a hot denial. Lincoln read Lamon's proposed communica
tion, and doubted the wisdom of publishing it. Instead he
wrote, in the third person, an account of the event, which,
however, he later decided not to print. It was published in
fac-simile many years afterwards. Lincoln, declining the well-
meant but too belligerent offices of Lamon, said :

" No, Hill. Leave this to me. Every man must skin his
own skunk."

Abraham Lincoln would gladly have skinned for himself
the unpleasant story of his paternity if it had been possible
for him to do so; and beyond a doubt would have done it in
the third person, a method he employed in other delicate mat
ters. But this was a matter which Lincoln was unable to
confront and settle. He knew of these stories, and how
much he believed of them .we shall presently undertake to
learn; but he lacked the facts necessary to their settlement.
Indeed, his own futile efforts to learn something more of
his ancestry had something to do with the origin of some
of the rumors, and warned him to desist. This was a skunk
he would gladly have skinned if he could, and he would have
been profoundly grateful to any man who could have nailed
its pelt to the barn-door, and scrubbed his hands with a gourd

1 While General McClellan was not named as the author, still it
is impossible to relieve him from a share in the moral responsibility for
this story. He was present when the incident occurred, and was dis
pleased with what happened, and when the reports were published he
did not deny or modify them, though he was named as a witness. This
fact, and also the fact that his candidate for Vice-President, Hon.
George H. Pendleton, advertised his campaign speeches in a pamphlet in
which Lincoln was proclaimed " the Rebel Candidate," illustrate the
amenities of that campaign.

24 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of soft soap at the spring before returning to receive the
reward of his valuable labor.

But it is a fair question now, and one which the author
has earnestly asked of himself, whether at this day the skin
is worth the removing, and whether it would not be better
to bury the carcase as it is.

On this matter the author has come to a definite answer
in his own mind. If he could bury the matter just as it is,
he would. But it cannot be done. Every biographer of
Lincoln finds the unburied and unskinned skunk in his path.
Some authors walk around it, visibly holding their noses.
Others take a contemptuous kick at it, and pass on, but leave
the odor behind their well-meant allusion. Each of them
disclaims responsibility for the actual skinning.

Miss Ida M. Tarbell has thus written of the several stories
of Lincoln's illegitimacy:

Among the many wrongs of history — and they are legion
— there is none in our American chapter at least which is
graver than that which has been done to the parents, and
particularly the mother, of Abraham Lincoln. Of course, I
refer to the tradition that Lincoln was born of that class
known in the South as " poor whites/' that his father was
not Thomas Lincoln, as his biographers insist on declar
ing, but a rich and cultured planter of another State than
Kentucky, and that his mother not only gave a fatherless
boy to the world, but herself was a nameless child. The
tradition has always lacked particularity. For instance, there
has been large difference of opinion about the planter who
fathered Abraham, who he was and where he came from.
One story calls him Enloe, another Calhoun, another Har-
din, and several States claim him. Only five years ago [in
1899] a book was published in North Carolina to prove that
Lincoln's father was a resident of that State. The bulk of
the testimony offered in this instance came from men and
women who had been born long after Abraham Lincoln,
had never seen him, and never heard the tale they repeated
until long after his election to the Presidency. Of the truth
of these statements as to Lincoln's origin no proof has ever
been produced. There were rumors, diligently spread in the

IS THE INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? 25

first place by those who for political reasons were glad to
belittle a political opponent. They grew with telling, and
curiously enough, two of Lincoln's best friends helped per
petuate them — Messrs. Lamon and Herndon — both of whom
wrote lives of the President which are of great interest and
value. But neither of these men was a student, and they
did not take the trouble to look for the records of Mr. Lin
coln's birth. They accepted rumors and enlarged upon them.
Indeed, it was not until perhaps twenty-five years ago that
the matter was taken up seriously and an investigation be
gun. This has been going on at intervals ever since, and I
venture to say that few persons born in a pioneer community,
as Lincoln was, and as early as 1809, have their lineage as
clearly established as that of Abraham Lincoln. It takes,
indeed, a most amazing credulity for any one to believe the
stories I have alluded to after having looked at the records
of his family. Lincoln himself, backed by the record in the
Lincoln family Bible, is the first authority for the time and
place of his birth, as well as the name of his father and
mother. The father, Thomas Lincoln, far from being a
" poor white," was the son of a prosperous Kentucky pio
neer, a man of honorable and well-established lineage, who
had come from Virginia as a friend of Daniel Boone, and
had there bought large tracts of land, and begun to grow up
with the country, where he was killed by the Indians. He
left a large family. By the law of Kentucky the estate went
mainly to the eldest son, and the youngest, Thomas Lincoln,
was left to shift for himself. This younger son was mar
ried at Beechland, Kentucky, to a young woman of a family
well known in the vicinity, Nancy Hanks. There is no doubt
whatever about the time and the place of their marriage.
All the legal documents 2 required in Kentucky at that period
for a marriage are in existence. Not only have we the bond
and the certificate, but the marriage is duly entered in a list
of marriage returns made by Jesse Head, one of the best

2 This is not quite correct. The license has not been found, nor, in
my opinion, has the marriage certificate. In expressing the judgment that
the marriage certificate of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln has not been
found, but only the signed return of the minister, and the marriage bond,
I do not forget that what purports to be the original ^marriage certifi
cate is in a private collection and that a fac-simile of it has been pub
lished in one of the Lives of Lincoln. I have not seen the so-called
original; but any one who wishes may compare the fac-simile with the

26 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

known early Methodist ministers of Kentucky. It is now
to be seen in the records of Washington County, Kentucky.
There is even in existence a very full and amusing account
of the wedding and the fan-fare [infare] which followed
by a guest who was present and who for years after was
accustomed to visit Thomas and Nancy. This guest, Chris
topher Columbus Graham, a unique and perfectly trustworthy
man, a prominent citizen of Louisville, died only a few years
ago.

But while these documents dispose effectually of the ques
tion of the parentage of Lincoln, they do not, of course,
clear up the shadow which hangs over the parentage of his
mother.

The remainder of the interesting little brochure is de
voted to the ancestry of Nancy Hanks, which does not be
long to the present inquiry.

This well written argument, printed in 1907 in a little
booklet by the Lincoln Farm Association, and used in var
ious other publications, appeared to me, when I first read
it, to be eminently satisfactory, and I had no inclination to
pursue the subject farther. I already believed that Thomas
Lincoln was the father of Abraham Lincoln, and had no
temptation to meddle with any other opinion, and was glad
that Miss Tarbell in so simple a fashion had disposed of the
whole subject without effort which I had no desire to put
forth.

But, while I still admire the manner in which Miss Tar-
bell swept up the whole affair into a dustpan and threw it
out of doors, I am forced to the opinion that that is not the
best way to treat the matter. Either it should be ignored
altogether, or the issue should be squarely met: and it is not
possible for a thoughtful student to ignore it; if it had been
possible, I should not be writing this book.

genuine records of Jesse Head. How such a document, if in existence,
and presumably preserved in the Lincoln family, could have been con
cealed from President Lincoln, and produced after it ceased to have
important value as evidence, but when it had undeniable commercial
value, I do not undertake to explain. I am confident, however, that the
author of the volume in which it first appeared had no share in the
imposture, but was imposed upon.

IS THE INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? 27

In the first place, one may not dispose of Lamon and
Herndon by saying that while they wrote Lives of Lincoln
of great value, " neither of these men was a student, and
they did not take the trouble to look for the records of Lin
coln's birth. They accepted rumors, and enlarged upon
them."

In his own erratic way, Herndon certainly was a stu
dent, and a very diligent one. In a matter which interested
him, as this one did profoundly, he was industrious and dis
criminating, and followed his clues unremittingly. He did
"take trouble to look up the records of Lincoln's birth,"
and it was with no little trouble that he found them. And
Lamon, or whoever wrote Lamon's book, though he wrote in
most ungracious spirit and in great unwisdom, was no fool,
nor did he lack the qualities of a student.

But the thing that most troubled me when I discovered
it was that, whatever Herndon believed about the parentage
of Lincoln, he knew all that Miss Tarbell knew. The testi
mony of Lincoln, as given in his autobiography, and the rec
ord in the family Bible, were before Herndon when he wrote,
and he reproduced the record in the family Bible in fac-simile
in his book. He even knew the place and date of the marriage
of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, and told of it in his first
edition; and that is where Miss Tarbell probably learned of
it. He said, in 1889:

In only two instances did Mr. Lincoln over his own hand
leave any record of his history or family descent. One of
these was the modest bit of autobiography furnished to Jesse
W. Fell in 1859, in which, after stating that his parents were
born in Virginia, of " undistinguished or second families," he
makes the brief mention of his mother, saying that she came
" of a family of the name of Hanks." The other record
was the register of marriages, births and deaths, which he
made in his father's Bible. The latter now lies before me.
That portion of the page which probably contained the record
of the marriage of his parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks, has been lost; but fortunately the records of Wash
ington County, Kentucky, and the certificate of the minister

28 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

who performed the marriage, — the Rev. Jesse Head — fix the
fact and date of the latter on the i2th day of June, 1806.
On the loth day of February in the following year a daugh
ter, Sarah, was born, and two years later, on the I2th of
February, the subject of these memoirs came into the world.
— Herndon' s Lincoln, First Edition, Volume I, pp. 4, 5.

It is impossible to refute Herndon by the production of
evidence with which he was entirely familiar, but which was
outweighed (if it was so outweighed) in his mind by more
than counterbalancing evidence.

Not only so, but Lamon conceded the fact of the mar
riage, and fixed the approximate date, although up to the
time he wrote (1872) and for some years afterward, dili
gent search had failed to discover the marriage bond and
the return of Jesse Head.

Some time in the year 1806 he [Thomas Lincoln] mar
ried Nancy Hanks. ... It is admitted by all the old resi
dents of the place that they were honestly married, but pre
cisely when or how no one can tell. Diligent and thorough
searches by the most competent persons have failed to dis
cover any trace of the fact in the public records of Hardin
and the adjoining counties. The license and the minister's
return in the case of Lincoln and Sarah Johnston, his sec
ond wife, were easily found in the place where the law re
quires them to be; but of Nancy Hanks's marriage there
exists no evidence but that of mutual acknowledgement and
cohabitation. — LAMON'S Life of Lincoln, p. 10.

Whatever the opinions of Lamon and Herndon, and we
shall examine them in detail, and whatever their faults in
other particulars, these are as true and fair statements as
could have been made when Lamon's book was issued in 1872
or Herndon' s in 1889.

When I discovered this fact, I saw that Herndon could
not be confuted in the manner that had been so easily as
sumed; and that those persons who conceded all that Miss
Tarbell claimed, but who still believed Abraham Lincoln ille
gitimate, must either be met by other arguments, or their
claim admitted.

IS THE INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? 29

Furthermore, I continually discovered other matters which
compelled attention; and they are hereinafter set forth, and
in due course analyzed and given what appears to me their
true value as evidence.

I have read with keen enjoyment and some profit Colonel
Henry Watterson's breezy autobiography, " Marse Henry."
He devoted a portion of one chapter to Andrew Johnson,
and to the rumor that he was an illegitimate child. He quotes
a letter received by him from Hon. Josephus Daniels, declar
ing this story to be false, and saying :

My own information is, for I have made some investiga
tion of it, that the story about Andrew Johnson's having a
father other than the husband of his mother is as wanting
in foundation as the story about Abraham Lincoln. You
did a great service in running that down and exposing it,
and I trust before you publish your book you will be able to
do a like service in repudiating the unjust, idle gossip with
reference to Andrew Johnson.—" Marse Henry," Vol. I, p.
158.

Colonel Watterson says, among other things, of the Lin
coln story:

There used to be a story about Raleigh, North Carolina,
where Andrew Johnson was born, that he was the natural
son of William Ruffin, an eminent jurist in the earlier years
of the nineteenth century. It was analogous to the story
that Lincoln was the natural son of various paternities from
time to time assigned him. I had my share in running that
calumny to cover. It was a lie out of whole cloth, with noth
ing whatever to support or excuse it. I reached the bottom
of it to discover proof of its baselessness abundant and con
clusive. — "Marse Henry" Vol. I, p. 155.

I had known that Colonel Watterson in some address or
editorial had referred to this matter, but had no knowledge
of any such thorough inquiry on his part as this seemed to
imply. I had read his eloquent lecture on Abraham Lincoln,
and a re-reading of it confirmed the recollection that it con-

30 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

tained nothing on this subject. I therefore wrote to the
Colonel, asking him to furnish me his material on this sub
ject, as it was one in which I was deeply interested. I re
ceived a courteous reply from him, accompanied by a note
from his secretary, who had made diligent search among
the Colonel's papers, and could not find it. Colonel Watter-
son said, however, that what he had written on the subject
was somewhere in the files of the Courier-Journal, though
his secretary had not found it, and that the facts on
which his article was based were those given by Miss
Tarbell.

The article has been found. It is an address by Colonel
Watterson, delivered November 8, 1911, on the occasion of
his presentation of the Speed statue of Abraham Lincoln
to Kentucky and the nation, and it is printed in the current
issue of the Courier-Journal. The portion of the address
which deals with this subject quotes in full the Christopher
Columbus Graham affidavit, which, it appears from this arti
cle, was reduced to writing and sworn to by Mr. Graham
at the request of Colonel Watterson. Omitting the affidavit,
which will appear in another place, the statement of Colonel
Watterson is as follows:

Let me speak, with some particularity and the authority
of fact, tardily but conclusively ascertained, touching the ...
maternity of Abraham Lincoln. Few passages in history
have been so greatly misrepresented and misconceived. Some
confusion was made by his own mistake as to the marriage
of his father and mother, which had not been celebrated in
Hardin County, but in Washington County, Kentucky, the
absence of any marriage papers in the old court house at
Elizabethtown, the county seat of Hardin County, leading
to the notion that there had never been any marriage at all.
It is easy to conceive that such a discrepancy might give
occasion for any amount and all sorts of partisan falsifica
tion, the distorted stories winning popular belief among the
credulous and inflamed. Lincoln himself died without surely
knowing that he was born in an honest wedlock and came
from an ancestry upon both sides of which he had no reason
to be ashamed. For a long time a cloud hung over the name

IS THE INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? 31

of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Per
sistent and intelligent research has brought about a vindi
cation in every way complete. It has been clearly established
that as the ward of a decent family she lived a happy and
industrious girl until she was twenty-three years of age, when
Thomas Lincoln, who had learned his trade in the shop of
one of her uncles, married her, June 12, 1806. The entire
record is in existence and intact. The marriage bond to the
amount of £50 was duly recorded seven3 days before the
wedding, which was solemnized as became the well-to-do
folks in those days. The uncle and aunt gave an " infare,"
to which the neighboring countryside was invited. Dr. Chris
topher Columbus Graham, one of the most highly respected
of Kentucky, before his death, in 1885, wrote at my request
his remembrances of that festival and testified to it before
a notary public in the ninety-sixth year of his age.

This is well said, and spoken like a gentleman, which
Marse Henry is and always was; but it certainly cannot be
called going to the bottom of the matter. It is evident that
his sources of information were the personal testimony of
Dr. Graham, and the researches of Miss Tarbell and Mrs.
Hitchcock, which essentially were nothing more than the plac
ing of a new emphasis upon the discovery of the marriage
return, which Herndon had long before proclaimed.

Let us understand clearly that while the discovery of
the marriage return and bond is a fact of very great im
portance, and a complete answer to some forms of the story
we are discussing, it is of no value in meeting the charge
that Thomas Lincoln, for a consideration, married a woman
of bad character, already pregnant by another man, the pater
nity of whose child he assumed; and further, that the mar
riage bond, with or without the affidavit of Dr. Christopher
Columbus Graham in his one-hundredth year, is no answer to
the charge that Nancy Hanks, after her marriage, enter
tained men other than her husband, and by one of them
became the father of Abraham Lincoln; on account of which,

* This is an unimportant error. The bond was dated June 10, and
the marriage was performed June 12, 1806.

32 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

and of her husband's ferocious fight with him, the Lincolns
left Kentucky.

This story should either be let alone, or it should be met
resolutely, and the truth ascertained.

The author of this volume has corresponded with a num
ber of people who have, to their complete satisfaction, refuted
the stories that Lincoln was illegitimate, but who, when asked
for their evidence, have nothing more than they have learned
from Miss Tarbell and Mrs. Hitchcock. These two excellent
ladies did service, but they did not go to the bottom of the
matter.

In my judgment, nothing but harm can come from a su
perficial treatment of this subject, and every attempt thus
far to treat it is superficial.

The more carefully one scrutinizes the manner in which
the biographers of Lincoln have handled this matter, the
more evident it becomes that they leave much to be desired.
A considerable number of writers make plain reference to
these stories, showing that they know of them, and dismiss
them with some show of indignation that any such stories
should have been circulated, but give no reason why, having
been circulated, they should now not be believed. They resent
the publicity, but do not disprove the charges. They mani
fest displeasure that the stories are in circulation, but do
nothing except to increase a little the extent of the publiciy.

One may glance into almost any recent Life of Lincoln
and wish that its author had said more or else said less.

Morse, whose book is of real value, but who writes with
out much knowledge of social life in backwoods districts,
and with little warmth or sympathy, exhibits disgust for the
whole Hanks family; he tells of some cases of illegitimacy
in that family and hints that there were others, and leaves
the reader in doubt of Morse's own opinion, save only that
he evidently has a pained and impatient feeling of disillu
sionment concerning the entire background of Lincoln's in
fancy and youth.

Nicolay and Hay give a somber and vague description
of the condition of the home of Thomas Lincoln, and say

IS THE INQUIRY WORTH WHILE? 33

that not even to his closest friends did Abraham Lincoln talk
about the conditions of that home.

Chapman, in his Latest Light on Lincoln, excoriates every
man who has had a share in the publication of these rumors,
and thus effectually publishes them a little more widely, with
out giving any facts that tend toward their refutation.

Among English books the situation is evidently one of
perplexity. The authors do not know what to say. Appar
ently they feel that there is some truth in these rumors; cer
tainly they do not feel that they have any call to rush in and
refute them, for which fact, at least, we have reason to thank
them. Binns, an early English biographer of Lincoln, tells
the whole story as Herndon told it, and expresses the feeble
hope that the situation was not quite so bad as that would
appear to imply. Lord Charnwood, by far the ablest of
Lincoln's English biographers, gives these stories recogni
tion, but leaves the reader in doubt as to his own opinion.

No English biographer can be expected to investigate
these rumors independently; and no American biographer has
done it thoroughly.

The method which has come to be common among bi
ographers of Lincoln is to give some general intimation that
the author is aware of these stories, and dismiss them with
out discussion. Referring again to Lincoln's figure of speech,
their method has been virtually to produce a scrap of skunk-
skin and hint that there is more where that came from, but
that it is just as well to let it alone.

The present author proposes rather that the unpleasant
situation be faced, and the skin, if it is worth removing, be
nailed securely to the barn-door; and if it is not of value,
that the skunk receive decent and permanent burial.

It is time for vague rumor and undenied gossip to be
brought to bar, and the truth discovered, if at this date it is
possible to discover the truth.

There is good reason why some one should face this
question with courage enough to learn and publish the whole
truth. Enough has been said, and will continue to be said,
to make it certain that these stories will not die down of

84 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

themselves, and whoever refers to them but piques the cu
riosity of his hearers or readers with a desire to know just
what it is that is being referred to and otherwise concealed.

If Thomas Lincoln was not the father of Abraham Lin
coln, less harm will come at this day from admitting it than
from slurring over a truth which is everywhere recognized
as an extant rumor which no one has quite courage to face.
If, on the other hand, he was the legitimate son of Thomas
and Nancy Lincoln, it is high time that the skinning of the
skunk, bit by bit, should cease, and the animal be given per
manent interment.

If it be asked again, Has not the question been settled
by the discovery of the marriage return of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln? the answer is that that does indeed settle
some of the stories, and settle them forever; but it does not
settle them all. Indeed, it does not settle the oldest, the most
widely disseminated, or the most unpleasant of them.

This inquiry, therefore, is not one for the frivolous, nor
is it to be pursued in a manner that will afford delight to
scandal mongers. It is the serious facing of the questions
which every student of the life of Lincoln knows must some
time be faced. And the author is not without hope and
confidence that he is facing them with promise of a definite
and permanent result.

This inquiry has need to be made both as a footnote
to all extant biographies of Lincoln, and as a source of ma
terial for all future biographers, as well as a contribution
to historical knowledge.

CHAPTER III
THE SOIL IN WHICH THESE STORIES GREW

CHANGING the graphic but not wholly pleasant figure of speech
in the preceding chapter, it is well to ask, Out of what soil
did these various rumors, reports and charges grow? What
was their general background, the situation which made it easy
for them to originate, and which has lent to them a degree
of plausibility?

First, we reckon with the fact that Lincoln himself dis
played " significant reserve " in matters of his family rela
tionship. He furnished to his biographers very scanty ma
terial, passed lightly over the maternal side of his genealogy,
and gave to John Locke Scripps in confidence some informa
tion which he did not desire to have published and which
Scripps never published. Lincoln himself must be accounted
the first and in some respects the most important witness
against himself in this particular. If he could have displayed
unquestioned descent from two of the " first families " of
Virginia, it is hardly possible that these stories would have
gained circulation. That he was sensitive on this subject is
beyond question. Herndon relates that when some one under
took to establish a relationship with him he replied curtly,
" You are mistaken about my mother." *

In the next place, we must remember that Lincoln made
vain effort to discover the record of his parents' marriage,
and that Herndon in 1865 extended that effort. The fact
that search was made in several counties and no record found
could not be kept secret. Not till many years afterward,
about 1878, was the record found by W. F. Booker, clerk of
the Washington County Court. This was much too late to
stop the rumors, which had a long start; and for that matter

was in his letter to Samuel Haycraft in 1860. Reference to
it is made elsewhere in this volume.

35

36 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

there were some of them which this discovery did not
answer.

We have to remember, also, as a contributory cause, the
low social scale of the Hanks family in Kentucky. Although
careful search has shown that this family had many worthy
representatives, it was not one of the first families, even in
the backwoods of Kentucky. Herndon, in a private letter,
says that the record of this family from 1790 to 1910 shows
that the Hankses "must have been about the lowest people
on earth." This is an extravagant statement, but the Hanks
family was not one of the high-grade families. In it illegiti
macy was not unknown.

It is also to be remembered that Sarah Bush Lincoln ap
pears to have been very reticent in the information which
she furnished to Herndon when, in 1865, he visited her and
questioned her about the Hanks family. In the judgment
of the author, a good deal too much has been read into this
reticence. She was proud to think of Abe as her own boy,
and to remember that she had done more for him than Nancy
Hanks ever did; and she was herself of better family than
the Hankses. Some of the stories related of her reticence
to Herndon appear to be without foundation, and Herndon
sometimes read meanings into such incidents which the in
cidents did not warrant. Nevertheless, the truth remains that
when Herndon interrogated Sarah Bush Lincoln concerning
the personality of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, she seemed to him
to show more than a second wife's natural reserve touching
her predecessor.

It is also to be remembered that Thomas Lincoln was not
a very tall man, like Abraham, but a close-knit, solidly built
man, who in mind and body was unlike to Abraham.

It is further alleged, and that on apparently good author
ity, that Thomas Lincoln habitually treated Abraham with
" great barbarity," and Dennis Hanks tells us that Thomas
knocked him off the fence for answering a civil question that
was asked of him by a passing traveler.

It is further alleged that Abraham had no love for his
father; that he did not visit him when his father was dying;

THE SOIL IN WHICH THEY GREW 37

that he suspected the old man's veracity; and that he neglected
his grave. It is remembered that he wrote to Thomas Lin
coln that if he were to visit him the visit would perhaps be
more painful than pleasant to both of them; and this has
been held to mean that the reason was that each of the two
men knew that Thomas was not Abraham's father.

To this is added the fact of Lincoln's habitual sadness,
which, it is alleged, must have had behind it some deep and
sad secret such as this.

It is also remembered that William H. Herndon, Lin
coln's partner for many years, in the first edition of his
book, seemed to imply that Lincoln was illegitimate, and even
in his expurgated edition said that he had his origin " in
the nameless bog where the foot of history leaves no track."
It is alleged that because of its plain intimation that Lincoln
was illegitimate, Herndon's first edition was suppressed, as
earlier had been that of Lincoln's other intimate associate,
Colonel Ward Hill Lamon.

The foregoing, and perhaps more of the same sort, stands
at the background of all these rumors and gives to them color
and some measure of apparent reasonableness. Particular
charges are augmented and reinforced in the light of their
apparent correlation with this general body of tradition.
More or less, these come into the direct evidence; but whether
they do or not, they are the soil in which particular rumors
or charges are rooted. We shall consider these in detail, but
it is well to have this general background in mind.

CHAPTER IV
WHAT DID LINCOLN THINK ABOUT IT?

THAT Lincoln looked back upon the conditions of his youth
and home surroundings with painful realization of their pri
vation is undoubted. He said to Scripps, his first biographer,
that neither Scripps nor any one else could make anything
of his life beyond what was contained in a single line of
Gray's Elegy, —

"The short and simple annals of the poor."

" The chief difficulty I had to encounter/' wrote Mr.
Scripps to Mr. Herndon, " was to induce him to communicate
the homely facts and incidents of his early life. He seemed
to be painfully impressed with the extreme poverty of his
early surroundings, the utter absence of all romantic or heroic
elements; and I know that he thought poorly of the idea of
attempting a biographical sketch for campaign purposes. . . .
Mr. Lincoln communicated some facts to me about his ances
try which he did not wish published, and which I have never
spoken of or alluded to before."

What these supposed facts were, Mr. Scripps never re
vealed to Herndon, and probably not to any one else. It is
evident from this that Lincoln believed some thing or things
concerning his own ancestry which he did not wish to have
published and about which he felt sensitive.

One of these things would appear to have been the mat
ter of the paternity of his mother. Another would appear
to have been a question concerning the marriage of his father
and his mother.

What Lincoln thought of the ancestry of his mother is
told by Herndon, no doubt substantially as Lincoln had told
it to him. Whether Herndon ought to have published it is
open to question, but there is no reason to dispute the essential

38

WHAT DID LINCOLN THINK? 39

truth of his report of his conversation with Lincoln. Whether
Lincoln himself was correctly informed, or whether indeed
he had any definite information beyond his lack of knowledge
of certain facts, some of which are now known, is, of course,
another question.

" On the subject of his ancestry and origin," writes Mr.
Herndon in his much discussed passage in the first chapter
of the first edition of his book, " I only remember one time
when Mr. Lincoln ever referred to it. It was about 1850,
when he and I were driving in his one-horse buggy to the
court in Menard County, Illinois. The suit we were going
to try was one in which we were likely, either directly or
collaterally, to touch upon the subject of hereditary traits.
During the ride he spoke, for the first time in my hearing,
of his mother, dwelling on her characteristics, and mention
ing or enumerating what qualities he inherited from her. He
said, among other things, that she was the illegitimate daughter
of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred Virginia farmer or planter;
and he argued that from this last source came his power of
analysis, his logic, his mental activity, his ambition, and all the
qualities that distinguished him from the other members and
descendants of the Hanks family. His theory in discussing- this
matter of hereditary traits had been that, for certain reasons,
illegitimate children are oftentimes sturdier and brighter than
those born in lawful wedlock; and in his case, he believed
that his better nature and finer qualities came from this
broad-minded, unknown Virginian. The revelation — painful
as it was — called up the recollection of his mother, and, as
the buggy jolted over the road, he added ruefully, ' God
bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to
her; ' and immediately lapsed into silence. Our interchange
of ideas ceased, and we rode on for some time without ex
changing a word. He was sad and absorbed. Burying him
self in thought, and musing no doubt over the disclosure he
had just made, he drew round him a barrier which I feared
to penetrate. His words and melancholy tone made a deep
impression on me. It was an experience I can never forget. —
Herndon's Lincoln, Vol. I, pp. 3-4.

40 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

This tells us what Abraham Lincoln thought, about 1850,
of his mother's parentage. What Lincoln thought about his
own paternity is less certain. We shall presently discover
what Herndon thought, but he never set forth a claim that
Lincoln told him anything about his own misgivings, if he
had any, concerning his own legitimacy. We do know, how
ever, that Lincoln had caused the records of Hardin County
to be searched for a record of the marriage of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln, and that the record was not found. Lin
coln lived and died without knowing that this marriage was
duly recorded in another county. What Lincoln knew is
probably about what Lamon and Herndon knew in 1872
when Lamon's biography was published:

Some time in the year 1806 he [Thomas Lincoln] mar
ried Nancy Hanks. It was in the shop of her uncle, Joseph
Hanks, at Elizabethtown, that he had essayed to learn his
trade. We have no record of the courtship, and any one
can readily imagine the numberless occasions that would bring
together the niece and the apprentice. It is true that Nancy
did not live with her uncle, but the Hankses were all very
clannish, and she was doubtless a welcome and frequent guest
at his house. It is admitted by all the old residents of the
place that they were honestly married, but precisely when
or how no one can tell. Diligent and thorough searches by
the most competent persons have failed to discover any trace of
the fact in the public records of Hardin and the adjoining
counties. The license and the minister's return in the case
of Lincoln and Sarah Johnston, his second wife, were easily
found in the place where the law required them to be; but
of Nancy Hanks's marriage there exists no evidence but that
of mutual acknowledgment and cohabitation. — LAMON: Life
of Lincoln, p. 10.

As every one knows, the record of marriage has been
found, and is beyond question. But Lincoln did not know
that it existed, and it was doubtless a matter of considerable
mental unrest for him.

CHAPTER V
WHAT DID LAMON THINK ABOUT IT?

In his Life of Abraham Lincoln, from His Birth to His
Inauguration as President, published in 1872, by Ward Hill
Lamon,1 local law partner of Lincoln, at Danville, and Mar
shall of the District of Columbia, the opening paragraph
reads :

Abraham Lincoln was born on the I2th day of February,
1809. His father's name was Thomas Lincoln, and his
mother's maiden name was Nancy Hanks. At the time of
his birth they are supposed to have been married about three
years. Although there appears to have been but very little
sympathy or affection between Thomas and Abraham Lincoln,
they were nevertheless connected by ties and associations
which make the previous history of Thomas and his family
a necessary part of any reasonably full biography of the great
man who immortalized the name by wearing it.

The implications of this paragraph are unmistakable, nor
were they misunderstood by the readers of the volume from
the beginning. Although Thomas Lincoln was said to be the
father of Abraham, it was intended to be implied that he was
Abraham's putative father, and that the name Lincoln did
not belong to Abraham.

It would not be easy to account for the attitude of Lamon's
Life of Lincoln on the hypothesis that Lamon was its sole

1 In Harper's Weekly for July u, 1911 (p. 6), and in Lincoln and
Herndon, by Joseph Fort Newton, William H. Herndon charges that
the real author of Lamon's book was not Lamon, but that Chauncey F.
Black (died 1904), son of Lamon's law partner after the war, and mem
ber of Buchanan's Cabinet before the war, was hired by Lamon to do
a better piece of writing than Lamon himself could have done. He
charges that while Lamon was less true to Lincoln than he ought to
have been, the real animus of the book was that of Black rather than
Lamon. But Lamon doubtless believed what Black believed on this
matter.

41

42 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

author. Lamon was Lincoln's friend of many years, his
local partner, his intimate companion. He held for Lincoln
genuine affection and respect. But Lamon's own character
was not such as to make him capable of appreciating the best
that was in Lincoln, and his familiarity did not breed the
highest type of reference. Chauncey F. Black, Lamon's liter
ary associate, was not a friend of Lincoln, though his father
was Lamon's partner after the war. Black was personally
and politically hostile to Lincoln and held his memory in
small respect. The tone, therefore, of the book which bears
Lamon's name varies with respect to Lincoln, sometimes
speaking of him in terms of praise, at others thinly veiling
hostility and scorn. With respect to " Old Tom Lincoln "
and all his tribe, Black felt no restraint and Lamon no com
punction. The tone of the book is cynical and contemptuous.
Not only does Lamon's biography treat the character of
Thomas Lincoln with little respect, and it takes pains to give
the impression that Abraham had neither respect nor affec
tion for him, and that there always existed between Thomas
and Abraham a lack of such sympathy as ought to exist be
tween father and son. Lamon says:

Thomas seems to have been the only member of the fam
ily who was not entirely respectable. He was idle, thriftless,
poor, a hunter and a rover. ... In religion he was nothing
at times, and a number of denominations by turns — a Free
will Baptist in Kentucky, a Presbyterian in Indiana, and a
Disciple — vulgarly called Campbellite — in Illinois. In this
latter communion he seems to have died. In politics he was
Democrat — a Jackson Democrat.2 (pp. 8, 9.)

Thomas Lincoln was not tall and thin, like Abraham,
but comparatively short and stout, standing about five feet
ten in his shoes. His hair was dark and coarse, his com
plexion brown, his face round and full, his eyes gray, his
nose full and prominent. He weighed at different times from
one hundred and seventy to one hundred and ninety-six. He
was built so " tight and compact " that Dennis Hanks de-

2 In The Soul of Abraham 'Lincoln, I have shown the mistake about
Thomas Lincoln's religion.

WHAT DID LAMON THINK? 43

clares he never could find the points of separation between
his ribs, though he felt for them often, (p. 8.)

The contrast between this solidly and compactly built
man and his extraordinarily long and loosely built son, or sup
posed son, is recorded not without intent by Lamon, though
no comment is made upon it.

In 1828, Abe had become very tired of his home. He
was now nineteen years of age, and becoming daily more
restive under the restraints of servitude which bound him.
. . . Poor Abe! Old Tom still had a claim upon him. . . .
He must wait a few weary months before he would be of
age, and could say he was his own man, and go his own
way. Old Tom was a hard taskmaster, (p. 70.)

Lamon quotes Colonel Chapman, who married a daugh
ter of Dennis Hanks, as saying that Thomas habitually treated
Abraham with great barbarity, and Dennis himself as saying
that he had seen Tom knock Abe off a fence for giving a
civil answer to a passing traveler. His references to Thomas
are habitually lacking in any tone of respect, and when, at
the age of twenty-one, Abraham leaves home, the biographer
says:

It is with great pleasure that we dismiss Tom Lincoln,
with his family and fortunes, from further consideration in
these pages, (p. 75.)

He inserts a letter of Abraham to his father in which
Abraham appears to have believed that Thomas was lying
to him. He is not much moved by Lincoln's letter written
when his father was dying, giving him pious advice, but being
too busy to visit him. He tells of Lincoln's visit to his rela
tives in February, 1861, after his election to the Presidency:

Thence they went to the spot where old Tom Lincoln was
buried. The grave was unmarked and utterly neglected.
Mr. Lincoln said he " wanted to have it inclosed and a suit
able tombstone erected." He told Colonel Chapman to go
to a "marble-dealer," ascertain the cost of the work pro-

44 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

posed, and write him in full. He would then send Dennis
Hanks the money and an inscription for the stone; and Den
nis would do the rest. Colonel Chapman performed his part
of the business; but Mr. Lincoln noticed it no further; and
the grave remains in the same condition to this day [1872].

(P. 463.)

Lamon's references to " Old Tom Lincoln " are ungra
cious, and his allusions to Nancy Hanks are anything but
courteous :

Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Lucy Hanks. Her
mother was one of four sisters, — Lucy, Betsy, Polly and
Nancy. Betsy married Thomas Sparrow; Polly married
Jesse Friend, and Nancy, Levi Hall. Lucy became the wife
of Henry Sparrow, and the mother of eight children. Nancy,
the younger, was sent to live with her uncle and aunt, Thomas
and Betsy Sparrow. Nancy, another of the four sisters, was
the mother of Dennis F. Hanks, whose name will be fre
quently met with in the course of this history. He also was
brought up, or permitted to come up, in the family of Thomas
Sparrow, where Nancy found a shelter.

Little Nancy became so completely identified with Thomas
and Betsy Sparrow that many supposed her to have been their
child. They reared her to womanhood, followed her to In
diana, dwelt under the same roof, died of the same disease,
at nearly the same time, and were buried close beside her.
They were the only parents she ever knew; and she must
have called them by names appropriate to that relationship,
for several persons who saw them die, and carried them to
their graves, believe to this day that they were her father
and mother. Dennis Hanks persists even now in the asser
tion that her name was Sparrow, not Hanks; but Dennis was
pitiably weak on the cross-examination ; and we shall have to
accept the testimony of Mr. Lincoln himself, and some dozens
of other persons, to the contrary. — LAMON : Life of Lincoln,
p. 12.

He notes that the family Bible, in which Abraham made
out the record, in his own handwriting, " has not a word
about the Hankses or the Sparrows."

WHAT DID LAMON THINK? 45

He says that on the subject of his father and his mother,
Abraham " never spoke without great reluctance, and signifi
cant reserve." (p. 17.)

He records that John Locke Scripps affirmed, —

" Mr. Lincoln communicated some facts to me about his
ancestry which he did not wish published, and which I have
never spoken of or alluded to before. I do not think, how
ever, that Dennis Hanks, if he knows anything about these
matters, would be very likely to say anything about them."
(p. 18.)

He tells that Rev. David Elkin, in his funeral sermon
over the grave of Nancy Hanks, " either volunteered, or was
employed, to preach a sermon, which should commemorate
the many virtues and pass in silence the few frailties of the
poor woman who slept in the forest." (p. 28.)

He affirms that when Lincoln spoke in praise of his mother,
it was not Nancy Hanks, but Sarah Bush whom he had in
mind. He leaves the reader in no manner of doubt that
Lincoln had no occasion to be proud of his own mother, whose
frailty in the matter that resulted in his birth was a matter
to be forgiven in view of his being a better man than Thomas
Lincoln could have begotten. While this is nowhere affirmed
in this blunt language, it is the evident belief of Lamon, and
is the impression left and intended to be left by the perusal
of the book.

Lamon thus describes Nancy Hanks:

Nancy Hanks, who accepted the honor which Sarah Bush
declined, was a slender, symmetrical woman of medium stat
ure, with dark hair, with regular features, and soft, sparkling,
hazel eyes. Tenderly bred, she might have been beautiful;
but hard labor and hard usage bent her handsome form, and
imparted an unnatural coarseness to her features long before
the period of her death. Toward the close; her life and her
face were equally sad; and the latter habitually wore the
woeful expression which afterward distinguished the coun
tenance of her son in repose.

By her family, her understanding was considered some
thing wonderful. John Hanks spoke reverently of her " high

46 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

and intellectual forehead," which he considered but the proper
seat of faculties like hers. Compared with the mental pov
erty of her husband and relatives, her accomplishments were
certainly very great; for it is related by them with pride that
she could actually read and write. The possession of these
arts placed her far above her associates, and after a little
time even Tom began to meditate upon the importance of
acquiring them. He set to work, accordingly, in real earnest,
having a competent mistress so near at hand; and with much
effort she taught him what letters composed his name, and
how to put them together in a stiff and clumsy fashion.
Henceforth he signed no more by making his mark; but it
is nowhere stated that he ever learned to write anything else,
or to read either written or printed letters, (p. n.)

On all these matters, Lamon's authority for his facts was
Herndon, who vigorously, and truthfully, denied having writ
ten any part of Lamon's book, affirming that Black " wrote
quite every word of it," but who sold to Lamon for $2,000,
copies of all his manuscripts, and furnished data which
Lamon, or Black, used.

Lamon does not assume responsibility for the story that
Abraham Lincoln's father was Abraham Enlow, but he takes
pains to make light of Dennis Hanks' refutation of it:

In the gallery of family portraits painted by Dennis, every
face looks down upon us with the serenity of innocence and
virtue. There is no spot on the fame of any one of them.
No family could have a more vigorous or chivalrous defender
than he, or one who repelled with greater scorn any rumor to
their discredit. That Enlow story! Dennis almost scorned
to confute it; but when he did get at it, he settled it by a
magnanimous exercise of inventive genius. He knew this
" Abe Enlow " well, he said, and he had been dead precisely
fifty-five years (pp. 47, 48) .8

Lamon takes pains to bring in the name of Enlow, however,
in an unexplained fight with Thomas Lincoln, whose attendant

* If Dennis gave this testimony in 1865, Abraham Enlow had been
dead not precisely fifty-five years, but only four years. He died in 1861.

WHAT DID LAMON THINK? 47

and unrecorded circumstances he declares afforded one of the
reasons why the family was willing to leave Kentucky and
migrate to Indiana:

It has pleased some of Mr. Lincoln's biographers to repre
sent this removal of his father as a flight from the taint of
slavery. Nothing could be farther from the truth. . . . He
was gaining neither riches nor credit; and being a wanderer
by natural inclination, began to long for a change. His de
cision, however, was hastened by certain troubles which cul
minated in a desperate combat between him and one Abraham
Enlow. They fought like savages; but Lincoln obtained a
signal and permanent advantage by biting off the nose of his
antagonist, so that he went bereft all the days of his life, and
published his audacity and its punishment wherever he showed
his face. But the affray, and the fame of it, made Lincoln
more than ever anxious to escape from Kentucky (p. 16).

It is usually the vanquished, not the victor, who feels the
disgrace of living in the place where he has had a fight. The
reader is compelled to ask, and Lamon — or Black — intended
that he should ask, what injury roused the usually good
natured Tom Lincoln to such fury, and why the fame of his
successful battle should have driven him from the scene of his
prowess.

The answer to all these questions is that Lamon, or Black,
apparently intended to leave the impression that Abraham
Enlow was the father of Abraham Lincoln, and that Thomas
Lincoln knew it, and that Abraham Lincoln knew or at least
suspected it.

Ward Hill Lamon had great reason to love Abraham
Lincoln. They were long and intimately associated in Illinois,
where Lamon's habits were in many respects very different
from those of Lincoln. Lincoln made Lamon marshal of the
District of Columbia for the sake of having him close at hand,
and kept him there in spite of the almost imperative demand
of Congress for his removal. Lamon professed to the end
of his life to have been Lincoln's true friend ; and his daughter,
Dorothy Lamon Teillard, has made that claim for her father

48 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

in two editions of his Recollections of Lincoln (a very dif
ferent book from his biography of Lincoln) and in a magazine
article of her own. But if ever a man had reason to pray to
be delivered from his friends, Lincoln had such reason with
respect to certain matters which related to the parentage and
virtue of his mother.

CHAPTER VI
WHAT DID HERNDON THINK ABOUT IT?

WHAT Mr. Herndon thought has usually been inferred from
the passage already quoted in which he relates what Lincoln
said to him about his mother. Herndon certainly believed that
Nancy Hanks was of illegitimate birth: did he also believe
that she was the mother of an illegitimate son? Most readers
of his book, including his biographer, Dr. Joseph Fort Newton,
answer unhesitatingly in the affirmative. That, it must be con
fessed, is a natural inference.

In his preface, Herndon prepares his readers for " ghastly
exposures," and says that Lincoln rose from a lower depth
than any other great man; although some great men have risen
from very low down in the social and ancestral scale. He says :

Some persons will doubtless object to the narration of cer
tain facts which appear here for the first time, and which they
contend should have been consigned to the tomb. Their pre
tense is that no good can come from such ghastly exposures.
To such over-sensitive souls, if any such exist, my answer is
that these facts are indispensable to a full knowledge of Mr.
Lincoln in all the walks of life. . . .

In determining Lincoln's title to greatness we must not only
keep in mind the times in which he lived, but we must, to a
certain extent, measure him with other men. Many of our
great men and our statesmen, it is true, have been self-made,
rising gradually through struggles to the topmost round of the
ladder; but Lincoln rose from a lower depth than any of them
— from a stagnant, putrid pool, like the gas which, set on fire
by its own energy and self-combustible nature, rises in jets,
blazing, clear and bright. I should be remiss in my duty if I
did not throw the light on this part of the picture. . . .
" God's naked truth " as Carlyle puts it, can never injure the
fame of Abraham Lincoln. — Herndon' s Lincoln, ix, x.

49

50 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Herndon recorded that Mr. Weik had spent much time in
investigating traditions regarding Lincoln's paternity, par
ticularly one current in Bourbon County, Kentucky, " that
Thomas Lincoln, for a consideration from one Abraham In-
low, a miller there, assumed the paternity of the infant child
of a poor girl named Nancy Hanks; and after marriage, re
moved with her to Washington or Hardin County, where the
son, who was named Abraham, after his real, and Lincoln,
after his putative father, was born" (p. 6). Against this
tradition, he cites " the well established fact that the first-born
child of the real Nancy Lincoln was not a boy, but a girl; and
that the marriage did not take place in Bourbon but in Wash
ington County."

He tells the camp-meeting story to show the uproarious
and somewhat affectionate manner in which the Hanks girls
took their religion, and his references to the Hanks family are
not respectful, though they lack the open contempt which
Lamon displays for both the Hankses and " old Tom Lincoln."
His allusion to the funeral of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and to
Parson Elkin's passing in silence the " few shortcomings and
frailties "of the poor woman, is suggestive, though not con
clusive.

On the whole, it is not surprising that readers of the first
edition of Herndon's book generally believed that Herndon
believed that Abraham Lincoln was not the son of Thomas
Lincoln, and that those who read the later edition were left in
doubt.

There is a manuscript of Herndon's, which has never seen
the light of publicity, in which he goes farther into this matter.
It is not a letter, but a little treatise with a caption. For what
purpose he prepared it I am not quite sure. He loaned it to
a correspondent, permitting him to keep it until he called for
it, and he never called for it. I shall presently quote it in
full, and with it will close this chapter.

The little tract which I am about to quote is a remarkable
document. It is written on four pages, letter size, and for
many years was in private hands. It is now in an important
collection, in a fire-proof building, but is not shown to the

WHAT DID HERNDON THINK? 51

curious, and I am informed by its custodian that it has never
been copied except by myself. It is safe from destruction,
either by fire or caprice, and scholars will find it as they have
occasion.

In this document, Dennis Hanks is directly addressed, but
the tract was not intended as a letter to Dennis. Herndon is
answering to himself the rebuke which the Hanks family will,
as he believes, visit upon him, if he publishes the statement that
Abraham Lincoln's mother's name was Hanks and not Spar
row. Herndon believed that Dennis knew that Nancy was
illegitimate, as Dennis himself was, and probably believed
also that Dennis thought Abraham illegitimate ; but that Dennis
was shrewd and sly and willing to lie about a matter which
Abraham Lincoln, sharing the same belief concerning his
mother, met with silence, because Abraham Lincoln was too
honest to lie like Dennis.

Readers of Herndon's book have been left in doubt of his
own opinion as to the illegitimacy of Nancy Hanks herself:
but they have not always been sure just what he intended to
imply as to Abraham Lincoln's own paternity. On that sub
ject his book is purposely somewhat vague. Herndon had some
of the shrewdness of Dennis. This little tract leaves no room
for question that at the time of its composition, Herndon was
inclined to believe not only that Nancy Hanks was illegitimate
but that she gave birth to an illegitimate son, whose name was
Abraham and whose proper surname was not Lincoln.

This little tract has appended to it a footnote in Hern
don's own handwriting, saying, " These notes were made about
20 August, 1887, at Greencastle, Ind., when I was writing the
Life of Lincoln, or helping to do so.'* I believe this footnote
to be erroneous. I have compared this document with the
notes which Herndon made at Greencastle, and he used a
wholly different kind of paper and ink. This little tract is
much older than his Greencastle papers, and the note was made
afterward. This was a document which he had previously
prepared, and which he probably took with him to Green
castle, and loaned it to a correspondent with other matter
which he prepared there. In supplying the date, he made

52 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

the mistake of thinking that he had written it there. Such
mistakes Herndon sometimes made.

I think he prepared this little tract between 1866 and 1871.
I think it was in existence when Lamon wrote his book. A
comparison of the language of this tract with Lamon's refer
ence to the zeal of Dennis for the reputation of the Hanks
family, will, I think, convince the critical student that Lamon
had this before him, or at least that Herndon had by 1871
formulated his own ideas in essentially this form. It was
probably written not many months after the date of the letter
of Dennis, February, 1866. The ink, paper and handwriting,
when compared with the Greencastle manuscript, show clearly
that it is several years older than those.

Whether this was Herndon's final opinion, we shall learn
toward the end of this book. It certainly was in his mind
when he furnished his material to Lamon.

NANCY HANKS

By William H. Herndon

Dennis Hanks and all the other Hankses, their cousins and
relatives, call Nancy Hanks, Nancy Sparrow. Lucy Hanks
was her mother. Lucy, the mother of Nancy, married Henry
Sparrow. Nancy Hanks was taken and raised by Thomas
and Betsy Sparrow. Why did not her mother, Lucy Sparrow,
keep and raise her own daughter? Did Henry Sparrow ob
ject to the mother, his wife, keeping and raising her own
daughter ?

Dennis Hanks says to me, this, substantially, (to be quoted
word for word) in a letter written by him to me dated Feb.
1866:

" Don't call her Nancy Hanks, because that would make her
base-born/'

Very well, Dennis, shrewd, sly Dennis! It is a universal
custom, habit and practical rule of all English-speaking people,
including the American, as a matter of course, to call all il
legitimate children after and from the mother's name and not
the father's name, because of the cruel fiction of the law that
such children are supposed to be the children of no one — a
rather rash presumption, I willingly admit.

WHAT DID HERNDON THINK? 53

If Henry Sparrow had been the father of Nancy Hanks,
then she ought by law and justice be called Nancy Sparrow;
but, unfortunately, Henry Sparrow, the husband of her
mother, was not her father.

Nancy Hanks was born before her mother was married to
Henry Sparrow. How is this, Dennis?

Abraham Lincoln, always honest and truthful, says sub
stantially under his own hand in a short life of himself written
at Springfield, Illinois, to be a kind of campaign biography of
'60, this:

"My mother's name is Nancy Hanks"; or, to put it
exactly, Lincoln says, in that short biography of himself
written to Fell, " My mother, who died in my infancy, was
of a family of the name of Hanks."

Why did he not say, if such was the truth, that she was of
the family of the Sparrows?

Simply because she was not of the Sparrow family.
Lincoln knew her origin, but kept it to himself in that Fell
biography.

I guess I can state what Lincoln himself states in that
matter; and if to call her Hanks is to make her base-born ,
charge her son with the offense !

Dennis, sly, shrewd Dennis, wishes to cover up the truth,
smother up the sad fact, if it be such. Lincoln boldly and
truthfully speaks out.

And now the question comes, Who was the father of Nancy
Hanks, Lincoln's mother?

Lucy Hanks, her mother, was never married to any Hanks,
so far as I can find out, nor to any other person before or
after she married Henry Sparrow, or before she had Nancy.
When Nancy Hanks was born, who was Lucy Hanks' hus
band? This is quite a pertinent question. What did Lincoln
say to Scripps, his campaign biographer?

No one need for this matter rely on what I say or have
said, that Lincoln told me his mother was illegitimate. He
told me that his mother was an illegitimate child of a Virginia
planter or large farmer. However, the record tells its own
story, and speaks for itself; and had not the record spoken
out, it is more than probable that I should have kept the
secret forever, though I was not forbidden to reveal the fact
after Lincoln's death.

54 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I never uttered this to mortal man directly or indirectly
till after the death of Lincoln.

And now again, who was the father of Nancy Hanks,
the mother of the President of the United States?

Will some gentleman, some lady, kindly tell me?

The father of Nancy Hanks is no other than a Virginia
planter, large farmer, of the highest and best blood of Vir
ginia; and it is just here that Nancy got her good, rich blood,
tinged with genius.

Mr. Lincoln told me that she was a genius, and that he
got his mind from her.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln was a woman of very fine cast of
mind, an excellent heart, quick in sympathy, a natural lady,
a good neighbor, a firm friend. Good cheer and hilarity gen
erally accompanied her; and had she been raised at all [well]
she must have flourished anywhere: but as it was, she was
rude and rough, breaking, and having difficulty, through all
forms, conditions and customs, habits, etiquettes of society.
She could not be held to forms and methods of things. And
yet she was a fine woman, naturally.

It is quite probable that a knowledge of her origin had
made her defiant and desperate. She was very sensitive, and
sometimes gloomy. Who will tell me the amount and influ
ence of her feelings in this matter, caused by her origin? Let
the world forgive her, and bless her, is my constant prayer.

Lincoln often thought of committing suicide. Why?

Did the knowledge of his mother's origin, or his own,
press the thought of suicide upon him?

Who will weigh the force of such an idea as illegitimacy
on man or woman, especially when that man or woman is
very sensitive, such as Lincoln was? God help such people!

CHAPTER VII
THE COLEMAN PAMPHLET

ABOUT the end of the nineteenth century appeared a pamphlet
entitled, The Evidence that Abraham Lincoln Was Not Born
in Lawful Wedlock; Or, The Sad Story of Nancy Hanks. It
was badly printed, with many typographical errors, but was
rather well written. It was signed " Wm. M. C, Dallas,
Texas." It contained sixteen pages, and was marked to sell
for twenty-five cents. It did not sell as well as had been
expected, and the author disposed of his remainder to a New
York dealer. Some correspondence was had between them,
which the dealer kept for some years, and subsequently sought
for at the request of the present writer. It could not be found,
however, and all that the dealer remembered was that the
author of the pamphlet, William M. Coleman, seemed to him
an " unreconstructed Rebel," with much prejudice against Lin
coln; but he writes me that his recollection is too misty for
him to be confident of anything further.

The Seventh Volume of Who's Who in America contains
a sketch of Coleman, but the sketch dropped out of succeed
ing volumes, and the Library of Congress has been unable to
locate him for me. He probably died in Washington about
1912. I have only one other of his pamphlets — a vehement
attack on the Pilgrim Fathers, called by him, " The First
Yankees."

All indirection was ended by the Coleman publication. He
did not leave anything to be inferred. In his booklet, a spade
was called a sgade. The large sale which he expected did
not occur, but his outspoken declaration cleared the air of all
uncertainty. He made no original investigation, but he made
it impossible for any one to read the books from which he
quoted without remembering what construction had thus been
placed upon them.

55

56 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Coleman's pamphlet did not really add anything to what
had already been printed by Lamon and Herndon, except that
it assembled under one caption what they had said in various
places, and by skillful arrangement put the worst possible
face upon it. That, however, was probably what might have
been expected. The conclusions which Coleman deduced from
the Lamon and Herndon material were warranted by what
those two had published.

The following pages contain the essential parts of the
Coleman argument. The last pages of his booklet are devoted
to a synopsis of the Cathey book which we shall examine later.
Apparently Coleman had written his own booklet without
knowing of Cathey and his theory, but he learned of it be
fore his pamphlet was printed, and included a review of it
without attempting to harmonize its theory with his own. As
we shall come to the Cathey book in due time, we may omit
those portions, as also the preface and the rather labored intro
duction which occupy the first few pages of Coleman's booklet.

FROM THE COLEMAN PAMPHLET

It is agreed on all sides that Mr. Lincoln knew but little,
and cared still less, about his family history, and that he
sedulously avoided any reference to it. It is certain that he is
mistaken, if he is correctly quoted, when he said that both his
parents were born in Virginia.

The name of his reputed father, was Thomas Linkhorn,
or Linkern, (for it is found spelled both ways). It was first
changed by Mr. Lincoln himself to " Lincoln," and it may be
added by way of parenthesis, that, taken in connection with
other facts in this history, this change of name may not be
without its significance. Why should he bear the name " Link-
horn," if that person was not his father? Then, again, the
simplicity of his character will not allow us to suppose that he
refused the name of his own father and assumed a loftier
sounding one from petty vanity.

Wherever Nancy Hanks may have come from, it is be
yond doubt, that the father of Thomas — for whom some
writers have forged the Christian name of Abraham — migrated

THE COLEMAN PAMPHLET 57

from Virginia to Kentucky, and that Thomas was born in the
last named state.

Widespread traditions exist that the son of Nancy Hanks
was not a legitimate child.

Writing upon this subject Mr. Herndon says :

" Regarding the paternity of Mr. Lincoln, a great many
surmises and a still larger amount of unwritten, or at least
unpublished, history has drifted into the currents of Western
lore and journalism.

" A number of such traditions are extant in Kentucky and
other localities. Mr. Weik has spent a considerable time in
investigating the truth of a report current in Bourbon county,
Kentucky, that Thomas Lincoln, for a consideration from one
Abraham Enlow, a miller there, assumed the paternity of the
infant child of a poor girl, named Nancy Hanks; and after
marriage removed with her to Hardin county." Mr. Herndon
adds that a gentleman of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, who had been
judge, and afterwards was an editor, published a paper in
support of this contention.

The allegations and arguments of this paper are not given
further than to say that the paper alleged a resemblance be
tween Inlow (Enlow) and Mr. Lincoln in facial and physical
features, in extraordinary stature and length of limb.

Herndon's reply, however, is feeble. He says the Bible
record shows that Abraham was the second child.

In reply to Mr. Herndon it is to be remarked, that this
Bible record, made by Abraham Lincoln, contained no entry
of the birth or marriage of his mother; and in regard to
Abraham being the second child, it must be borne in mind that
the entries were made by Mr. Lincoln himself long years after
the events recorded, and admitting for a moment, that he was
illegitimate, and that he knew it, it was a pious act in him to
cover his mother's shame as far as in his power to do so, by
making his sister older than himself in the Bible record.

There is also an account given by Lamon of a collision
between Thomas Linkhorn and Abraham Enlow, or Inlow,
which has its significance. Mr. Lamon says : " They fought
like savages; but Lincoln (Linkhorn) obtained a signal and
permanent advantage by biting off Enlow's nose." 'f This
affray and the fame of it," continues Lamon, " made Lincoln
(Linkhorn) more anxious than ever to escape from Ken-

58 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

tucky." We are left to form our own conjecture about the
origin of the quarrel; no cause is assigned. But is not this
desperate affray a powerful corroboration of the tradition that
an illicit relation existed, or was supposed by Linkhorn to have
existed, between Nancy Hanks and Enlow; and may we not
presume that the fight was about her? And was not the in
creased desire of Linkhorn to get away from Kentucky owing
to the fact that he felt himself disgraced by the publicity given
to the scandal by his fight with Enlow? Is this an unreason
able supposition? Does it not, on the contrary, serve to fill
out, explain, bring into harmony, and strengthen the other
traditions relating to President Lincoln's birth ?

Linkhorn did not remove from Kentucky to fly from
slavery and locate in a free state where toil was honorable, as
narrated by the romancers; for he was no toiler; but, from all
accounts, an ignorant, shiftless vagabond. Besides, there was
not at that time, fifty slaves in the county; his more fortunate
relatives were slave owners, and there is no reason in sup
posing that he differed in opinion from other men of his class,
of Southern birth. This story of his desire to escape from
a land of slavery is of a piece with those fictions which describe
the Linkhorn tumble-down shanty, fourteen feet square in an
Elizabethtown valley, where the inmates lived in squalid pov
erty, as a frugal Christian home; the father a gallant frontiers
man and the mother a Roman matron of the wilderness. One
estimable New England lady, not satisfied with tracing the
blood of the Hanks to the Saxon Kings of England, carries it
back to the Egyptian dynasties, because in the old Egyptian
language she says there is a word, "and" (Hank) meaning
soul!

Nancy Hanks is described as being a beautiful girl, with
pleasing manners, slender and symmetrical form, and above
the ordinary height; a brunette with dark hair and soft hazel
eyes, and a high intellectual forehead. It is further remarked
of her that she always wore a marked melancholy expression
which fixed itself upon the memory of everyone who knew or
saw her. It would be interesting to know if she was possessed
of this melancholy disposition before her marriage, and if so,
when or how it originated.

The reticence of Mr. Lincoln about his mother has been
alluded to. Mr. Lamon says : " While he seldom if ever spoke

THE COLEMAN PAMPHLET 59

of his own mother, he loved to dwell on the beautiful character
of Sally Bush."

Young Abraham Lincoln was ten years old when his mother
died. The dearest and sweetest memories and associations
which. remain of a mother in after years are those which are
fixed within the first ten years of life. Mr. Lincoln's nature
was deeply affectionate. Why, then, this strange silence in
regard to his own mother and the lavishing of all his affections
on his stepmother, Sally Bush? Mr. Lincoln aspired to posi
tion in social as well as political life; and it may well be that a
knowledge of his mother's frailty and his own origin (prob
ably told him by his stepmother) cast upon him that pall of
melancholy which shadowed all his life.

In the autobiography which Mr. Lincoln gave to Fell, he
disposes of his mother in three lines, giving her Christian or
maiden name, and saying she came of a family of the name of
Hanks.

Sally Bush first brought sunshine into young Lincoln's
life. She was a kind, good, and noble woman; devotedly at
tached to her step-son, and he no less devoted to her. He
always spoke of her in after life as his " saintly mother," his
" angel mother; " and yet, she did one thing which is utterly
inconsistent with her character unless an explanation can be
given. She changed the name of the girl, who had been named
Nancy, after her mother, to Sarah. Unaccounted for, this was
a mean and contemptible act. Why should not the child be
permitted to bear her mother's name? If Sally Bush had
some good reason to obliterate from the child's mind, as far
as possible, all recollections of her mother, then her conduct
is in keeping with her character; otherwise it is not. Her
singular silence, too, in all that related to Nancy Hanks when
Mr. Herndon visited and interviewed her after the assassina
tion of President Lincoln is an additional ground for the be
lief that she held the key to the secret.

Mr. Herndon says: " There was something about his (Lin
coln's) origin, that he never cared to dwell on."

After his nomination for the presidency, Mr. J. L. Scripps,
of the Chicago Tribune, went to Mr. Lincoln and asked for
material for a history of his life. Mr. Lincoln replied that it
was folly to attempt to make anything out of his early years.
Soon after the death of Mr. Lincoln, Scripps wrote to Mr.

60 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Herndon as follows: "He (Mr. Lincoln) communicated some
facts to me concerning his ancestry which he did not wish to
be published then, and which I have never spoken of or alluded
to before."

What these facts were, Mr. Scripps did not tell even to
Mr. Herndon, who had been Mr. Lincoln's most intimate
friend, and who was then collecting material for his biography.

How is the silence of Mr. Scripps under the circumstances
to be accounted for? On one ground only, the communica
tions must have been of such a nature that an honorable man
could not use them without permission. Mr. Lincoln was
dead, and Mr. Scripps died without revealing them. Was
this the secret?

The treatment of young Lincoln by his mother's husband
requires explanation. Cruelty is not a trait of such indolent,
happy-go-lucky, contented tramps as Thomas Linkhorn is
represented to have been. Col. Chapman, who knew as much
about the family as any one outside of its circle, and who
had possession of the Bible containing the records, is quoted
by Mr. Lamon, as saying : " Abe's father habitually treated
him with great barbarity." Can his treatment of the boy be
connected with liis " savage fight " with Abraham Enlow and
a knowledge that the boy was not his child ?

There is abundant evidence that the Hanks were low and
ignorant people. Mr. Herndon quotes from a manuscript of
Mr. J. B. Helms in which it is said : " The Hanks girls were
great at camp-meeting." Mr. Helms then proceeded to relate
a scene of which he was an eye witness at Elizabeth town, and
in which one of the young ladies of the Hanks family figured
conspicuously. He writes:

" I remember one camp-meeting in 1806. A general shout
was about to commence. Preparations were being made. A
young lady invited me to stand on a bench where we could
see all over the altar. To the right, a strong athletic young
man, about twenty-five years old, was being put in trim for the
occasion, which was done by divesting him of all apparel ex
cept shirt and pants. On the left, a young lady was being put
in tune in much the same manner, so that her clothes would
not be in the way, and so that when her combs flew out, her
hair would go into graceful braids. She, too, was young, not
more than twenty. The performance commenced about the

THE COLEMAN PAMPHLET 61

same time by the young man on the right, and the young lady
on the left. Slowly and gracefully they worked their way
towards the center, singing, shouting, and hugging and kiss
ing (generally their own sex) approaching each other nearer
and nearer. The center of the altar was reached, and the two
closed with their arms around each other, the man singing and
shouting at the top of his voice :

' I have my Jesus in my arms,
Sweet as honey, strong as bacon hams."

"Just at this moment, the young lady holding my arm
whispered, ' They are to be married next week ; her name is
Hanks.' '

Mr. Herndon says he did not learn whether the lady per
former was the President's mother or not. " The fact that
Nancy Hanks did marry that year," gives color, he thinks, to
the belief that it was she. He does not think, however, that
her hugging partner was Thomas, because such a deed re
quired an enthusiasm and a dash beyond the capacity of that
inert individual.

There was undoubtedly irregular blood in some of the
Hanks women. Mr. Herndon says he has the written state
ment of Dennis Hanks, the son of an aunt of the President's
mother, that he came into the world by nature's back door.

We give in Mr. Herndon's own words what Mr. Lincoln
told him about his mother. Mr. Herndon says (Chapter I,
page 3) :

" It was about 1850, when he and I were driving in his
one-horse buggy to the court in Menard county, Illinois. The
suit we were going to try was one in which we were likely,
either directly or collaterally, to touch upon the subject of
hereditary traits. During the ride he spoke for the first time
in my hearing of his mother, dwelling on her characteristics,
and mentioning or enumerating what qualities he inherited
from her. He said among other things that she was the il
legitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks, and a well-bred Virginia
farmer or planter; and he argued that from this last source
came his power of analysis, his logic, his mental activity, his
ambition and all the qualities that distinguished him from the
other members and descendants of the Hanks family. His
theory in discussing the matter of hereditary traits had been,

62 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

that for certain reasons illegitimate children are oftentimes
sturdier and brighter than those born in lawful wedlock; and
in his case he believed that his better nature and finer qualities
came from this broad-minded unknown Virginian."

Mr. Herndon continues: "The revelation — painful as it
was — called up recollections of his mother, and, as the buggy
jolted over the road, he added ruefully, * God bless my mother;
all that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to her/ and immedi
ately lapsed into silence.

" Our interchange of ideas ceased, and we rode for some
time without exchanging a word. He was sad and absorbed.
Burying himself in thought, and musing, no doubt, over the
disclosure he had just made, he drew round him a barrier
which I feared to penetrate. His words and melancholy tone
made a deep impression on me. It was an experience I can
never forget."

This is one of the " rare occasions " when Mr. Lincoln
made mention of his mother. His exclamation of pity for
her is suggestive of what was going on in his mind. His
melancholy silence is even more so. His mother's mother had
sinned, and his own mother sinned in like manner, and did he
know it?

PART II: THE STORIES AND THE EVI
DENCE IN SUPPORT OF THEM

PART II: THE STORIES AND THE EVI
DENCE IN SUPPORT OF THEM

CHAPTER VIII
ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY

WHAT I have attempted 'thus far might be considered a literary
and chronological introduction to the subject under considera
tion. I have endeavored to trace the history of these reports
as they appeared in book or pamphlet form down to the begin
ning of the year 1909, the centenary of the birth of Abraham
Lincoln. Concerning two books that appeared in that year we
shall have much to say later : but the Coleman pamphlet may be
considered as a summation of the situation as it existed before
the appearance of the flood of Lincoln literature which the
centenary evoked. Of oral tradition and newspaper report we
shall have something also to say, and in due order.

We are now at a stage in our inquiry where it will be
convenient (to consider the several stories separately : for, as
Herndon implied, more than one story was current by 1889:
and by 1909 the various forms in which the legitimacy of
Lincoln was attacked, admitted of classification.

The foregoing chapters present a background for these
stories and for their subsequent analysis. I now propose to
present in successive chapters the evidence for each one of
these in turn.

It has not been wholly easy to organize this material, and
to present it as I have desired to do. Even the order in which
these names should be considered has given rise to some dif
ficulty ; for in some respects the order in which it seems best
to introduce them is not the most satisfactory order for their
later consideration. But the method which I have chosen will,

65

66 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I trust, be found to have this merit, that it presents each theory
candidly and fairly.

I begin the presentation with the version of the story
which has long been, and still is, current in the county where
Abraham Lincoln was born, and which has been related to me
repeatedly there on successive visits, with substantial uniform
ity as to its essential features.

The form in which this story is related in and about Hod-
genville is that the father of Abraham Lincoln was Abraham
Enlow, who lived in that part of Hardin County which is now
La Rue, and whose home was near to that of the Lincolns
after their removal from Elizabethtown and their settle
ment upon their own farm where Abraham Lincoln was
born.

There is no question that Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were
married when they came to Nolin Creek, and to the vicinity
of Hodgen's Mill. And 'that fact gives this story the more
ugly form. For, if Abraham Enlow of Hodgenville was the
father of Abraham Lincoln, it was not a case in which an
inexperienced girl was betrayed, but one in which a woman
two years married and already the mother of one child,
proved faithless to her husband and committed adultery with
another man.

That, according to this story in its developed form, was
why Thomas Lincoln and Abraham Enlow had their terrible
fight, in which Lincoln is alleged to have bitten off Enlow's
nose.

This is virtually all there is of the story. There are no
details that tell how it happened. The Enlows were neighbors,
and people of property, and there was apparent opportunity
for what is alleged to have occurred. The Enlows were tall
people like Abraham Lincoln, and are alleged to have re
sembled him more than did Thomas Lincoln.

On this account, so it is said by Lamon, Thomas Lincoln
left Kentucky, and the implication is that the removal occurred
because people knew that the fight Thomas had had with Enlow
was on account of his wife Nancy.

The Enlows still live in that part of the country. The author

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 67

has a map of La Rue County marking every creek, road and
farm-house, and giving the name of every resident. The
name of Enlow still is common there, and all of those who
bear it are descendants of Abraham Enlow. The people of
that name are reputable people. Their names appear, and in
honorable relations, in the La Rue County papers. Originally
the family were Baptists; but some branches of it are now
affiliated with the Southern Methodists. The men are Demo
crats and during the war the sympathies of this family were
with the South. I have had personal interviews with several
of them, and considerable correspondence with one, a grand
son of Abraham Enlow.

In this and the following chapters I follow the local spelling
of particular names. Some names occur which are differently
spelled in different parts of the South. Hence we shall find
an Abraham Enlow, an Abraham Inlow and an Abraham
Enloe. The variant spellings are given with intent. As we
take up the first of them, Abraham Enlow of Hardin County,
it may be noted here, as it will appear later, that this is the
present orthography of the name in that locality. But
Abraham Enlow's father spelled it Enlaws, and Abraham
Enlow himself, to the end of his life, spelled it Enlows. He
was the son of Isom Enlaws, an early settler in Hardin County,
and he himself was born, lived and died there.

This book must contain much about Abraham Enlow. The
prominence of his name in these stories has necessitated on
the part of the author of this book a diligent effort to learn
all that can possibly be learned about the man. His grave
has been visited, and the inscription on his tombstone copied.
His will has been found in the early records of the county
where he lived, and a certified copy made. His home has been
located, and the paths, which now are roads, that led from it
to the home of Thomas Lincoln and to the several points of
interest in this chronicle, have been measured upon the county
map. This book will not end until it has given -to Abraham
Enlow a permanent record. He will be found a character not
lacking in interest, and he has a legitimate place in this nar
rative.

68 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

For our present purpose it is enough to know that there was
such a man, one of the old residents of Hardin County, and
of that part of it which afterward became La Rue. There is
nothing that we require to know about him which will not be
discovered and duly attested before this chronicle ends.

CHAPTER IX
GEORGE BROWNFIELD

THE Brownfield story can be told very briefly, but it is im
portant. It is found only in the vicinity of Hodgenville.

When Thomas and Nancy Lincoln and little Sarah moved
from Elizabethtown into that part of Hardin County which
is now La Rue, in late May or early June of 1808, they did
not immediately go to their own farm. The summer of 1808
was spent on the farm of George Brownfield, where Thomas
Lincoln lived as a tenant, and worked as a hired laborer, partly
on the farm and partly as a carpenter.

George Brownfield, and not Abraham Enlow, so this story
goes, was the father of Abraham Lincoln. The Lincolns had
as yet no known dealings with Enlow, and may not even have
met him, not having as yet removed to the Enlow neighbor
hood.

George Brownfield had sons, who were tall men like Lin
coln, one of them, David, was a very tall man, with unusually
long arms. He bore, so it is said, a striking physical resem
blance to Abraham Lincoln. None of the Enlows looked so
much like Lincoln as did David Brownfield.

That is the Brownfield story, and the whole of it. We
shall comment upon it later. It now takes its place in the
list as one of the stories told and still believed by some people
concerning the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

George Brownfield, like Isom, the father of Abraham
Enlow, was an early pioneer to Hardin County, arriving there
about 1794, and his descendants are numerous in and about
Hodgenville. They bear a good reputation. Their ancestor,
George, was 15orn in 1773, and died near Hodgenville in 1851.
He was 36 years of age when Abraham Lincoln was born.
He was a man of property, and Thomas Lincoln was in his
employ when he first moved from Elizabethtown. Mr. L. B.

69

70 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Handley, attorney for the Lincoln Farm Association, informs
me that in connection with his work for that association he
made careful investigation, and assured himself that Thomas
Lincoln lived on the Brownfield farm on his first removal from
Elizabethtown, and was living there in the summer and autumn
of 1808. He does not, however, credit the report that Brown-
field was Abraham Lincoln's father.

George Brownfield is buried in the old South Fork burying-
ground, one of the oldest in La Rue County. It is located
five miles south of Hodgenville, two and one-half miles beyond
the Lincoln Farm. His tombstone bears this record :

" George Brownfield, Born Oqtober 23, 1773,
Died May 2, 1851."

The spot on the Brownfield farm where the Lincoln cabin
stood is known as the " plum-orchard." It was a natural
growth of wild crab-apple trees. I caused it to be identified,
and photographed, as I suppose for the first time. It takes
its place in the rather long list of residences of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln, and thus has a legitimate claim upon the in
terest of any lover of Lincoln. But for the purpose of this
narrative, it is of very much greater importance than any other
one spot with which we have to do. The world is interested,
and properly so, in the place where Abraham Lincoln was
born; but for the purposes of this inquiry the place of primary
importance is that in which Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were
living nine or ten months previous to his birth.

The house that stood in the " plum-orchard " is no longer
standing, and the odor of the wild crab-apple blossoms is
only a memory, but is fragrant as it was on the day in early
summer in the year 1808 when Nancy Lincoln discovered in
herself the premonitions of maternity. In May or early June
of 1808 Thomas and Nancy Lincoln left the little court-house
town of Elizabethtown, and took up their residence in a pole
cabin in the " plum-orchard " on the farm of George Brown-
field. Late in the autumn, after the crop was gathered, they
removed to their own home, where in the following February

GEORGE BROWNFIELD 71

Abraham Lincoln was born. But the cabin where he was
born was not that in which his unborn life began. He was
conceived either in Elizabethitown or in the cabin among the
apple-blossoms. We shall recur to this subject, and to the
probable time, in a later chapter.

CHAPTER X

ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON COUNTY,
KENTUCKY

WE come now to what is perhaps the most widespread of all
the stories concerning the alleged illegitimate birth of Lincoln.
It is, that Abraham Lincoln was the son of a poor girl, Nancy
Hanks, and of Abraham Inlow, a miller, who lived on the
border between Bourbon and Clark Counties, Kentucky. The
child was born, and was old enough to run around, so this
story goes, when the father, Abraham Inlow, paid five hundred
dollars, and a wagon and team, to Thomas Lincoln, in con
sideration of which, Thomas Lincoln drove away with Nancy
Hanks and the child. They rode away in the wagon, with the
child sitting between them, and Thomas and Nancy were
married in some county to the west of Bourbon. The child
was already named Abraham after his father, and he took
the name of Lincoln from his mother's marriage with Thomas
Lincoln.

This story has had wide currency among the members of
the Kentucky bar, and is or was related in the neighborhood,
of Clark and Bourbon Counties, always or nearly always with
the information that the child Abe sat between Tom and Nancy
when they drove away from Bourbon County to their future
home.

The man who did most to make this story widely known
was Hon. Belvard January Peters, of Mount Sterling, Ken
tucky, a classmate of Jefferson Davis at Transylvania Uni
versity, and for many years a judge and some time Chief
Justice of the Appellate Court of Kentucky. He was a prom
inent member of the Disciples Church, and a man of probity,
eminent in the annals of the Kentucky bar and bench. A
sketch of his life is found in a book entitled The Bench and
Bar of Kentucky, where his honorable record may be found.

72

ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON 73

His statement appears in the form of an affidavit, in part
as follows:

" I was graduated from Transylvania University, Ken
tucky, in 1825. I read law with John Boyle, Chief Justice of
Kentucky; obtained license to practice law in 1827. My legal
and professional career has extended over a period of over
sixty years. In all that time I have never heard, among my
legal friends (and I have known nearly all the lawyers, old and
young, in the State) the fact of Abraham Lincoln's illegitimacy
disputed."

This story has been told and retold to successive genera
tions of judges and lawyers until it has come very widely to
be credited. In one of its forms it declares that Jesse Head,
when a resident of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, told an eminent
but unnamed lawyer that Abraham Lincoln was born and old
enough to be running around at the time when he married
Thomas Lincoln to Nancy Hanks.

Judge Peters wrote this story for the local papers in his
home town, and toward the end of his life he took occasion
to make oath to his belief in the truth of this story.

This is the story to which Herndon refers, in his statement
that Mr. Weik spent much time in its investigation. I have
talked this matter over fully with Mr. Weik, and in the proper
place will relate what he has told to me concerning it.

I have made diligent effort, also, to learn whether in Mount
Sterling, where Judge Peters lived, or in Clark or Bourbon
Counties, there is any additional information on this subject.
All essential knowledge of this matter appears to be compassed
in the general statement, fully and concisely embodied in the
affidavit of Judge Peters, that the story has long been current
and widely believed as it has here been stated. No docu
mentary proofs are submitted, other than a group of affidavits
by people of mature years, and some of them of good
standing, to the effect that they have long heard this story,
and that it is believed by many people in the counties named,
and in other parts of the State of Kentucky. The high reputa
tion of Judge Peters, both for ability and veracity, and his
complete confidence in the story, are, after all, the chief reasons
to be alleged in favor of it.

CHAPTER XI
ABRAHAM ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA

THE story that Abraham Lincoln was the son of Nancy Hanks
and of a man named Abraham Enloe of North Carolina,
circulated for some years in Swain County, at the extreme
western end of North Carolina, and became more widely cur
rent as Northern tourists to Asheville and vicinity penetrated
in increasing numbers into that general region. These visitors
were informed that they were not far from the home of the
parents of Abraham Lincoln, and in due time pilgrimages
were made to interview the alleged relatives of the President
who were still living there. President Lincoln's so-called half-
brother, Wesley Enloe, became a man of some note, and from
time to time was interviewed by newspaper reporters and
others. He and his family were photographed and measured,
and their supposed resemblances to Abraham Lincoln were
duly recorded. If at first the family shrank from this pub
licity, the reluctance of its members in time was overcome;
and memory at first yielding nothing to the point, gradually
grew pliant till it substantiated in all important particulars the
story that came to be accepted in that region, by certain of
the inhabitants and visitors, as the true history of the origin
of Abraham Lincoln.

In the early nineties, allusions began to appear in print, and
on September 17, 1893, the Charlotte Observer, printed, what
is, so far as I am aware, the first full statement of the North
Carolina story. It was signed " Student of History," and
the author was alleged to have been "a worthy member of
an illustrious North Carolina family."

The essential portions of this article follow :

A few years since, probably in 1889, the writer of this com
munication was informed by Dr. A. W. Miller that he heard

74

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 75

in Western North Carolina that there was a tradition in Swain
county that Abraham Lincoln was born in that county. That
his father's name was Abram Enloe, and the name of his
mother was Nancy Hanks. That the house in which he was
born was at that time occupied by Wesley Enloe, a son of
Abram Enloe, and, ergo, the half-brother of the great
president.

In 1890, being in Webster, Jackson County, I met a gentle
man who was county surveyor of Jackson, who gave me the
story related by Dr. Miller, and added facts in the tradition.
The story as related to the doctor was, that Nancy Hanks
and Abram were carried to Kentucky by a mule-drover who
was in the habit of stopping at Abram Enloe's, at the foot
of the Smoky mountains, about 1804. The surveyor's in
formation was that Felix Walker, the congressional repre
sentative — the author of the famous expression " speaking
for Buncombe " — in order to do his constituent " Abram " a
good turn, carried Hagar and Ishmael to Hardin county,
Kentucky. He stated also that two citizens, Davis by name,
lodged one night at his friend's house and stated that they
lived in Illinois, and had emigrated to that State from Ruther
ford county, N. C. These gentlemen state that Abraham
Lincoln was acquainted with them, and on learning they were
from Rutherford county, told them his mother had frequently
told him she had lived in that county. These gentlemen in
formed their host (Dr. Egerton of Hendersonville, I think)
that Abram Lincoln was one of the big men of the great west,
from which they had hailed. This incident happened about
1858.

The following week the writer was in Bryson City.

Dr. Miller was under the impression that Wesley Enloe was
a facsimile of Abraham Lincoln, or certain members of the
Enloe family were very similar in features to him. The Jack
son surveyor had excited my curiosity, and, having a day off,
I lost no time, and was soon on my route up the Tuckaseegee,
bound for the Abram Enloe homestead, just fourteen miles
from Bryson City. The road was rocky, and my driver was
of the silent kind, so I gave my attention to the shaping of
my interview on what loomed up to me as a very difficult
subject to handle. A silence of five miles was suddenly inter
rupted by the driver's inquiry as to my business with Mr.

76 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Wesley Enloe. I replied promptly, " I am going up principally
to look at him/' This answer left me to my own reflections
and the scenery of the Ocona Lufta, a branch of the Tucka-
seegee, which is beautiful beyond description. The native
Indian sunned himself along the roadside, or paddled his
smooth canoe under the overhanging Rhododendron. Sud
denly the driver, overburdened with curiosity, at the ninth
milestone, interrupted me with the question, " Would I mind
telling what I wanted to look at Wesley Enloe for? " " Not
at all; I have heard he resembles Abram Lincoln, and that
he is his half-brother." The driver then became satisfied
and talkative. He stated he had heard the story frequently,
and was a relative of the Enloe family himself.

Passing Yellow Hill, the Indian school supported by the
government, a down-grade of three or four miles brought us
to a beautiful, rich valley farm, the present home of Wesley,
and the old Abraham Enloe homestead. The house was not
unlike many of the old houses in North Carolina — one story,
the roof sloping down over the piazza, with the company-
room opening on the porch. Mr. Enloe and his wife were
seated in front, a picture of undisturbed contentment and
rural happiness. The driver carried his team to the barn, and
Mrs. Enloe retired to look after the dinner.

Mr. Enloe was about six feet, two or three inches tall, and,
to my great disappointment, bald-headed; his right shoulder
a little lower than his left; when standing, just slightly stooped
forward. Our conversation took a varied turn — the force bill,
the Alliance, crops, walnut rails, etc. I inquired finally if he
had a picture of himself before he lost his hair. His daughter
Julia, about nineteen years old, was summoned and brought
a basketful of photographs. My attention was taken at once
by the striking resemblance between Julia and Abraham
Lincoln. The picture with a full head of hair failed to satisfy
me of a striking face resemblance between Wesley Enloe and
Abraham Lincoln. The photograph was taken the year Lincoln
was killed, in Waynesville, to which place Mr. Enloe had
carried a drove of beef-cattle the summer of 1865.

Mr. Enloe stated that he had never heard his father's name
mentioned in his family in connection with Abraham Lincoln.
He said : " I was the youngest of a family of sixteen. Such
might have been the fact, but of course the older ones would

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 77

not be apt to talk to me on a subject like that to which you
allude. About 1871, say ten years ago, I learned and heard
the story read from an Asheville paper for the first time."

The subject was dropped until four, when I started for
home. I remarked, after thanking him for his hospitality, that
I was perhaps the only man who had ever called just to look
at him. The old man was without his coat, with wool hat,
narrow brim. He replied pleasantly : " Now that you have
seen me, what do you think?" My reply was that I must
confess that I was disappointed, but that now seeing him with
his hat on, with his hands crossed behind him (a favorite
posture with Mr. Lincoln), taking in the whole six feet, three
or four inches, there was a resemblance which I had no doubt
was greater twenty-five years past. The resemblance in the
case of Miss Julia is striking.

The old gentleman then related the following incident:
" Two months past, in Dillsboro, in my daughter's parlor (she
married in that town) is a map picture of President Lincoln.
She said to me, ' Look at that picture. Did you ever see a
better picture of my brother Frank?' Frank is my son and
I have alway heard he was much like my brother Scroup, who
was said to be very like his father Abraham Enloe. I favor
my mother's people. In size I am like the Enloes."

I failed to find Frank Enloe at home. At Dillsboro, having
a draft to cash, I was informed by the hotel-keeper that
William Enloe would cash it. On going into the store filled
with customers, I recognized William Enloe by his resemblance
to Mr. Lincoln.

On my return east, arriving at Asheville at 3 P.M., I had
dismissed the subject from my mind, but resolved to see
Colonel Davidson, the father of our late attorney-general.
I found him at home, willing to talk. And now, Mr. Editor,
here is Colonel Davidson's story as your correspondent re
members it:

" Abram Enloe lived in Rutherford county. He had in his
family a girl named Nancy Hanks, about ten or twelve years
of age. He moved from Rutherford to Buncombe and settled
on a branch of the Ocona, in what was afterwards Hay wood,
and what is now Swain county. At the end of eight years he
moved to the house at the foot of the Smoky mountain, the
place above described as the present home of Wesley Enloe.

78 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

" Soon after Abram moved, his own daughter, Nancy En-
loe, against his wishes, ran away and married a Kentucky
gentleman named Thompson, from Hardin county in that
State.

" In the meantime during the absence of Mrs. Nancy Enloe
Thompson in Kentucky, at the home of Abram Enloe a son
was born to Nancy Hanks, then about twenty or twenty-one
years of age. The relations between Mrs. Enloe and her hus
band became, as a matter of course, unpleasant.

" There is a lady now living," says Colonel Davidson,
" who, as a girl, was visiting Abram Enloe. This lady says
that Nancy Enloe Thompson, having become reconciled with
her parents, had returned from Kentucky to North Carolina.
They were to start to Kentucky again in a few days, and she
remembered hearing a neighbor say, ' I am glad Nancy Hanks
and her boy are going to Kentucky with Mrs. Thompson.
Mrs. Enloe will be happy again/

" I married into the Enloe family myself. I settled Abram
Enloe's estate, and have frequently heard this tradition during
my life, and have no doubt of its truth."

He added the following story, which is significant :

" I am a lawyer. I was seated in my office, since the war
and soon after its close. A gentleman called, introduced
himself as Thompson and stated he learned that I was the
man who settled Abram Enloe's estate; that he was a son
of Nancy Enloe Thompson. He stated, among other things,
that he was a Democrat, and had been an Indian agent during
the Lincoln administration.

" I asked," said Col. Davidson, " how Lincoln, who was
a Republican, appointed him, a Democrat, an Indian agent?"

Thompson replied that Lincoln was under some great ob
ligation to his (Thompson's) mother, and expressed a desire
to aid her, if possible, in some substantial way. She finally
consented that he might do something for her son, and this
is the way I got my appointment.

I have written this at your request, Mr. Editor, hoping that
you will open your columns to Col. Davidson and others, so
that we may follow the clues these people may furnish, and
thus see if there is any truth in this interesting North Carolina
tradition.

STUDENT OF HISTORY.

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 79

In 1899, Hon. James H. Cathey, State Senator from a dis
trict in Western North Carolina, published a volume of 185
pages entitled Truth Is Stranger than Fiction, in which he
told this story at length. The edition was soon sold out, and
he issued a new and enlarged edition under the title, The
Genesis of Lincoln.

This is the fullest statement in print of the argument against
the legitimacy of Lincoln, and it brings to its support the
largest body of recorded testimony. Mr. Cathey sincerely be
lieved what he wrote, and he signed his own name and gave
the names of the people who furnished him the information.
The substance of his argument is thus set forth in the opening
pages of his book:

It is the historical teaching that Abraham Lincoln was vir
tually " without ancestors, fellows, or successors/' Whether
{his is a delusion it does not concern us to argue. He came
into the world, and the world understood him not.

It is, therefore, the sole purpose of this little book to present
a .tradition tending to prove that this wonderful man was not
without ancestors. His mother was Nancy Hanks. If he was
the son of a worthy sire the world is entitled to know who
that sire was ; when, where and how he lived ; whence he came
and what his characteristics.

For ninety years, or thereabout, from the time it is said
Abraham Lincoln was begotten or born, as the case was, and
the breeze occurred in the Enloe home, there has subsisted
among the honest people at the center of authority a lively
tradition that Abraham, the head of the Enloe family, was
Lincoln's father by Nancy Hanks, who occupied the position
of servant-girl in the Enloe household.

So confident and persistent have the keepers of this old
testimony to the origin of Abraham Lincoln been, when plied
with interrogatories, that they knew what they were talking
about, that there was no opening for superstition, and the
most one who was inclined to be skeptical could do was to
wonder and say nothing.

One might hug his incredulity by imagining that the people
who fathered the strange accounts of Nancy Hanks and
Abraham Enloe and a child, and the wonderful story of the

80 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

striking personal likeness of Abraham Lincoln and Wesley
Enloe, are illiterate, fanatical folk who have conjured up a
fragmentary fable, how and for what they know not ; but this
incredulity is all cleared away, like fog before the sunbeams,
when one learns that the custodians of the " Lincoln tradition "
are numbered by the scores and hundreds of the first people —
men and women — of Western North Carolina.

Ladies as well as gentlemen, not only of the immediate
section, but also of distant States, visiting at Asheville and
other places of resort in our mountains, rinding a thread of
the tradition, they pulled until their curiosity, at least, be
coming excited, they visited Wesley Enloe, the alleged half-
brother of Abraham Lincoln, in his hospitable mountain home,
were filled with amazement, and went away convinced that
the tradition was wrought in cords that could not easily be
broken.

People who were familiar with Mr. Lincoln's history, or
who knew him personally, were struck with the strange physical
resemblance on first sight, and then watched a series of im
personations of Lincoln, as they studied the features and noted
the varying postures of the person of Wesley Enloe.

The remarkable tradition, with its flesh and blood corrobora-
tion, was from time to time engaged to be written up by
journalists, lawyers and clergymen of culture and standing,
but nothing more than a hasty, desultory newspaper article
was the result. The people over a very limited area of
population were being made conversant with the valuable tra
dition, and its worthy repositors were, one by one, stepping
from the earthly stage. It was plainly apparent that in a
very few years the old generation would be gone, and a
truth of American history, by sheer neglect, would be forever
lost.

We felt our incapacity to undertake so responsible a task.
,We were conscious of the delicacy of the undertaking, but the
implicit, unquestioned faith which we had in the truthfulness
of the tradition gave us a courage which shrank not from
the most formidable-looking anti-traditional hobgoblin.

Thus emboldened we set to work to gather the odds and
ends of our folk-history. We resolved at the outset that we
would interrogate none but the most trustworthy — people who
were in the best position to give a reason for the faith that

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 81

was in them, together with the story of the relatives of the
distinguished subject of our memoir. This we have, in every
instance, done. In 1895 the writer conceived the idea of
writing a newspaper or magazine article for the simple purpose
of making known the tradition to the public generally, hoping
thereby to attract the attention of the enterprising journalist,
and after that the enduring chronicler; but private concerns
interfered, and our purpose was frustrated for the time.
Luckily, however, we then obtained the statements of some
very aged gentlemen whose testimony will herein appear, and
which is of the most important character, who have since
died.

With this statement of his reasons, which the author of
this volume is confident are truthfully stated, Mr. Cathey pro
ceeded to set forth in detail the tradition which he had heard in
the State of his nativity, the publication of his two books,
or two editions of the same book with changed title and added
matter in the second issue, stimulated greatly the interest of
biographers of Lincoln and tourists to the region about
Asheville. He said:

The following tradition is more than ninety years old.
Its center of authority is Swain and neighboring counties of
Western North Carolina:

Some time in the early years of the century, variously given
1803, 1805, 1806, and 1808, there was living in the family of
Abraham Enloe of Ocona Lufta, N. C., a young woman
whose name was Nancy Hanks. This young woman remained
in the household, faring as one of the family until, it becoming
apparent that she was in a state of increase, and there ap
pearing signs of the approach of domestic infelicity, she was
quietly removed, at the instance of Abraham Enloe, to
Kentucky.

This is the most commonly accepted version of the event.

Another pretty current construction of the story is that
when Abraham Enloe emigrated from Rutherford county,
there came with his family a servant-girl whose name was
Nancy Hanks, and who, after a time, gave birth to a boy child
which so much resembled the legitimate heirs of Abraham

82 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Enloe, that their mother warmly objected to the presence of
so unpleasant a reminder, and the embarrassed husband had
the young child and its mother spirited to Kentucky. These
are the two universally accepted versions of the one thoroughly
accredited fact.

The tradition subsists on four salient and perfectly con
versant points:

First. — That in the early years of the century a young
woman took up her abode at Abraham Enloe's, in the ca
pacity of hired girl, whose name was Nancy Hanks.

Second. — That this same girl, Nancy Hanks, while living
at Abraham Enloe's, become enceinte; or entangled in an em
barrassment in which her illegitimate child was the uncon
scious instigator.

Third. — That the wife of Abraham Enloe, believing that
her husband was the father of Nancy Hanks' child, and being
unwilling to countenance what she conceived to be a reproach
upon herself and children, demanded the disconnection of
Nancy Hanks from her household.

Fourth. — That Abraham Enloe heeded the demand of his
wife and forthwith effected the transportation of Nancy Hanks
and her offspring to the State of Kentucky.

In support of this theory, Mr. Cathey gave a considerable
number of statements made to him by old inhabitants of the
county where Abraham Enloe lived, including Wesley Enloe, a
son, and William A. Enloe, a grandson, of Abraham Enloe.
In order to set before the reader the whole body of tradition
as it was gathered by Mr. Cathey, the following, which are
his strongest testimonials, are given entire, together with his
own introductory notes concerning the character of his wit
nesses :

PHILIP DILLS

Mr. Dills was born in Rutherford county, N. C, January
10, 1808. His father emigrated to the mountains of Western
North Carolina almost contemporaneously with Abraham
Enloe. Although Mr. Dills was four years old when Jackson
whipped Pakenham at New Orleans, he is nimble both in body
and mind. He describes the removal of the Cherokees west

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 83

of the Mississippi ; tells of the elections when Clay and Jackson
were rivals — of casting his first vote for the latter; recalls the
personal appearance of John C. Calhoun, whom he saw and
with whom he talked; the duel between Sam Carson and Dr.
Vance, and many other incidents of early days he distinctly
remembers and recites with genuine gusto.

Mr. Dills is a citizen of Jackson county. His post-office is
Dillsboro. He said :

" Although a generation younger and living some twenty-
five miles from him, I knew Abraham Enloe personally and
intimately. I lived on the road which he frequently traveled
in his trips south, and he made my house a stopping-place.
He was a large man, tall, with dark complexion, and coarse,
black hair. He was a splendid looking man, and a man of
fine sense. His judgment was taken as a guide, and he was
respected and looked up to in his time.

" I do not know when I first heard of his relation with
Nancy Hanks, but it was many years before the civil war, and
while I was a very young man. The circumstance was related
in my hearing by the generation older than myself, and I
heard it talked over time and again later. I have no doubt
that Abraham Enloe was the father of Abraham Lincoln."

WALKER BATTLE

Mr. Battle was born February 12, 1809, in Hay wood
county. His father was one of the three men who came to
Ocona Lufta with Abraham Enloe. He was a highly re
spected citizen of Swain county. The following statement
was received from him in 1895. He has since died. His
son, Milton Battle, a reputable citizen, is familiar with his
father's statement. His post-office is Bryson City, N. C.
Walker Battle said :

" My father was one of the first settlers of this country.
He came here with Abraham Enloe. I have lived here my
entire life, and I knew Abraham Enloe and his family almost
as well as I knew my own.

" The incident occurred, of course, before my day, but
I distinctly remember hearing my own family tell of the trouble
between Abraham Enloe and Nancy Hanks when I was a boy.
I recall, as if it were but yesterday, hearing them speak of

84 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Nancy's removal to Kentucky and that she married there a
fellow by the name of Lincoln; that Abraham Enloe had some
kind of correspondence with the woman after he sent her to
Kentucky — sent her something — and that he had to be very
cautious to keep his wife from finding it out.

" There is no doubt as to Nancy Hanks having once lived
in the family of Abe Enloe, and there is no doubt that she
was the mother of a child by him.

" No, I never saw Nancy Hanks' name in print in my life,
and never saw a sketch of Abraham Lincoln, or heard of
him, until he became a candidate for the presidency in 1860."

WILLIAM H. CONLEY

Mr. Conley was born about the year 1812, in Haywood
county. He lived the greater part of his life within fifteen
miles of Abraham Enloe's. He was a man of intelligence and
perfect veracity. The following statement, the original of
which is in the writer's possession, was obtained from him in
1895. He has since died.

Mr. Conley said:

" My father, James Conley, was the first white man to
settle on the creek in this (Swain) county, which bears his
name. Abraham Enloe was one of the first to settle on
Ocona Lufta. Enloe and my father were warm friends. I
knew Abe Enloe myself well. He was an impressive looking
man. On first sight you were compelled to think that there
was something extraordinary in him, and when you became
acquainted with him your first impression was confirmed. He
was far above the average man in mind.

" As to the tradition : I remember when I was a lad, on
one occasion some of the women of the settlement were at
my father's house, and in conversation with my mother they
had a great deal to say about some trouble that had once oc
curred between Abe Enloe and a girl they called Nancy Hanks,
who had at some time staid at Enloe's. I heard nothing more,
as I now remember, about the matter, until the year before
the war, the news came that Abraham Lincoln had been
nominated for the presidency, when it was the common under
standing among the older people that Lincoln was the son
of Abe Enloe by Nancy Hanks.

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 85

" Not one of them had ever seen, up to that time, a written
account of Lincoln. There is no doubt that Nancy Hanks
lived at Abraham Enloe's. She became pregnant while there
by Abraham Enloe, and to quell a family disturbance Enloe
had her moved to Kentucky, just as my Jfather and mother,
and others, have time and again related in my hearing.

" I have no doubt that Abe Enloe was the father of
Abraham Lincoln."

CAPTAIN EP. EVERETT

Captain Everett was born April 4, 1830, in Davy Crockett's
native county, Tennessee. He came to what was then Jackson,
now Swain county, in the late fifties, and has since lived in
twelve miles of the Abe Enloe homestead. He was captain
of Company E, Third Tennessee. He served through the
entire war, showing conspicuous courage at First Manassas.
He helped to organize the county of Swain, in 1871. He was
a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1875, that
amended the Constitution of the State. He has been magis
trate, mayor of the town of Bryson City, and sheriff of the
county. He is well known throughout the State as one of
her best and brainiest citizens. He said :

" In time of the war, in conversation with various old
and reliable citizens of this section, I learned that Abe
Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, once lived in the family of
Abe Enloe and was sent from there to Kentucky, to be de
livered of a child. The cause of her removal to Kentucky was
a threatened row between Abe Enloe and old Mrs. Enloe, his
wife. The people in this county — all the old people with whom
I talked — were familiar with the girl as Nancy Hanks. This
subject was not only the common country rumor, but I saw it
similarly rehearsed in the local newspapers of the time. I
have no doubt of its truth. "

CAPTAIN JAMES W. TERRELL

Captain Terrell was born in Rutherford county, S. C, the
last day of the year 1829. At the age of sixteen he came to
Haywood, where he lived with his grandfather, Wm. D.
Kirkpatrick, until 1852, when he joined himself in business
with Col. Wm. H. Thomas, a man of great shrewdness and
enterprise. In 1854 he was made disbursing agent to the
North Carolina Cherokees. In 1862 he enlisted in the Con-

86 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

federate service as lieutenant in a company of Cherokee
Indians. Later he was promoted. Since the war he has
merchandised and been a railroad contractor. He has repre
sented his county in the legislature and filled other offices of
trust and honor. He is recognized throughout Western North
Carolina as a most excellent and useful citizen. He said :

" Having personally had some hints from the Enloes, of
Jackson and Swain, with whom I am intimately acquainted,
my attention was seriously drawn to the subject by an article
which appeared in Bledsoe's Review, in which the writer gives
an account of a difficulty between Mr. Lincoln's reputed father
and a man named Enloe.

" I then began to inquire into the matter and had no dif
ficulty in arriving at the following indisputable facts, for
which I am indebted to the following old people : The late
Dr. John Mingus, son-in-law to Abraham Enloe; his widow
Mrs. Polly Mingus, daughter of Abraham Enloe (lately de
ceased), and their son Abram Mingus, who still lives; also to
the late William Farley and the late Hon. William H. Thomas,
besides many other very old people, all of whom, I believe,
are now dead.

" ist. Some time about the beginning of the present cen
tury, a young orphan girl was employed in the family of Abram
Enloe, then of Rutherford county, N. C. Her position in
the family was nearly that of member, she being an orphan
with no relatives that she knew. Her name was undoubtedly
Nancy Hanks. Abram Enloe moved about the year 1805 from
Rutherford, stopping first for a short while on Soco Creek,
but eventually settled on the Ocona Lufta, where his son,
Wesley M. Enloe, now resides, then Buncombe, after Hay-
wood, later Jackson and now Swain county.

" 2d. Some time after settling on the Ocona Lufta Miss
Hanks became enceinte, and a family breeze resulted and
Nancy Hanks was sent to Kentucky.

" 3rd. She was accompanied to Kentucky by or through
the instrumentality of Hon. Felix Walker, then a member of
Congress from the ' Buncombe district/

" There is no doubt of the truth of these statements. They
were all of them well known to a generation just passed away,
and with many of whom I was well and intimately acquainted.
The following I give as it came to me :

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 87

" A probable reason for sending the girl Nancy Hanks to
Kentucky was that at that time some of the Enloe kindred
were living there. I was informed that a report reached here
that she was married soon after reaching Kentucky.

" Mrs. Abram Enloe's maiden name was Egerton, and she
was a native of Rutherford county some years ago, meeting
with Dr. Egerton, of Hendersonville, and finding that he was
a relative of Mrs. Enloe, our conversation drifted toward the
Enloe family, and he imparted to me the following :

" Some time in the early fifties two young men of Ruther
ford county moved to Illinois and settled in or near Spring
field. One of them, whose name was Davis, became intimately
acquainted with Mr. Lincoln. In the fall of 1860, just before
the presidential election, Mr. Davis and his friend paid a visit
back to Rutherford and spent a night with Dr. Egerton. Of
course the presidential candidates would be discussed. Mr.
Davis told Dr. Egerton that in a private and confidential talk
which he had with Mr. Lincoln the latter told him that he
was of Southern extraction, that his right name was, or ought
to have been, Enloe, but that he had always gone by the name
of his stepfather.

" Mr. Enloe's Christian name was Abram, and if Mr.
Lincoln was his son he was not unlikely named for him.

" About the time of the famous contest between Lincoln
and Stephan A. Douglass, Hon. Wm. H. Seward franked to
me a speech of Mr. Lincoln's, made in that campaign, entitled :
' Speech of Hon. Abram Lincoln/ He himself invariably
signed his name * A. Lincoln/

" To my mind, taking into consideration the unquestioned
fact that Nancy Hanks was an inmate of Abram Enloe's
family, that while there she became pregnant, that she went
to Kentucky and there married an obscure man named Lincoln,
the story is highly probable indeed, and when fortified with
the wonderful likeness between Wesley H._Enloe, legitimate
son of Abram Enloe, and Mr. Lincoln, I cannot resist the
conviction that they are sons of the same sire. A photo of
either might be passed on the family of the other as their
genuine head."

HON. WM. A. DILLS

Mr. Dills is a native of Jackson county, N. C, and resides
in the thriving little town which was named in his honor —

88 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Dillsboro. He is an intelligent, progressive citizen. His people
have honored him with place and power. He has represented
his county in the lower house of the legislature. He said :

" My information with regard to the subject, so far as this
country is concerned, is traditional, as the events named oc
curred long before I was born.

" Several years ago, while I was teaching school in the
State of Missouri, I read a sketch of the life of Abraham
Lincoln, which ran as follows : ' Abraham Lincoln was born
in the State of Kentucky, of a woman whose name was Nancy
Savage or Nancy Hanks. His father is supposed to have
been a man by the name of Enloe. When the boy was eight
years old his mother married an old man by the name of
Lincoln, whose profession was rail-splitting. Soon after the
marriage he took a large contract of splitting rails in the State
of Illinois, where he took the boy and his mother, and the boy
assumed the name of Lincoln/ The above is a verbatim
quotation of the sketch that far.

" On my return from Missouri I took occasion to investi
gate the old tradition to my own satisfaction. I found that
Nancy Hanks once lived with Abraham Enloe, in the county of
Buncombe (now Swain), and while there became involved with
Enloe; a child was imminent, if it had not been born, and
Nancy Hanks was conveyed to Kentucky.

* The public may read in Wesley M. Enloe, son of Abraham
Enloe, a walking epistle of Abraham Lincoln. If there is
any reliance to be placed in tradition of the strongest class they
are half-brothers. I have not the shadow of a doubt the
tradition is true.

"For further information, I refer you to Col. Allen T.
Davidson, of Asheville."

JOSEPH A. COLLINS

Mr. Collins is fifty-six years of age and resides in the town
of Clyde, in Haywood county. He served three years of the
war between the States as a private, after which he was pro
moted to the second lieutenancy of his company, in which
capacity he continued until the surrender. He has been in the
mercantile business for twenty-five years, ten years of which
he was a traveling salesman. He is now proprietor of a hard-

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 89

ware store in his home town. He is well known over the
entire western part of the State as a gentleman of the most
unquestionable integrity. He said :

1 The first I knew of any tradition being connected with
Abraham Lincoln's origin on his father's side was in 1867.
At that time I was in Texas, and while there I made the
acquaintance of Judge Gilmore, an old gentleman who lived
three miles from Fort Worth.

" He told me he knew Nancy Hanks before she was mar
ried, and that she then had a child she called Abraham. * While
the child was yet small/ said Judge Gilmore, * she married a
man by the name of Lincoln, a whisky distiller. ' Lincoln,'
he said, ' was a very poor man, and they lived in a small log
house.'

" ' After Nancy Hanks was married to the man Lincoln,'
said Gilmore, ' the boy was known by the name of Abraham
Lincoln. He said that Abraham's mother, when the boy was
about eight years old, died.'

" Judge Gilmore said he himself was five or six years older
than Abraham Lincoln; that he knew him well; attended the
same school with him. He said Lincoln was a bright boy
and learned very rapidly; was the best boy to work he had
ever known.

" He said he knew Lincoln until he was almost grown,
when he, Gilmore, moved to Texas. During his residence in
Texas he was elected judge of the county court. He was an
intelligent, responsible man.

' Years ago I was traveling for a house in Knoxville. On
Turkey creek, in Buncombe county, N. C., I met an old gentle
man whose name was Phillis Wells. He told me that he
knew Abraham Lincoln was the son of Abraham Enloe, who
lived on Ocona Lufta.

" Wells said he was then ninety years of age. When he
was a young man he traveled over the country and sold tinware
and bought furs, feathers, and ginseng for William Johnston,
of Waynes ville. He said he often stopped with Abraham
Enloe. On one occasion he called to stay over night, as was
his custom, when Abraham Enloe came out and went with
him to the barn to put up his horse, and while there Enloe said :

" ' My wife is mad ; about to tear up the place; she has not
spoken to me in two weeks, and I wanted to tell you about

90 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

it before you went in the house.' Then, remarked Wells:
' I said what is the matter ? ' and Abraham Enloe replied : ' The
trouble is about Nancy Hanks, a hired girl we have living
with us/ Wells said he staid all night, and that Mrs. Enloe
did not speak to her husband while he was there. He said
he saw Nancy Hanks there ; that she was a good-looking girl,
and seemed to be smart for business.

" Wells said before he got back there on his next trip that
Abraham Enloe had sent Nancy Hanks to Jonathan's creek
and hired a family there to take care of her; that later a child
was born to Nancy Hanks, and she named him Abraham.

" Meantime the trouble in Abraham Enloe's family had not
abated. As soon as Nancy Hanks was able to travel, Abraham
Enloe hired a man to take her and her child out of the country,
in order to restore quiet and peace at home. He said he
sent her to some of his relatives near the State line between
Tennessee and Kentucky. He said Nancy and the child were
cared for by Enloe's relatives until she married a fellow by the
name of Lincoln.

" I asked the old gentleman if he really believed Abraham
Lincoln was the son of Abraham Enloe, and he replied:
' I know it, and if I did not know it I would not tell it/

" I made special inquiry about the character of Wells, and
every one said that he was an honest and truthful man and a
good citizen/'

H. J. BECK

Mr. Beck was born and reared and has all his life lived on
Ocona Lufta. He was one of Abraham Enloe's neighbors, as
was his father before him. He is now an octogenarian. He
is well-to-do, intelligent and of upright character. He said:

" I have heard my father and mother often speak of the
episode of Abraham Enloe and Nancy Hanks. They said
Abraham Enloe moved from Rutherford county here, bring
ing with his family a hired girl named Nancy Hanks. Some
time after they settled here Nancy Hanks was found to
be with child, and Enloe procured Hon. Felix Walker to take
her away. Walker was gone two or three weeks. If they
told where he took her I do not now think of the place.

" As to Abraham Enloe, he was a very large man, weighing

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 91

between two and three hundred. He was justice of the peace.
The first I remember of him, I was before him in trials.
In these cases, of difference between neighbors, he was always
for peace and compromise. If an amicable adjustment could
not be effected he was firm and unyielding. He was an ex
cellent business man."

CAPT. WM. A. ENLOE

Captain Enloe was born in Hay wood (now Jackson) county,
and is sixty-six years of age. He is a successful merchant and
business man. He is a gentleman of superior sense, modesty,
firmness and integrity. He was Captain of Company F, 2Qth
N. C. Regiment, commanded by Robt. B. Vance, and served
through the war. He has represented his county in the
General Assembly. He is a grandson of Abraham Enloe.
He said:

" There is a tradition come down through the family that
Nancy Hanks, the mother of President Lincoln, once lived at
my grandfather's, and while there became the mother of a
child said to be my grandfather Abraham Enloe's.

" One Mr. Thompson married my aunt Nancy, daughter of
Abraham Enloe, contrary to the will of my grandfather; to
conceal the matter from my grandfather's knowledge, Thomp
son stole her away and went to Kentucky; on the trip they
were married. Hearing of their marriage, my grandfather
reflected and decided to invite them back home. On their
return they were informed of the tumult in my grandfather's
household because of Nancy Hanks, who had given birth to a
child; and when my uncle and aunt, Thompson and wife,
returned to their Kentucky home, they took with them Nancy
Hanks and her child. This is the family story as near as
I can reproduce it from memory.

"In 1 86 1 I came home from Raleigh to recruit my com
pany. On my return, while waiting for the stage in Asheville,
I took dinner at what was then the Carolina House. The
table was filled largely with officers going to and from their
various commands. The topic of conversation seemed to
be Abraham Lincoln. One of the gentlemen remarked that
Lincoln was not the correct name of the President — that his
name was Enloe and that his father lived in Western North

92 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Carolina. I maintained the part of an interested listener, and
no one suspected that my name was Enloe.

" After this, during the war, and while stationed in East
Tennessee, I was handed a paper with nearly a column of what
purported to be a sketch of Abraham Lincoln's early life in
Kentucky — alleging that his father's name was Enloe, and that
he (Lincoln) was born in Western North Carolina."

WESLEY M. ENLOE

Mr. Enloe was born 1811, in Haywood county, N. C, and
is the ninth and only surviving son of Abraham Enloe. He
resides on the same farm and in the same house in which
his father lived when Nancy Hanks was banished from the
household. He is a quiet, suave, intelligent gentleman of the
old school, and a prosperous farmer. He said :

" I was born after the incident between father and Nancy
Hanks. I have, however, a vivid recollection of hearing the
name Nancy Hanks frequently mentioned in the family while
I was a boy. No, I never heard my father mention it ; he was
always silent on the subject so far as I know.

" Nancy Hanks lived in my father's family. I have no
doubt the cause of my father's sending her to Kentucky is the
one generally alleged. The occurrence as understood by my
generation and given to them by that of my father, I have
no doubt is essentially true."

Mr. Cathey's Second Edition reprinted the first edition
entire, and added more than a hundred pages of supplementary
matter. This was largely a discussion of what had preceded,
and a comparison of the theories of the different biographers
of Lincoln. There is also considerable added correspondence
with scattered members of the Enloe family, but no important
addition to the story. Perhaps the most important part of
appended matter is in the following pages:

Four things have combined to prevent the real life of
Abraham Lincoln: blind hero-worship; aristocratic sentiment;
false modesty and aversion to laborious research — four things
Abraham Lincoln trampled under his feet as an elephant
would trample the mire of the jungle.

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 93

Little wonder Abraham Lincoln's origin has been the sub
ject of imagination and conjecture. In childhood and youth
his place of abode a squalid camp in a howling wilderness; his
meal an ashen crust; his bed a pile of leaves; his nominal
guardian a shiftless and worthless wanderer; his intimate as
sociates and putative relatives a gross, illiterate and supersti
tious rabble.

Little wonder that in some quarters Abraham Lincoln's
fame has bordered upon deification. His all but miraculous
burst from the wilderness into the nation's eye ; his heroic and
glorious life-achievement; his sudden passing at the assassin's
hand, these, with the element of sadness which was the in
separable genius of his nature and culminating incident of his
fortune, are the elements needful to magnify the subject be
yond human proportion. Abraham Lincoln passed from the
mountain top of earthly greatness into the vast unknown in
a halo of heroism, mysticism and sorrow; and doubtless he
shall continue for all time to come to draw from all mankind
admiration, wonder and tears. In the glamor of this mingled
mist and glare the huge proportion of one of the greatest and
most human of men has been despoiled by the rude hand of
the ignorant enthusiast. The great, refreshing spectacle has
been bungled. The pity of it! As a result of the operation
of these abnormal influences the entire life of Abraham Lincoln
has suffered, but no chapter like that on his origin. Here
was something out of the ordinary — something unseen; but
instead of allowing the light to shine into this grotto in a
great life, fanatic biographers and other sinister and designing
persons, have endeavored to magnify and involve the mystery
for purposes of heathen worship, or have sought to come into
possession of it that they might destroy it. The paternal origin
of Abraham Lincoln : this is the secret. Light, once deflected
here and an hundred other nooks and corners in his per
sonality, will light up and become plain and comprehensible.

To evade or conceal a cardinal fact relative to Abraham
Lincoln is not only a moral wrong, but a reflection upon his
character and a violation of his memory. The nature of his
origin is primarily indispensable to an intelligent, not to say
full, conception of his character. The correct source of his
origin is, practically, universally accepted as a matter of doubt
— an unsettled question — an unknown quantity — in his life.

94 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

If no trustworthy means were in existence or accessible for
the removal of the doubt, for the settlement of the question,
moral responsibility would not obtain and the mystery would
continue. But, fortunately for posterity, there is in existence
and available all the means necessary to a final, correct and
satisfactory solution. Using the approved methods of the his
torian in collecting1 data, there is not a fact in the first twenty
years of the life of Abraham Lincoln easier of establishment
than that of his real paternal origin.

There could be but three ways of accounting for the being
of Abraham Lincoln or any other man : First, that he was of
natural legitimate origin; second, that he was of natural
illegitimate origin; and third, that he was of miraculous origin.
The first hypothesis has been taken for granted as true and
passed without further thought by the casual layman and
biographical novice. The second hypothesis or theory has
been affirmed by tradition so well defined, closely connected
and emphatic that the element of myth is entirely absent; by
the two most intimate and distinguished personal biographers
of Mr. Lincoln after the most laborious, exhaustive and con
scientious research; and by an extensive, intelligent and
authentic public consensus. The third hypothesis has been
whispered by the few, and voiced by at least one reputable
eulogist who said that "Abraham Lincoln was without an
cestors, fellows or successors." It is barely possible that some
of Mr. Watterson's contemporaries should construe him liter
ally, and that mankind generally a thousand years hence would
do so, it is more than probable. Granted that the third hy
pothesis is unreasonable, the settlement of the question turns
upon the weight of evidence between the first and second.

It is the office of these pages to submit testimony in support
of the second theory — that Abraham Lincoln was of illegiti
mate origin, his father being Abraham Enloe, and not Thomas
Lincoln or any one else.

In addition to the sound, sustained and perennial tradition
of North Carolina, the author submits in this addenda ex
trinsic historical data and other cumulative evidence.

Before giving to the public the record of the paternity of
Abraham Lincoln in the present enlarged form, we desire to
say that the data bearing upon the subject is cumulative, and
promises to continue to be for an indefinite time. There is

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 95

other material now in sight, but inaccessible for the present, or
at all, without the expenditure of much time and no little
money.

This enlarged edition is the result of the acquisition of
several years, and, when time and opportunity permits, facts
that may come to light that are worth while, will be included
in a subsequent edition. Now that this investigation has been
begun it is our duty to accept, preserve and publish all the
material, trustworthy facts bearing upon the subject.

Two things, we contend, our research have disclosed be
yond question: First, that Abraham Lincoln was illegitimate,
and second, that his father was an Abraham Enloe.

Another thing is clear as a result of our research : That
there has been a determined and systematic effort on the part
of at least two of Mr. Lincoln's most intimate personal biog
raphers to discover the truth of his paternal origin and publish
the same to the world — these biographers were William H.
Herndon, his law partner, and Ward H. Lamon.

Again, there is another fact that is, as a result of this in
vestigation, equally as certain: That there has been a deter
mined and systematic war of suppression and destruction
against the publication and dissemination of the truth of Mr.
Lincoln's real paternal origin by certain individuals.

It was the original purpose of Mr. Wm. H. Herndon to
write a rigidly truthful narrative of the life of Abraham
Lincoln. How much this purpose was influenced or prevented
is a matter that is familiar to persons now living.

Mr. Jesse W. Weik, of Greencastle, Indiana, toward the
last in the preparation of his biography, became a collaborator
with Mr. Herndon. In 1865 Mr. Herndon visited the scenes
of Mr. Lincoln's birth and early years in Kentucky, as did Mr.
Weik, later.

These personal visits to Kentucky were made with a view
to ascertaining the truth pertaining to these early periods in the
life of their hero. Mr. Herndon says that " Mr. Weik spent
considerable time investigating the truth of a report current in
Bourbon county, Kentucky, that Thomas Lincoln from one
Abraham Inlow, a miller there, assumed the paternity of the
infant child of a poor girl named Nancy Hanks, and after
marriage, moved with her to Washington or Hardin county,
where the son, who was named Abraham, after his real, and

96 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lincoln after his putative father, was born." Mr. Herndon
does not say that Mr. Weik after investigation, found the
report to be untrue, but, instead, goes on at considerable length
to substantiate the report.

See suppressed matter following.

This much may be found in the suppressed three-volume
edition of Lincoln by Messrs. Herndon and Weik. The ques
tion then recurs upon the fact as to whether there was an
elaborate investigation of the illegitimate paternity of Mr.
Lincoln, and if so, did they write down in their manuscript
for posterity, the complete account of their findings. The
facts are that Mr. Weik, because of influences brought to bear
upon him, receded from his original position of independent
recorder of truth and fact and destroyed the original manu
script.

Mr. Lamon bought from Mr. Herndon the use of his
original manuscript, paying him three thousand dollars there
for.

But Mr. Weik and those associated with him in their cam
paign of destruction, were careful to make way with every
volume of Lamon they could lay hand on.

Through Weik's influence other valuable evidence gathered
by Mr. Herndon at great expense was destroyed.

It will be noted that the facts touching Abraham Lincoln's
illegitimate origin as first recorded by his intimate friend and
law partner between whom and Mr. Lincoln, as Mr. Horace
White assures us, there was never an unkind word or thought,
are three editions removed from Mr. Herndon's original manu
script. The Lamon biography which we count as one edition,
it having within its covers the original Herndon manuscript,
the three-volume Life by Messrs. Herndon and Weik, and
the two-volume edition by Messrs. Herndon and Weik.

It is evident that the three-volume edition was suppressed
because of the statements with regard to Mr. Lincoln's illegiti
mate paternity, for the reason that these are the identical
statements expurgated in the last or two-volume edition of
Herndon and Weik.

It is establishable that the collaborator of Mr. Herndon,
who was the collector of this illegitimate-paternity data, was
also the chief agent in the destruction of it. It is even more
remarkable that the current expurgated edition in two volumes

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 97

contains numerous hints of illegitimate paternity but in very
subdued form.

These facts evidently show that the original findings of
William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, upon the question
of Abraham Lincoln's paternity, were indubitable. This being
admitted the facts which were published in meager or subdued
form would indicate the facts which were written or published
in complete or elaborate form.

And more, is it reasonable that two reputable citizens, cul
tured and refined gentlemen, the one the law-partner and life
long, intimate friend, and the other an ardent admirer, of a
man among the greatest and most illustrious of the time, would,
as his personal biographers, write down for the gaze of pos
terity a rumor, a report affecting so personal and vital a sub
ject as that of his origin, and that, too, in defiance of the
well-known canons of society?

In view of these facts the conclusion is inevitable, leaving
the North Carolina tradition entirely out of the question, that
Abraham Lincoln was the son of an Abraham Enloe by Nancy
Hanks.

We shall not discuss the question of Mr. Lincoln's illegiti
mate paternity from the Lamon biography point of view fur
ther than to invite the reader's careful attention to the entire
quotation on the subject, and particularly to the allusions to
the relations existing between Thomas Lincoln and Abraham
Enloe or Inlow, the name being spelled differently in different
localities.

Mr. Lamon's opening paragraphs are significant. He says
almost emphatically that Lincoln was of illegitimate paternity.
He wrote in the major part from Mr. Herndon' s manuscript,
and it is evident that he knew that Abraham Lincoln was an
illegitimate. Subsequent references to the " Mows," and to
" Abraham Inlow," afford strong reason for the inference that
he knew to a certainty the fact he had obliquely though un
mistakably stated at the outset.

It were far better had Messrs. Herndon and Weik and Mr.
Lamon written and published the plain, blunt facts. By record
ing a rumor, a vague report, these biographers lowered, vul
garized and jeopardized their office. If, as it is our opinion
based upon thorough investigation, these biographers wrote
down the true facts about Mr. Lincoln's origin, and these facts

98 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

were afterward modified and accommodated by others to the
end that they might be shadowed with doubt, and ultimately
ignored by the student of Abraham Lincoln, the perpetrators
misjudged mankind and threw a challenge in the teeth of the
very incident they were designing to intercept. Somewhere
in the deep of the heart of mankind there is a chamber sacred
to the love of truth. The tallest and whitest heroes of history
are the martyrs to the cause of truth.

Through Mr. John E. Burton, of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin,
the author entered into an extended correspondence with Mr.
Cathey. He proved to be a frank and gracious correspondent.
His first letter was addressed to Mr. Burton, and was answered
by the present author, in a series of questions to which the
reply was delayed for some time, but which came at length
and was very pleasant in its spirit and ready with all desired
information. As the author will comment later upon these
letters and upon Mr. Cathey's theory, his own letters, with a
single exception, are omitted; but enough will be given from
the pen of Mr. Cathey to show his full and mature judgment
of the matter.

My letter to Mr. John E. Burton, after purchasing the Cole-
man pamphlet and the Cathey book which had previously be
longed to him, called attention to the following facts:

1. That these two did not agree. One represents Abraham
Enloe, the father of Lincoln, as resident in North Carolina,
and the other Abraham Enlow as a neighbor of the Lincolns in
La Rue County, Kentucky. According to one, Nancy was sent
to Kentucky alone, leaving Enloe in North Carolina to adjust
matters with his wife as best he could; 'according to the other
he and Thomas Lincoln were both married and neighbors in
Kentucky.

2. Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were certainly mar
ried in 1806. Abraham was born in 1809. The pregnancy
of Nancy did not antedate her marriage. Moreover, the pic
ture which Mr. Helm gave to Herndon of her public per
formance at camp-meeting (if it was indeed Nancy whom Mr.
Helm describes) does not indicate that she was then visibly

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 99

advanced in pregnancy, yet this was just before her marriage.
In a community like that she would not have been likely to
publish her condition by such conspicuous performance. The
theory that she was pregnant at the time when she was married
fails to meet many important conditions.

3. If Enlow was Lincoln's father, the matter could hardly
have been one of seduction before marriage; it must have been
of adultery after marriage. The two books compel the as
sumption of radically different conditions.

Mr. Burton forwarded my letter to Mr. Cathey, who wrote
to him under date of May 16, 1919:

LETTER OF JAMES H. CATHEY TO JOHN E. BURTON

SYLVA, N. C, May 16, 1919.
MY DEAR MR. BURTON:

I was surprised and delighted to get a letter in your bold
and steady hand at the comfortable age of 72, once again.

I congratulate you on the vigor which this letter discloses
of body and mind. I cannot see why you should not attain
the coveted human limit of a hundred.

No, I cannot help your ministerial friend, however much on
your own or his account I should wish to do so, if he cannot
find the information desired in my last edition of The Genesis
of Lincoln. This he says he has read. I refer to the enlarged
edition, containing your admirable lecture on Mr. Lincoln.

It was after I had published my book containing the
North Carolina story that I ran across the local yarn with
regard to the " Old Abe Enlow " of Kentucky and Nancy
Hanks. There is no exact date mentioned by any witness in
my book as to when Nancy Hanks lived in the North Carolina
Abe Enloe's home, or when she became pregnant.

The Enloes of North Carolina had knowledge of the fact
that branches of the family lived contemporaneously in Ken
tucky. There is no doubt about this. They intervisited occa
sionally as business or pleasure impelled them.

I do not pretend to speak with the force of an oracle or
even to present indubitable facts in my story. I simply con
serve a most interesting tradition custodianed by plain pioneers
of veracity and integrity who deal not in dates or in the re-
finemenjts of philosophy.

100 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In fact I do not pretend to believe with the faith that would
remove a mole-hill that Abe Enloe of Kentucky could not
have been the father of Abraham Lincoln. There is no
doubt about there having been a North Carolina Abe Enloe,
and that this, the narrative which my book recounts, origi
nated and gained currency in North Carolina or Kentucky
about the beginning of the last century.

I am as certain as I am of anything not actually demon
strable that some Abraham Enloe was the father of Abraham
Lincoln, and that that responsibility lay between the " miller "
Abe of Kentucky and the farmer Abe of North Carolina. I
shall not enter into any explanation as to how the story became
mixed, but the fact of family relationship and the intercourse
between the two families would easily afford a premise from
which to proceed.

The very fact that Herndon's and Lamon's lives of Lincoln
were suppressed by men of high standing and influence some
years ago, and that expurgated parts of these "lives" were
the paragraphs which referred to Lincoln's Enloe origin, is
sufficient proof of the foundation on -fact of these statements.
Neither Col. Lamon nor Mr. Herndon would have recorded
a lie about Lincoln's paternity, and these suppressors knew it.

The real truth is that Abraham Lincoln, among the great
men of history has had more than his share of pure personal
fiction. Lincoln, like all the very powerful leaders of men,
possesses in the language of Chauncey Depew "a super
abundance of common sense," with an eccentric turn of intel
lect susceptible of the strange combination of emotion, deep,
tense and feeling, and humor. And yet, in keeping with an
other character of superlative force, he could be cold and
implacable, should occasion arise.

His own cabinet never properly or justly appraised him
until he was cold in death. Stanton looked upon him and
treated him as though he had been a sort of grotesque heavy
weight clown, a sort of wilful incumbrance upon his cabinet.
Lincoln is the most difficult of all modern leaders to account
for in the usual conventional way. I have studied him from
every angle, and the only way I can account for him is, that
from his conception to his death he was the child and instru
ment of a special Divine Providence.

To tell you the truth, it little matters to me or the average

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 101

or common man, how he came into being. We know that he
was our friend and brother, and that his life was spent for our
welfare. We know he overruled egotism and ignorance in his
own camp, for Union and Liberty.

If you are looking for a religious man in Lincoln, as the
orthodox world accepts and interprets the term, you shall be
disappointed. Lincoln was a religion unto himself. He per
sonified the virtues of mankind. In early life he was skeptical;
in his maturer years he was no churchman. It may have
been that in his Presidential years, with the awful weight of
responsibility upon him, and in the shadow which the death of
his son cast upon his great soul, he became humble and trusting
and worshipful of the Deity. It is certain that he always
recognized the Almighty in his messages and state papers,
and that he acknowledged his dependence, and that of the
nation, upon His blessing and guidance.

No ! To a person who has spent much time and pains upon
the story of Lincoln, there is so much that bears the marks
of sinister and objective tempering that one despairs of the
facts, and would wipe out the whole blurred thing if he could,
and leave the great man alone in his naked, human, soul-
grandeur.

You, sir, are just 20 years my senior, but I venture you
are in some respects the younger man. In my younger days I
was fool enough to hurt myself by drink; and while I am a
teetotalist I shall never entirely recover from the effects. I
lost my father two years ago; my two sons went to the army,
and my eldest daughter and youngest son died from influenza
last winter.

I suffered the loss of my business and my home, and am
reduced to poverty, yet I have not lost faith in God or my
fellow man, and am hopeful of a better day. . . .

I shall never forget the peculiar circumstances under
which we came to collaborate on the last edition of the Lincoln
" Genesis," and shall always cultivate a rich plot in my heart
for you. May your elderly years be extended, and your peace
be perfect when you " put out to sea."

I am, Yours at your instant service,

Cordially,

JAMES H. CAT HEY.

102 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

• '"At 'this point I took up correspondence with Mr. Cathey,
and I quote one of his letters here, and others in the latter
part of the book:

LETTER OF HON. JAMES H. CATHEY

SYLVA, N. C., Aug. 29, 1919.
REV. WM. E. BARTON,

OAK PARK, ILL.
DEAR SIR:

I am frank to confess to pure negligence and procrastina
tion in failing to answer your letter. This is a very ugly
failing of mine. I beg your pardon.

No, I did not construe your letter as antagonistic or pro
vocative. I think I understand your attitude. For fear you
might misconceive my attitude toward the subject of Mr.
Lincoln's origin, I wish to say that I do not deem the subject
of the very pro roundest importance. I think, if possible, the
truth should be known, and that Mr. Lincoln should be ac
counted for through the regular human channels. I am sure
from my limited investigation there has been more of news
paper exaggeration and prevarication, fiction and blaring un
truth written and spoken about Abraham Lincoln than any
other great man in history.

Lincoln was not of divine origin, as was the Carpenter
of Nazareth, and he did not spring from nothing, as he must
surely have done if Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were
his real parents. Worshipful biographers and delirious ora
tors like Robert G. Ingersoll and Marse Henry Watterson
have invested his advent with a godlike glamour and his
character and career with superhuman qualities of the myth
of pagan deities. Some of these ascribe to Nancy Hanks
the highest and noblest characteristics of intellect and soul.
There is absolutely no base founded in fact for any such
extravagance. Not a single one of Mr. Lincoln's deifiers
have had the audacity to claim anything superior for Tom
Lincoln. We make no doubt that Lincoln's mother was a
woman of good native sense and sensibility, but like many
another of Eve's progeny of unfortunate environment.

My attitude toward the North Carolina and Kentucky tra
ditions is this:

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 103

I am as completely convinced as I could be of any fact
not mathematically provable that an Abraham Enloe was the
" accidental " father of Abraham Lincoln. I think Lincoln
was a child of special providence. That his unconventional
advent into the world is one of the mysteries. I think God,
if you please, shaped him from before his conception for the
work which he wrought and the identical destiny which he ful
filled. The Architect designed him in the mold of the mass of
men and gave him a mind to perceive and a soul to feel. To
these was added a personality of perfect poise which func
tioned like a healthy human organ to the cry of every creature.
Lincoln was always human. Indeed, he was one of the two
greatest humans in a thousand years of Anglo-Saxon history.
The other was Robert Lee. Lee was the greatest spiritual
commoner among aristocrats. Lincoln was the great intel
lectual aristocrat among commoners. Both were virtuous as
Socrates. Yes, Lincoln was the instrument of Providence,
through and by human if extraordinary means. It seems
that if you would read my little book, brother Barton, you
would get my attitude toward the story itself. I simply
wrote it to preserve an interesting tradition. I do not claim
infallibiliy for the " recollections " or the main fact. I do
claim that it is very extraordinary; the subsistence of their
tradition since the early years of last century here and in Ken
tucky among two generations of people as honest, honorable,
and truthful as any.

Of late I have become somewhat disgusted with the at
tempt of a South Carolinian to prove that John C. Calhoun
was Lincoln's father. If this sort of thing persists, I shall
call in every book of mine unsold, burn the last remaining
copy, and wash my hands of the whole business. I have
never been too deeply impressed with the correctness of the
morals involved in the dissemination of such a story. I may
be prudish or cowardly. If it is a lie that Lincoln was sired
by old Tom Lincoln, ought the world to be enlightened or
should it remain in blissful ignorance?

As to my own story:

I am like the great savior of the Union, — " The short
and simple annals of the poor."

I am fifty-three years of age next December; a long, lank
Appalachian mountaineer of Scotch-Irish ancestry, as the

104 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

name Cathey implies. I was raised up on the farm by a
rigorous-minded hard- working great-hearted father; received
a very common school training. Have farmed, lumbered,
clerked in store, got law-license; written a little and drank
liquor betimes. My wife has raised a highly respected family
of four boys and three girls, three of whom are dead. Drink
and the devil have deprived me of a career, but I am happy
to tell you that I have done with drink and the devil, and with
the return of fair health, I have hope and purpose to cut
some figure for the better yet.

I did not tell you that I have misrepresented my section
of the Tar-Heel State in both houses of the General Assembly.

I would advise you to say nothing in your book on the
religious side * of Lincoln about his illegitimate origin. If you
doubt, give the public the benefit of your silence.

Pardon this presumption.

Yours very respectfully,

JAMES H. CATHEY.

P.S. I am due you and myself to say that I have been a
semi-invalid since last October, but am improving. Write me
again, and pardon my open-speaking, as this (frankness) is
my trait. J. H. C.

1 This letter was written when the author was preparing his The
Soul of Abraham Lincoln for the press. He had no occasion in that
volume to refer to these stories.

CHAPTER XII
THE HARDIN STORY

IN a short essay by Miss Ida M. Tarbell on the parents of
Abraham Lincoln, used in a brochure for the Lincoln Farm
and also as the preface of one set of Lincoln's writings, sev
eral names are given of men who severally have been reputed
as the father of Abraham Lincoln. Among the family names
she gives that of Hardin. In the course of my investigation
of this subject, I listened for any mention of that name, but
for a long time I did not hear it. I made a few inquiries
without result, and had come to question whether this name
belonged in the list which I was compiling. At length, in
Washington County, Kentucky, I learned the story. It was
given to me by a lawyer, belonging to one of the old families,
who, however, took pains to assure me that he did not him
self credit it. He said, however, that so far as he had ever
heard, this was the only form in which the story of Lincoln's
illegitimacy had ever been current in that county ; and I found
that he was totally ignorant of such other forms of the story
as I had occasion to mention to him.

The story in brief is this : That while Nancy Hanks was
living in Washington County in the home of Richard Berry,
Martin D. Hardin, afterward known as General Hardin,
visited her on his way to Frankfort, he being at that time a
member of the Kentucky Legislature, with the result that a
child was born who was subsequently known as Abraham
Lincoln. This is virtually all there is of the story, and any
additional details are to be supplied from the records of the
Hardin family.

The Hardin family is one of the oldest and most honor
able in Kentucky. It first settled in Washington County in
1786 and its history in the state is nothing short of illus
trious. The family is of Huguenot descent. After the mas-

105

106 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

sacre of St. Bartholomew three Huguenot brothers migrated
from France to Canada. Finding the climate there too cold,
one of them migrated to South Carolina and two to Virginia.
About 1765 Martin Hardin, descended from one of the two
Virginia brothers, removed from Fauquier County, Virginia,
to George's Creek on the Monongahela River. His seven chil
dren, three sons and four daughters were born in Virginia be
tween 1741 and 1760. All these removed to Kentucky and
settled within a circuit of ten miles of the present site of
Springfield.

The eldest of these three sons was Colonel John Hardin,
for whom Hardin County was named. He was born in Vir
ginia October i, 1753. He fought against the Indians in 1774
and was wounded. He fought bravely in the Revolution.
In 1780 he located lands in Kentucky on his treasury warrants.
In April, 1786, he removed with his wife and family to Nelson
County, settling in that part which afterward became Wash
ington County. He fought with George Rogers Clark. He
had three sons and three daughters.

One of his sons, Martin D. Hardin, was born June 21,
1780, and died October 8, 1823. He married, 1808, Elizabeth,
daughter of General Benjamin Logan. He studied law with
Colonel George Nichols and practiced it at Richmond and
Frankfort in that state. He was Secretary of State of Ken
tucky under General Isaac Shelby, 1812-1816, and United
States Senator, 1816-1817. He died in Frankfort, October
8, 1823, aged 43. He was the father of Colonel John J. Hardin,
M.C., of Illinois, who was killed at the battle of Buena Vista
in Mexico, February 23, 1847.

General Martin D. Hardin is the hero of whatever romance
is associated with the name of Nancy Hanks in Washington
County. Those who told me of this story were careful to
say that it never had any wide vogue in that county and now is
never heard of. In a subsequent chapter I shall have occasion
to refer to it again.

CHAPTER XIII
CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL AND ANDREW

THE Enlow or Inlow story as related in Bourbon County,
Kentucky, is the one most widely current in the State, and
the one vouched for by the highest names that stand behind
any of these stories. It is the one to which Mr. Jesse W. Weik
gave most attention when investigating these rumors before
the publication of Herndon's first edition.

In the same locality is found another story, which names
Inlow, but assigns him a more honorable part; making him
in a way the protector rather than the betrayer of Nancy, and
a chief agent in securing for her a home and a husband and
a name for her boy.

This story has a place in literature, having been written
up in a thin volume which now lies before the author.

In 1889, Mrs. Lucinda Joan (Rogers) Boyd published
her book The Sorrows of Nancy. Its argument is :

1. That Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln,
was an illegitimate child, daughter of Lucy Hanks, Horn-
back or Sparrow, and a man named Marshall, son of Judge
Marshall, of Virginia, Chief Justice of the United States.
Nancy Hanks was born near Lynchburg, Virginia, in sight of
the Blue Ridge mountains, and there her mother, Lucy Hanks,
Hornback or Sparrow, lies buried. The father of Nancy
Hanks, son of Hon. John Marshall, was killed " in border
warfare." — BOYD, The Sorrows of Nancy, pp. 77-78.

2. That Abraham Lincoln, son of Nancy Hanks, was
born out of wedlock, near Thatcher's Mill, on or near the
line that divides Clark from Bourbon County, Kentucky. " In
the year 18 — ," Nancy was living " with other women " in a
cabin near this mill, a place apparently open to all comers.

Lincoln's father was Andrew , adopted son of John

107

108 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Marshall. Andrew's father was an Englishman who perished
in the same battle with young Marshall. In that " battle,"

therefore, Abraham Lincoln lost both his grandfathers,

Marshall, and the English father of Andrew .

In this narrative, " Inlow, the miller," is represented as
having been intimate with the women of the cabin, but as not
being the father of Abraham. Inlow is represented as ex
postulating with Andrew and warning him not to desert
Nancy, the mother of his child. Nancy was deserted, how
ever, and Inlow was presumably the agent of Andrew, or
else acted under some sense of consideration for the forlorn
young woman, whom he also had assisted in the downward
path. Although he himself was neither her betrayer nor the
father of her child, he felt some responsibility for her shame,
and appears to have been the man who secured a shiftless fel
low, Thomas Lincoln, to marry her and assume the parentage
of a son who sat between Thomas and Nancy as they rode
away to be married.

On this theory the name of Abraham Lincoln's father is
not given, and Inlow is shielded from direct responsibility for
her condition. But the implication concerning her is that she
was at this time a public prostitute; though the story which is
written around these alleged facts holds her up to pity because
of her love for her betrayer, and her hard fate in marrying
a man who was her inferior.

Mrs. Lucinda Boyd set forth her theory in a statement in
her preface:

I visited Washington, D.C., for the first time, about ten
years ago. As I was approaching the Capitol, I came in sight
of the statue of Chief-Justice Marshall, seated. There,
thought I, as I looked at it, is the finest likeness of President
Lincoln I have ever seen. I looked at it for some time from
all points of view before I read the name. After reading the
inscription, a certain saying of my father's flashed across my
mind, and I determined to learn the truth, the whole truth,
concerning Abraham Lincoln's ancestry. I have done so — as
the following affidavits will show. — The Sorrows of Nancy\
pp. 6, 7.

CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL 109

The visit to Washington would appear to have been made
about 1889; the book was issued in 1899.

The affidavits which make up the Appendix are several in
number, and some of them will be cited in other relations.
That portion of her own affidavit which embodies her father's
testimony is immediately in point :

The affiant, L. Boyd, states that a few days after the as
sassination of President Lincoln, her father, the Rev. Samuel
Rogers, born near Charlotte Court House, Va., in the year
1789, (a soldier in the War of 1812, and minister of the
Christian Church in Kentucky and other states from the time
or shortly after the time when Alexander Campbell founded
the Disciples' Church, until 1877, when he died) said to her:

" The grandmother of Abraham Lincoln was called by the
several names of Lucy Hanks, Hornback, or Sparrow. Nancy,
Lincoln's mother, was the child of Lucy Hanks, Hornback or
Sparrow, and a son of Judge John Marshall, of Virginia.
Nancy Hanks, Hornback or Sparrow was born near Lynch-
burg, Va., and in sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and at
the foot of them, her mother, Lucy, lies buried.

" Nancy's father — son of Judge Marshall — was killed in
' Border Warfare/

" Lincoln's father was the adopted son (whether by law
or not, I do not know,) of the same Judge Marshall, of Vir
ginia, mentioned above, and was the son of an Englishman,
who fought and was killed in the same battle in which the said
Nancy's father perished. Abraham (afterward called Lin
coln) was born near Thatcher's Mill, on or near the line that
divides Clark County from Bourbon County, Kentucky, and
was born out of wedlock. I have often seen the place where
he was born."

Rev. Samuel Rogers is dead, as above stated, but in his life
he knew Kentucky and Virginia well, and was among the first
men who preached the new religion in those two states. —
The Sorrows of Nancy, Appendix.

This statement, with other matter with which we are not
immediately concerned, was sworn to by Mrs. Boyd, probably
in Lexington, as it is witnessed by the clerk of the Fayette
County Court, September 25, 1895.

110 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

It opens at least three interesting lines of inquiry, —

1. The identity of " Nancy Hanks, Hornback or Spar
row/' and her mother, " Lucy Hanks, Hornback or Sparrow,"
with the mother and grandmother of the President.

2. The identity of the son of Chief Justice John Marshall
who was the father of Nancy Hanks, and who was killed in
" Border Warfare."

3. The identity of the " son of an Englishman who was
killed in the same battle in which the son of Judge Marshall
was killed," thus depriving Abraham Lincoln of both grand
fathers at one swing of the scythe of Time. In the narra
tive which makes up the body of the book, and of which an
outline follows, she names him " Andrew," but does not give
his last name.

Between the Preface, in which she sets forth her thesis
that Lincoln was the son of a protege of Chief Justice Marshall,
and his mother a daughter of one of Judge Marshall's sons,
and the Appendix, in which she publishes the affidavits on
which her theory rests, Mrs. Boyd tells in the form of a short
story or novelette what she believes happened to Nancy Hanks.
While she does not pretend to confine herself to historic facts
in this part of her book, the novelette is her reconstruction of
history, and claims to be in its essential statements historical.

The story begins in Virginia, at the foot of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
In a cabin lives a young unmarried woman, Lucy, and her little
daughter, Nancy, who has no right to a father's name. Near
them lives an old Negro woman, Joult, whose stories of
frontier life are interwoven, but form no vital part of the
narrative.

In her girlhood, Nancy meets a boy named Andrew, who
assists her at the burial of a dead bird, whose death sets
Nancy to asking questions of immortality and the resurrec
tion, when she might better, perhaps, have been strengthening
her soul against the time when she should meet Andrew again.

There is an aged white woman, Old Nance, who visits the
cabin, and who knows that the best blood in Virginia flows in
the veins of little Nancy. Old Nance comes to celebrate the

CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL 111

birthday of little Nancy, which Lucy keeps as a day of mourn
ing. Lucy remembers her unwedded lover, and believes that
had he not been killed in border warfare, he would have come
back and married her. She still loves the dead man who gave
her child life.

One day a grand gentleman in three cornered hat and
gold knee-buckles x visits the neighborhood, and is struck by
the appearance of little Nancy. He inquires whose child she
is, and Lucy covers her face with her hands and does not
tell him. But " the grand gentleman lost his self-control, and
dashed the gourd " in which Lucy was giving him a drink,
upon the rocky bridle path, and rode away. In answer to
Nancy's question, "Who is that?" Old Nance, little Nancy's
aunt, replies, " That is your grandfather, Judge Chief Justice
M ."

Andrew is with the judge, and Nancy asks about him.

" He is the son of his adoption. He is the son of an Eng
lishman, who came here and died, and Judge M made him

his heir at law after his own son was killed on the frontier,
some years ago."

Lucy did not live long after this incident. She died on
the next Christmas, and was buried there in sight of the Blue
Ridge. Slaves dug her grave and made her coffin, and no
minister conducted a funeral service, but the dome of heaven
was her mausoleum, and above her grave was whispered by
the winds, " I am the resurrection and the life."

The next Spring the widowed robin, whose mate Nancy
and Andrew had buried, came with a new mate, and Nancy
prayed by her mother's grave.

The second part of the story is laid in Kentucky. " How
old Nancy and little Nancy came to Kentucky, and with whom,
is not known. Certain it is, however, that in the year 18 —
they were living with other women in a cabin on the line that
divides Clark County from Bourbon."

There, in time, Andrew appears: and Mrs. Boyd dis
courses on the negligence of the guardian angel, on the selfish

1 Chief Justice Marshall was as negligent in his attire as was Abraham
Lincoln. The gold knee-buckles are probably not historical.

112 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

way in which men love and of the tender and confiding and
unprotected way in which the women love. In these respective
ways Andrew loved Nancy and Nancy loved Andrew.

" Inlow the miller " is introduced, apparently to clear his
name. He sits on a log with Andrew and whittles, and as
they sit he warns Andrew that Nancy is young and loves
him, and that he must not treat her as if she were a hardened
sinner. But the lesson was lost upon Andrew.

11 That man never lived, who, if he heard a girl loved him,
and were convinced of the fact before he heard it from another,
did not seek the girl and prove it again and again to the
satisfaction of his own inordinate vanity." This is the not
very flattering opinion of Mrs. Boyd, and Andrew is her in
stance in point.

One day Old Nance and Little Nancy visited Winchester,
the county seat of Clark County. It was new and rough
but had its own pride and fashion. There Nancy met face to
face Andrew, with " a real lady " on his arm. Not only did
he pass Nancy without speaking, but the " lady " asked An
drew, in Nancy's hearing, " What lovely barbarian is that? "

Nancy went back to the cabin with the other women, sick
in body and mind, nor did she ever recover her cheerfulness.

Two years later a new lover appeared, and Nancy accepted
his suit, pressed through Abraham Inlow. She consented to
become the bride of Thomas Lincoln, and when the two went
away together, there rode between them a little boy, the child
of Nancy and Andrew.

Nancy did not live long. She died still kissing the hand
that had smitten her and loving Andrew to the end. "Nancy
died young, and her soul has long since confronted the soul
of the man without whom Abraham Lincoln never would
have been born."

Above her lonely grave in Indiana, Parson Elkin, whom
Mrs. Boyd calls Robert, though other authorities call him
David, read the words of Holy Scripture, " I am the resur
rection and the life."

So ends the story, and then follow the affidavits which
attest the principal facts alleged. We shall later inquire into
the accuracy of this story.

CHAPTER XIV
JOHN C. CALHOUN

MOST of these traditions have given us instead of Thomas
Lincoln male parents not greatly above him in mental caliber
or in culture. But we have found certain stories which can
not thus be reproached. We end this list with one which
ascribes the paternity of Abraham Lincoln to John C. Cal-
houn, the noted South Carolina Senator and advocate of
States Rights. Together with Henry Clay and Daniel Web
ster, he made up the famous triumvirate of the Senate, during
the long discussions that preceded the Civil War.

This story appeared in four articles in The State, a leading
newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina, by Mr. D. J. Knotts,
a resident of that State.

With some difficulty the author secured access to these
articles. Extra copies of the papers containing them were not
available, and few if any of the great libraries had noticed or
preserved them. They were obtained, however, after some
search.1 But the author will not quote them here, as a pro
longed correspondence with the author led him to go over the
ground more thoroughly than the articles had done; and the
story can best be presented in his letters, which, after having
been copied, were sent to him for revision, and were corrected
by his hand:

LETTER FROM D. J. KNOTTS

Swansea, S. C., Aug. 23, 1919.
DR. BARTON.

MY DEAR SIR: Your letter of inquiry with regard to
President Lincoln dated Aug. 17 was received today. I
will say, I continued my investigations very much beyond

1 1 am indebted to Mr. F. H. Meserve of New York for photostat
reproductions of these articles; but as my own letters from Mr. Knotts
are much more complete, I use those instead of the articles in The State.

113

114 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

what was reported in the four articles in The State. I ex
amined by mail through clerks in the office of lands and wills
in about 44 counties in about nine states, Illinois included. I
found the Illinois and Indiana clerks very careful and prompt
and exceedingly attentive. Some of the Virginia, North Caro
lina and Kentucky clerks were slow and indifferent. Most of
the clerks were very communicative as to conveyances and
wills. I always sent $1.00 as a spy-out, to see if there was
anything of value; if so, I would send more and ask more; and
that would furnish ground for more talk. In all I spent
several hundred dollars.

The great war broke into my plan for a full pamphlet. I
wrote an article of about four columns, and another of about
4 or 5 more for the paper, but the war occupied so much
space they could not publish the contributions now.

Mr. John P. Arthur of North Carolina wrote a history
of Western North Carolina about four years ago and gave
space to about twenty pages as to my views and endorsed them
fully. He had previously written some in a North Carolina
paper claiming Abraham Enloe, a man near his home in
North Carolina. A book had been written by Cathey of the
same county as Enloe, who knew all the Enloe descendants
and they all claim that, too.

A daughter of this Enloe, then quite old (she made her
statement twenty-five years ago) stated that when she was
8 or 10 years old she could well remember a young Nancy
Hanks and child in her father's home; and that an old negro
woman that had belonged to this family would swear (she
was nearly grown at the time) " that there was a young lady
by the name of Hanks and baby in her master's home, and
caused Old Mis' much trouble." From this they fully be
lieved it when told that this girl was taken across into Ten
nessee. Their efforts failed to get any refuge for this Nancy
Hanks how she got there, and finally resolved she was a hired
girl in the Enloe home and came to this end. Enloe's eldest
daughter, also a Nancy, carried her across into Tennessee,
where she (Nancy Enloe) had married, and thus they pro
vided this escape for this poor deceived girl. Nancy Enloe
married John Thompson, recorded as owning land in Carter
County, Tennessee. In 1809 she sold out, and with the En-
loes moved west.

JOHN C. CALHOUN 115

My own research is from Amelia County, Virginia, where
William Hanks came from the Rappahannock country and
raised a family of twelve children, and hence the great exodus
of this family almost everywhere.

One of the girls married Abraham Lincoln's father,
Thomas Lincoln, and moved to Kentucky.1 Then Joseph
settled in Nelson County, Kentucky. Two of the girls married
Berrys and settled in Washington County, and also a single
sister, Lucy, came to Washington County with them.

Now remember Lucy; she cuts a big figure in this play.

Luke, the youngest boy, James and John came to South
Carolina. James and John shortly went on to Kentucky and
Tennessee. Luke left a will which I found after hard search
ing giving 210 acres of land and all other property to his
wife, A'nn. Joseph in Kentucky died, leaving will and one
horse to each of five boys and a heifer to each of three girls —
eight children. Nancy, the youngest, got a heifer named
" Pied." Nancy gave birth to Dennis Hanks, and then mar
ried. Here is the firm hold of Mrs. Hitchcock and Henry
Watterson for Lincoln's mother.

I fortunately got hold of Mary Ellen Hanks, who mar
ried a Manon, and now lives in California. She is a daughter
of John Hanks, Lincoln's associate, rail-splitter in Illinois,
and grandson of Joseph and nephew of Nancy. Mrs. Manon
writes fully and freely about matters. She says she was
about 1 8 years old when Abraham was nominated; was in
Springfield at the time; knew him, and also Dennis, who
was her father's cousin. Lucy Hanks, of Washington County,
was mother of Nancy, and then married Thomas Sparrow.
Lucy was Thomas Lincoln's aunt, and one of four sisters
in the county near Springfield, Kentucky (two Berrys and
Mrs. Sparrow and Lucy). Thomas and Nancy had one
child, Sarah, and their friends after Nancy's death tried to
fix the records to date back the marriage, and failed signally.
Richard Berry signs as Nancy's guardian the marriage bond
of Thomas Lincoln and marries Thomas, and then Jesse
Head poses as a Methodist minister and returns for mar
riage eighteen certificates 2 alleged to have been performed

1 This paragraph stands as Mr. Knotts wrote it and as it was ap
proved by him in the revision, but I think he did not intend to say
this exactly as it is said. — W. E. B.

1 The number is sixteen. — W. E. B.

116 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

by him in about two years. The law requires an order from
the clerk of the court before the issue of the bond or the
performance of the marriage ; these forgers were really ignor
ant of the law's requirements.

I wrote the great Methodist publishing house of Louis
ville to inquire if there was any Methodist minister of the
name of Jesse Head in Kentucky from 1800 to 1820. They
replied that they had no such man on their record, but that
Dr. Gross Alexander, of Nashville, Editor of the Methodist
Review, had all records and could answer fully. I appealed
to him in the same words, without giving reasons, if any
Jesse Head was a Methodist minister in Kentucky from
1800 to 1820. He answered emphatically, " No."

The clerk in Springfield, Kentucky, would answer no let
ter or give any information. I tried three lawyers and asked
them to search the records and neither of them would an
swer. I hired a lady expert from Nelson County who had
done my work there. She reported fully the bad condition
of office, and said the clerk said he was a Democrat and
he could not afford to hurt the feelings of Lincoln's friends;
that the vote was too close. She gave inventories of the Lin-
coins' and Berrys' estates (all good, and owned several ne
groes).

I do not know when Luke's wife Ann came into Ander
son County, North Carolina. But she kept for several years
a tavern near her home at the famous cross roads called
Craytonville. In 1807 John C. Calhoun passed there from
his home and law office at Abbeville Court House. It was 21
miles to the tavern and 20 miles to Pendleton, the next Court
House. It was in 1807 that John C. Calhoun commenced his
practice at Abbeville, and in that year began his journeys which
occasioned his visits to the tavern going and coming. The
lawyers and judges were accustomed to stop at the tavern for
dinner or over night. Here Calhoun met Nancy Hanks. She
was born February 10, 1787, and was just about twenty years
of age.

Well, to make a long story short, for it would take several
pages to show the reality of this from his kindred and from
hers, which I have beyond question, Abe Enloe, from North
Carolina, was a horse-dealer and slave-trader also. Thomas
Lincoln had come from his uncle, Isaac Lincoln's, home in

JOHN C. CALHOUN 117

Carter County, Tennessee, to assist Enloe with his mules and
slaves, and here Calhoun hired Lincoln for $500 to take this
girl to the west with him. She was confined on the way at
Enloe's home, and several weeks after crossed through into
Tennessee. Enloe lived in what is now Swain County, North
Carolina, on its western edge adjoining the mountains.

The Enloes surrendered their claim of kinship to Lin
coln when they got this trail.

In 1816 Isaac Lincoln died, and in 1816 Thomas sold
his little farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. He had never
paid for his farm, and he started his westward trail. Nancy,
poor girl, died in May, 1818, and was released from this
unnatural confinement and entered into rest.

In 1834 Ann Hanks's estate was settled, and the dis
closure shows twelve children, and one, Nancy, missing. I
have searched the record closely and there are full returns
of each, except Nancy.

Lincoln's life is a sad story, and, he said, made him a
fatalist. He was a truly great figure in history, a plain, un
pretending man, the opposite of Jeff Davis and Woodrow
Wilson.

What Lincoln told his co-partner, Herndon, in 1850 about
his lineage, and reported in his Life of Lincoln, was obnox
ious to his many friends, and they recalled the entire pub
lication, except about half a dozen copies, which they did
not get: they expunged that matter completely in the new
edition. W. C. Hinson, of Charlestown, S. C., who was a
great admirer of the war President, and a wealthy producer
of sea-island cotton, and who died about two years ago, strug
gled hard to obtain one of these copies, and finally succeeded
in procuring one for about $3OO.1 He kindly loaned it to
me, and I compared it with the second edition, which I own,
and it certainly is true. Mr. Herndon seemed to admire his
great friend truly, and to be fair, but told the entire truth,
good and bad, as he saw it.

Jeff Davis' record is really worse than Lincoln's. Thomas
Lincoln and Joe Davis, Jeff's father, were both very trifling
men. Joe's wife taught in the family of Simeon Christie,
and is said to have been a very intelligent woman. Christie

* If Mr. Hinson paid $300 for a first edition of Herndon, he paid
an excessive price. It can be had for $50.— W. E. B.

118 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

was a slave lord, and a wealthy man. When things had gone
too far with Mrs. Davis, Christie gave Joe Davis four slaves
and some money, and sent him off to Kentucky, too. His
family shifted further South, and got more under slave con
ditions; Thomas Lincoln went North and got under abolition
ideas. These two men, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis,
came to the front in the critical time of God's providence,
each the right man. Davis' energy and independence served
the negro in the end, for it drove the Confederacy to its ruin;
and Lincoln's capacity to keep the Union mainmast up brought
the war to an end with the nation unbroken. I am a real
believer in God's sovereignty, and can see how He managed
our Civil War. I see His hand, also, in this last great war.

Respectfully,

D. J. KNOTTS.

/

I asked Mr. Knotts so many questions suggested by this
letter, he responded in a formal article, with a caption. Al
though it repeats some things which he had previously writ
ten, and states some things which appear in his later letters,
it deserves to be printed entire; for it is the most complete
exposition of the theory of which Mr. Knotts is the earnest
protagonist, that John C. Calhoun was the father of Abraham
Lincoln.

THE FATHER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By D. J. KNOTTS

We have located the Hanks family, William and Joseph,
in Nelson County, Kentucky, and the wives of the two Berry s,
Mrs. Lincoln and Lucy, in Washington County. Abraham
Hanks sold out and moved West. Thomas and his sister,
Mrs. Draper, remained and died in Virginia. James and his
wife, Nancy, and John, who owned real estate, are of record
as selling out in Virginia. John is on record as being in two
law suits by the court records. Both these brothers left Vir
ginia. The Anderson tradition is that Luke, the youngest, and
his three older brothers, came to South Carolina. John and
James are especially mentioned as two of them and others
by tradition, name a George or a Robert. They all went West

JOHN C. CALHOUN 119

and left Luke in South Carolina. In his own sons he calls
his eldest son, Thomas, for his oldest brother in Kentucky.
The next bears his own name Luke; then follow John, Robert
and George, named for his other brothers. He calls his young
est daughter Nancy, the name of his brother James' wife.

In 1785, Benjamin Harris obtained among other grants in
South Carolina one of two hundred and ten acres of land on
Hen Coop Creek of Rocky River. On this place Luke Hanks
lived and made a will on May 14, 1789, giving to "my be
loved wife, Ann Hanks," all his property, real and personal,
and appointing her and " my friend, John Hanie," as co-
executors. In October afterwards it was properly probated
from record by John Ewing Calhoun. The real estate and
personal property were appraised in pounds, shillings and
pence, the farm being valued at forty-two pounds, or $210,
and the personal property at one hundred pounds, or $500.
It included one mare and colt at $38.50; one bay filley, $20;
two cows and calves, $18.50; one steer, $7.75, and one heifer,
$5. Among the items was one feather bed and furniture,
$38.50; another feather bed and furniture, $42. There were
ten hogs valued at $17. This place was then in Pendleton
County and the records in the clerk's office at Abbeville have
been destroyed, except records of wills were saved. I cannot
learn when or how Luke Hanks obtained ownership.

Nothing more is of record until 1833, by which time An
derson County was formed. A suit for division is of record
in the clerk's office and it is there the heirs or children are
named. The sons, Thomas, Luke, John, Robert and George,
and the daughters, Lucinda Pruit, Scilla South and Elizabeth,
who had married the co-executor, John Hanie. He was a
widower, and three of his sons, Stephen, George and Anthony
Hanie, had married three of the younger girls, Martha, Susan
and Judith. Anthony had died and his widow, Judith, had
married John Hall. In all there were eleven heirs when prop
erly classified, but most of them were dead or living in other
States and the illegal arrangement and citation made the pro
cess anullity. Valentine Davis and his wife, Jane, who was
daughter of the eldest girl, Elizabeth, now dead, brought a
suit properly by employing Peter Van Diver, a competent
lawyer, and he properly arranged the entire heirship and noti
fied in all fifty-six heirs of the estate. Twenty-seven of them

120 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

were beyond the State. Amongst them appears a new heir
to this humble estate, Nancy Hanks.

Nancy Hanks and the other twenty-six heirs who lived
beyond the State were legally notified by a newspaper cita
tion. There was no personal property, the real estate alone
being advertised and sold.

Mr. Geiger, of the law firm of Geiger & Wolfe, and my
self searched carefully for the cost and result of sale and for
the receipts. Of these which we knew to be in full, or the
definite amount of the dead ancestor, we discovered by com
paring with other receipts of known percentage of the estate
that twelve shares of equal amount were necessary to balance
properly the total and make possible a clear sale receipt. This
showed that they first tried to settle with one share too few,
and the appearance of a Nancy beyond the State explains
fully the twelfth heir. Myself and my old friend and school
mate, James F. Tribble, and Mr. Geiger, made search after
ward and could find no receipt for this Nancy Hanks, either
personally or by proxy. The poor girl had been resting in
the little graveyard on Pigeon Creek, Indiana, since 1818, and
it was 1834 before the estate was finally settled. Of course,
living members of the family knew of the escape of Nancy;
but really these men did not likely know the real trail of this
exiled South Carolina girl, which has so bewildered her biog
raphers.

The mystery remained till 1849, when James L. Orr was
elected to Congress and chanced to meet Mr. Lincoln, who had
previously served for two years, but was not re-elected for this
Congress. Mr. Orr was afterward Governor of South Caro
lina and also judge. He died in 1872 in St. Petersburg, Rus
sia, whither President Grant had sent him as Ambassador.

Judge Orr had made physiognomy a special study in his
political life. On meeting with Mr. Lincoln in Washington,
after the expiration of his term, possibly as a lawyer appear
ing before the Supreme Court, or as a political explorer for
the future, Judge Orr informed him of his marked resem
blance to the Hanks men, in Anderson County, South Carolina.
Mr. Lincoln replied, " We may be of kin, as my mother was
a Nancy Hanks." On pursuing the matter, Judge Orr noticed
Mr. Lincoln quietly but decidedly denied him the opportunity
of any further inquiry, and he so informed the Hanks men on

JOHN C. CALHOUN 121

his return. From them he got the truth of the trouble which
led to the flight of Nancy Hanks.

Judge Orr's father had succeeded Ann Hanks as tavern-
keeper at Craytonville about five miles east of the historic
two hundred and ten acres of land already referred to. This
tavern was at the famous cross-roads, one leading from Abbe
ville by Craytonville on to Pendleton. It was eighteen miles
to Craytonville and twenty miles farther to Pendleton. This
was a regular resting place for the lawyers going either way.
Here John C. Calhoun, the young lawyer from Abbeville,
who had graduated from Yale and commenced his practice at
Abbeville in 1807, met very often this orphaned country girl.

Who was Mrs. Ann Hanks or when she died I have no
information excepting that contained in these lists made in
the suits and by the assistance of Mrs. Laura Hanks, who, in
1841, married Stephen Hanks, the grandson of this Ann
Hanks, and Mrs. Jane Drake, a daughter of James Emer
son, who was born in 1821 and raised in this Hanks settlement
with whom I had two interviews; and also by the aid of
Matthew E. Hanks, of Gum Log, Arkansas, who left here in
1846, when he was twenty-one, with whom I had an extended
correspondence. These three knew mostly all of these Hanks
heirs, and through their contact with these could tell of the
others. All these could tell me very decidedly that about all
members of the family whom they knew who were members
of any church were Baptists. Mr. M. E. Hanks says that his
father, George, joined no church, and he himself became a
Methodist after he moved West. He could remember when
he was a small boy of their damming a little branch on his
father's place to provide a pool for the baptism of Elizabeth,
his aunt Betty. In later years the Hanks family became di
vided between Baptists and Methodists.

I have already related that General Armistead Burt, who
married a niece of John C. Calhoun, and served for a long
time in Congress with Calhoun, told some young lawyers in
great secrecy and in the privacy of his own home that young
John C. Calhoun in his early life loved a handsome country
girl named Nancy Hanks, and when things came to the worst
he hired a man named Lincoln to take her away; and that
this proved to be a very serious period in Calhoun's young
life.

122 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Mrs. Anna L. Byrd, whose first husband was Dr. W. C.
Brown, of Belton, S. C., and who was younger brother to
Governor Joe Brown, of Georgia, was before marriage a Dean,
a highly respected family of intelligence, moral worth and
refinement. She was herself a cultured, refined matron. She
gave me before her death a statement that in 1856 she married
Dr. Brown and shortly after her husband, in her presence,
asked old man Johnny Hanks if these reports of Lincoln's
being Calhoun's son had any base in truth, and that Mr. Hanks
replied that they were true, saying " Nancy was my father's
sister and I know whereof I speak." He said that when it
was known that Nancy had sinned, she asked permission to
stay until she conferred with her uncle, who lived as she said,
as best I can remember, in Tennessee; that Calhoun was the
cause of her trouble and that he had promised to give her
$500 to take her away.

Mr. J. B. Lewis also told me that he was for years secre
tary of the Masonic Lodge at Anderson, and while he was
making out Judge Orr's Masonic credentials to go to St.
Petersburg as Ambassador in 1872, he talked freely about
this matter to his brethren in the hall, how he came to catch
on to this, and that he had investigated to his full satisfaction.
He said that Nancy went from South Carolina with horse-
traders and that little Abe was born on the way and subse
quently went on to Kentucky after a few weeks.

I had a lengthy correspondence with the Enlow family in
western North Carolina in whose charge Nancy was placed
by her friends here to convey her West. Abraham Enlow
lived in western Buncombe County, in the part which is now
Swain County, on Ocona Lufta River, right at its entrance
through the Smoky Mountains. J. J. Enlow, a grandson of
Abraham Enlow, says very flatly that the Enlows all know
that in the early part of the nineteenth century a girl named
Nancy Hanks was in their grandsire's home with a little baby,
who afterwards became the President of the Republic, but
they always considered that he was really Abraham Enlow's
son. He told me these two facts, that his father's sister,
Polly Mingus, was at this time quite small, but could relate
the facts, not being old enough to comprehend the situation,
but that " old Aunt Milly," who was nearly a grown negro
girl at the time and raised by his father, had told his father

JOHN C. CALHOUN 123

and mother (Wesley Enloe and wife) she knew that young
girl Nancy well and it gave old Miss " a heap of trouble," but
Miss Nancy, who had run away and married John Thompson,
carried her off when she came back to see old Master and
Missis before she moved to the West, and Mr. Enloe says
that Al. Davidson and others say that President Lincoln had
appointed her son as agent in the Indian Mission, a paying
and responsible office, as a reward for " his mother's kind
ness to my dear mother."

I was in Asheville, N. C, two years ago and spent a half-
day in the clerk's office, and with Mr. J. S. Styles, a great
grandson of Abraham Enlow. He frankly admitted that the
presence of this girl in his grandsire's home was conceded
by all the family and that they all looked on President Lin
coln as a kinsman, but had never been able to ascertain how
and from where he came. He said President Lincoln had
appointed members of the family to two offices in Washing
ton in 1861 and that he had attempted writing up the matter
from this view, but that a year or so ago his house had burned
and had destroyed all his data and proof. He said that be
yond a doubt his great-grandsire employed Congressman Felix
Walker to see and convey this girl and her infant son across
into Tennessee; that there was no question concerning Mr.
Walker, who represented the government in charge of the
Cherokee Indian interest near his home. He placed Nancy
in charge of a prominent Indian, named New, who took charge
of this girl and his great aunt, Nancy Thompson, and con
veyed them through the Pass in the mountains into Tennes
see. Mr. Styles was a middle aged man and a successful law
yer at Asheville. He talks freely and without reserve about
this matter. The records in Carter County show that John
Thompson bought a hundred acres of land in 1801 and sold
them in 1809, and disappears from the records. Abraham
Enlow bought several tracts in Henderson County and sold
out, and in 1808 bought the home in Swain.

Mr. John P. Arthur, who wrote the History of Western
North Carolina a few years ago, obtained for me the state
ment of two ladies whom he said were reliable, that they
heard Miss Elvira Davidson, who married the son of this
Congressman Felix Walker, say that she was visiting Mrs.
Walker before marriage and saw Enlow and Walker in a

124 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

long conversation, and when Walker came in he told Mrs.
Walker that Mr. Enlow was arranging with him " to carry
that young woman and her baby across into Tennessee " ; and
that Mrs. Walker replied, " I do hope now that will bring
peace to Mrs. Enlow's home." She said also that Enlow and
Walker lived near each other and this Mrs. Elvira Walker
died about forty years ago, an old woman, but she made this
same statement to others before her death. She was a sister
of Colonel A. F. Davidson, of Asheville, who was the lawyer
that controlled the estate matters of Abraham Enlow in 1844,
about the time that Colonel Van Duyver was straightening
up the Ann Hanks estate in South Carolina. Mr. John P.
Arthur vouches for the veracity of these two ladies who gave
him this statement.

While in Asheville two years ago attending the Southern
Baptist Convention, I searched the office for records. The
estate had been settled I found in Heyward County, which
had been cut from Buncombe County and included what is
now Swain County. The clerk very kindly assisted me. We
found a transcript of a portion of the estate sent up from
Heyward to arrange with some heirs who lived in Buncombe
still. In this transcript was a record of sixteen negroes divided
by the widow, Mrs. Abe Enlow, amongst her children and one
named Milly is in the list and described as " active, hearty
and intelligent, but old." Also I find Nancy Enloe Thompson
named among the heirs who had already gotten her share and
that she was beyond the State, — a very strong corroboration
of J. J. Enloe's statement. Mr. Enloe is a son of Wesley
Enloe, who was born in 1808 and died about fifteen years
ago. J. J. Enloe says he is fifty-five years old and has talked
this over with his father and mother.

Mr. James H. Cathey, who lives near the old Enloe home
in North Carolina, several years ago gathered a great amount
of information from the older citizens of the surroundings
and from the family. Their family tradition is an effort to
prove that Abraham Lincoln was a son of Abe Enloe, as he
was familiarly called, but Cathey cannot account for the pres
ence of this girl there and furnished suppositious statements
from others to the effect that she was there as a servant girl
attending to the duties of the home and was thereby caught
in this misfortune.

JOHN C. CALHOUN 125

Isaac Lincoln owned several tracts of land across in Ten
nessee on Watauga River, from 1787 to 1815. This home
was about three miles from Elizabethtown and now holds
the remains of Isaac Lincoln and Mary Ward Lincoln, his
wife. Their resting place is nicely marked by suitable tomb
stones. So Mrs. W. M. Vaught and James D. Jenkins both
inform me. They have given me the epitaphs from both,
and furnished me copy of wills of each from record. It is
near Cumberland Gap through the mountains in Virginia and
about fifty or sixty miles from Enloe's home in North Car
olina.

It was here Thomas Lincoln had gone and awaited the
arrival of this belated girl, who met him at Isaac Lincoln's
farm. The details of her stay there and her removal into
Kentucky and the time of her leaving Isaac Lincoln's home
and the length of her stay in Kentucky before her leaving in
1816 for Pigeon Creek, Indiana, will ever remain the mys
tery and uncertainty in this wonderful tragedy in American
history. From her leaving Kentucky in 1816 till her death
in 1818, there is much less speculation, but only a few things
are known beyond controversy and doubt Much has been
written without any foundation in fact or reality of those two
years, prior to her death in 1818, with no minister to preach
her funeral, until a Baptist minister named Elkin rode from
Kentucky several months afterward and preached it.

This and Mr. Lincoln's statement to a prominent Baptist
editor that " What I may be worth to the world is due to the
influence of my dear Baptist mother/' and what Mr. Hern-
don says in his life of Lincoln, that the influence of his Bap
tist mother in his early life made Lincoln a fatalist for life
is about all the definite information we possess as to her re
ligious faith and life. The Hanks family elsewhere than
Luke's family are pedobaptist as far as can be learned, and
Mrs. Manon sustains this statement of the Kentucky and
Illinois branches.

Thomas Lincoln was a religious cosmopolite. He had no
firm abiding faith and went from one denomination to an
other, and finally died a Campbellite. He seems to have had
as little aim in life as in his religious faith.

The statement so often made that Thomas Lincoln worked
for years at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with a Joseph Hanks,

126 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

a carpenter, who had brought up this girl Nancy Hanks, is
all without any foundation. This Joseph Hanks died in Nelson
County in 1783, leaving a will. There is no record of his
ever owning any property in Hardin County. Mrs. Mary
Ellen Manon, daughter of John Hanks, says the old Hanks
home was out on the falls of Rough Creek, about fourteen
miles from Bardstown, the county seat of Nelson.

I have gotten from Miss Barber, the librarian of the Car
negie Library at Atlanta, a true copy from the Atlanta Con
stitution, made for me September 5, 1915, of a letter of Abra
ham Lincoln of April 2, 1848, to a relative of his, David Lin
coln, of Virginia, in answer to his of March 30, inquiring
about the Lincoln family. He says he knows but little of the
brothers of his grandfather, Abraham; speaks a good deal of
Mordecai, Thomas Lincoln's oldest brother, and can tell a
good deal of him and that he moved to Illinois, where he
died. He says, " My father is still living in the seventy-first
year of his age in Coles County, Illinois; I am in my for
tieth year." He says, " Thomas, my father, has told me that
my grandfather had four brothers, Isaac, Jacob, John and
Thomas : is this correct ? " He seems to know but little of
them in the rest of the letter, except of Isaac, of whom he
says, " I am quite sure that Isaac resided on the Watauga
River near a point where Tennessee and Virginia join and
that he has been dead more than twenty or perhaps thirty
years, and that Thomas moved to Kentucky, where he died
many years ago."

Now Isaac bought his home in that locality in 1787 and
Thomas Lincoln was then not over eleven years old, but he
was the one from whom Abraham seems to have gotten all
his information of the Lincoln family and he appears clearly
to have known the exact place of Isaac's residence and about
when he died. Thomas Lincoln bought 238 acres of land
in Hardin County in 1803 and sold in 1814. He possibly
lived here till 1809 and went with Enloe, with Kentucky mules
and horses, and met Nancy, whom he brought back with him.
He never paid for this place and may have lived in Tennes
see at Isaac Lincoln's when employed by Enloe to go into
South Carolina. He moved on five or six miles from this
place and then in 1816 left for Indiana. He moved often,
was a wandering Arab. He and Nancy of Washington

JOHN C. CALHOUN 127

County could have commenced life when he was twenty-one
and given room for Sarah to have married Aaron Grigsby
in 1816 and not 1826, as the biographers claim. When this
Nancy died no one knows and where this Sarah lived while
he was away after 1809 in Tennessee no one can tell. Likely
she lived with her grandmother, Lucy Sparrow, or in the
home of one of her three aunts. Her mother Nancy must
have died shortly after 1806, or about that time, after spend
ing these years with Thomas Lincoln. In 1806 it is claimed
this forged marriage took place. It is very certain when he
came off to South Carolina in 1809 he had made overtures
to Miss Sarah Bush, whom he afterward married and brought
to the situation in 1819, after Nancy's death. That is why
I have struggled so hard with the clerk of Washington County
and the three lawyers to ascertain definitely as to the date of
the marriage and its record and why they all evade.

Mr. James D. Jenkins says Mrs. W. S. Tipton, now of
Texas, and a very old lady and a near relative, had written
him that she is a daughter of David Lincoln Stover and a
great-niece of Mrs. Isaac Lincoln. She says that in early life
she had seen a chimney on the side of Lynn Mountain where
once stood a house, the foundations of which are still visible,
and says her grandmother told her that Thomas and Nancy
Lincoln once lived in that house and that they were very
poor people. This was on the farm of his uncle, Isaac Lin
coln.

Mrs. Tipton's grandfather went and lived with Isaac Lin
coln and his wife after they lost their only son and child by
drowning. Her relatives became the heirs by the will of Mrs.
Isaac Lincoln at her death in 1834. She relates that it was
said Thomas Lincoln was a very lazy, thriftless man and his
uncle could not improve him. Her estate in 1815 possessed
about thirty-eight negroes.

We have read much of Nancy Lincoln's bright intelli
gence and of her capacity to teach little Abe and Sarah, but
the records show that the only place where her signature
occurs is to a deed in Kentucky, where she joins Thomas Lin
coln in the sale of the farm, and she signs with a cross mark.
Her father, in 1789, in the certified copy of his will, also
signs with a cross mark, and Joseph Hanks in Nelson County
in his will in 1783 signed with a cross mark. But illiterate

128 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

as she seems to have been she left an ineffaceable impression
on the mind of her distinguished son; and has left the im
pression so far as collectable of being a woman of good, hard
sense. But she is justly accused of brooding over a sad sit
uation too hard and too severe for endurance.

On Pigeon Creek, Indiana, the admirers of her son have
erected a nice monument to her memory; but the life of her
son and its results will ever be the greatest crown to that
mother of whom he always spoke with a respect and rever
ence nigh akin to adoration.

He was a child of destiny, if ever such a one existed.
He had the peculiar traits to fit him for his arduous, irksome
task, and no public servant in American history ever more
earnestly or more unselfishly devoted himself to his task. Not
till General Garfield could telegraph, " President Lincoln is
killed, but, blessed be God, the Republic lives," did his eventful
life come to its end and he to rest from his labors.

He was a man elevated from the common people, but it
never misled him. Though sorely tried he was never cast
down; though awfully beset by trials he never gave up, but
met his duty with reverent energy.

After 1832 John C. Calhoun made slavery and not the
tariff the real issue and his letters to distinguished Southern
men showed that we could not unite the Southern people on
the tariff, but that the slavery question must be pressed as the
vital issue and the tariff and others as secondary or subsidiary.
For twenty years this distinguished Carolinian was forging the
issue which really brought on the collision of 1860 and be
came the chief factor and agency in the slave-lord dynasty in
urging the crisis for which the hard life and early labors of
his own son carried by fortune to the atmosphere of a dif
ferent political region prepared him to be the Union's great
friend. Thus it was that the influence of the father's life was
largely nullified by that of his distinguished son.

When his part in the nation's great drama had been played
and his performance came to its eventful end the admiration
of friends and those who were once his foes now vie with
each other in doing reverence to his memory. Before his
nomination in 1860 he became fully convinced of his lineage
and nativity.

Mr. Herndon, his law partner, says he knows of many

JOHN C. CALHOUN 129

an occasion of his receiving letters from his old reputed home
asking about his life and those rumors of his legitimacy and
that he always destroyed and never answered them. Hern-
don says that these rumors became so common and scandalous
that Mr. Lincoln received only six votes from La Rue County,
which furnished 500 soldiers for the Union Army. La Rue
was cut from Hardin in 1840 and is a small county. I have
tried hard to get the vote that John C. Breckenridge and
Stephen A. Douglas received for the Presidency at the same
election, but the records there do not furnish me the informa
tion. I tried Mr. Lever, Congressman, to try at Washington,
D. C., for them and he states that he cannot get the informa
tion for me there and that he tried through the Congressman
from that district in Kentucky to procure them. After some
effort he reported to Mr. Lever that the records were destroyed
or lost and he could not get the vote of the three men for
the Presidency in La Rue County in 1860.

Slavery, once a blessing, had come to be a severe curse. It
was a blessing to the negro savage who was taken from his
haunts of brutality and idolatry and placed amongst the most
advanced state of Christian civilization in the world. He
became Christianized and worth far more to himself and his
race than if he had been left alone in his stolid heathenism
in Africa. In his new home he became a wonderful factor in
our national development, in spite of all that has been said
and is being said against the negro by Southern politicians.
In his case the missionary custom was reversed, and by the
cupidity and selfishness of his white master, North and South,
the heathen was brought to the Gospel. Great interest was
taken in the moral and spiritual condition of the slave by the
American master. The white man believed it would redound
to the comfort and elevation of the slave; but they forbade
his educational advancement because they believed it would
destroy the good of his moral elevation and endanger his use
fulness as a servant, and even imperil his ownership and con
tinued servitude. Not many men who would invest hundreds
and thousands of dollars in the slave trade would pay a single
cent to send the Gospel to the Africans at home. Our selfish
aims and intentions were controlled by God to very beneficent
ends and splendid results. And while it occupied the time
of our national Legislature for a long time, and while many

130 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

men, North and South, were debating the slave question and
slave rights, and Abolition, like all great issues, had to have
an igniting to bring it forth. The papers and periodicals did
much to this end, but when the time was ripe for the change,
" Uncle Tom's Cabin " set the magazine on fire and our
Civil War and its terrors were required to relieve the situa
tion and bring a lasting quietus to this country. Wars are
the greatest civilizers and reformers in the world. The four
years' war did more to change and advance the American sit
uation and political life than fifty years of campaigning and
political speech-making and Congressional disputations could
have done, and it was more perfectly enacted. The peculiar
traits and superiority of the Anglo-Saxon are his capacity to
revolutionize and make changes slowly without bloodshed;
but the time had come in his progress when that method was
too slow and God had to use a speedier means of change to
meet these emergencies. God's forecast is always equal to
the emergency.

The situation proved, all told, the greatest Protestant mis
sionary effort of the world and he is the most completely
Protestant of any race of men on earth, and in the South the
Catholic efforts to catch him are a dismal failure, — even in
New Orleans the Catholic negroes are not a corporal's guard.
In 1860 one defense the Confederacy and propagators urged
against Abolition was that the Catholic would catch him and
teach him superstition and ruin him, and a second was the
free negro would be lazy and produce no cotton and our
chief industry would be destroyed, but the free negro has
glutted the markets of the world and as a citizen has in
war met every duty and as a soldier in Europe equally with
his former masters successfully met the German — a failure
of prophecy complete.

Mr. Knotts wrote in pencil, and in some places his manu
script was not easy to read. I caused it to be copied as it
was received, and sent each of the longer letters, and all of
whose reading there was any doubt, to him for revision. He
often made additions and wrote postscripts, sometimes as long
as the original communication, and frequently of as great
interest. His revision of the foregoing brought back with
it this addition :

JOHN C. CALHOUN 181

LETTER OF D. J. KNOTTS

SWANSEA, S. C., Aug. 30, 1919.
DR. BARTON:

DEAR SIR — Yours of 28th, inclosing typewritten copies of
my letter at hand, and I am glad to make very important
changes. I write, as you see, a bad hand, and in a hurry, and
sometimes omit to express things fully.

John Hanks' daughter was Mrs. Mary Ellen Manon, and
lives in California. She wrote me a dozen letters, I suspect,
from first to last, on various features of the situation, trying
to get at what I wanted. About two years ago or so she had
been in hospital, but was then at home, and was thought bet
ter, from an operation. Her husband answered that. If she
is dead, she had a cousin, Mrs. Jordan, living in same town
who was Hanks who frequently united with her on some
statement about which she was not certain. You may get
yet one of the three.

I have no copies of the State paper, and the Editor says he
has none and has had several pleas for copies.

I will give also statement of Mrs. W. M. Vaught, a great-
niece of Mary Lincoln, Isaac's wife, of what her great aunt
and others have told her of Thomas Lincoln's home on Isaac's
farm. She says Thomas and Nancy lived on side of Lynn
mountain, and that the old rock foundations of the house
still are there on Isaac's old farm.

Mr. John Arthur lived in a little town near Asheville. His
book was published by the Daughters of the American Revo
lution or Confederacy. He died last year.

I don't object to your quoting me at all, as I am fully
convinced these facts are true.

I am busy for a day or two, but next week will answer
you more fully as to your inquiries, especially as to the local
information.

One from the husband of the niece of John C. Calhoun,
and was in Congress with him many years (in the lower
house) and a great lawyer, who died since the war. In 1866
he told some young law students of this affair in great secrecy
in his home and sitting room, which I got accidentally. I
wrote one of them and he declined, but owned my informa
tion was true, but refused to be quoted. I told Mr. Arthur

132 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of this, and he said he and this man went to law school to
gether, and he was a personal friend and he would make him
tell. Mr. Arthur states these facts in his book, but said his
friend was a strong friend of the Calhouns and he did not
care to offend them.

I have also a statement of John Hanks, a nephew of
Nancy (son of Luke, her brother) to Dr. Brown, his fam
ily physician, brother of Governor Joe Brown, of Georgia, in
presence of his (Brown's wife), who died four or five years
ago. She was very old and feeble and her daughter and eldest
child, Mrs. A. C. Latimer, the widow of Hon. A. C Latimer,
a U. S. Senator from South Carolina, who died about ten
years ago. Also statement of Mr. Lewis, secretary of Ma
sonic Lodge in 1872, of what Judge Orr said to his Masonic
brethren while he (Lewis) was making out Orr's Masonic
credentials to go to St. Petersburg when President Grant had
appointed him as Minister. Judge Orr was a lawyer at the
county seat, and knew all the older Hanks men. His father
succeeded Ann Hanks as tavern-keeper at Craytonville. He
was Congressman from South Carolina, and Speaker of the
House before the war. He saw Lincoln in Washington and
told him of his resemblance to the Hanks family and Lincoln
said, "Very likely of kin; my mother was a Nancy Hanks."
But when pushed Judge Orr said he retired into silence and
he could not venture further. Judge Orr told it to Luke
Hanks, Nancy's brother, and learned the real facts of the
fate of his sister Nancy, " and, poor girl, we don't know what
finally became of her," said Luke.

I will give you this and other soon.
Respectfully,

D. J. KNOTTS.

Mr. Knotts made plain in this extended correspondence
that he was an admirer of Lincoln, and a firm believer in the
soundness of his policies. Though the son of a slave-holder,
he looked back upon slavery with profound disapproval, and
he is in politics a Republican, and, as it appeared, an opponent
of the policies of President Wilson. Indeed, his interest in
current political questions as expressed in some of these letters,
almost overshadowed that in their main theme. Most of these

JOHN C. CALHOUN 133

discussions of current politics I have omitted, but here and
there have permitted some of the briefer allusions to
remain :

LETTER OF D. J. KNOTTS

(September i, 1919.)

The Hanks home was about eight or nine miles from
Bolton, South Carolina, where Dr. W. C. Brown, a young
physician, settled, and in 1856 was married to Miss Anna
Dean, an intelligent, cultured Christian young lady, of one of
the standard well-bred families of the county. Dr. Brown was
a younger brother of Governor Joe Brown, later a U. S.
Senator.

Judge Orr was from that county, and had met Lincoln in
Washington, and noticed his likeness to Luke Hanks and others
of the family, and attempted to discuss the matter with Lincoln.
Lincoln would only say that his mother was Nancy Hanks, and
then retired into his shell, and Congressman Orr desisted. He
pursued the matter further at home, however, and his investi
gation disclosed the fact that the slave debater with Douglas
was the son of an Anderson County girl, some of whose
brothers and sisters were still living, and furnished the data
to this congressman, Orr. This spread all around, and Mrs.
Byrd, Mrs. Brown's niece, told where she learned of what she
knew. I asked her daughter, Mrs. A. C. Latimer, widow of a
South Carolina senator, A. C. Latimer, then recently deceased,
to get her statement. She was very feeble, and in declining
health. She, in substance, said :

" In 1856 I married Dr. W. C. Brown of Bolton. Very
shortly after my removal to my new home, ' Uncle Johnny
Hanks/ a patron, came to Dr. Brown for medicine for some
of his family. Dr. Brown in my presence asked him, was
there any good ground for all this talk about Lincoln and Cal-
houn ? The old gentleman replied very decidedly, * I am sorry
to tell you, Doctor, that there is. Nancy was my father's
youngest sister and I know whereof I am talking. When the
family found out that Nancy had sinned and gone astray, she
asked to be allowed to stay till she could get away to her uncle's,
as best I remember, in Tejmessee; that Calhoun had promised
her $500 to take her away where it would not hurt him. This

134 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

uncle was a John Hanks, who came here with her father, and
had moved out to Tennessee. Just at this time Thomas Lincoln
appeared, with Enloe, as helper with horses, and solved the
trouble. He became scapegoat for Calhoun's sins/ '

Mrs. Brown said that Mr. Hanks stood well as a reliable,
truthful man. Hanks further said that young Calhoun often
stopped as he passed through, and fished and hunted with
the Hanks boys.

In 1849, James L. Orr was elected to Congress. Anderson
was his home. The Hanks home was about eleven miles
south of the County Seat. Orr knew all the Hanks men and
girls and their husbands. Luke, the older brother, was a
" court crier " for years, and Orr was a lawyer, and became
Speaker of the National House of Representatives, before the
War. He was afterwards Governor of South Carolina and
Judge. In 1870, President Grant appointed him minister to
Russia, and there he died in 1872. He was a great figure in
Masonry. While the clerk of his lodge was making out his
credentials to carry with him, he was talking freely of this
tragedy, and comparing Lincoln's and Calhoun's portraits and
discussing their likenesses. Mr. Lewis, the clerk, told me and
wrote me of this matter very frankly, and told me what he had
heard old men then dead, relate of the matter. Lewis said he
was busy, but could remember a good deal of what Judge Orr
said to his brother Masons in the hall. Orr related the meet
ing with Lincoln and its results, and he had traced the matter
through the Hanks family, and was fully convinced that there
could be no mistake about it whatever. Luke Hanks had two
sons, Thomas and James; and Mr. Lewis and other Anderson
men say they were living portraits of President Lincoln. The
mole, so prominent on Mr. Lincoln's right cheek, had its
counterpart in many of the older Hanks men. Monroe Hanks,
who is now doing business in Anderson, on side view is a
splendid profile of the President. He promised me a side-
view portrait for publication, but has not done so. He drove
me around and assisted me much in getting a mass of lineage
and history too large for this letter. I went to the old burying
lot of long ago. There are about 35 or 40 graves in it, all
of the Hanks family. After about 1845 they removed their
burying place to Ebenezer, a Methodist Church some two and
one half miles from the old home.

JOHN C. CALHOUN 135

In the southeast corner of the plat is the lonely resting
place of Luke and Ann Hanks. Around this little grave plat
in 1789, in May, trod a little country girl three years and three
or four months old, whose wanderings have baffled the skill
of historians and biographers alike, but the path and highway
trodden by her distinguished son are in reach of every grate
ful American.

You may think it strange, but Lincoln has more and truer
admirers here in this Southern country now than has either
Jefferson Davis or John C. Calhoun.

I am the son of a slave lord and land baron in 1860, and
who was a sincere and outspoken secessionist, and have no
natural antipathy for the cause. But we see now that ruin
would have resulted from Confederate success. I am a firm
believer in God's sovereignty and control in national affairs.
I feel confident the world's history shows that, but the rage
now in the last war now seems to assume that man power and
money can do anything. God's control seems but little recog
nized. In our Confederate cause it took draining, loss and
drainage, to bring General Lee to Appomattox and the South to
a real true conquest.

General Armistead Burt was a lawyer of great celebrity in
upper South Carolina in 1860, and before the war. He mar
ried Calhoun's niece. He and his wife had considerable slave
property. He greatly admired Calhoun as a man and his ideas
of government. Just after the Civil War, under protection
of coverture of his own home he confided in secrecy that in
his early life Calhoun fell in love with a handsome, poor coun
try girl, named Nancy Hanks. When things came to the
worst he hired a man named Lincoln to carry her away. He
never intimated to them where Lincoln was from or how he
got possession of this poor girl, or whatever became of her.
He lived in the town when Calhoun commenced the practice
of law, and near here lived others of the Calhoun line. They
were well to do in slave property. John C. Calhoun became
near the same time the father of an illegitimate child, who
became during the war and after one of South Carolina's
brightest stars in the legal fraternity. A brother of John C.
Calhoun (older) became father of a boy by a girl in a very
poor, common family in Abbeville (his county) and educated
him, and gave him a start. He became a rampant secession-

136 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

ist in South Carolina and in Washington, was Governor,
and then a national figure. He was George McDuffy.

It was in this General Burt's house that Jeff Davis spent
his last night in South Carolina. In his house the Confed
erate Cabinet had its last sitting at night, and used the Great
Seal of the Confederate Government for the last time, and
no one can trace the seal from there. In his house General
John C. Breckenridge began to dismiss the Southern Army
from service by giving discharges to soldiers. He had two
brigades with him, and he asked each general if his men
could be relied on as a nucleus for a new army, and each
replied : " No, their men were going home." He burst into
tears and said he had done the best he could with his charge,
and his mistakes, if any, were of the head and not the heart.

Mrs. Fanny Marshall, of this town, told me she was in
this home that night to try and interest and care for this
honorable body. She was a Calhoun, and second cousin of
John C. Calhoun; and told me a great deal more of the inner
life of the Calhouns — a very intelligent woman. She owned
the land and house a few blocks from this, where the public
meeting was held in 1860 to call a secession convention.
Here were quite a number of distinguished South Carolinians,
and around here was a good deal of slave-land aristocracy.
With them it became very common for close kin to marry,
" to keep the negroes in the family." That was getting to
be one of the slavery curses, and also that of masters having
slave wives, and in so many cases becoming common, of
their sons having concubines among the better looking negro
girls and then remaining single otherwise.

I spent two days there in Calhoun's home town looking
up records. It was here I found Luke Hanks' will, dated
May 3» I7%9> and signed by making his mark. Joseph Hanks,
in Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1783 (a brother) also made
his mark. In 1816 in Hardin County, when Thomas Lin
coln sold out, his wife, Nancy, signed with him, and made
her mark. This was two years before the poor girl died.

After the death of the Nancy of Washington County,
Thomas Lincoln courted and was engaged to a Miss Sarah
Bush, of Hardin County, and so matters stood when he went
with Abe Enloe to South Carolina to assist with his drove
of Kentucky mules. This left Sally Bush destitute : but she

JOHN C. CALHOUN 137

married a Johnston, and when Nancy died this Sally Bush,
or Mrs. Johnston, was a widow with some children. Then
Thomas Lincoln came back and married her. She was alive
after the war when Mr. Herndon made such a failure in
trying to get any information about Nancy, and says she
would become angry and positively refuse to answer any in
quiry about this poor, ill-fated girl.*

The Hanks family, in all the records of marriage, etc.,
seems to have been Pedo-Baptist in faith, except this family
of Luke Hanks. They were all Baptists as far as any records
show. There is positive evidence of the mother, Ann, and
Luke and four sisters who died near the old home. Tom
Lincoln was a religious cosmopolite, belonging to several
churches at different times, and finally died a Campbellite.
Luke and the girls here had membership in a Baptist church,
and a Baptist, Elkin, rode a long distance several months
after Nancy's death to preach her funeral. President Lin
coln told a Baptist editor during the war his mother was a
Baptist, and what good he was to the world was due to " my
angel Baptist mother," as he reports her.

Mr. Herndon 5 says the early training of his Baptist
mother made him a fatalist for life. This is, so far as I
know, all I know of her denominational faith. She made
a profound impression on his mind in the few years she had
his control, and it is to his lasting honor he always spoke of
her in almost a sacred manner.

President Lincoln's inclination to those periods of sad
ness and ennui is due to his Calhoun inheritance. Mr. Cal-
houn's biographers (one at least) report this and also some
letters by a Presbyterian minister who married his sister,
and with whom he stayed and went to school in boyhood
for a while ; and I believe his brother-in-law was his teacher.
He wrote to the family he feared these periods of sadness
and anguish might yet have a sad influence on his life, and
told his home folks to encourage him to active outdoor exer
cise, such as hunting, fishing, etc. But most of his biogra
phers do not like to report this fact, and generally omit it.
Calhoun had a high power of analysis and discrimination,

4 This is not an accurate report of Herndon's statement. — W. E. B.

0 Herndon says that Lincoln's early Baptist environment made him
a fatalist. He does not, in that connection, make direct reference to
Lincoln's mother.— W. E. B.

138 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

and these President Lincoln possessed in a high degree. Mr.
Calhoun, though of a Presbyterian family, was accused of
being dangerously infidel, like Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Cal
houn greatly admired Jefferson, and Jefferson was a pro
nounced infidel, and a very immoral man. It was through
his influence that a house of impure women was attached to
the University of Virginia, and all under medical control.
In all his early and middle life President Lincoln was strongly
infidel : but the press and weight of the war seems to have
about eliminated his infidelity, as his two greatest efforts
show, — the Gettysburg address and the Second Inaugural.
I was writing some articles for the press on the great men
of history, Cyrus, Alexander, etc., showing how God con
trolled in the civil convulsions of men: and in one of them
referred to Lincoln as coming to the top just as the world
needed a great man, and dilated a little on his capacity and
fitness and how he brought to a finale the long life of his dis
tinguished father. Then I got into a hornet's nest. For a
while after my reply not all was quiet in Warsaw.

I feel really that Lincoln passed out in a really beautiful
evening. His mission was ended, and his big heart was not
adapted to the convulsions which followed.

Lincoln could appoint a personal enemy to service, if he
was suitable for the job. Jeff Davis never could do that.
Like Mr. Wilson, he favored his friends, whether capable or
not. Mr. Davis was painfully so. Being an Episcopalian, he
strongly advanced that faith whenever possible in any ap
pointment. He was continually flouting or snubbing some
member of his Cabinet or Senate whom he feared or sus
pected was trying to succeed him. He was often in a sweat
with some member of Richmond high society whose wife had
criticised Davis* wife as being unsuited to lead in Richmond
high life, but he had the energy and vim to carry out the
views of his slave-lord creators, and to bring God's aims to
their fruition, and running down the South's force and power
to a nullity. What Davis aimed at failed, but God's aim bore
fruit in providing the two most suitable men for the situation.

Mr. P. B. Christie, several years ago, ran a large store
in Columbia, S. C, and I was frequently there, living only
twenty-five miles south of it. I suggested to him one day
right cautiously that I had heard that he and President Davis

JOHN C. CALHOUN 139

were half-brothers. He smiled right pleasantly and said,
" Mr. Knotts, I am told by the best men and women in Edge-
field, his county, that this is true; and really, I believe so my
self. If you will go with me out to dinner I will show their
pictures side by side."

I accepted, and really there is the rarest number of cases
where a father and son more decidedly favor each other.
He told me that often times men in his home had taken his
father as a brother or near kinsman of Davis, and when
told that he was his father, the next question generally was,
What kin was he to President Davis?

How strange that both the principal actors should come
from South Carolina, and from adjoining counties, and both
sons of poor ladies by slave lords!

Lincoln's exportation placed him under different ideals.

In the record made by President Lincoln in his father's
family Bible, he says, " Sarah, daughter of Thomas Lin
coln, married Aaron Grigsby." Again, " Sarah, daughter of
Thomas Lincoln, wife of Aaron Grigsby, died." He twice
denies, thus, that she is Abraham's sister, and does not say
in either case when she was born. I doubt if he knew. But
being Nancy's daughter of Washington County might con
fuse with his kinship, and he leaves that part off. But in
writing his own birth he says, " son of Thomas and Nancy
Lincoln." He says also " Nancy Lincoln was born 1-87."
The second figure is gone, and the third shows that it can
not be an "o," to make it 1807. Herndon says that he was
recording his own mother's birth. A microscope shows it
to be very much as above. Henry Watterson and others say
this was the daughter Nancy, and that she and Sarah were
the same. But Mr. Herndon says that Mrs. Lincoln, John
and Dennis Hanks all deny positively that she was ever called
anything but Sarah. Mrs. Manon, daughter of John Hanks,
does not say who Lincoln's mother was; seems a little con
fused; but does give all of Joseph Hanks' children, and the
three girls and who two of them married, and says that Den
nis was Nancy's son. She says about this, " I know that
Dennis Hanks was father's first cousin." She says she knows
the two older girls' husbands and says that neither of them
was Lincoln's mother, and leaves the only alternative for
Nancy as his mother.

140 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In such a condensed statement I have to leave out a
great deal that would make better connection. I cannot think
of Lincoln as taking such huge responsibilities on his single
shoulders as the League and Treaty. Wilson's course in
Versailles and here will be a peculiar possession of Mr. Wil
son. It seems to me to be one of the most erratic, insane
productions in all diplomacy. Mr. Wilson seems to have
no conception whatever of God's control in civic affairs. He
seems to regard that a peculiar fitness of his and a field for
man's greatness and research. To take this great question
into his own custody is a vanity I do not think even Nebuch
adnezzar exceeded.

I trust I have not wearied you.
Respectfully,

D. J. KNOTTS.

The correspondence of Mrs. Manon, daughter of old John
Hanks, was one of the important features in Mr. Knotts'
letters to me, and I endeavored to learn from him all that he
had learned from her. As there were important gaps in the
narrative, I wrote to Mrs. Manon and to her cousin; but I
did not find them communicative. I infer from her letters
to Mr. Knotts that she does not confirm the tradition of
Mrs. Hitchcock, which fact I regret; for I should like to
have that tradition confirmed by the Hanks family. I did
not press the matter, however, because it had only an inci
dental interest and no real importance for this inquiry. Mrs.
Manon says that her father, John Hanks, was a first cousin
of Dennis. Nancy Hanks, the mother of Dennis and aunt
of the President's mother, appears to have been John Hanks'
first cousin.

LETTER OF D. J. KNOTTS

September 3, 1919.

Mrs. Manon gives fully the names of all the Joseph
Hanks' family (five sons and three girls), just as they are
in his will, a copy of which I have from the records, giving
one horse to each son, naming the horses, and one heifer to
each of the girls, naming the heifers. Nancy's was " Pied."
Mrs. Manon tells whom each boy married, and whom the

JOHN C. CALHOUN 141

two older girls married. One married Jesse Friend, and the
other I do not remember just now. Mrs. Manon was daugh
ter of William's oldest son, who was executor of Joseph
Hanks' will and eldest brother of Nancy. Mrs. Manon says
she knows her father, John Hanks, was son of William, and
gives names of all John's brothers and sisters. She says she
knows positively that Dennis and her father were first cous
ins, and of course that means that one of the three girls was
his mother. She says she knows that he was illegitimate.
She knew him from girlhood, and was frequently in his
home, even after he moved to Charlestown; that he was a
splendid shoemaker and married one of Sarah Bush Johns
ton-Lincoln's daughters.

Mr. Herndon says Etennis told him that he was illegiti
mate and that his mother was a Nancy Hanks. Mr. Hern
don also says that Dennis told him that Lincoln's mother
was Nancy Sparrow, and that she was not a Hanks at all :
that she was a daughter of Thomas and Lucy Sparrow.

I questioned Mrs. Manon, and she did not know who
Nancy, her great-aunt, married, or what became of her, but
she knows Dennis was illegitimate and her father's first cousin,
and that his mother was Nancy. The Washington County
Nancy was the one alleged to have been Lincoln's mother
till Mrs. Hitchcock found the will of Joseph and his daugh
ter Nancy, and she fully settled the matter without any
further investigation. D. J. KNOTT.

I endeavored to learn from Mr. Knotts something more of
his correspondence with the daughter of John Hanks, and
asked him to loan me his letters from her, which he kindly
did. I endeavored to obtain information direct from her
and her cousin who lives near her in California, but had no
great success; nor do I think she knows much more than she
told in her letters to Mr. Knotts. As her letters to him were
written before she was quite as guarded as she later appears
to have become, I desired to examine her letters to him;
and he kindly sent them. Excerpts from them are found in
the appendix ; but they do not add much to what is contained
elsewhere. Mr. Knotts relates in this letter how he lost some
of her Correspondence:

142 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

LETTER OF D. J. KNOTTS

SWANSEA, S. C., Oct. i, 1919.
DR. BARTON :

MY DEAR SIR — Your letter received today.

The most of Mrs. Manon's letters were about the kin of
John Hanks, her father, and Dennis Hanks, and most of them
were about the Hanks family in Illinois, Joseph Hanks, and
the Lincoln family in Illinois. She wrote two or more to me
in answer to mine, about the Republican Convention of 1860,
and what she saw. Amongst other things, she saw her father
drive home with the two-horse load of rails selected from
fences built of rails split by her father and Abraham Lincoln.
She remembered well that her father walked into the Conven
tion with three of them, which he and Governor Oglesby had
selected, and that he sold the rest of them for $10 each as
souvenirs to Lincoln's political friends. She gave me the
names of several distinguished men who bought them, and
she said she knew that there were persons in Illinois who had
them, but she did not give their names to me.

In corresponding with clerks with regard to records, some
of them made themselves very intimate, and wanted to know
more of what I was doing; and one of them wrote to me
that he had seen an old coat once worn by Lincoln, and it
was badly tattered and very ragged.

I am very sorry of losing about a year ago many of Mrs.
Manon's letters, and some also from Anderson County, and
also those of the lady who examined the records in Spring
field, Kentucky. I sincerely regret losing these.

It occurred in this way : One day I was writing and had
many of these letters by me on the floor, and I was called to
dinner. I carelessly left the door open, and many of the
papers were blown into the fire. After dinner I went to the
postoffice, and the girl who cleaned up my room in my ab
sence thought them refused letters, and swept quite an amount
into the fire. I can regain those from offices in Anderson
and Abbeville, but Mrs. Caruthers, of Kentucky, is dead, and
I really regret the loss of the examinations she made for me
in the estates of the families of the Berrys and Lincolns. She
made an exhaustive report of the records in the clerk's office
at Springfield, Ky., showing the fraudulent returns of about
eighteen couples alleged to have been married by Jesse Head,

JOHN C. CALHOUN 143

and the failure of the clerk's office to show anything until
these returns. Amongst these papers also was an exhaustive
examination of the records in Amelia County, Va., of the
Hanks family there, their sales and suits, and of William
Hanks' leaving.

I am also in hopes and expectations a pure, genuine Re
publican; have been so since the end of Cleveland's second
term. Since then I have had no confidence in the capacity or
cohesion of the Democratic party on any national issue. I
have never had any confidence in Woodrow Wilson. He is
so vain, silly and conceited that I have a contempt for him
that I have never had for any public man of importance.
He is an imaginative theorist and blatherskite, and I really
fear is deceptive and selfish. He is a buffoon of the first de
gree. His trip west to drive the Senate was certainly an
idiotic and bigoted stand for a President. He feels that he
is the government.

[The remainder of the letter relates to present-day poli
tics, and to religion, and does not contain further reference
to the papers relating to Lincoln.]

I hope you are well and continue to be useful in the world's
betterment. Respectfully,

D. J. KNOTTS.

Mr. Knotts is a voluminous correspondent, an ardent
Baptist, a strong believer in the overruling Providence of
God in the life of America, and an admirer of Abraham Lin
coln. I am indebted to him for a number of important let
ters which he loaned to me, as well as for information which
enabled me to procure, after much search, Arthur's History
of Western North Carolina. But I did not make much prog
ress in my effort to secure a consistent report of the relations
of Lincoln on the Hanks side, and finally abandoned it. Mr.
Knotts continued to send me interesting items and some doc
uments :

LETTER OF D. J. KNOTTS

SWANSEA, S. C., Nov. 12, 1919.
DR. W. E. BARTON:

DEAR SIR — A few days ago I sent you some of the col
lection of letters I had remaining and other records of value.

144 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Mrs. W. M. Vaught, of Elizabethtown, Tenn., had furnished
me copies of Isaac Lincoln's will and his wife, Mary, — Mrs.
Vaught is a great-niece of Mrs. Mary Lincoln, who was Mary
Ward before her marriage. Mr. J. D. Jenkins, some of
whose letters I sent you, is a great nephew of Mrs. Lincoln.
A good deal of my correspondence with Mrs. Manon was
about the family in Illinois and how descended. I was espe
cially anxious to fix John Hanks and Dennis Hanks' kinship.
She says she knows they were first cousins and that he was
an illegitimate son of one of his grandfather, William Hanks'
sister, but did not know which one, nor did not even know
how many sisters and brothers her grandfather had till I sent
her a copy of Joseph Hanks' will, naming- his children. She
had seen one of Watterson's pieces and cut it out and sent it to
me, in which he made the daughter of Joseph Hanks Lincoln's
mother, but as Mrs. Manon said, without any proof of her life
or origin. Watterson said Joseph lived in Hardin County
and was a carpenter. To this statement Mrs. Manon and her
cousin, Mrs. Jordan, took issue and said that William Hanks'
father was a shoemaker and so was Dennis Hanks. I spent,
after writing to her, a good deal of time and money looking
after the Hanks family in Illinois.

I was really interested in the matter, for my interest is
in the real manhood and true greatness of Abraham Lincoln,
and not for fault-finding or blemish-hunting. After 1832
Calhoun's life was embittered with the sadness and disap
pointed ambition in failing to grasp the Presidency. His life
was ambitious and selfish, and then revengeful. He was not a
national character, was entirely Southern and sectional in
his political life and indulged in a bad spirit. I do not be
lieve that American history produces Lincoln's equal as a
purely, loyal, patriotic national character, entirely unselfish,
but purely a friend to the Union and to the best way to pre
serve it. A plain, blunt, unpretending man, but honest and
candid. I rode by Mr. McGee's home, who was an old man,
about 85 years old, an intelligent man. He told me he mar
ried in 1851 James Emerson's youngest daughter and had
lived within three or four miles of this Hanks family ever
since. James Emerson was a magistrate and slave-lord, who
died in 1865, an old man. Mr. McGee told me that Mr.
Emerson had employed Luke Hanks for years as his court

JOHN C. CALHOUN 145

officer and constable and that he had an abiding faith in his
integrity and honesty and said all his children had established
that credit and all the older Hanks folks he had any trans
actions with appeared to be of this stamp and that the girls
and women of the older Hanks family bore a fine name. He
rode to the Ebenezer Graveyard and we looked around over
the same. On Luke's tomb was this inscription, " God gave
him an honest heart." Mr. McGee and Mrs. Drake, an older
daughter of Squire Emerson, and a very intelligent old lady
of 92 years, said she had known the Hanks men and women
from her girlhood and it was for truth and honesty. I could
give evidences of what these two intelligent old slave-holders
told me of the Hanks character and both told me that you
could not tell The mas Hanks from Lincoln in two good
photographs.

Keep the letters and book as long as you need them.
Respectfully,

D. J. KNOTTS.

The next letter deals mostly with other matters, but gives
the name of the man who told Mr. Knotts of General Hurt's
information concerning J. C. Calhoun.

SWANSEA, S. C., March 12, 1920.

General M. L. Bonham, a former Attorney General of the
state of South Carolina, was a classmate of John P. Arthur
at law school of Washington and Lee University of Virginia.
He lives at Anderson and practices law. He it was who heard
General Burt in the secrecy of his home say to him and
certain other young law students in 1867, I believe, about
Calhoun's paternity of Lincoln. He refused myself and Mr.
Arthur to disclose his name, possibly on account of his inti
macy with the Calhoun family.

D. J. KNOTTS.

While I did not pursue the questions arising out of the
relations of the large and widely scattered Hanks family, I
desired, and most earnestly, to be sure of the family of Luke
and Ann Hanks, and especially to know about the daughter
Nancy. This I had difficulty in accomplishing, and my in
quiries addressed to the Clerk of the Anderson County Court

146 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

brought answer that no such lists were to be found there.
Later, I procured them, as will be stated in a subsequent chap
ter, and they are of very great importance. This last letter
which I quote from Mr. Knotts bears on these records, to
whose significance I shall later refer:

SWANSEA, March 15, 1920.
MY DEAR SIR:

The long list of the Hanks heirs is on record in Anderson,
S. C, in the Clerk of Courts' office. The Hanks family tried
to have a division and made a list of the children, and even
sold the land under the division. The list they made out
named only the real children or the husbands or wives. Of
some of the dead ones they would say, " heirs of Susan
Hanks," meaning children; and in the case of Charles Hanie
by right of his wife, Elizabeth, making eleven in all, and the
final showed twelve divisions.

The whole being illegal, Jane Davis and her husband
Valentine Davis brought suit by employing a very proficient
lawyer, Peter Van Diver. It is said he never appeared in
the courthouse but was a splendid office lawyer. He brought
suit as Jane Davis and her husband against this long list of
heirs, all of record in the courthouse in Anderson. In 1789
when Luke Hanks died this home was in Abbeville County,
but in 1828 Anderson was cut off into a new county.

Mr. John P. Arthur sought information in these matters,
and I referred him to his classmate of Washington and Lee
University, General M. L. Bonham. Somehow Mr. Bonham
stopped with the first illegal division, and I told Mr. Arthur
to get Mr. Geiger who had assisted me; and he and General
Bonham obtained what he wanted. Officers then were not so
regular and precise as they are now and it requires a little
caution in tracing estates. I have ascertained that the Virginia
records are most regular, and next to these those of Illinois,
of all the states I examined.

I think Lincoln's early life was full of infidelity, but I
really believe the cares and trials of his life entirely eliminated
this and he became a full believer in God. He was a man of
spotless moral character.

D. J. KNOTTS.

PART III: A CRITICAL AND CONSTRUC
TIVE ANALYSIS

PART III: A CRITICAL AND CONSTRUC
TIVE ANALYSIS

CHAPTER XV
THE RULES OF EVIDENCE

IT will not be surprising if the reader finds himself at this
point somewhat bewildered, and a trifle doubtful concerning
the result of this inquiry. We have gone to great labor, and
soiled much white paper, and what have we but a confused
collection of scandal, expressed in some instances in labored
argument and in others in vague surmise and indistinct
rumor. How are we ever to emerge from a dismal swamp
such as that in which we now find ourselves ?

If the reader does not experience some such feeling as this,
his emotions are quite different from those of the author,
when he came at length to realize that in his pursuit of an
other aspect of Lincoln's life, he had mired his feet in this
morass, from which his first attempts to escape got him in the
deeper, and tangled him in thorns. It was a debatable ques
tion whether to turn back or to force his way through.

How are we ever to learn the truth about matters of this
character ?

The ready answer is that we are to appeal to History.

But what is History, and how is it born or made, and what
is its authority?

I trust the reader will not find wearisome a few pages of
personal reminiscence, which may possibly have some illus
trative value at this point.

I have always been interested in History. It was a great
day in the annals of my early education when to Reading,
Writing, Arithmetic, Grammar and Geography, I was per
mitted to add a study of Quackenbos' History of the United

149

150 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

States. I devoured it with avidity. I did not stop with the
assigned lesson, but kept myself out of mischief by reading
the book when I was not required to do so. A year or two
later, having advanced into a higher grade in our so-called
High School, I was introduced to Barnes' School History of
the United States. It comprised a narrative of events in
large type, and a great wealth of footnotes containing historic
incidents. This book I practically committed to memory, the
text and especially the notes.

In those days school terms closed with public oral examina
tions. The teacher as well as the school was under examina
tion, and the teacher took pains that pupils called upon should
be examined in those branches in which they were supposed
to excel. I shone in History. Asked any question in the book,
I could start and very nearly recite the book backward or for
ward. The proud look of my teacher on these occasions still
serves to comfort me when I recall some experiences in which,
for reasons which I will not here narrate, the facial expression
was less benign. In History I was not counted a failure. I
thought I knew History.

In college I was introduced to Universal History. My
record there was perhaps less brilliant but was rather better
than moderately satisfactory to the instructors, and I never had
any doubt about my grades in that department.

I entered upon my post-graduate study for my degree in
Theology with what was supposed to be advanced credit in
History. For that reason I took up in my first year those
courses in Church History which were regularly shown in
the catalogue as belonging to more mature students. I found
this study much more exacting, and I will not pretend to
any such record as I believed myself to have made in my
earlier years, but I still thought well of my knowledge of
History, and often said to myself that if I should ever be
come a college professor, that was one of the branches which
I should feel competent to teach.

In the middle of my Divinity course, I elected advanced
work in Church History. Then I learned the Seminar method,
at that time rather newly imported from European univer-

THE BURDEN OF PROOF 151

sities. We did not learn History from books of History, treat
ing of particular periods and countries; we went to original
sources, and were required to write chapters of History that
were supposed to be original.

Then it was I discovered that I had never known History.

If up to that time I had been asked, What is History?
I should have answered that History is the record of past
events, as they have been duly accredited and set forth in
reliable books. I knew, to be sure, that books disagreed,
and that the student must compare historian with historian
and make allowance for national prejudice and for other
limitations.

But when I began to write histories of my own, I was
appalled at the nature of the sources.

Out of what material do historians make the books in
which History is recorded?

Largely out of other books.

But what was the material used by the authors of the
earlier books?

They used, or endeavored to use, original sources.

What are original sources?

Original sources consist in such materials as these:

The verbal testimony of eye-witnesses when this can be
obtained; if not, then testimony of those to whom events are
related by eye-witnesses; oral traditions; newspapers, or clip
pings from newspapers giving information of current events;
diaries; personal letters and family records.

And this litter of uncertainty was what History was to be
made of! We were given trunks full of this stromata and
told to make History of it! Surely here was a demand that
we produce a sweet-voiced whistle out of a pig's tail! This
fragmentary and contradictory material, preserved in patches
and often for quite other purposes, was what historians had
to work with, knowing all the time that the really important
material must often have perished and the unimportant and
perhaps the misleading, preserved!

I had long bowed down to History. It was for me an idol
with head of gold and breast of silver and thighs of brass.

152 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Now I beheld it as having feet of iron mingled with mirey
clay, and standing, not on the rock of certain established
verity, but knee-deep in the perilous quicksand of tradition.

Who could ever hope to know anything ? What was His
tory, but what Voltaire called it, a lie which men agree to call
truth? History, I said to myself, was Mystery.

But I found the case to be not quite so hopeless. I beheld,
and since have had abundant occasion to discover, that many
so-called historians merely mire themselves in the swamp of
unverified tradition, and that, when they once succeed in get
ting their books printed, wiser people receive them as pos
sessed of authority. But I also found that it is possible to at
tain, not complete certainty, which never belongs to things
human, but sufficient probability to be accepted as trustworthy.

Some little study of law which I had pursued before
entering the ministry, proved of value to me ; and I employed,
when from time to time I had occasion to pursue historical in
vestigation, some of the principles which I learned under the
rules of evidence.

First of all, we need to assure ourselves that we have
secured the essential facts. I will not say all the facts, for we
can never secure all the facts. Every fact is related to every
other fact, and every story, if fully told, begins with the crea
tion of the world. Out of the impossible total of facts, bearing
directly or remotely upon our inquiry, which are really essen
tial to our purpose? Are we sure that we have all such facts
that can possibly be secured ? Are we sure that among those
facts which we are unable to secure there can be none which
would materially alter the significance of those which we al
ready have?

Now, it must be apparent to any one who knows books of
History that very many of them were prepared by men and
women who did not approach their task with any such view of
the method which they were to pursue. They gathered a
few facts and some traditions from apparently reliable sources,
and built up their books almost wholly out of unverified
material. They did no intelligent work of selection. They
had no adequate theory of the working of cause and effect

THE BURDEN OF PROOF 153

in History. They merely gathered so much of the shale of
tradition and, heaping it into a book, proclaimed it to be
solid historical rock. One who would buy the truth and sell
it not has to pay the bookseller for the same old lies told over
and over, often by men who do not know enough of History
to know that they are lying. Let the most stupid of blunders
find its way into type and it will be copied and affirmed by
men much wiser than the original author of the blunder.

Our task, and the task of all serious historians, is, —

First, the assembling of the whole body of fact, so far as
that is humanly possible.

Secondly, the sifting of these facts into those that are
and those that are not relevant to our purpose.

Thirdly, the subjecting of the testimony to a merciless but
sympathetic analysis, a keen and determined critical inspection,
that will permit no error to masquerade as truth, and no ir
relevant detail to throw us off the scent of the really important
fact.

Finally, there must be a constructive genius. This is not
easy to combine with the critical spirit. But it requires both of
these to write History.

In the matter now before us, we have gone part way. We
have painstakingly assembled our evidence, and so far as we
can learn, we have in hand all the evidence that can be of
material assistance to us. One side of that evidence has been
presented. We are now to examine it in the true historic
spirit, a spirit of careful analysis, a spirit of constructive
expectation that we shall learn the truth. If we succeed, we
may make it unnecessary for any one else to write books on
this subject. We may actually make, what historians aspire
to make, a contribution to the sum of human knowledge.

I should like at this point to ask the reader to agree with
me that thus far, at least, the inquiry has been a fair and
impartial one. It will be difficult to seem impartial after we
take up the cross examination of these witnesses. Inevitably
the author will disclose what will appear to be prejudices, and
will seem to become a prosecuting attorney rather than a
judge. Let us now pause for a moment, and reflect that thus

154 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

far there has been no evidence of bias. The author has en
deavored to obtain every fact, every report, every rumor, that
had a bearing upon this question. He has expended more
money for postage than he is likely to get back in profits on
the book. He has traveled far to points remote and not all of
them easy of access. He has interviewed or corresponded
with every person whom he had reason to believe could give
him any information, on either side of any of the questions
which he has now been discussing. It will now become his
duty to sift this evidence, and bring to it such critical skill as he
may have learned, in order that the truth shall finally be dis
covered. Let the reader agree that thus far the evidence has
been sought out with a considerable degree of industry, and in
a spirit that has been at least willing to learn.

We now have before us, as fully as it has been possible to
secure it, the evidence in its several forms that Abraham Lin
coln was not the son of Thomas Lincoln. The author has
assumed the responsibility, which he does not regard as a light
one, of producing every allegation, including some that have
never been in print before, against the chastity of Nancy
Hanks. It is now in order to submit each one of these in
turn, and then the group as a whole, to a critical analysis.
We must inquire concerning each of these, where and when
it originated ; whether the persons who first made these state
ments and those through whom they were transmitted, were
truthful, unbiased and competent; whether the stories were in
circulation at the time or whether they became current later,
and if so how much later; whether they are supported by suffi
cient evidence to outweigh the legal and moral presumption
that stands in favor of the virtue of a woman who can no
longer speak on her own behalf; and whether they corrobo
rate or contradict each other.

The law of libel holds not only with regard to the good
name of the living, but also with respect to that of the dead.
It is as serious an offense against the civil law and against
good morals to blacken the reputation of the dead as it is to
assail the fair fame of the living. Nancy Hanks cannot be
heard in her own defense, but she must not be condemned on

THE BURDEN OF PROOF 155

idle hearsay. Those who defame her must come into court
with clean hands, and must produce their evidence, and sub
mit to cross examination and to contrary testimony.

The burden of proof is not upon Nancy Hanks, but upon
those who declare that she was not virtuous. She is fully
entitled, both in law and in good morals, to the presumption
that she was a virtuous woman. She married at twenty-three
and she lived with one man as his wife until her death. It is
to be presumed that Thomas Lincoln knew what kind of
woman he was marrying, and that she had so behaved before
marriage that he could trust her, or believed that he could,
and that after marriage she continued to conduct herself in
such fashion that he continued to trust her. If that is not
true, there must be sufficient evidence to establish her bad
reputation, either before or after marriage. She is entitled
to be considered innocent unless and until she is proved guilty.

It is not necessary that Thomas Lincoln shall produce wit
nesses to the act of procreation by which Abraham Lincoln
came into being. That is not required of any man. If
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were living together as husband
and wife at the time Abraham Lincoln was born, and sustain
ing in the sight of their neighbors relations that had the appear
ance of matrimony, their mutual consent and cohabitation is
in itself satisfactory proof of the legitimacy of their offspring,
unless there is overwhelming testimony to the contrary. If
they had been living together for some time previous, and
continued to live together for some years subsequent, to the
birth of Abraham Lincoln, the presumption in favor of his
being a legitimate child is greatly strengthened, and the evi
dence to overthrow that presumption must be strong and con
sistent.

Fornication and adultery are seldom proved by witnesses
to the overt act; but neither of them is to be assumed except
on the basis of such a volume of testimony as is sufficient to
overthrow the presumption of chastity, and establish the fact
of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

An important question will emerge as we proceed, and will
Several times confront us, and be fully considered at the close ;

156 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

do these stories tend to confirm each other, or do they mutually
weaken each other ? Is their effect cumulative, or is it such as
to indicate a vague mass of unfounded rumor?

We shall answer this question in its place. But one thing
we should have in mind from the beginning; not all of these
stories can be true. Indeed, when we look at them closely we
discover that not more than one of them can be true. Out
of the seven, six certainly are false. It is our clear duty to
discover six false stories out of seven, and it is necessary that
we find six that are false, if we establish one that is true.

Furthermore, if we find six that are false, that does not
in any wise create a presumption that the seventh is true. The
seventh must in its turn produce its evidence, submit to cross
examination, and show that it is true beyond a reasonable
doubt. Not only will the discovery of the six certainly false
stories create no presumption that the seventh is true, but every
element of plausibility that we discover in the six that we
find to be false will serve to put us on our guard against the
possibility of similar falsehoods that may take on the aspect
of truth in the seventh.

Does this mean that we are determined to prove Nancy
Hanks a virtuous woman?

No; but it means that she is entitled to be believed a virtu
ous woman unless clear proof can be adduced that she was not
so. The judge upon the bench would so instruct the jury.
She is entitled to every reasonable presumption in advance,
and that presumption is to be strengthened by all the evidence
which can be adduced in favor of her virtue. She does not
have to prove it. The burden of proof is upon those who
assail her character. They must prove their case.

With these reminders of the rules of evidence, we are now
to take up one by one the several charges or reports that
affect the paternity of Abraham Lincoln and the chastity of
Nancy Hanks. And having examined them singly, we shall
consider them as a whole.

CHAPTER XVI

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN COUNTY,
KENTUCKY

THE first of these stories which we are to examine is that
which gained currency in the immediate neighborhood of Lin
coln's birth, and which affirms that he was the son of his
father's neighbor, Abraham Enlow.

There was such a man as Abraham Enlow. He lived in
the neighborhood where Abraham Lincoln was born. His
grandchildren and great grandchildren still are there.

It is not my intention in subsequent chapters to repeat in
succession the stories that are found in Part II. The reader
can turn back to them one by one and refresh his memory if he
desires. In the case of this first story, however, it will be
worth while to repeat it in the form in which it is easy to
pick up in the vicinity of Hodgenville.

One has no need to go far into La Rue County to pick
up gossip concerning the birth of Lincoln. Before I reached
Hodgenville, on the occasion of my first visit, I had become
fairly well acquainted upon the train, with a man who was
born in Hodgenville and has lived there all his life. He fur
nished me much valuable information as to the people whom
I might see. When we had talked of other matters, I asked
him what he knew or had heard of Lincoln's parentage. He
said:

" All I know about it is what all the old folks used to say,
and they all said that the father of Lincoln was Abe Enlow.
I never heard them give any reasons, or tell how they knew,
but they all knew the story and believed it. There may have
been some who did not, but all that I remember to have heard
say anything about it took it for granted it was true.

" This county was Democratic, and sent its boys mostly
to the Southern army. There was a time when Lincoln was

167

158 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

not highly thought of here. People said he brought on the war,
and he took away their niggers. But they think well of him
now, and are proud that he was born here. I believe that if
he had lived he would have colonized the niggers. If he
had done that after freeing them, he would have been the
greatest man this country ever produced.

" The old-time nigger was all right. He knew his place.
But these niggers we have here now are no good. You can't
hire one of them to make your garden. Once in a while there's
an honest one, but most of them just steal.

" We think more of Lincoln now than we did just after
the war. There was a good deal then to make people bitter,
but that is nearly all gone. The farther we get from the war,
the more people see that Lincoln was all right, and the best
friend the South ever had.

" But the old people did not think much of Lincoln, and
you can't very well blame them. They used to talk about him,
and they did not believe that he was Tom Lincoln's son. They
do not talk much about it now as they used to do.

" There is a good deal of difference of opinion when they
get to talking. Some say he was born in Elizabethtown, and
some say that he was born somewhere else and moved here.
But I do not believe either of those stories. I believe he was
born here, and that Abe Enlow was his father."

I give this story as it was given to me, without animus, by
an intelligent man. It will stand as fairly typical of the stories
which one may hear from the middle aged and elderly people
of Hodgenville who believe the story.

But when these good and honest people are cross-
questioned, the story weakens. When did the witnesses per
sonally hear of this? They have heard of it all their lives.
What was the first time they distinctly remember to have
heard it ? Who was it that told it on that occasion, and under
what circumstances which fix the date ?

Under questioning of this character the result is obtained
that while certain of these people are sure that the " old
folks " must have heard it long, long ago, no one living ap
pears to recall having heard it until after the Civil War. Every

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 159

attempt to fix an earlier date grows vague, and falls back on
generalities. No one who was born, say in 1840, appears to
be able to recall any definite event earlier than 1865 associated
with the distinct memory of this story.

The author, having made a somewhat diligent inquiry, on
the ground and through correspondence, is fully convinced
that Hodgenville never entertained a suspicion of the legiti
macy of Abraham Lincoln until the bitter days that came near
the end of the Rebellion, and that then the rumor came from
the outside.

In considering the truth or falsehood of these stones con
cerning the birth of Abraham Lincoln, it is important to ask,
When did these stories originate, and on whose authority
were they first promulgated?

This is a question to which no satisfactory answer appears
hitherto to have been given. The author has made diligent
inquiry in the vicinity of Hodgenville, and cannot learn that
any hint or rumor reflecting upon the chastity of Nancy Hanks
or the legitimate birth of Abraham Lincoln was current there
in 1809, or during the period when the Lincolns resided there,
nor for half a century after they had moved away.

There is no evidence known to the author that this rumor
in any of its forms originated in the only place where, if true,
it should have originated.

Critics of the meager biographical material furnished by
Lincoln lifted their eyebrows a little in 1860, and by the time
the Copperheads were doing their most evil work a full-
fledged scandal was in circulation. But Hodgenville had
never heard of it.

Not till Lincoln was a candidate the second time did a re
port reach Hodgenville in any way derogatory to the moral
character of Nancy Hanks. Hodgenville did not make the dis
covery by any search of local records; this gossip filtered in
from the outside world. Hodgenville had little pride in Lin
coln during the war, and there were many people there who
were not unwilling to believe the story.

The question about Lincoln's legitimacy was discussed at
Elizabethtown before it made its way to La Rue County. The

160 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

frequent convening of court in that county brought to town
politicians who, in conversation with Samuel Haycraft, learned
that he had been unable to locate the certificate of marriage of
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. This did not at first carry with
it any necessity for the finding of another man, for it did not,
in its first form, imply that Thomas Lincoln was not Abra
ham's father. Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were living together
as husband and wife when their son Abraham was born, and
the fact was not questioned in Hardin County, and has never
been questioned there to this day. If they were not legally
married, theirs was a common law marriage, and Thomas was
still the father. No one needed to go to Hodgenville to learn
anything about this, for the records were not there, but pre
sumably in Elizabethtown if anywhere. Whatever gossip
there was from 1860 to 1865 was wholly on the assumption
that Thomas was still the father of Abraham.

Of this we have an interesting testimonial in Lamon's
'Life of Lincoln:

" It is admitted by all the old residents of the place that
they were honestly married, but precisely when or how no
one can tell" (p. 10).

This is on the basis of what Herndon learned in his visit
to the spot in 1865; and it must not be forgotten. In 1865
the neighbors had not begun to mention Abraham Enlow or
any other man to any extent that Herndon could learn through
inquiry on the ground. The certificate had not been found,
but all the neighbors believed they were married.

This is proof positive that no tradition had ever existed
in the vicinity of her home and dating from the event
that charged Nancy Hanks with being other than a virtuous
woman. The statement of Herndon is in accord with all that
I have later learned by the most diligent search; except that
there began to be question whether there had been an actual
marriage, though at this stage no question of Thomas Lin
coln's paternity.

Furthermore, Nancy Hanks herself left no vestige of a
memory of her own personality upon her neighbors in Eliza
bethtown, so far as could be discovered in 1860. She lived

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 161

there with her husband from the summer of 1806 till the
spring of 1808, but no one remembered her when in 1860 it
became known that Abraham Lincoln, who was born in Har-
din County, was nominated for the presidency. Perhaps the
two most prominent families in Elizabethtown were the Helms
and the Haycrafts. The Helms should have known something
about the Lincolns, for Major General Ben Hardin Helm,
later of the Confederate army, married a half sister of Mary
Todd Lincoln and she is still living and has written to me ; but
when the Helm family began the process of remembering what
they could recall about the Lincolns, the stones which they
furnished to Collins for his History of Kentucky went back
not to Nancy Hanks, but to Sarah Bush Johnston, whom, at
the beginning f they supposed to have been the mother of Lin
coln. The story as printed by Collins is edited to make her
his step-mother, and it is a story of no importance in itself;
but it shows two things : first, that the memory of Nancy Hanks
had completely faded from Elizabethtown; and secondly, that
the little incident on which the story in Collins was based,
never occurred. They were mistaken both as to the fact and
the relationship.

When Samuel Haycraft wrote to Lincoln in an endeavor
to establish a relationship, his knowledge was not of Nancy
Hanks but of Sarah Johnston, whom in 1860 he supposed to
have been the mother of Abraham Lincoln.

These facts are conclusive, and they do not stand alone,
in their complete proof that there was in Hardin and La Rue
Counties in 1860 no memory of any charge against the chastity
of Nancy Hanks.

Reference should be made, however, to the story written
out for Herndon in August, 1865, by J. B. Helm, which Hern-
don published in his Life of Lincoln:

The Hanks girls were great at camp-meetings. I remem
ber one in 1806. I will give you a scene, and if you will then
read the books written on the subject you may find some
apology for the superstition that was said to be in Abe Lin
coln's character. It was at a camp-meeting, as before said,
when a general shout was about to commence. Preparations

162 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

were being made; a young lady invited me to stand on a bench
by her side where we could see all over the altar. To the right a
strong, athletic young man, about twenty five years old, was
being put in trim for the occasion, which was done by divest
ing him of all apparel except shirt and pants. On the left
a young lady was being put in trim in much the same manner,
so that her clothes would not be in the way, and so that, when
her combs flew out, her hair would go in graceful braids.
She, too, was young — not more than twenty, perhaps. The
performance commenced about the same time by the young
man on the right and the young lady on the left. Slowly and
gracefully they worked their way to the center, singing, shout
ing, hugging, kissing, generally their own sex, until at last,
nearer and nearer they came. The center of the altar was
reached, and the two closed, with their arms around each
other, the man singing and shouting at the top of his voice,

" I have my Jesus in my arms,
Sweet as honey, strong as bacon ham."

Just at this moment the young lady holding to my arm
whispered, " They are to be married next week, her name is
Hanks." There were very few who did not believe this true
religion, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the man who did not
believe it did well to keep it to himself. The Hankses were
the finest singers and shouters in our country.

Concerning this incident Herndon adds:

Here my informant stops, and on account of his death
several years ago I failed to learn whether this young lady
shouter who figured in the foregoing scene was the President's
mother or not. The fact that Nancy Hanks did marry in
that year gives color to the belief that it was she. As to the
probability of the young man being Thomas Lincoln it is
difficult to say; such a performance as the one described must
have required a little more emotion and enthusiasm than the
tardy and inert carpenter was in the habit of manifesting. —
Herndon' s Lincoln, Vol. I, pp. 14-15.

I was not present, but I am willing to express an opinion
which is based on a pretty intimate knowledge of social and
religious life of the Kentucky hills, that if the young lady

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 163

in the above scene was Nancy Hanks, and she was to have
been married a week later, the young man was Thomas Lin
coln. Even in such incidents there were certain conventions
to be observed; as Mr. Helm notes the hugging and kissing,
though miscellaneous, was confined to persons of the same sex
in practically all cases (and for the exceptions if listed some
reason would appear for the exception) until these two met
who were known to be betrothed and about to be married.
The incident simply would not have occurred, with the ap
proval and assistance of the large company, except on the
basis of some such general knowledge.

It would not be safe to assume that this couple consisted
of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Thomas and Nancy
were both older than the couple described, and were probably
both in Washington County preparing for the wedding. More
over, if Mr. Helm is correct in his dates, it was certainly not
this couple; for farmers did not leave their corn-plowing for
camp-meetings the first of June. Camp-meetings were held
in the autumn. If this occurred in 1806, Thomas and Nancy
were married and she was pregnant with little Sarah before the
camp-meeting season.

Mr. Helm was an old man when he told this story. He had
to go back sixty years for the details of it, and sixty years
is a long time and plays havoc with details in an old man's
memory. Perhaps he did not remember everything exactly as
it occurred. Perhaps the young lady with whom he was pres
ent at the camp-meeting, and to whom if he made love he
probably did it less publicly, was mistaken as to the name of
the girl. Besides, there were other girls by the name of Hanks,
and others beside the Hanks girls who shouted and were
hugged at camp-meetings.

But even if the young lady was correct, and Helm was ac
curate, and the girl was Nancy Hanks and the young man
Thomas Lincoln, the incident is to be judged in the light
of the customs of the time and the standards of propriety
then prevalent. Assuming that the girl was Nancy, the young
man was Tom, or there would have been murder just after
the benediction. That noisy, ridiculous exhibition merely

164 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

showed that a couple betrothed and on the threshold of matri
mony, sometimes mixed their religion and their love-making
in proportions not in good taste. But that, I beg leave to
assure any persons who like myself were not there, and who
unlike myself have no knowledge of camp-meetings and other
noisy religious demonstrations among people in the back
woods, does not even by inference or implication militate
against the chastity of Nancy Hanks.

Personally, I deem the incident as containing no proof that
Nancy Hanks was a participant in it; but if she was, whatever
happened in the description was in broad daylight, in full view
of a congregation, and was in accord with the ethical standards
of the time.

A good many things occurred around the fringes of camp-
meetings that ought not to have occurred. There was almost
always a boot-legger with whisky. There were frequent rights.
It was not at all infrequent for a crowd of toughs to attempt to
break up the meeting, and for the preachers to show that
they belonged to the church-militant. There were other evils
which found opportunity for occurrence at various hiding
places in the woods and which need not here be described.
But the old-fashioned camp-meeting was an event of no little
social and religious significance, and it did more good than
harm.

I am not undertaking, however, to defend the old camp-
meetings, none of which I ever organized or conducted, but
in some of which I have participated as a preacher by invita
tion. I am saying, and wish to say it very plainly, that while
such meetings were the scenes of demonstrations which I
never enjoyed and do not defend, the things that happened out
in the open, even if in as bad taste as those described by Mr.
Helm, were not immoral. No couple who had come to camp-
meeting for immoral purposes would have advertised the fact
or set the whole camp to watching them by any such an exhibi
tion. Nor would two persons known to be immoral have been
permitted a leading place in such a demonstration.

If Nancy Hanks was publicly hugged at a camp-meeting
a week before her marriage, as I think she was not, it was

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 165

her own husband of a week later who hugged her. And that
is a safe place to dismiss the matter.

The next discovery which I made upon a careful survey
of the ground, and study of roads and distances and home-
sites, was that in all probability Nancy Hanks Lincoln had
never seen Abraham Enlow at the time of her conception.

Here I am greatly indebted to certain local attorneys,
whose assistance I acknowledge. Hon. Richard W. Creal,
County Judge, who was born on the Lincoln Farm, Mr. O. M.
Mather, local historian, great-grandson of several pioneers of
Hodgenville, Mr. Charles F. Creal, partner of Mr. Mather
and a descendant of the family that owned the Lincoln Farm,
and Mr. L. B. Handley, attorney for the Lincoln Farm Asso
ciation, gave me the fruits of their research and assisted me in
further investigation.

When the Lincoln Farm Association was formed for the
purchase of the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, and which sub
sequently turned the birthplace and farm over to the United
States Government, it became important to prove to the satis
faction of those who were to pay their money in the first place
and of the Government afterward, that Abraham Lincoln was
actually born there. Washington County set up a claim that he
was born in that county, in the home of Richard Berry, and
Washington County still insists that that claim is well founded.
It became necessary to learn just when Thomas and Nancy
Lincoln first occupied the Lincoln Farm on Nolin Creek. The
investigation, as Mr. Handley informs me, and the others
agree, clearly established that Thomas and Nancy Lincoln
moved from Elizabethtown in the late spring or early sum
mer of 1808, not to the farm aforesaid, but to the farm of
George Brownfield, where they lived during that summer and
fall in a cabin no longer standing but located in the orchard
of wild crab-apples already described. That was where the
life of Abraham Lincoln began, unless it had begun before the
removal of his parents from Elizabethtown, though he was
born in the cabin above the Rock Spring, on Nolin Creek, on
what is now known as the Lincoln Farm.

When Abraham Lincoln was born, on the Rock Spring

166 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

farm, on Nolin Creek, two and one half miles south of the
present town of Hodgenville, the Enlows lived some two miles
distant, and were among the nearest neighbors of the Lincolns.
But the date which immediately concerns us is not the date of
Abraham's birth, but of his conception. Where were Thomas
and Nancy Lincoln living at that time?

The normal period of gestation is ten lunar months, or two
hundred eighty days. Where were Thomas and Nancy Lin
coln living on May 8, or about that date, in the year 1808?

They were not living on the farm where Abraham Lincoln
was born ten lunar months later. We do not know that they
had ever seen that farm or heard of it. Some authors have
told us that Thomas Lincoln bought that farm in 1803, and
had long been at work erecting a home there. The farm
which came into his possession in 1803 was many miles from
Rock Spring, and has no place in the life-story of Abraham
Lincoln. We do not know that Thomas Lincoln had bought
a farm at the time of his removal from ElizabethtOAvn. So
far as we know, he removed because he had employment
offered him by George Brownfield; and while working there
learned of a farm with a poor and unoccupied cabin and a
good spring, where he would be permitted to squat with right
of purchase if he found himself able to purchase it. That he
built the cabin is unproved and improbable, and, for the pur
pose of this narrative, unimportant. He certainly was not liv
ing there in May of 1808; we have no slightest proof that he
or Nancy had ever set foot upon the farm in May, 1808.

The precise date of removal from Elizabethtown must
come up again. There are some interesting and important
documents, hitherto unpublished, which help us to determine
the approximate date. But for our present purpose, let it be
made perfectly clear that Nancy Lincoln did not live in the
Enlow neighborhood until several months after May 8, 1808.

She did not at this time wander very far away from home
in quest of men. She was caring for a baby daughter, Sarah,
born February 10, 1807, and just fifteen months old when
the unborn life of Abraham Lincoln began. In Elizabethtown,
where she had spent the whole of her married life, the tongue

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 167

of scandal never named her; and she was either just leaving
Elizabethtown, or had just left it, when she became pregnant.

He who will know the truth of this story should go to
La Rue County, and travel the roads, and find where the
blazed trees in 1808 marked bridle paths through the thick
woods, and study the problem with the county map before
him. He will find that when Thomas and Nancy Lincoln
first came to live in that part of Hardin County which is now
La Rue, no road to mill or meeting or to the county seat
took Abraham Enlow past the Lincoln door. Ten months
later, when the Lincolns were in their own home, he passed
the house on his way to mill; but in May, 1808, there was
nothing to call him to her door or her to his. Their homes lay
eight miles apart, through dense forests, inhabited by bear
and wolf and panther, and across deep streams.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln left no scandal behind her in Eliza
bethtown. If she was pregnant when she left, the fact was
unknown, even to herself. If she became pregnant after her
arrival in her new home, it was immediately after, and be
fore she had time or opportunity to form acquaintance.

This, then, is my first reason for not believing that Abra
ham Lincoln was the son of Abraham Enlow, that in all
human probability, at the time the unborn life of Abraham
Lincoln began, Nancy Hanks Lincoln had never seen Abraham
Enlow.

We meet then, the question, Why then did Thomas Lincoln
and Abraham Enlow engage in that bitter fight in which Enlow
lost his nose, and by reason of which, in good part, Thomas
Lincoln decided to leave Kentucky? Lamon tells the story of
that fight:

As time wore on, the infelicities of (Thomas) Lincoln's
life in this neighborhood became insupportable. He was
gaining neither riches nor credit; and being a wanderer by
natural inclination, began to long for a change. His decision,
however, was hastened by certain troubles which culminated
in a desperate combat between him and one Abraham Enlow.
They fought like savages; but Lincoln obtained a signal and
permanent advantage by biting off the nose of his antagonist,

168 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

so that he went bereft all the days of his life, and published
his audacity and its punishment wherever he showed his face.
But the affray, and the fame of it, made Lincoln more anxious
than ever to escape from Kentucky. He resolved, therefore, to
leave these scenes forever, and seek a roof-tree beyond the
Ohio. — LAMON, Life of Lincoln, p. 16.

This fight, as thus recorded, is in its implications the worst
feature of the whole story. No one who knows the Enlow
story and reads this account can be in doubt what was the
" audacity " of Abraham Enlow. Even as lethargic a man as
Thomas Lincoln could be roused to desperation over a matter
of that character.

So we do well to go to the bottom of the question about
the fight in which Thomas Lincoln is alleged to have bitten
off the nose of Abraham Enlow.

So far as is known, Thomas Lincoln never intimated to
any one that his leaving Kentucky was related in any fashion
to his alleged fight with Enlow. Conjecture only, and that long
years and decades after the alleged affray and the departure,
invented a relation between them. But if it be admitted that
there was a connection, it is not difficult to imagine why it
may have occurred. Family feeling in that region ran high,
and the Enlow family was large, and related to most of the
old families, while Lincoln was alone. If his fight with Enlow
left the latter smarting under a visible and unpleasant dis
ability which he could not be permitted to forget, there was
reason to expect that sooner or later Thomas Lincoln would
encounter more Enlows than he desired, and no one could
predict the character of their revenge. It was a primitive
region in which men fought with guns and knives as well
as with fists and teeth. No matter what the original occasion
of the fight; the thing now to expect was revenge for Abe
Enlow's lost nose.

If this was the situation, Thomas Lincoln did well to
gather his wife and his two small children and his meager
supply of household goods, and float downstream to the Ohio
River, and across into Indiana.

We meet, however, with this element of improbability in

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 169

the story. If this fight was an immediate cause of Thomas
Lincoln's migration from Kentucky, it occurred eight years
and more after the offense which it was supposed to avenge.
Thomas Lincoln may have been slow to wrath, but that was a
long time, even for him.

Furthermore, as one will discover who visits the region,
the removal of the Lincoln family to the Knob Creek farm
had effectually taken them out of the Enlow country. Mul-
draugh's Hill was a marked social barrier between the region
that faced toward Bardstown, Lebanon and Springfield toward
the east, and the country tributary to Elizabethtown on the
west. No longer did Thomas Lincoln send his grist to Hod-
gen's Mill or the Mather mill or the Kirkpatrick mill. He
was out of the neighborhood, removed by a goodly number
of miles, and by a very high ridge that formed a community
barrier from the associates of his former home. He still
went to court at Elizabethtown, and in the very last year of
his residence on Knob Creek was appointed Road Surveyor
in his district, but as for the rest, he had ceased to be resident
of the neighborhood when Abraham was born. For that mat
ter, he removed from there, as I have some reason to believe,
much sooner than is commonly supposed.

But before we go to fatiguing lengths in our endeavor to
learn the occasion of the savage fight between Thomas Lincoln
and Abraham Enlow, let us ask the innocent question, Was
there any such fight?

The answer is, There was no such fight.

This discovery, I confess, surprised me. Lamon makes his
statement so unqualifiedly that I supposed of course he was
correct, and that Abraham Enlow went to his grave in 1861
having spent the last forty-five years of his life without the
nose that Thomas Lincoln had bitten off. I found that the
men in and about Hodgenville who know most about Lincoln
and most about Enlow had never heard of the fight. So far
as I know, there is no copy of Lamon's book in that county;
it is a scarce book, and La Rue County is not extravagant in its
book purchases. I asked lawyers, judges, county officials, and
men long resident, and not one of them had ever heard the

170 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

faintest rumor that Thomas Lincoln ever fought with any
one, or that Abraham Enlow ever was a fighting man.

I inquired about his maimed nose; and men who knew
him declare that he displayed no such deformity. I had to
stop asking the question direct lest I start a new scandal;
but I inquired in general terms, and what I learned was that,
far from remembering the Lincolns with feelings of bitter
resentment, Abraham Enlow was as proud to have been a
neighbor of the Lincolns as so rock-ribbed a Democrat could
possibly have been in the days of the Civil War. His reminis
cences were few, but they were friendly. That he should have
had any such fight as Lamon described is absurd. The best
informed residents affirm that there is absolutely nothing on
which such a lie can be based. The Enlows and Lincolns
were on good terms so long as they lived in the same neighbor
hood, and parted with no unhappy memories.

The story has positively no local root. It cannot be
grafted upon any event which bred a scandal at the time and
caused the name of Nancy Lincoln to be spoken in derision
by men and whispered innuendo by women.

Thomas and Nancy Lincoln had all the appearance of
living together happily. They came to La Rue County hon
estly married, and lived in that county for several years. It
is not known that they ever quarreled there or elsewhere.
They had three children during those years, one of whom died,
and the other two went with them as together they rode
through the woods to their new home in Indiana. Shiftless as
Thomas Lincoln was, he is not known to have left any bad
debts behind him, nor was he suspected of carrying away
with him any of the property or any of the children of any
other man.

In pursuing these inquiries in the vicinity of Hodgenville,
the author came upon one dim and indistinct tradition which
purported to have come down among the women of that neigh
borhood. It was of the kindness of Thomas Lincoln to Nancy
after her baby boy was born. When the story that Abraham
Lincoln was the son of another man came to Hodgenville
about the close of the Civil War, there were women living

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 171

whose memory went back to that time, and who professed to
recall that Thomas Lincoln was more kind to his wife at that
time than husbands sometimes are. His first child had been
a daughter; and it seems that he and Nancy were hoping
that the next one would be a son. In the rude hut where she
lay with her baby beside her, she lifted her wan face to her
husband's with a tearful smile of satisfaction; she had given
him a boy. And the older women of the years just after
the war, remembered that he was proud of the boy, and very
tender toward Nancy.

But I found something very much more definite than
this dim half-memory, and something fully in accord with it.
I am able to present, on excellent authority, and with only
one life between the statement and this record, the testimony
of a woman who was a near neighbor of the Lincolns, a woman
of about the age of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and who was actu
ally present at the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

This statement was made to me by Hon. Richard W. Creal,
County Judge of La Rue County, in his office, and I made notes
of it as he spoke. After he had finished, I went across to the
hotel and wrote it out within an hour. Subsequently I had it
typewritten, and a copy mailed to Judge Creal in advance of
my next visit to Hodgenville. He then made one or two
verbal emendations, and said:

" The report which you have made is entirely accurate,
and you place great emphasis, and properly, upon the first
hand testimony of Margaret Walters. But I use that incident
as in a way representative of the testimony, positive and
negative, of all the old people who lived neighbor to the
Lincolns and were still living in 1864. As I remember their
conversation, the most convincing fact is their silence upon
any aspect of the life of the Lincoln family that could have
expressed or delicately concealed a scandal. The outspoken
word of Margaret Walters, which you value as the testimony
of a woman actually present at the birth of Lincoln, stands
to me rather as the testimony of the whole neighborhood.
Boy though I was, I heard all the neighborhood talk. Had
there been any question about the Lincolns, it would have been

172 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

heard by me at some time in a tone that a boy would not
have failed to understand as at least mysterious or implying
a question. There was no such expression. And when the
slander came first to this neighborhood, and in its first
form without the name of any particular man attached, my
father and his brother and Jack McDougal and all who had
known Thomas Lincoln or known those who knew him, were
outspoken in their refusal to credit it. To be sure, the rumor
made headway. Those old people were few, and they did not
live long, and the story did not die. But the people who had
known the Lincolns did not help it to live. The people who
would have known it if it was true did not know it even as a
rumor, and when they heard it, they denied it. You have
quoted me correctly as to Aunt Peggy Walters. I remember
her well as she hobbled on her crutch down toward the Rock
Spring when this matter was discussed by a group assembled
there. But I do not think of it as if it had been her sole
testimony. She knew the women of this neighborhood. She
was a young married woman at the time and later was a
frequent helper as a midwife. She was getting some of her
early experience in this art when Abraham Lincoln was born.
She was a woman of ability and character, and her word was
perfectly good. Her memory was clear, and she knew the
facts which she related. But what I have given you as from
her stands out in my own mind rather as the united judgment
of the people who had known the Lincolns and who talked
about them that day at the spring, in what I am confident was
the year 1864."

I accept this statement of Judge Creal, as confirming the
report which I am about to quote, and of strengthening it.
I place great value on it as the first-hand testimony of a
woman of unquestioned veracity, who was among the near
est neighbors of the Lincolns, and present at Abraham Lin
coln's birth; and it gains in force in every aspect by his
statement as given to me above, that the words of Margaret
Walters * was virtually the word of the whole neighborhood.

1 Margaret La Rue Walters was born December u, 1789, and was
the youngest daughter of John La Rue for whom La Rue County was

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 173

CONCERNING THE PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
STATEMENT OF HON. R. W. CREAL

Judge of La Rue County Court, Hodgenville, La Rue County, Kentucky

I was born on the Lincoln farm. Richard Creal, my
father, purchased it between 1825 and 1830. He was born in
1 80 1. His birth occurred near the site of the present village
of Buffalo. Population was very sparse at that time. Robert
Hodgen was here, and had established Hodgen's Mill. There
was another mill, the Mather mill some miles distant, and
there was also the Kirkpatrick mill. These mills used small
burr stones, driven by overshot wheels of local manufacture.

My father's brother knew Thomas Lincoln; my father
did not, but knew his reputation. Thomas Lincoln was re
spected by his neighbors. He was a man of good mind and
strong character, but had no advantages, and was diffident,
reserved, quiet.

I grew up on the farm where Abraham Lincoln spent
his first years, and was one of the heirs who sold it to A. W.
Dennett.

I knew Margaret Walters, locally known as " Aunt Peggy,"
who assisted the midwife at the birth of Lincoln. She died at
a great age, somewhere about 1864. She was on crutches the
last time I saw her, shortly before her death. That interview
occurred at the Lincoln Spring. She was an intelligent woman,
who knew all the women of this region in the period of Lin
coln's birth, and was in better position than most of them
to know of their character and to hear any report affecting the
reputation of any of them.

I was present on an occasion when she spoke of the pater
nity of Abraham Lincoln. It was not long before his death. I
was born in 1853, an<^ as tms occurred in 1864, I was eleven
or possibly twelve years of age.

I am not sure who introduced the subject. It may have

named. She was related to nearly all the original pioneers by birth or
marriage. She married Conrad Walters, and became the mother of a
large family, who intermarried with most of the prominent families of
the county. She was married and twenty years of age when Lincoln
was born, and her memory was clear until her death. She died October
26, 1864. Any one who is disposed to call her veracity in question would
do well to keep away from La Rue County, or to go prepared to discuss
the matter with a large number of tall and muscular men.

174 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

been Jack McDougal, whom I remember as present, but I
think it was some one of a group of women who were there.
Some one spoke of the rumor that Abraham Lincoln was not
the son of Thomas Lincoln.

Aunt Peggy Walters denied it vigorously. She said, " Mrs.
Lincoln was a fine woman." She affirmed that at that time she
knew every woman who lived in this vicinity, knew their
reputation, was on terms such that any such report concern
ing any of them was almost certain to come to her, and that
she never heard during the lifetime of Mrs. Thomas Lincoln
any charge or rumor affecting her moral character.

In my judgment this statement which I heard is entitled
to very great weight. Mrs. Walters was an intelligent woman,
and a woman of character and veracity. I am confident that
if Mrs. Lincoln had borne during her lifetime any reputation
of unfaithfulness to her marriage obligation, Mrs. Walters
would certainly have heard of it, and would have been a good
judge of its probable truthfulness. The fact that she not only
did not believe it, but never heard it until nearly a half century
after the Lincolns had removed from here, is, in my judgment,
almost conclusive evidence that the story is untrue.

I cannot learn that the report had any existence in this
county at the time that the Lincolns resided here, nor until
Abraham Lincoln had risen to fame.

My father knew of these reports when they were cur
rent here, and so did my brother. Both of them knew the
reputation of Thomas Lincoln, and neither of them credited
the rumors.

The older people of this county knew nothing about these
rumors until Mr. Lincoln wrote to Hardin County, of which
La Rue was then a part, to obtain, if possible, a copy of the
marriage record of his parents. He did not know, and no one
here knew, that the record was not here but in Washington
County.

When these reports gained currency here, many years ago,
I made some effort to investigate the truth of them. I did
not find any of the older people who believed them, nor any
evidence that these rumors had originated here out of any
circumstances that might properly have given rise to suspicion,
nor that they were known here or anywhere at the time the
events were alleged to have occurred. At the time of Abra-

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 175

ham Lincoln's birth, all the neighbors believed him to be the
son of Thomas Lincoln.

Thomas and Nancy Lincoln came here in 1806 as hus
band and wife, having been legally married, and the marriage
is of record in the county where it occurred. They lived here
in apparent domestic accord, and left here together, with
their two children, both of them and the deceased child born
in wedlock. No report was then in circulation that they were
not happy together, and they continued to live together as hus
band and wife until the death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. So
far as any one knew then, or has any right to believe now,
they were both faithful to each other until death separated
them.

I am only sorry that such rumors have ever been circulated.
I should not like to believe, and do not believe, that they
originated here. I know of no one who is closer to the facts
than I, and I cannot think that these things could have
been true without my learning some evidence of the truth from
some of the people of whom I have spoken.

In my judgment the rumors affecting the chastity of
Nancy Hanks Lincoln are wholly without foundation, and are
a cruel libel on the character of a virtuous woman.

RICHARD CREAL,
Judge of La Rue County Court.

I present herewith a sketch of the life of Abraham Enlow
of Hardin, afterward La Rue, County, Kentucky.

Abraham Enlow was the son of Isom Enlaws, Enlows or
Enlow, one of the pioneers of that part of Hardin County
which is now La Rue. He was among the occupants of
Phillips' Fort, which from about 1780 or 1781 to about 1790
gave shelter and protection from the Indians to the original
inhabitants of the portion of Hardin County which now in
cludes Hodgenville. Whether he was in the original group
who built the fort, the author is not certain; but when the
Indians had been driven away, and the occupants of the fort
emerged and took up land, and erected homesteads outside th$
stockade, Isom Enlow was among them, and he located on %
farm which has been continuously in possession of the Enlow
family. It is one and one half miles from the present site

176 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of Hodgenville, and four miles, by the usual course of travel,
from the Rock Spring Farm, where Abraham Lincoln later
was born.

Isom Enlow came to Hardin County unmarried. He be
came the husband of Mary Brooks, the widow of John La
Rue, for whom the county was later named. The marriage
occurred in 1792.

John La Rue was born in Virginia, January 24, 1746, the
son of Isaac La Rue, of Frederick County, Virginia, (died
1795) and died in January, 1792, in Hardin County, and
in that part of the county later separated and named for him.
His wife, Mary Brooks, was born May 3, 1766, being thus
twenty years younger than her first husband.

John and Mary La Rue had four children, (i) Rebecca,
born 1784, married George Helm. Their oldest child, John L.
Helm, was born in 1802, and was Governor of Kentucky at
his death in 1867; (2) Squire La Rue, named for Squire
Boone, brother of Daniel Boone, and friend of John La Rue;
(3) Phebe; (4) Margaret (" Peggy ") was born 1789, married
September n, 1804, Conrad Walters. Ben Hardin Helm,
Confederate General who was killed in the Civil War, was a
son of John L. Helm (son of Rebecca La Rue and George
Helm). Ben Hardin Helm's wife, still living, was Emily
Todd, a half sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.

In the conditions which prevailed in pioneer society,
widows were not permitted to weep long at the graves of their
deceased husbands. Mary Brooks La Rue soon married Isom
Enlow. Although the fact has no especial significance for
this narrative, it may be of interest to record that she survived
her second husband, and was married for the third time, to
Thomas W. Rathbone. She died a few months after the
erection of the new county, named for her first husband, and
her will is the second will on record in that county, and was
probated May 5, 1843, tne earliest date of probate in La Rue
County.

The will of John La Rue, which is on record in Nelson
County, and was probated May 6, 1792, has more than the
ordinary amount of formal piety in its introduction, and shows

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 177

great concern for the education of his children. He left four
children, the eldest of whom was eight years old. He had
much land and several negroes, one of whom, " a wench,
Nancy," he left especially to his wife, to be her own. Mary
La Rue came therefore to the home of Isom Enlow cumbered
by four children, but with a generous provision for their care
— a provision which unfortunately was partially lost in the
administration of the estate and in consequent litigation —
and with Nancy the " wench " to assist in their care, and in
the care of such further offspring as might come to her
through her second marriage.

This provision was timely, for the first fruits of the sec
ond marriage was Abraham Enlow. Mary Brooks-La Rue-
Enlow-Rathbone continued to need all the help which the
possession of Nancy afforded; for though she bore no children
by her last marriage, by her first two marriages she became
the mother of no small fraction of the population of La Rue
County. When she died in 1843 she left 172 living descend
ants. She lived almost to the time when persons now living
could remember her, and her record is a good one. For the
facts about her, and much beside, I am indebted to Hon. O. M.
Mather of Hodgenville, whose careful preservation of historic
data relating to his native county is of great service to me.

Isom Enlaws, the second husband of Mary Brooks La
Rue, and the father of Abraham Enlaws, Enlows or Enlow,
was a man of some prominence in his day. He was Sheriff
of Hardin County in 1810, and afterwards for some years
a Justice of the Peace. He died in July, 1816, leaving his
widow and six children, two of whom were sons and four
daughters.

Nancy was the only one of the slaves of John La Rue whom
Mary Brooks La Rue continued to own after her marriage with
Isom Enlaws. The executors appear to have sold and squan
dered the rest, or eaten them up in law suits. And she had
a hard time keeping Nancy and her children from being taken
by the executors under the will of Enlaws after the death of
her second husband. The reports of the Court of Appeals of
Kentucky contain record of the attempt of her husband's exec-

178 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

titors to take them away from her by legal process, and of her
stout and successful resistance. The case of Enlaws' Execu
tors vs. Mary Enlaws is of interest. Therein it is set forth
that, —

Mary Enlaws, in virtue of the will of her former hus
band, John La Rue, had an estate for life in the slave named
Nancy, and being possessed thereof in 1792, married Isom
Enlaws. After the marriage of Isom and Mary Enlaws,
Nancy became the mother of other slaves. In July, 1816,
Isom Enlaws departed this life, having previously made and
published his will, which, after payment of his debts, con
tained the following clauses:

Item. My will is that my property, both real and personal,
continue undivided until my youngest daughter, Malvina En-
laws, arrives at the age of twenty-one years, or until all my
children are married. And upon either of those events, that
said property be divided, share and share alike, between my
said children, to wit, — Abraham Enlaws, Thomas Brooks En-
laws, Polly Enlaws, Lydia Enlaws, Betsy Enlaws and Malvina
Enlaws, and their mother, my beloved wife, Mary Enlaws.

Item. In case my son, Abraham Enlaws, should prefer
taking one hundred acres of land, to be stricken off to him
by a line running parallel with my upper boundary line, and
including the house in which he lives, in lieu of the equal
undivided share in my landed property, as mentioned in the
next preceding item, my will is that he be permitted to do
so; and that he retain possession of the same as he how
holds it.

Malvina, the youngest daughter, was eleven years old
in May, 1819, and the executors would have to wait ten
years, unless she died or married sooner, before they could
obtain for the purposes of sale and division, the healthy
and marketable children of Nancy. Malvina was living with
her mother, and so were her older sisters, Polly and Betsy,
but Lydia was married before her father died. Abraham,
for a time after his father's death, came back and lived
in his mother's home and managed the farm for her, and
then accepted his option under his father's will, took his

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 179

hundred acres of land, returned to his own home, which he
had occupied before his father's death, and lived and died
there.

The court held that although Nancy had been left to
Mary La Rue as a life possession under the will of John La
Rue, she became the property of Isom Enlaws the moment
they were married, and that thereafter Mary had no estate
in Nancy, except as she gained it through her second husband.

The court found, however, that while Mary had no right
to Nancy under the will of her first husband, she had some
right under the will of her second husband. The executors
could not touch Nancy or her children until Malvina mar
ried or reached the age of twenty-one, and then Mary would
share in the division with her children.

So Mary's troubles over the negro Nancy ceased, and so
far as any one knows, this was the only Nancy who ever
caused any trouble in that family.

Isom Enlaws did not own any other slaves at the time
of his death in 1816, and Abraham Enlows did not own
any slaves at the time of his death in 1861.

Whoever cares to read this decision in full will find it
in 3, Marshall, Kentucky Court of Appeals, pages 228-230.
It is interesting for several reasons, but its interest for us
is in the background it affords us for the life of Abraham
Enlaws, Enlows or Enlow.

The village of Hodgenville is remote, but it is not wholly
behind the times. In the Spring of 1920, when I made one
of my visits to it, the local papers contained matter which
showed that Hodgenville was fairly abreast of the rest of
the world. The ministers were preaching on " The Inter-
Church World Movement," and the boys in the Senior Class
in the Hodgenville High School had organized an overalls
brigade, just as they were doing in New York and Boston.
Hodgenville has a little public library, named not for An
drew Carnegie, but for Abraham Lincoln.

This library contains the one known copy of a little book
called " Ministry of Faith." Its sub-title is, " The Ardent
Ministry, Times, Anecdotes and Pulpit Selections of Rev.

180 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

A. W. La Rue, A.M." The author was A. C. Graves, and
the book was published in Louisville in 1865. For our pur
poses it is of interest because Rev. A. W. La Rue, who was
graduated in 1842 with the first class in Georgetown College,
was a grandson of John La Rue and Mary Brooks, who,
after the death of her first husband, married Isom Enlaws,
Enlows or Enlow, and became the mother of Abraham En-
low. This little book tells something about this good woman :

Mary Brooks, the wife of John La Rue, was of an old
family of Virginia, and deserves from her peculiar character
not to be overlooked in this chapter. From the marvellous
strength of her faith and the great power of her ruling traits,
one would not infer that her influence would be exhausted in
a single generation. And who can measure the fearful re
sponsibility of every mother when it is considered that her
character is to be held up as a type for children's children,
molding into the image of the Saviour, or forever paralyzing
all aspirations for manliness and perfection of heart! Mrs.
La Rue was a devoted Christian, and a prayerful reader of
the Bible. Her judgment of the Scriptures was held in
general respect, and knotty passages were frequently brought
to her by preachers and others for her interpretation. She
survived her husband many years, and lived to a ripe old
age. At her death in 1843 ner living generation numbered
172. Perhaps no generation in Kentucky has produced a
larger number of worthy representatives in the pulpit, at the
bar, in politics, medicine, and the other callings.

Many incidents and anecdotes are related of Mrs. La
Rue, two of which may properly come in here to illustrate
the might of that character whose weight still hangs upon
her numerous progeny.

One occurred at old Nolin Church, while Rev. David
Thurman (the father of our estimable brother, R. L. Thur-
man) was pastor. He was a man of strong logical mind,
great decision and force of character, which led him to deal
extensively in doctrine and discussion. He was a terrific
Calvinist, and as a defender of our faith, the Baptists had
not a more successful champion. One church-meeting day
he rose under perceptible despondency over the low spiritual
condition of the church. He was greatly discouraged with his

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 181

pastoral prospects, and suggested that the church call an
other pastor. He sat down in a profound silence which
continued some seconds. The stillness and embarrassment
were soon broken by old Mrs. La Rue, who was the first
to see through and solve a difficulty. She had been leaning
forward all the while in a listening posture, never removing
her eyes from the preacher. Straightening herself and point
ing one finger at Elder Thurman, she said in a tone of con
fidence and feeling : " Brother Thurman, I'll tell you what
the matter is — stop preaching John Calvin and James Armin-
ius, and preach Jesus Christ." Alter a moment's pause, the
preacher rose with streaming eyes, and repeated the words,
" For I am determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

The sermon which followed was one of the most pow
erful and searching character. Perhaps old Nolin Creek
never experienced a more thorough shock than was made
among the dry bones by that discourse. A revival began
with that day, in which there were one hundred additions
to the church. Its influence spread from church to church
until there were over a thousand conversions in that asso
ciation, all following that one effort!

Upon her dying bed, Mrs. La Rue called her daughter
and said, among her last words:

" From the hour of my conversion, now near sixty years
since, I have prayed every day that God would raise up of
my generation Baptist preachers."

She had watched her sons entering the pursuits of life
one by one, and as yet her prayer was unanswered. From
the time she first heard S. L. Helm, her grandson, the first
of her generation to preach the gospel, she took courage at
the answer of her life-time prayer. At the time of her death,
A. W. La Rue, another grandson, was a young preacher
of great promise, and she passed up from this world believ
ing that God would still raise up others of her generation in
answer to her prayer. From her descendants have sprung
the following Baptist preachers: Rev. S. L. Helm, Rev. A.
W. La Rue, deceased; Rev. Robert Enlows, Rev. John H.
Yeaman, deceased, and Rev. W. Pope Yeaman, pastor of
the First Baptist Church, Covington, Kentucky. The last two
were brothers. — Ministry of Faith, pp. 18-21.

182 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In that day, as this little book truthfully sets forth, edu
cated ministers were rare among Kentucky Baptists, and
not in very good favor; but this man sought and obtained
a college education.

It is not with A. W. La Rue we are dealing, however,
but with his half -uncle, Abraham Enlow. The long quota
tion shows the kind of mother he had, and the kind of home
in which he was reared; and while her prayers that he might
be a Baptist preacher were not answered in him, they were
answered in his son, Rev. Robert Enlows.

Mary Brooks was born in Virginia, but she spent a part
of her girlhood in Philadelphia, where she went to school.
She learned, among other things, something of medicine,
and in her mature years was widely sought as a nurse and
midwife. Abraham Enlow had a capable mother.

Unlike some of the Enloes of North Carolina, the En-
lows of La Rue County, Kentucky, refuse to slander their
ancestor for the sake of cheap notoriety. I have the follow
ing statement from Robert Enlow, of Hodgenville, who has
several times represented his county in the Kentucky Legis
lature :

STATEMENT OF ROBERT ENLOW

Made in Writing to William E. Barton, May 20, 1920

I do not think my grandfather, Abraham Enlow, was
the father of Abraham Lincoln. I do not think he was
that kind of man. From every inquiry I have made, I have
found my grandfather to be a Christian of the highest char
acter, a man who was a leader in Christian work, a man
who was looked up to as an example for young men to
follow.

I have heard of this report all my life, and since I have
been in public life some, have heard much more. My great-
grandmother, Mary Enlow, officiated at the birth of Lincoln.
She was taken there by my grandfather, Abraham, on a
horse. She usually had grandfather, who was then a boy,
to accompany her on these trips. She gave Mrs. Lincoln
what assistance the occasion required, and as the days passed,

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 183

she sent many things to Mrs. Lincoln for her own and the
child's comfort. Most of these things were sent either by
my grandfather or a slave, all the time without a thought of
pay, but from a heart of love.

Then, when this baby boy wanted a name, his mother
gave him the name of Abraham, because of gratitude, and,
as I believe, from no other reason, in recognition of the
many acts of kindness shown by my great-grandfather's fam
ily. The vision of the Christ life shown by Mary Enlow
gave Mrs. Lincoln that conception of motherhood that en
abled her so to train her son, that in after years he was
heard to say, That all he had and all he hoped to be in this
life he owed to his mother.

My father, and the whole family so far as I knew, did
not believe the story that Abraham Enlow was the father
of Abraham Lincoln. I think the story originated from
malice toward slave-holders. You know there was such a
feeling in the minds of people who did not own slaves or
anything else. . . .

Yours for truth,

ROBERT ENLOW.

Not because we have need of further evidence, but be
cause evidence is available and convincing, let us record one
more important fact concerning Abraham Enlow. He died
in 1861 and his grave is in the old Baptist Church-yard,
near the church of which he was a member, and to whose
erection he is said to have made the first subscription. There
is a tombstone at his grave, and it gives the date of his birth
as January 26, 1793. This would make him, at the time
when Abraham Lincoln was begotten, not a man, but a boy
of fifteen.

But may there not be a mistake in this old record? The
people of that period were notoriously inexact in such mat
ters, and except where there are contemporary court rec
ords, many inaccuracies occur. May not there be a mis
take of ten or twenty years, so that the age of Abraham
Enlow can be carried backward? For, if this record is
correct, Abraham Enlow, at the time of the conception of
Abraham Lincoln, was not simply at a highly improbable

184 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

distance from the Lincoln home, but was only a lad of
fifteen.

We are so accustomed to the commencement of the year
on January i it is difficult to realize how recently that date
has been established and definitely agreed upon. The custom
varied in different places. In England down to the time of
the Conquest, the year was reckoned in some places as be
ginning at Christmas, and in others on March 25. From the
Conquest to 1155 only it dated officially from January i,
but that system was not popular, and from 1155 till 1751 it
was dated according to the Dionysian system from March 25.
In America the practice was not uniform, and we find frequent
instances of the March 25 date of beginning down to the end
of the 1 8th century. It is often necessary to indicate dates
falling between January i and March 25 by a double sys
tem, as February i, 1764-5. Down to the opening years
of the nineteenth century, particularly in isolated and rural
communities, there were frequent datings according to the
Dionysian year. John La Rue died in January, 1792, as we
reckon time. Before the end of that year his widow married
Isom Enlaws; the true date of birth of Abraham Enlows or
Enlow would appear to have been January 26, 1 793-4.

Yes, it is possible there is a mistake, but if so, it does
not make Abraham Enlow ten years older, but one year
younger. The local tradition gives the year of his birth,
not as 1793, but as 1794. John La Rue died in January,
1792. His widow married Isom Enlow, and Abraham En-
low was born, according to his tombstone, just one year
after the death of his mother's first husband. Although in
tervals between marriages were habitually short in frontier
communities, this seems an improbably brief interval, and
there is much reason to believe that the date of 1794 is cor
rect. In that case, Abraham Enlow, at the time of the con
ception of Abraham Lincoln, was not even fifteen, but only
fourteen.

The confusion in the two accounts of the birthday of
Abraham Enlow is thus easily accounted for. It was the
time when " Old Style " dates were still in occasional use,

ABRAHAM ENLOW OF HARDIN 185

and threw the opening weeks of a year into the calendar
of the preceding year. Abraham Enlow's birth as given on
his tombstone is the Old Style date; and the date given by
the family is the New Style date. His birth, according to
our present reckoning, was January 26, 1794. He was born,
not one year, but two, after the death of his mother's first
husband.

At the time when Nancy Hanks Lincoln experienced the
promise of the birth of a son, in May of 1808, Abraham
Enlow was a chore-boy on his father's farm. He was in
the beginnings of adolescence. The razor had never touched
his face.

Abraham Enlow, whom ignorant and malicious gossip has
made the father of Abraham Lincoln, was, at the time of
Abraham Lincoln's birth, a beardless boy.

There remains nothing to be added.

I have done with the story that Abraham Lincoln was
the illegitimate son of Abraham Enlow, of Hardin County,
Kentucky. The other stories we shall consider one by one.
But this one we shall have no occasion to examine further.
We have considered every shred of evidence that I have been
able to discover in support of it, and I am confident that I
have discovered it all. We have given it a fair hearing,
and have subjected it to a fair analysis. It fails at every
possible point, and is conclusively contradicted and disproved.
No right-minded man ought to refer to it in terms of possi
ble credibility henceforth so long as the world shall stand.
It is a blot on the memory of a plain, honest, religious man
and upon the name of his descendants, and a libel upon the
character of a woman, who, so far as this story is concerned,
stands high above all reproach.

Let us consign this story to its place in the bottomless
pit, and proceed with the next.

CHAPTER XVII
ABRAHAM ENLOW OF ELIZABETHTOWN

THIS book aspires toward completeness. Its purpose is to
record every phase of the story, and each of the separate
stories that affirm that Abraham Lincoln was not the sort
of Thomas Lincoln. I am thus constrained to consider briefly
in this analysis two or three names that are* not mentioned
in the second part of the book. One of these is Abraham
Enlow, a miller, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. In the first
draft of this manuscript I assigned him a chapter in the
earlier portion of the book; but I removed from him that
distinction for reasons which will presently appear; while,
for the sake of completeness, I treat of him here. Like one
of the heads of the beast in the Apocalypse, he "is of the
seven, and is also an eighth." We shall spend no great
space upon him, but will afford him all he requires.

Elizabethtown, where Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks
established their first home, is not without its local claim
to an Abraham Enlow, who is alleged to have been the father
of Abraham Lincoln. This report I give in the words of a
letter from Mr. John E. Burton:

As to my belief regarding the birth of Abraham Lincoln,
I believe that he was born under lawful wedlock. I was so
interested in the Lincoln matters that when the Lincoln farm
was sold in 1904 I went to Kentucky and spent several days
in that vicinity. I took with me $3,500, which I judged to
be sufficient, and I fully expected to buy the farm at the
sheriff's sale. On this trip I left the railroad at Elizabeth-
town, and rode to Hodgenville in a buggy. On the way
over the driver said to me that as I was so interested in Abe
Lincoln, he presumed I knew who his father was. I said I
had read several books on the subject, and knew the various
opinions. He said, pointing to the large grist mill in the
edge of Elizabethtown:

186

ENLOW OF ELIZABETHTOWN 187

" Abe Lincoln's father used to own and run that very
mill, and about everybody in Elizabethtown knows that Abe
Enlow was Abe Lincoln's real father. Yes, sir; we all like
Abe Lincoln down here, and it is no fault of his that Abe
Enlow got mixed up with the hired girl and paid Tom Lin
coln to marry her and move over to Hodgenville."

Mr. Burton continued:

I found that almost every one in that part of the coun
try when questioned had the secret. I believe that Abraham
Lincoln was the first child born to Thomas Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks. I do not believe there was a girl named
Nancy or Sarah born to them before Abraham was born.
Why I so believe is that Abraham's second mother, or step
mother, was named Sarah Bush. I formerly owned her old
hymn-book with her name written in it, Sarah Bush. This
woman had a daughter Sarah. She and Abraham grew up
as brother and sister. That, in my opinion, is the occasion
of the mix-up.

In my opinion, this story is true. Lincoln himself knew
the truth about it, and that was what made him habitually
sad. The dark and oppressive shadow which ever hung
over him made him gloomy, and at times almost drove him
to despair. To interpret correctly the thousand and one odd
and strange things that Lincoln did, these facts must be
known in order to account for his doings.

I have written more than I meant to. It is a subject
which historians seem to fear. They think the truth would
injure Lincoln's fame and glory. I do not. I have only to
recall Charles Martel, who saved the civilization of Europe
from the Moors, and William of Normany, the Conqueror
of England, to satisfy myself that children conceived out
of wedlock are often of superior caliber.

Subsequent correspondence disclosed that Mr. Burton had
made no comparison of the several Abraham Enlows, and
was most moved by the apparent evidence in favor of the
North Carolina Enloe. He is quoted here not as showing
his preference for this particular form of the story, but
because he had opportunity to secure this form of it in the
manner stated, and has written it as he heard it.

188 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

It interested me much to discover that this man, who
had studied Lincoln for so many years and had invested
large sums in books concerning him, held to the Enlow theory
in any of its forms. He holds, as I judge, to the theory in
general, rather than to any one form of it; but he has given
the best record I have of the Elizabethtown version.

This story is not entitled to any weight. It is an off
shoot from the Hodgenville story, and has intermixed with
it so much of the Bourbon County story as makes its hero
a miller. The Lincolns bore a good reputation while they
lived in Elizabethtown. Thomas Lincoln had credit at the
stores, and paid his debts, and his wife was above suspicion.
An eminent judge in that town said to me.

" I regard every such story as a gross libel. Nothing
of the sort was ever heard in Elizabethtown while Thomas
Lincoln lived here, nor have I ever been able to trace it back
of the Civil War. My people were Southern in their sym
pathies, and so am I, and always have been: but this story
did not grow up here. It found credence here among certain
people, but it was imported. It has no basis of fact in this
county."

However, to go one step farther, I decided to learn
whether there ever was an Abraham Enlow, a miller, of
Elizabethtown. The mills of an early settlement are noted
institutions, and those of Elizabethtown are well known.
The large mill standing on the way to Hodgenville is noted
in the histories of the State, and long remained in the Hay-
craft family, one of the most prominent families of Eliza
bethtown. At my request the County Clerk searched the rec
ords of Hardin County with this result, that he can find no
Abraham Enlow as having owned a mill in that part of the
county. Furthermore, the Enlows lived where they orig
inally settled, and, so far as he can discover, there was not an
Enlow in that part of the county which now is Hardin prior
to the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

The answer to the story about Abraham Enlow, the miller
of Elizabethtown, is that there was no such man.

CHAPTER XVIII
GEORGE BROWNFIELD

THE Brownfield story would not be entitled to a moment's
notice but for one significant fact; it is one form of the
local confession that the Enlow story is untenable.

As soon as the Enlow story began to be current in La
Rue County, the people who knew where Thomas and Nancy
Lincoln were living at the time of the conception of Abra
ham Lincoln, recognized the incredibility of the story. The
unborn life of Abraham Lincoln began immediately before
or immediately after the removal of his parents from Eliza-
bethtown, and before Nancy had time to form acquaintances.
Her conception occurred before their removal to their own
home near the Enlows. As we have already seen, it is alto
gether likely that she had never seen the face of Abraham
Enlow. The older inhabitants knew this fact. Under those
circumstances, some other man had to be found to whom
the paternity of Abraham Lincoln was a physical possibility.
That man was George Brownfield; and, of course, Abraham
Lincoln, being a tall man, was said to have looked much like
the son of George Brownfield, who also was tall.

The story is the emptiest trash. But it is valuable; for
it never would have come into existence if the local form of
the Enlow story had not been recognized as impossible.

One of the prominent citizens of Hodgenville, a man active
in political circles, and otherwise widely known, made an
extended verbal statement which I summarize as follows :

" I have spent my life in La Rue County, and have been
familiar from childhood with stories concerning the birth of
Abraham Lincoln. I am a Democrat, and I had at the outset
no natural disinclination to believe anything adverse to the
reputation of Abraham Lincoln or the social standing of

his family; for political interest and political hatred were very

189

190 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

strong here in the days that followed the Civil War. I sup
pose I have had as much occasion as any other man living in
this county to investigate the truth of these rumors. It be
came a part of my duty some years ago to look into them
very carefully.

" I know only of the rumors that are or have been cur
rent in this locality. The others, more remote, I have never
investigated; I do not think it worth while. Here, if any
where, the irregularity occurred. Here, if anywhere, must the
evidence be sought. I have had occasion to seek out and to
weigh that evidence. I have no hesitation in saying that this
story in all its local forms is unsupported by evidence, and in
all those local forms but one is physically possible. The one
possible exception is the Brownfield story. If Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln came here from Elizabethtown as early as
May, 1808, and she formed an adulterous association with the
first man she met, then this story is barely possible, and that is
all that can be said in its favor.

" But we do not know that she was here as early as May,
1808; the probabilities are that she and Thomas came about the
first of June. And if she came as early as May, we have no
evidence whatever that she then or ever was untrue to her
husband. There is no vestige of a story current in the years
of her life here that militates against her moral character.
There is not the slightest reason to believe that any one sus
pected Brownfield until half a century had gone by. All that
can be alleged in its favor is that it is not known to be physi
cally impossible; and that is no evidence upon which to assail
the character of a woman who has a right to be presumed
virtuous, or of a man in good standing in the community.

" If any of these stories here locally current is true, this
is the true one; for the others are impossible. This one is
unsupported by any color of evidence, and is opposed to every
inherent probability. It did not originate until the Enlow story
had been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Then this
grew out of the mere suggestion that it was not utterly impos
sible. The story is unworthy of credence.

" I began my investigation of these stories with no marked

GEORGE BROWNFIELD 191

disinclination to believe them. I am convinced that all of them
that ever have been in circulation in Lincoln's home county
are false; and as for the rest, I have only to say that it is
incredible that any one of them should have been true. How
could an event which certainly occurred here, if it occurred at
all, leave no evidence of the fact in the place where it occurred,
and become known to people in Virginia or North Carolina or
South Carolina? The stories are all false; all impossible
except the Brownfield story, and that might possibly have been
true, but is false as are the others."

This makes a short chapter, but there is no reason why
it should be longer. There is nothing more to be said
about it.

CHAPTER XIX
ABRAHAM LINCOLN OF OHIO

IN 1867 material on the life of Lincoln was still relatively
scant. While Holland's Life of Lincoln and that of Bar
rett were based upon some original investigation, these had
been issued as soon after Mr. Lincoln's death as the authors
could well prepare them, and they depended upon the cam
paign biographies for most of their content with regard
to Lincoln's early life. In that year the story gained cur
rency that one reason for the departure of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln from Kentucky was the strong resemblance
which existed between their son Abraham and a neighbor
who was alleged to have been his father. It was further
declared that between the time of their removal from Ken
tucky and their residence in Indiana the family lived for a
time in a village in Ohio. This village was named, and
the name could be mentioned here, and would be so men
tioned if it were of any importance in this statement.

A noted Presbyterian minister in Lexington, Kentucky,
became much interested in this matter, and learned that an
other minister, then editing a religious newspaper, had been
a school teacher in that town in Ohio in the years when this
boy, Abraham Lincoln, was supposed to have been resident
there. The editor also was interested. He had seen Mr.
Lincoln in 1860, and thought he recalled a resemblance to his
pupil of former years. Furthermore, his computation dis
closed the fact that President Lincoln's age was just about
that of his old pupil. It further appeared that the father of
this young Ohio Lincoln was named Thomas.

The correspondence resulting from these facts is still
in existence, though not in possession of any of the original
correspondents. I have communicated with the son of the
editor, who writes to me:

192

ABRAHAM LINCOLN OF OHIO 193

" I am afraid I can give you no information in regard
to the controversy of 1867. I have an indistinct recollec
tion of the discussion and have looked over the files for
1867, but found nothing."

I have had access, however, to the original letters, in pos
session of another person, and have copied such portions
as are important for this purpose. The owner of these let
ters has preserved them for possible use in case the story
should rise again, and they are where they could be found
if needed; but he does not desire that the letters or the place
of their deposit should become public property.

These are the essential facts as brought out in these let
ters:

The man of whom I have spoken as the editor taught
in a village in Ohio in 1827 a lad about nineteen, whose
name he remembered as Abraham Linkhorn or Lincoln, and
whose father was named Thomas. The President-elect in
1860 seemed to him to have the same figure and features.
The story of the Ohio residence, with sufficient detail as to
the relation of that residence to a prior one in Kentucky and
a subsequent but very brief one in Indiana, appeared to sup
port this impression.

The son of the editor has looked through the files of his
father's paper for 1867, and finds no reference to these
matters. Very properly so, for his father was not a man
who would have been likely to publish a story of this kind
until he had investigated the matter fully.

The results of his investigation lie before me in the hand
writing of the father, the editor. His recollection of the
name of the boy's father was correct; it was Thomas Lin
coln. The son who went to school to him was born about
1809, and was a tall, raw-boned lad like the future President.
Further, the family removed from Ohio, and settled in In
diana. Here, surely, was the basis of a plausible and scan
dalous story, for if the Ohio Lincoln was the President there
was a scandal about his birth.

But at that point the stories diverge. Thomas Lincoln
of Ohio had three sons, John, Thomas and Ananias. He

194 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

had no son Abraham. The son whom the teacher, who later
became the editor, taught in Ohio, and thought he recognized
in the future President, was named John, and he died in,
1840. There lies before me as I write a letter from the man
for whom he was working and upon whose premises he died.

This discovery completely disposed of the report, and
at the same time it illustrated how a considerable body of
fact can be gathered in support of a theory that is utterly
untrue, and how easily an honest man can be deceived in
his own recollections of the appearance of a person whom
he had known many years previous to the time of his mak
ing a statement.

For good reason, I prefer not to name any of the persons
who participated in this correspondence; but I have copies
of the letters, which I made with my own hand direct from
the originals, and I have given herewith all the essential
facts.

Furthermore, if the statements in this chapter should be
called in question, the original letters can easily be located,
and the statements in this chapter fully substantiated.

CHAPTER XX
ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON COUNTY

OF all the forms of the story concerning Abraham Lincoln's
paternity, I approach this one with the least patience. The
reasons are, first, that the story itself is highly offensive, and,
secondly, that it comes to us through the credulity of men
who had been trained to sift evidence, and who ought to have
known better. The story is that Thomas Lincoln, for a
consideration, confidently named as five hundred dollars in
money and a pair of horses and a wagon, married a woman
named Hornback or Hanks, and assumed the paternity of
her illegitimate child, who, according to some versions of the
story, was not yet born, and according to others was able
to run around, and to sit up between Thomas and Nancy
as they drove away toward the more western portion of the
State to begin their married life together. It partakes of
the story told by Mrs. Boyd, but instead of attributing his
birth to Judge Marshall's son, or adopted son, ascribes his
paternity to one Abraham Inlow, a miller, who is alleged
to have lived on the border between Clar,k and Bourbon
Counties.

One of the first questions suggested by the story is,
What did Thomas Lincoln do with the money ? That amount
of money would have made him a rich man on his arrival in
Hardin County. He was not a drunkard nor a gambler,
and while he was improvident, he was not a wastrel. What
did he do with the money?

And what did he do with the horses and wagon? The
tax collector was unable to find more than one horse, and
almost every man had a horse to ride. If Thomas Lincoln
secured any such sum we should find him with less difficulty
on the tax returns, where I have found him in the counties
of his residences, but not with two horses at any time while

195

196 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

he resided in Kentucky, so far as tax returns have thus far
been discovered.

The next fact which comes to our notice is that the name
of the young woman, thus wronged by one man and married
by another, was manifestly not Hanks but Hornback, a name
not infrequent in Hardin and La Rue Counties. The more
this story is followed upon the ground, the more it becomes
apparent that the name Hanks was a later addition. One can
discover the very bungling and unsuccessful attempt to ac
complish what in the film-world is called a fade-out for the
Hornback girl and the emergence in her place of Nancy
Hanks.

We find in this story, as elsewhere, the alleged proof in
the fact that relatives of the people supposed to have been
involved in this situation have long arms, more or less, like
those of Abraham Lincoln. One distinguished lawyer, re
lated to the Mows, shows his long arms as proof of his re
lationship to Abraham Lincoln. This proves that in several
localities in Kentucky, Tennessee and the two Carolinas, there
are men who have long arms, and it proves no more.

This story also affirms that an unnamed lawyer said to an
other unnamed lawyer that a Methodist preacher, unnamed
but evidently Jesse Head, residing at Harrodsburg, told the
lawyer who told the other lawyer, who told some one else,
that when he married Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the
boy Abraham was old enough to run around the floor. And
that is a lie. Jesse Head died in 1842, more than two de
cades before this story got into circulation.

Now we come to the irrefutable proof that this story is
false, which is, that Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were mar
ried June 12, 1806, and that in February of the following
year there was born to them a daughter named Sarah, who
was their eldest child. Abraham was the second child, born
two years and eight months after the marriage of his parents.

Nicolay and Hay in their record of the marriage of Thomas
and Nancy Lincoln give correctly the date of June 12, 1806,
and say:

" All previous accounts give the date of this marriage as

ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON 197

September 23rd. This error rose from a clerical blunder in
the county record of marriages. The minister, the Rev. Jesse
Head, in making his report, wrote the date before the names;
the clerk, in copying it, lost the proper sequence of the en
tries, and gave to the Lincolns the date belonging to the next
couple on the list." (Vol. I, p. 23.)

Nicolay and Hay are mistaken. Herndon gave the correct
date in his first edition, and most authors have followed him.
Moreover, the clerk of the Washington County Court usually
copied it correctly, and that has been the record since followed.
Nicolay and Hay were in error in supposing themselves to be
the first who published this date correctly.

The date was incorrectly copied, however, in the first pub
lished article, and the wrong date has sometimes slipped into
books, as, in the appendix of Miss Tarbell's Life of Lin
coln, where she followed a date given to a Kentucky min
ister. But the correct date had been given years before by
Herndon.

The Bourbon County story, though very widely current,
is impossible. Busy as the devil is, it could hardly have orig
inated at the time it obtained currency if the marriage return
of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks had been found. The
first male child of Nancy Hanks was not born before she
married Thomas Lincoln, but was preceded by a daughter,
born two years previously.

This daughter's name was certainly not Nancy. That
myth comes plainly from the tear in the family record page
of the Lincoln Bible. Her name was Sarah, and she was
born at Elizabethtown, February 10, 1807, two full years
before her brother Abraham. The story that when Thomas
and Nancy rode away to be married the boy sat between
them is opposed not only to all probability, but to certain
fact.

The story is not without its own internal indications of
its origin. The unfortunate girl who found a husband and
went away with him and her child was not a Hanks, but a
Hornback; and the evolution of some nearly forgotten Horn-
back girl into a Nancy Hanks is apparent on the face of the

198 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

story. The Hornbacks still live in Hardin and La Rue Coun
ties, and probably in adjacent counties.

The Hanks girls were known in Hardin County before
the marriage of Nancy, as is plainly shown in the Helm
story, told by Herndon. Nancy Hanks before her marriage
to Thomas Lincoln was not living the life of a prostitute
near Thatcher's Mills, but living around among her relatives,
and possibly sometimes attending camp-meetings, and, so far
as anybody knows, she was behaving herself like a virtuous
young woman.

This story is one of the most discreditable to those who
hold it, and it has very little to be said in its favor or in
favor of those who so readily accepted it. It has formed
a part of the gossip of lawyers in Kentucky for many years,
but the evidence adduced in its favor, though with a Chief
Justice of the Appellate Court as its sponsor, shows very
little regard for the rules of evidence.

I count this story the more contemptible because the men
who pieced together the bits and fragments of court-house
and bar-room gossip of which it is composed, and who re
told it and enlarged it, were men who were accustomed to
weighing evidence. Some of those who were chiefly respon
sible were men of ability and of character. They believed
this story until it became almost a religion. Yet the story
is sustained by no evidence which these lawyers would have
accepted as proof in any case in court. They talked about
it and rehearsed the gossip, and some of them finally swore to
their belief in the truth of it; but when their affirmations are
analyzed and the evidence in their favor is weighed, it is alto
gether less than vanity.

After a very thorough investigation of these matters, I
had occasion to make inquiry as to certain details, and wrote
to a friend of many years, who is a Kentucky editor and
a member of the bar, and whose home is not far from the
storm center of this particular story. He refused to assist
me. He said of the men who circulated these stories, " They
are liars, and scandal-mongers!"

ABRAHAM INLOW OF BOURBON 199

Furthermore, he specified emphatically the kind of liars
which he believed them to be.

I omit the adjective which he employed, but I find his
declaration recurring to memory as I ponder the evidence
and see what these men did with it. My editorial friend is a
man who is rather accurate in his choice of adjectives. I
cannot find it in my heart to contradict him.

CHAPTER XXI
THE HARDIN STORY

THE story that Abraham Lincoln was the son of Martin D.
Hardin is not physically impossible. General Hardin was born
in 1780 and was twenty-nine years old when Abraham Lin
coln was born. The story that he visited Nancy Hanks when
on his way to attend the Legislature in Frankfort, is mani
festly incorrect, as he was never a member of the Legislature,
nor had any member of the Hardin family been in the Ken
tucky Legislature up to that time ; but he was a frequent visitor
to Frankfort and perhaps at that time was a resident there.
The story would have more approach to probability if it
said that the incident occurred on his return to his home
county on some visit from Frankfort.

But the story has not a shred of evidence in its favor,
nor have I been informed of any reports concerning the life
of Martin D. Hardin, which would make this probable. What
makes it exceedingly improbable is: First, that in the very
year of this supposed adventure, Martin D. Hardin was mar
ried and happily married to a beautiful and proud young
woman, the daughter of General Benjamin Logan; and sec
ondly, that at that time Nancy Hanks was married to Thomas
Lincoln and living a long ride in the direction opposite to that
which Martin D. Hardin had occasion to travel between his
home in Washington County, his law practice in Richmond, or
his political affairs in Frankfort. The story is opposed by
every element of probability in the social and geographical
situation, and it did not originate at the time, nor until seventy
years afterward.

It was Ward Hill Lamon's Life of Lincoln that started
whatever story became current in Washington County con
cerning the illegitimacy of Lincoln. This did not occur in
1872, when the book was published, nor until about six years

200

THE HARDIN STORY 201

afterward. So far as I can learn no one in Washington
County bought or read the book then or afterward. All
references to it that I have seen in print or manuscript indi
cate clearly that the persons who discussed it knew of it only
by hearsay. Even in a little pamphlet, printed in the '80' s
by W. F. Booker, then County Clerk, and telling the story
of the finding of the marriage certificate of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln, the evidence is plain that he had not seen
the book. Knowledge of Lamon's book made its way into
that region by way of the distillery at Athertonville. A man
named Thompson, son of one of the then oldest inhabitants
of Springfield, was a government officer at Athertonville, and
there at the distillery heard discussions based upon the asser
tion that Lamon had written a book in which he charged or
implied that Lincoln was an illegitimate child. Thompson
brought this report to his father, Robert Mitchell Thompson,
a highly respected citizen, then about sixty-eight years of
age, who had known men that were present at the marriage
of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. He was sure that these re
ports grew out of the futile effort that had been made to
discover the marriage record in Hardin County. Having
definite knowledge that the marriage had not occurred in
that County, but in Washington County, he reported the mat
ter to William Frederick Booker, County Clerk. Mr. Booker
is spoken of in Washington County in terms of highest praise.
He served as County Clerk for almost forty-four years,
and after his first election never had opposition.

The county records were not indexed, nor were the old
ones filed in any fashion which made it easy to examine them.
The search proved to be long, and Mr. Booker gave himself
to it in such time as he could spare from his official duties.

Meantime, the knowledge spread that Abraham Lincoln
had been declared an illegitimate child, and there was some
effort, amounting to nothing more than a conjecture, to deter
mine who his father might have been. Washington County
gave to him tentatively the best name it had.

It should be remembered that Washington County not
only knew that Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were married

202 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

in that County but believed and still believes that Abraham
Lincoln was born there. If another father than Thomas Lin
coln had to be found, Washington County was disposed to
find him a worthy one.

But the Hardin tradition was short-lived. Mr. Booker's
search was completely successful. He found not only the
marriage return, signed by Rev. Jesse Head, but he found the
marriage bond, signed by Thomas Lincoln and Richard Berry.
These documents completely confirm the affirmations of Mr.
Thompson and other old residents concerning the marriage
of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. The Hardin tradition died
with this discovery. I am reliably informed that it is now
completely discredited in the county where it originated.

I should not have considered the Hardin story worth notic
ing, had I not been attempting a complete survey of the
field of these reports. As I have mentioned that, I may add
that now and then one hears a name thrown out in utter
recklessness as that of a possible father of Abraham Lincoln.
I will give a single, and fairly representative instance, which
will serve as an example.

From time to time as I made these investigations, I heard
the confident assertion that Lincoln was the son of Patrick
Henry. I cannot claim to have investigated this statement
in any careful fashion. Parick Henry was born May 29,
1736, and died June 6, 1799. As he had been dead nearly
ten years before Abraham Lincoln was born, the story that
he was Lincoln's father appears to me improbable. I mention
it, however, in order that this volume may be complete.

CHAPTER XXII
ABRAHAM ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA

AMONG all the seven putative fathers of Abraham Lincoln
there are only two who have their claims set forth in cloth-
bound volumes. One of these, which traces Lincoln's descent
from Chief Justice Marshall, we shall presently consider; the
other is Abraham Enloe of North Carolina. I approach the
discussion of his claims with some reluctance, not because they
are strong, for the contrary is true, but because I have come
through correspondence into somewhat close relations with the
author of this book, and I do not find it easy to say in terms as
courteous as his letters to me, how fallacious I deem his
arguments.

The story as Mr. Cathey gives it dates back, as he believes,
to the early years of the nineteenth century; but he does not
produce any date, or any fact which implies a date, earlier
than the last quarter of the same century. The first time
any part of this story appeared in print, appears to have been
in the article already quoted from the Charlotte Observer,
September 17, 1893, m tne verv *ast decade of that century.
All Mr. Cathey's attempts to impart antiquity to the narrative
failed signally.

He has not been sufficiently careful in checking up his wit
nesses. He relates this story on the authority of Colonel
Davidson :

" There is a lady now living who, as a girl, was visiting
Abram Enloe. This lady says that Nancy Enloe Thompson,
having become reconciled with her parents, had returned from
Kentucky to North Carolina. They were to start to Ken
tucky again in a few days, and she remembered hearing a
neighbor say, ' I am glad Nancy Hanks and her boy are going
to Kentucky with Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Enloe will be happy
again."

204 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Colonel Davidson goes on to say that he himself married
into the Enloe family, and settled the estate of Abram Enloe,
and has no doubt of the truth of the story.

Colonel Davidson must have been a very credulous man.
This lady, who was visiting Abram Enloe, and so presumably
an adult, old enough to know and be interested in salacious
gossip in 1808 or 1809, was still living in 1913, and was not
then a woman of extraordinary age.

John P. Arthur, in that year, was gathering material for
his History of Western North Carolina, and was seeking proof
of the illegitimacy of Lincoln, which he was very willing to
believe. I have before me a letter of his, dated, Boone, North
Carolina, July 28, 1913, in which he says:

" As to the lady referred to on page 73 of Cathey's book,
I have a full account of what it is claimed she saw and
heard, but as she was not herself born before 1809, I have sent
for further information as to that. I think that instead of
seeing and hearing what it is now claimed she saw and heard,
she only heard Mrs. Felix Walker say what she, Mrs. Walker,
had seen or heard."

Or quite possibly she heard some one tell what some one
else had heard that Mrs. Felix Walker heard that some one
had told. Arthur found that he had no direct evidence of even
the indirect evidence to which Cathey referred.

It is evident that when this story first appeared, the Enloes
themselves denied any knowledge of such a tradition. In an
article quoted, from the Charlotte Observer, Wesley Enloe
definitely stated that he had never heard any such story. This
was in 1893. By 1909 he had grown proud of being called
the half-brother of Abraham Lincoln, and made the statement,
quoted in this volume from Cathey's book, directly contra
dicting his earlier and truthful statement.

Moreover, it is evident from the same article that when
the investigation, if such it can be called, began, people were
unable to discover the alleged resemblance between the Enloes
and Abraham Lincoln; nor do the photographs which Cathey
reproduces resemble Mr. Lincoln more than would a group
of portraits from almost any family in the Southern moun-

ENLOE OF NORTH CAROLINA 205

tains. The men are habitually tall and lank ; and one need
not ride far into the hills to find along any mountain creek a
reasonably good model for a statue of Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Cathey 's witnesses disagree lamentably as to where
Abraham Lincoln was born. Some of them are sure that
he was born in North Carolina; others that he was born in
Tennessee, though the mischief was done in North Caro
lina; others affirm that he was born on the way, as Thomas
and Nancy were on their pathetic honeymoon journey; and
still others give them time to get to Kentucky. These are not
variants of the same story. They are, in good part, the odds
and ends and leavings of several separate stories, of different
births, remodeled clumsily to fit the alleged situation of Nancy
Hanks and Thomas Lincoln.

Mr. Cathey is hopelessly lame on dates. He declares that
he obtained his information from people who were primitive
but honest, dealing little in dates, but accustomed to trans
mitting oral information correctly. I know that kind of peo
ple, and they are good people. But they are people among
whom rumors grow incalculably. The " grape-vine telegraph "
of those regions transmits gossip sometimes with amazing
speed, and not by any means is the transmission always
accurate.

In the gathering of information for this volume I en
deavored to avoid discussion with my correspondents and the
people whom I interviewed. I represented myself as being
desirous of knowing the truth, and of wishing to hear all
that was to be said in favor of any theory held by honest
people and current in any section of our country. Mr. Cathey,
however, asked me directly for my opinion of his theory, and
I told him frankly what I thought.

I wrote to Mr. Cathey that I thought he had given his
whole case away. He had started out to prove that Abraham
Lincoln was the son of a particular Abraham Enloe, who lived
in North Carolina; and he had reached the point where he
summed up his feeble argument in the very lame belief that
Lincoln was the son of " some Abraham Enlow." I said
to him that that admission completely nullified his argument.

206 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

He replied in a lengthy argument, based, not on his local
evidence, but on the alleged fact that Herndon's book had
been bought up and suppressed by Lincoln's friends on ac
count of the implication which it was supposed to contain that
Lincoln was illegitimate.

I answered that it was not certain that the book had thus
been suppressed; that it still could be had by any one who
really wanted to get it; that if it was suppressed there were
other possible reasons; and that it was not certain that Hern-
don held as a final view the theory that Lincoln was illegiti
mate.

Mr. Cathey replied as he was about to go to the hospital.
He reproached me for thus lightly thrusting aside " the tradi
tions of an honest people for three quarters of a century/' but
he brought no proof.

Our correspondence grew less regular, as his health was
frail, and we had about covered the ground. But I should
like to quote the ending of one of his letters:

" So far as my own personal intermeddling with this sacred
incident, in the Providence of God, is concerned, I have about
made up my mind that I should have let the matter rest where
it was born. I am sure if I had it to do over again, I should
not touch it. What do you think ? Answer me in your accus
tomed freedom.

" Cordially,

" JAMES H. CATHEY."

It is not necessary for me to quote my answer to Mr.
Cathey. His own letter is the best possible ending of this
chapter.

CHAPTER XXIII
CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL AND ANDREW

WE come now to one of the most distinguished of the pro
posed fathers of Abraham Lincoln, and our inquiry involves
a double quest. For this story tells us that Chief Justice
Marshall was the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, and Mar
shall's foster son Lincoln's father.

The story as it is told by Mrs. Lucinda Boyd, and well
fortified with affidavits and appeals to Truth, suggests three
questions, which we put in turn:

The first of the three questions we must ask is as to
the identity of Lucy Hanks, Hornback or Sparrow, with
the maternal grandmother of Abraham Lincoln.

The inquiry need not be a long one. Apart from the facts
that we do not know the name of Hornback in connection
with the ancestry of Lincoln, and that that appears to have
been the real name of the woman whom Mr. Rogers had in
mind, with the two names of Hanks and Sparrow added, and
Hornback is a familiar name in the heart of Kentucky to which
this young woman is alleged to have gone, is the simple fact
that Lucy Hanks did not die unmarried at the foot of the
Blue Ridge, leaving Nancy to make her way to Kentucky as
best she could. Lucy Hanks married Henry Sparrow, bore
him eight children, and lived in Kentucky.

Thus readily do,es Lucy Hanks lose her place in the cast
of Mrs. Boyd's drama.

Our second inquiry is as to the foster or adopted son of
Chief Justice Marshall, named Andrew, son of an English
man, killed in border warfare with Chief Justice Marshall's
son, after which death of his own son, Judge Marshall is al
leged to have adopted Andrew, who removed to Winchester,
Kentucky, where he found Nancy Hanks and became the
father of Abraham Lincoln.

207

208 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The author has been unable to discover any such Andrew
in the early life of Winchester as recorded in the various
county histories of Kentucky or by inquiry of leading citizens
in Winchester. He has been unable to find any Englishman
of this description, perishing in this manner, and leaving his
son to the adoption of Judge Marshall; nor did Judge Mar
shall need to adopt any sons; he had five sons of his own.
Nor did Judge Marshall find bereavement in any such fashion
as to require this kind of comfort of Andrew. Judge Mar
shall lived to the year 1835. His five sons died, respectively,
in 1835, 1832, 1833, 1862 and 1873. He was seventy-eight
years old when the earliest of his sons died, and was not only
a father but the grandfather of many children, and had no
need of any such adoption. Nor is any such name as Andrew
to be found in the family record as very fully set forth by
his genealogical biographer, Paxton.

Thus are we grievously disappointed in our second in
quiry, to say nothing about our inability to locate the battle
in which Andrew's father died. Wherever he died and who
ever he was, he appears in this story as a pure myth.

In order to run no risk of losing " Afcdrew " if he existed,
the author made diligent search in the pages first of Pax-
ton's work on the Marshall family, and then in Senator Bev-
eridge's two volumes on the Life of John Marshall: and as
these yielded no result, and the Senator was known to be sit
ting beside the press with the remaining two volumes, the
author wrote to him. Senator Beveridge wrote in part as
follows :

BEVERLY FARMS, MASSACHUSETTS,

September 17, 1919.
MY DEAR DR. BARTON:

Your letter of September 4 has just been forwarded to
me here, where I have been working to complete the last two
volumes of my Life of Chief Justice Marshall, which will be
published by Houghton Miffiin & Co. of Boston next month.

I have not run across any record or intimation that Chief
Justice Marshall ever had an adopted son; and I am quite
sure that he never did have one.

CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL 209

I have been all over the ground. Not only is there no
letter which refers directly or indirectly or gives the smallest
intimation of any adopted son, but there is no tradition of
any kind in Richmond supporting the idea, and none of his
relatives has ever heard of such a thing.

It is just possible that the legend may have taken its rise
from the fact that when Charles Marshall, brother of the
Chief Justice, died in 1805, he took his brother's son, Martin
Pickett Marshall, into his family for a little time. This lad
was born between 1794 and 1799.

You can, I think, be fairly sure that there is nothing in
Mrs. Boyd's book. It is as certain as anything human can
be that if the Chief Justice had had such a young man in his
home, there would be some reference to it. Surely Paxton
would have referred to it, for he gathered up not only all the
facts that he could ferret out, but many traditions and much
gossip, some of it being far from fact. I am confident there
is nothing in it.

Faithfully yours,

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE.

So far as Martin Pickett Marshall is concerned, one
fact which makes it improbable that he was the father of
Nancy Hanks is that she was born eleven years before he
was.

This, therefore, answers our second inquiry.

In the matter of Lincoln's resemblance to Chief Justice
Marshall, Mrs. Boyd was well within the bounds of truth.
Any thoughtful person who looks at the statue of the Judge
and bears in mind the form and features of Lincoln, must be
impressed as she was impressed. The resemblance between
the two men was so great as to be startling. Senator Beveridge
has given two or three pages to this in his four volume Life of
John Marshall. Not only were the two men alike in face and
form, but their habits of life and their mental and moral char
acteristics were alike.

They wei-e so much alike that one wonders why Mrs.
Boyd did not make better use of her material. The whole
Marshall family moved to Kentucky, except Chief Justice John
Marshall, and his brother James Marshall himself visited Ken-

210 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

tucky twice ; and, while it is not certain that Judge Marshall's
eldest son ever visited that new state, it is not unlikely that he
did so, and he may have been there several times. The pos
sibility of linking the lineage of Abraham Lincoln to that of
Justice John Marshall is so apparent to one who knows the
history of the Marshall family, that one hesitates to suggest
how much better story Mrs. Boyd could have made if she had
made a little effort to learn the facts. They are not difficult
to obtain. Paxton, in his Genealogy of the Marshall Family,
records not only the dry facts of lineage, but innumerable
details and much gossip: and there are other sources of in
formation. With a few real facts she could have made a
better piece of fiction.

The third inquiry is as to the son of Chief Justice John
Marshall who is alleged to have been the father of Nancy
Hanks.

This is a more detailed inquiry, for Chief Justice Marshall
had six children, of whom five were sons. We will name
them in order.

John Marshall, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, was born near Germantown, Va.,
September 25, 1755, an<^ died in Philadelphia July 6, 1835.
He was married at Yorktown, Va., to Mary Willis Ambler,
by whom he had issue:

1. Thomas Marshall, was born in Richmond, Va., July
21, 1784, and died in Baltimore, June 29, 1835. He married
Margaret W. Lewis, October 19, 1809. He was a graduate
of Princeton, and a lawyer. His health failed, and he retired
to his farm. He became a zealous member of the Episcopal
Church. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention
of Virginia, over which his father presided. He was a man
of literary taste and culture, a lover of poetry, music and
the fine arts.

2. Dr. Jacquelin Ambler Marshall was born December 3,
1787, and died July 7, 1852. He married, January i, 1812,
Eliza E. S. Clarkson. Though a physician, he did not engage
in active practice, but was sought in consultation. He was a
well-read country gentleman of good reputation.

CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL 211

3. Mary Marshall was born September 7, 1795, married
General Jacquelin B. Harrie, and died April 29, 1841.

4. John Marshall was born January 15, 1798, and died
November 25, 1833. He married, February 3, 1822, Miss
E. M. Alexander. He was a graduate of Harvard, a lawyer,
ancTseveral times a member of the Virginia Legislature.

5. James Keith Marshall was born February 13, 1800,
and died December 2, 1862. He married Clarinda H. Bur-
well. He was a graduate of Harvard, and led the life of a
country gentleman. He was several times elected to the State
Senate. He opposed the secession of Virginia, but when she
seceded he went, as did all the Marshalls, with his State, but
died early in the war.. He was highly esteemed as a generous
and honorable man.

6. Edward Carrington Marshall was born January 13,
1805, and died February 8, 1872. He married, February 12,
1829, Rebecca C. Peyton. He was a graduate of Harvard,
a regular church and Sunday School attendant, fond of good
reading. He sympathized with the South but was too old to
fight. He had suffered from the fall of a horse which he was
riding and whose fall nearly killed the rider, and was
for some years an invalid. After the War, which impover
ished him, he was offered and accepted a clerkship in the
Pension Office, in Washington, and thus earned his daily
bread.

These are the five men among whom we are now to look
in order to find a father for Nancy Hanks and a grandfather
for Abraham Lincoln. There should be no doubt of our suc
cess with so many to choose from, and if we do not wholly
succeed, we can leave an aroma of scandal attaching to the
entire five. We can learn, if we try, which of these boys was
a little wild in his youth; which of them had questionable love
affairs before he went to college; which of them led too gay
a life in college; which of them caused domestic distress by
too great frivolity after marriage.

Moreover, among the four hundred living descendants
of John Marshall, we shall be able to find some, who, when
the matter is suggested to them, will remember to have heard

212 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

that th,e wife of one of the sons of John Marshall caught him
in the act of kissing the cook; and, with a little further sug
gestion, we shall doubtless be able to establish the name of
the cook as Nancy Hanks. Having done this, we shall find
that Thomas Lincoln was sufficiently migratory to admit of
our bringing him to the rescue wherever and whenever the
exigencies of our story require. We can quite easily evoke
a story which no one can disprove, and which will make every
one of the four hundred descendants of the first Chief Justice
of the United States blush for shame. It is surprisingly
easy to do it.

Let us first begin by discovering which of these five sons
was " killed in border warfare." That is a sufficiently elastic
term to cover any kind of violent death.

But here we meet another disappointment. All five of these
men appear to have died at home, each in his own bed, and
most of them on the farm, far from the madding crowd and
from scenes of violence. We search in vain through Senator
Beveridge's Life of John Marshall for his adjournment of
court to stand by the coffin of a son slain in battle of any
kind.

However, it will not do to be discouraged. That is a small
and immaterial item. Perhaps he was not so killed, but de
served to have been so killed. Let us find out which of the
five sons would have been most likely to seduce Nancy. The
whole family wer.e Episcopalians, but some of them did not
take their religion very seriously; we can find something if
we try hard.

But just as a matter of caution, let us pause and consult
that very arbitrary volume, the almanac. It is a volume which
scandal-mongers pass by on the oth,er side. This whole body
of tradition has in it hardly a single date that is material to
the evidence. We will find a few.

As a matter of chronology, which of the five sons of John
Marshall would have been most likely to have been the father
of Nancy Hanks?

In a painstaking and gossipy volume of more than 400
pages, William M. Paxton, in 1885, published the Genealogy

CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL 213

of the family and descendants of John Marshall. His five
sons were born thus :

Thomas in 1784; Jacquelin in 1787; John in 1798; James
in 1800, and Edward in 1805.

Nancy Hanks was born in 1783.

Instead of being the daughter, she might have been the
elder sister of John Marshall's oldest son, and the mother of
the youngest!

Mrs. Lucinda Boyd begins her story with an appeal to
Truth. History, she says, should be painted with Truth on
her right hand and Memory on her left. Truth is her guide
and inspiration, Truth with a capital T, Truth emphasized, the
whole truth italicized. Nothing but the Truth, the Truth,
will satisfy Mrs. Lucinda Boyd. To be sure that she has the
Truth she obtains affidavits, certifying to what the affiants
have heard that other people heard of what had been told
by nobody knows who to nobody knows whom. It is perhaps
because the Truth is so precious to her that she uses it so
economically. Having now run down into its remotest rat-
hole her story that would give to Abraham Lincoln as a great
grandfather the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States, and having shown that the story thus sup
ported by a stack of affidavits, her own included, is absurdly
false, and should have been known to her as false before she
ever printed a page of her sloppy and slanderous story, I now
renounce Lucinda and all her works.

CHAPTER XXIV
JOHN C. CALHOUN

As compared with most of the stories concerning the paternity
of Abraham Lincoln, the theory that he was the son of John
C. Calhoun is entitled to thoughtful consideration. Such con
sideration w,e have given to all of them; most do not deserve
it. Mr. Knotts, the protagonist of this theory, has wrought it
out with a care and in a spirit which call for recognition.
Among all who have sought to provide Abraham Lincoln
with a father other than Thomas Lincoln, he alone has shown
some respect for chronology. He only has examined public
records of wills, marriages and land transfers. Mr. Cathey
has shown diligence in assembling traditions from members
of the Enloe family and their neighbors, and assigning to
them a conjectural antiquity which the evidence does not sus
tain, but in all the large volume of his accumulated tradition,
there is not a single fixed date. If the calendar had small
pox, his theory would be immune. There is no point in his
book where one may begin and reckon in terms of time and
distance. It is otherwise with Mr. Knotts and his theory. He
has some respect for the almanac. He has shown marked
industry in collecting data concerning the Hanks family in
several states. I have reproduced it in this book more largely
than might otherwise have seemed necessary, partly that he
might set forth in full the evidence as he judged it to be im
portant, and partly that others, who may care to go more
deeply into the difficult question of the Hanks family, may have
full benefit of his material. He has sought out the relations
between Thomas Lincoln and his uncle Isaac, thus endeavoring
to establish for that convenient gentleman, Thomas Lincoln,
who is certain to be needed for the assistance of some lady in
distress, a convenient base of operation, nearer to South Caro
lina than Kentucky is or could have been.

214

JOHN C. CALHOUN 215

It is to be noted, further, to the credit of this theory, that
it provides for Abraham Lincoln a male parent of real ability,
a man incontestibly superior to Thomas Lincoln, which some
of the substitutes have not been.

Mr. Knotts has a carefully wrought scheme of chronology,
and has articulated his theory so well that John C. Arthur took
it over bodily, with full credit to Mr. Knotts, in his History
of Western North Carolina. This was a high compliment,
especially as North Carolina had its own aspirant to the
paternity of Abraham Lincoln in the person of Mr. Cathey's
Abraham Enloe. That Arthur accepted this story and not the
other is a hard blow to the Enloe story, which, indeed, is no
longer worth considering.

Pursuant to this chronological scheme, John C. Calhoun,
who has been studying law at Litchfield, Connecticut, comes
back to his native state in 1807, and hangs out his shingle
in Abbeville, and travels the circuit to adjacent counties, and
stays at a tavern half way between two county seats. The
date is correct. Calhoun did all those things, including,
probably, stopping occasionally at this particular tavern,
which may at that time have been kept by Ann, the widow
of Luke Hanks. And there might have been a Nancy Hanks
helping about the tavern; and she might have been the kind
of girl which all th,ese various Nancy Hankses are supposed
to have been, and Calhoun may have been the kind of young
man whom this story supposes. So far forth, the story is
not without its elements of plausibility.

To this is added the lodge-room gossip to the effect that
John C. Calhoun' s intimate friends whispered that he had
sown certain wild oats in his youth ; and the story among the
women of what Mrs. Felix Walker told. The story assumes
some elements of possibility as it is thus viewed. And
that is saying more for it than can be said for most of
them.

John Caldwell Calhoun was born in the 96th District
South Carolina, March 18, 1782, and died in Washington,
March 31, 1850. His grandfather, James Calhoun, emigrated
from Donegal County, Ireland, to Pennsylvania, in 1733,

216 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

when his son Patrick, father of John C, was six years old.
Patrick Calhoun was an Irish Presbyterian, energetic, patriotic,
and sided with the colonies in the War for Independence.
In 1770 he married Martha Caldwell, daughter of an Irish
Presbyterian minister. Patrick Calhoun was a public-spirited
man, and a member of the Virginia Legislature.

Of such parents John C. Calhoun was born. He was
prepared for college by his brother-in-law, Rev. Dr. Waddell,
a Presbyterian minister, and went to Yale in 1802. He studied
law with local members of the bar, and then finished his course
at Litchfield, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1807,
and in the same year admitted to the bar.

His experience as a lawyer was of four years' duration,
for in November, 1811, he was elected to Congress.

He was riding the circuit at the time required in Mr.
Knotts' theory, and, if the mother of Abraham Lincoln was
there at that time, the story is physically possible.

But to show that a thing is possible is not to prove that
it is true. And before we go much farther, it will be well to
inquire what particular Nancy Hanks, if any, was actually at
the tavern kept by Mrs. Ann Hanks in the short period during
which Calhoun rode the circuit. For the law did not hold
him long; politics soon claimed him; and the period in which
he was riding the circuit is just the period when this story
requires his presence, and that of some Nancy Hanks, at the
tavern at Craytonville.

It is not very easy to follow the generations of the
Hanks family through their intermarriages, their migrations
and their duplication of names. Fortunately, we are not con
cerned with the entire problem, but with only so much of it as
is necessary to the determination of the question whether one
particular Nancy Hanks, and she the mother of President
Lincoln, was at the tavern at Craytonville in the spring of
1808. This inquiry warrants a brief survey of the Hanks
genealogy.

Mrs. Hitchcock traces the maternal line of Abraham Lin
coln from the Hanks family of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The third son of Benjamin Hanks, William by name, is be-

JOHN C. CALHOUN 217

lieved by her, though without documentary evidence, to have
gone to the Rappahannock County in Virginia, where his sons,
Abraham, Richard, James, John and Joseph were born. All
except John removed and settled in Amelia County about
1740. Here documentary evidence begins. On January 12,
1747, Joseph sold two hundred and eighty- foulr acres of
land to his brother Abraham, and on July 12, 1754, bought
in the same county, the land where his children were born,
among them a daughter Nancy, whom she believes to have
been the mother of the President.

In the next county to Amelia, Lurenburg, an Englishman
named Robert Shipley bought three hundred and fourteen
acres of land on September 16, 1765. He and his wife, Sarah
Rachel Shipley, had five daughters, — Mary, who married
Abraham Lincoln of Rockaway County, Virginia, grandfather
of Abraham Lincoln th,e President; Lucy, who married Rich
ard Berry; Sarah, who married Robert Mitchell; Elizabeth,
who married Thomas Sparrow, and Nancy, who married
Joseph Hanks.

Joseph and Nancy Shipley Hanks had eight children, —
Thomas, Joshua, William, Charles, Joseph, Jr., Elizabeth,
Polly and Nancy. This is the Nancy Hanks whom Mrs. Hitch
cock believes to have been the mother of President Abraham
Lincoln.

Joseph Hanks migrated to Kentucky in 1789, and died four
years later. His will, dated January 9, 1793, was probated
May 14, 1793. He left a horse to each of his sons and a
heifer to each of his daughters. Nancy received a yearling
heifer named Piedy. He left to his " beloved wife Nanny "
his whole estate during life. She and her son William w.ere
the executors.

Mrs. Hitchcock sets forth what is, in fact, one of the chief
difficulties of the inquiry, the fact that the Hanks family did
not go far afield for family names, and had a special fond
ness for the name Nancy :

' This little Nancy Hanks had also many cousins named
Nancy. . . . Theirs was a large and happy colony of cousins,
and merry were the days passed in hunting, hawking and

218 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

fishing in the great estates of nearly a thousand acres owned
by these kind uncles and aunts " (Nancy Hanks, p. 26).

Their hunting may have been more merry than the hunt
of genealogists for the true Nancy Hanks, but the estate of
a thousand acres was small compared with the area over which
the latter chase has been extended, with no little fishing for
possible clues of identification. The fact that the marriage
bond of Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln was signed by
Richard Berry, is supposed to indicate him to have been her
uncle and guardian. Mrs. Richard Berry is stated by Mrs.
Hitchcock to have been " her mother's sister." She says
" With this kind Uncle Richard and Aunt Lucy, Nancy
Hanks lived until she was married."

There is no Lucy in the list of Joseph Hanks' children
as given in his will, and any neighbor could have signed the
marriage bond, which for a woman of twenty-three in a land
where girls marry at sixteen was a mere formality. Almost
any by-stander around the court house will sign a marriage
bond in Kentucky. The name upon the bond is not conclusive,
but it is inferential proof of the relationship, and is probably
correct.

The short and simple annals of the Hanks family as given
by Lamon, on tHe basis, of course, of Herndon, who had his
information from Dennis and other members of the Hanks
family, are these:

Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Lucy Hanks. Her
mother was one of four sisters, Lucy, Betsy, Polly and Nancy.
Betsy married Thomas Sparrow; Polly married Thomas
Friend ; Nancy married Levi Hall, but not until she had given
birth to Dennis Hanks. Lucy became the mother of Nancy
Hanks, and subsequently married Henry Sparrow, by whom
she had eight children. The younger Nancy, however, did not
live with her mother, Lucy Hanks Sparrow, but with the other
Sparrow family, that of Thomas and Betsy Sparrow.

This, it will be noted, brings the place of Nancy Hanks
Lincoln one full generation later than the list given by Mrs.
Hitchcock, with much uncertainty as to marriages in the two
lists. The difficulty, of course, arises partly from the incom-

JOHN C. CALHOUN 219

pleteness of records, partly from the overlapping of genera
tions, and partly from repetition of names. As there were
many Hanks girls named Nancy, so there w^re duplicate
Pollys, Betsys and Lucys.

Nicolay and Hay give the same list of sisters and of
their marriages as that given in Lamon:

"Mrs. Lincoln's mother was named Lucy Hanks; her
sisters were Betty, Polly and Nancy, who married Thcmas
Sparrow, Jesse Friend, and Levi Hall. The childhood of
Nancy was passed with the Sparrows, and she was oftener
called by their name than her own. The whole family con
nection was composed of people so little given to letters that it
is hard to determine the proper names and relationships amid
the tangle of traditional cousinships." — NICOLAY AND HAY:
Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. I, p. 24.

Mr. Knotts begins where Mrs. Hitchcock does, with Will
iam, in Rappahannock County, and accepts on her authority her
attempt to connect him with the Plymouth family. He finds
William migrating to Amelia County, just as Mrs. Hitchcock
does, but instead of the five sons whom she gives, Abraham,
Richard, James, John and Joseph, he declares that there were
twelve children. Thus far there may be no conflict. Mr.
Knotts' twelve may have included the five of Mrs. Hitchcock;
but the son through whom he traces the paternity of Nancy is
not one of her five, but " the youngest son, Luke." Among his
daughters were Lucy, and Nancy, the very Nancy who be
came the mother of the President.

Luke, James and John migrated to South Carolina. James
and John went on to Kentucky, but Luke and his wife Ann
lived and died in Anderson County, South Carolina.

The children of Luke and Ann Hanks, as Mr. Knotts
gives them, are five sons and six daughters, — Thomas, Luke,
John, Robert, George, Lucinda, Scilla, Elizabeth, Martha,
Susan and Judith, all of whom remain in South Carolina.

It will be noted that this places Nancy Hanks Lincoln
one generation earlier than Herndon and the H^nks family,
and two full generations earlier than Mrs. Hitchcock.

In his first letter he says:

220 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

"My own research is from Amelia County, Virginia,
wh,ere William Hanks came from the Rappahannock country
and raised a family of twelve children. One of the girls
married Abraham Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, and set
tled in Kentucky."

But the children of William Hanks appear to have been
grown and doing business on their own account when the
family came to Amelia County about 1740.

Nancy Hanks, the mother of the President, was, how
ever, by Mr. Knotts' showing, three years and three or four
months old in May, 1799. There is a wide margin and
apparent discrepancy here.

If Mr. Knotts really intended to locate Nancy in this
generation, as the daughter of William Hanks, and a sister
of Luke, she would have been, as I estimate, at the time of
her alleged indiscretion, a giddy young thing of somewhere
between sixty-four to seventy-two. I could not think Mr.
Knotts intended this, particularly as he included her in the
list of heirs of Luke Hanks. Neither could I obtain from
the county officials a certified list of th^e heirs of Luke Hanks
with a statement of their relationship to him, although I ex
hausted all known possibilities in this direction.

Here is the first weakness in the argument of Mr. Knotts;
his articles ar,e not clear as to the precise Nancy Hanks who
flirted with John C. Calhoun. He shows with convincing
detail how many women of that name there were, and sets
forth the difficulty of accepting the conclusions of Mrs. Hitch
cock and Miss Tarbell as to her identification with the heiress
of the pied heifer; but he does not give us a clear statement
concerning the only Nancy in whom for the purpose of this
investigation we are interested.

John C. Calhoun returned to South Carolina from the
law school about a year and a half before the birth of Abraham
Lincoln. The family of Luke Hanks was in that neighbor
hood. But the list of Luke Hanks' children, as furnished
by Mr. Knotts as from the first court records, contains no
daughter of his named Nancy;1 and if she were a sister of

1 There was a daughter Nancy, however, as shown by these records,
and she completely upsets Mr. Knott's theory as we shall discover.

JOHN C. CALHOUN 221

approximately the age of Luke, the youngest son of William,
she was, to say the very least, old enough to have known bet
ter. She was nearer seventy-three than twenty-three.

I confided this difficulty to Mr. Knotts who tells me that
this is not what he intended; that Nancy was not the sister
but the youngest daughter of Luke Hanks. But I could not
find Nancy in his own list of Luke Hanks' children. Her name
first appears, as he declares, in 1833:

" Nothing more is of record until 1833 " when the suit for
division was brought, and a list of heirs filed, evidently not
all of them children, for there were fifty-six of them, with
degree of relationship apparently not stated, and twenty-
seven are beyond the State; and "Amongst them appears a
new heir to this humble estate, Nancy Hanks/'

I made diligent effort to secure from the court officials
of Anderson and Abbeville something that would enable me
to determine the relationship of this Nancy Hanks to the
family in general and to the mother of Abraham Lincoln in
particular, but they wrote me that they could give me no
assistance.

But in a work of this kind one must never be discouraged.
After I had nearly given up the effort to locate this particular
Nancy Hanks, I tried once more, and I find that Mr. Knotts is
mistaken in a vital point.

The long list of heirs at law of Luke and Ann Hanks as
divergently set forth in the two suits for partition, included,
of cours,e, grandchildren as well as children. I desired to
learn precisely the names and if possible the relative ages of
the children of Luke and Ann Hanks, in order to determine,
if possible, whether there was, in 1807, a youngest and un
married daughter Nancy, who might have been the wife of
Thomas Lincoln. Several attempts to secure this information
failed; but a further search, made for me by Mr. G. H.
Geiger, attorney at law in Anderson, brings me the follow
ing lists as they were presented and approved at the two
suits :

The two lists of children of Luke and Ann Hanks as
contained in :

222 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Judgment Roll N. 286 in the Judge of Probate's Office
For Anderson County, at Anderson, South Carolina.
State of South Carolina
County of Anderson.

Personally appeared David Rupell and Luke Hanie and
being in due form of law sworn say that they are well ac-

Luke

quainted with the land belonging to the estate of — Anna —
Hanks deed for which application is now made for partition by
the Court of Ordinary & that it is not worth one thousand
dollars. Sworn to and subscribed Jany. ist.,
1838, before me. David Rupell

A. Evins, Not. Pub. & Luke Haynie

Ex Off. Q.h.

The land of Luke Hanks, deed.
The Heirs of

1. Elizabeth Hanie, formerly E. Hanks (out of the state)
The Heirs of

2. Nancy South " Nancy " (out Of)

3. Stephen Hanie by right of his wife Martha H. (in)

4. Thomas Hanks (out)

5. Luke Hanks , (in)

6. Polly Hanks, Wife of George Hanks (in)

7. Charles Hanie by right of his wife Susan (in)

8. Louie Pruitt formerly Louie Hanks (out)

9. Robert Hanks (out)

10. Judith Hanie Alias Judith Hall for, Hanks (in)

11. John Hanks — (out)

Luke

Land of — Anna — Hanks Dtecd. 210 acres lying on waters of
Rockey River bounded by lands of Luke Hanks John Martin,
Wm. Prichard and others

1. Thomas Hanks

2. Luke Hanks (in the State)

3. Robert Hanks

4. (in) Polly Hanks, wife of George Hanks, deceased.

5. John Hanks
The Heirs—

JOHN C. CALHOUN 228

6. Elizabeth Hanie, formerly E. Hanks

7. Martha Hanie, wife of Stephen Hanie

8. (in) Scilla South, wife of Wm. South

9. Th.e heirs of Nancy South, formerly Hanks

10. Judith Hanie, wife of Anthony Hanie

11. Lucretia Pruit

Sold on a credit of twelve months.

This is the complete record of the judgment roll.

G. H. GEIGER,
Attorney at Law.

Anderson, South Carolina.

It is evident that these two lists were prepared independ
ently, and that the latter was not copied from the earlier
list. This is shown in the different order in which the
names appear, the fact that at least one of the heirs appears
to have died between the first and second suits, and that there
is a discrepancy as to one of the daughters. As that dis
crepancy does not concern our inquiry, I have made no effort
to reconcile it. I may suggest, however, that Susan and
Scylla may have been the same daughter and that she was
twice married. That is for our purpose immaterial; and
the two lists may be thus compared as to the number and
position of the names:

THE TWO LISTS OF HANKS* HEIRS

1. Elizabeth Hanie (out) 6. Elizabeth Hanie, former

ly Hanks

2. Nancy South, formerly 9. Heirs of Nancy South,
Hanks (out) formerly Hanks

3. Martha, wife of Stephen 7. Martha Hanie
Hanie (in)

4. Thomas Hanks (out) i. Thomas Hanks

5. Luke Hanks (in) 2. Luke Hanks

6. Polly, wife of George 4. Polly, wife of George,
Hanks (in) deceased

7. Susan, wife of Charles
Hanie (in)

8. Lucretia or Louie Pruitt n. Lucretia Pruitt
(out)

224 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

9. Robert Hanks (out) 3. Robert Hanks

10. Judith Hanie, alias Hall 10. Judith, wife of Anthony
(in) Hanie

11. John Hanks (out) 5. John Hanks

8. Scilla South, wife of
Wm. South.

These two lists are valuable for our purposes. They show
that,—

1. There was a Nancy Hanks, daughter of Luke and
Ann Hanks.

2. She probably was not the youngest daughter, since her
name occurs early in the first list ; and it is not likely that she
was unmarried and serving in the tavern as late as 1807.

3. She is not unaccounted for. Though living beyond the
State, her name is known.

4. She never married Thomas Lincoln. She was mar
ried, and h,er name was South.

Not only was there no missing Nancy, but Nancy had
been married to one South, and was dead before the final
settlement, but not in 1833.

This completely settles the report that the young woman
whom Thomas Lincoln married was a daughter of Luke and
Ann Hanks, who had previously been seduced by John C. Cal-
houn.

We may dismiss with brief scrutiny the lodge-room gossip.

John C. Calhoun died March 31, 1850. He and Lincoln
probably met during Lincoln's one term in Congress in 1848-9.
General Armistead Burt, who is said to have married a niece
of Calhoun, is said to have told in confidence to a few com
panions in a lodge-room that Calhoun in his young manhood
became intimate with a poor girl, whom the tradition, as it came
to Mr. Knotts many years afterward, named as Nancy Hanks.
This confidential conversation is supposed to have occurred
in the seventies, sixty or more years after the event, and an
other forty years went by before Mr. Knotts learned and
published it. In these two periods of oral transmission there
was abundant opportunity for such a story to grow out of

JOHN C. CALHOUN 225

nothing to any conceivable proportions. As a leak from the
confidential gossip of a lodge-room it stands on no basis which
entitles it to any more than passing attention.

Mr. Knotts thinks he has established a connection between
thes,e stories of Calhoun and the paternity of Lincoln, in the
alleged interview of James L. Orr, a young man from South
Carolina, who visited Washington in 1849, where he met
Abraham Lincoln, and found him uncommunicative on the
subject of his Hanks ancestry. If such an interview occurred,
there is no reason to dispute that Mr. Lincoln showed reti
cence; but that is no proof that he admitted by implication
any such story as has now grown up in South Carolina.

The other line of gossip, which is based on what Mrs. Felix
Walker is alleged to have said about the young girl whom
her husband had arranged to send over the mountains, is of
just as little evidential value, excepting for this, that it shows
this to be an outgrowth of the North Carolina Enloe story.
Even with John C. Calhoun as the principal actor, it is nec
essary to bring in Abraham Enloe as an accessory. The Cal
houn story ought to have been created with sufficient strength
of its own to stand upon its own feet, and not limp on th,e
Enloe crutch.

We move rapidly over these details, for they are not worth
discussing. They bring us to the real issue, and to a certain
result. John C. Calhoun may have stopped at the Crayton-
ville tavern in 1808, but if he did the girl who passed him
the corn-bread and long-sweetening was not Nancy Hanks
Lincoln. She was not there. She was living temporarily on
the Brownfield farm, in Hardin County, Kentucky, and had
a baby girl toddling about the cabin where she baked hoe-
cake for Thomas Lincoln, and dreamed of the day when she
should be living in her own home over by the Rock Spring,
and the mother of a son.

Abraham Lincoln was born not quite three miles south
from where the village of Hodgenville now stands, in Hardin,
then La Rue County, Kentucky, on Sunday, February 12,
1809. Let us fix that date in our mind as one that we shall
not need to move. Any credible theory of the paternity of

226 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lincoln must face the fact that he was born there and on
that date.

What Mr. Knotts has proved is this:

That John C. Calhoun rode the circuit after his return
from law school in 1807, and may have stopped once or more
at the tavern at Craytonville, which for a time, and perhaps
at that time, was kept by Ann, the widow of Luke Hanks.

That there were more Hanks girls named Nancy than one,
and that there is a reasonable doubt whether Mrs. Hitchcock's
conjectural identification is correct.

That there were certain rumors afloat some twenty years
after the death of Mr. Calhoun, and sixty or more years after
the events narrated, to the effect that Mr. Calhoun, while gen
erally a moral man, looked back on his youth with regret for
one mistake, involving a girl whom this belated rumor named
after the mother of President Lincoln, Nancy Hanks.

That certain features of the Enloe story of North Carolina,
and certain facts concerning the residence of Thomas Lincoln's
uncle Isaac, can be wrought into the story.

But this is a house of cards, which a very mild breeze might
blow over, and it falls utterly before the tempestuous fact that
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married at Beech-
land, Washington County, Kentucky, by Jesse Head, on June
12, 1806, and that they lived together continuously in Hardin
County, Kentucky, until the birth of their second child, Abra
ham, on February 12, 1809, and that they continued thereafter
to live together as husband and wife in that county and in
Indiana until the death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

In the face of that indubitable fact, there is no use wast
ing any more time over the charge that Abraham Lincoln was
the son of John C. Calhoun.

CHAPTER XXV
DO THESE STORIES SUPPORT EACH OTHER?

IT is important to ask whether these stories support each other,
or whether they contradict each other.

A wholly unwarranted inference has been drawn by some
writers from the number of forms in which the Enlow story
is found.

" Behold," they say, " how widespread is this rumor.
Where there is so much smoke, there must be some fire. Each
of these stories, though having a different man for its hero,
adds its element of cumulative proof that some Abraham En-
low was the father of Abraham Lincoln."

Precisely the opposite is the logical inference.

Ally proof adduced to show that Abraham Lincoln was
the son of Abraham Enloe of North Carolina is adverse proof
of his having been the son of any and every other Abraham
Enlow. These stories devour each other like the Kilkenny
cats.

If we adduce sufficient evidence that Abraham Lincoln was
sired by a man in North Carolina, whether his name was
Abraham Enloe or John C. Calhoun, or John Doe or Richard
Roe, we weaken to that same extent any claim or rumor or
suspicion that he was the son of Abraham Inlow, the miller
of Thatcher's Mills, or Abraham Enlow, the farmer of Har-
din County.

What is more, we are compelled to see that the process of
creating these rumors is very simple. Once let it fe said that
Abraham Lincoln's father was Abraham Enlow, any com
munity that had an Abraham Enlow in 1808 can easily start
a story that Lincoln was begotten there. Whether Abraham
Enlow was fourteen or eighty makes little difference; some
even of his descendants will abet the rumor that links their
name to that of Lincoln.

227

228 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

It is not necessary that the Enlow selected shall ever have
seen Kentucky. It is always possible to create a Nancy Hanks,
a servant girl, who in the space of nine months could have
made her journey thither; and if nine months is not long
enough, as in some instances it is not, then an extension can
be arranged for her journey, though 'with a baby in her arms.

Not only are innumerable Abraham Enlows produced
by the laudable desire to produce a worthy male parent for
Abraham Lincoln, but nearly if not quite as many Nancy
Hankses have been discovered also, and each of them in dan
gerous propinquity to an Abraham Enlow. Mary and her
little lamb are not more invariably together than the Abra
ham Enlows and the Nancy Hankses. Everywhere that Abra
ham went, Nancy was sure to go. Without exception, all the
Abraham Enlows were men ready to betray a poor girl, and
invariably each and every several Nancy fell a prompt victim
to his seductive snare.

And each Nancy ultimately married Thomas Lincoln, the
same Thomas Lincoln. Solomon in all his glory had hardly
more wives than Thomas Lincoln, if all these stories are true;
but Solomon did not have to call them all by the same name.
It is impossible to supply a sufficient number of Thomas Lin-
coins to meet the demand of the numberless Nancys in dis
tress; and it is sad to contemplate his embarrassment who
never could adequately support one wife in having thrust upon
him a harem of young women who had loved not wisely, but
too well, and who depended upon his sole chivalry to save
them from disgrace.

It will be noted that whenever the holder of any one of
these several theories of the illegitimacy of Lincoln is con
fronted by an argument which he cannot answer, he replies,
in substance, as Cathey does, —

" The very fact that Herndon's and Lamon's lives of Lin
coln were suppressed by men of high standing and influence
some years ago, and that expurgated parts of those " lives "
were the paragraphs which related to Lincoln's Enloe origin,
is sufficient proof of the foundation on fact of these state
ments. Neither Col. Lamon nor Mr. Herndon would have

DO THEIR STORIES AGREE? 229

recorded a lie about Lincoln's paternity, and these suppres
sors knew it." — Gathers letter to Burton, May 16, 1919.

This statement is not conclusive.

First, while it is generally believed that influential friends
of Lincoln, some of whom are named in the story of the al
leged suppression, bought up a considerable portion of the edi
tion of each of these two books and destroyed it, that state
ment is also denied. Mr. Weik informs me that he personally
has been unable to find any proof of it.

In the second place, the portions which suggest that Lin
coln was illegitimate are not wholly removed from Herndon's
second edition. There was no second edition of Lamon's
"Life" His "Recollections" is a wholly different book,
and does not relate at all to Lincoln's birth, but only to some
personal reminiscences of Lamon himself.

In the third place, there were other and valid reasons why
the relatives of Lincoln should not have enjoyed the books
of either Lamon or Herndon. Lamon first published the
Browning letter, and his tone throughout is unpleasant, while
his representation of Lincoln as cold, unsympathetic, ungrate
ful and barely honest, as well as utterly destitute of religious
faith and willing to deceive people or let them deceive them
selves concerning him, was reason enough why it might have
been suppressed if suppression had been possible. As for the
expurgated portions of Herndon, the principal one is the
"First Chronicles of Reuben" and it is a question whether
that piece of backwoods vulgarity having once been printed,
it would not have been better to let it stand to prevent people
who knew that it had been cut out from supposing it to have
been worse than it really was. It certainly was nothing for
the friends of Lincoln to be proud of; but the worst that can
be said about it is that it records a rude practical joke alleged
to have been played upon two newly married couples in show
ing each bridegroom to the bed where the other's bride was.
No very serious consequences appear to have resulted before
the speedy discovery of the joke; but Lincoln, who is alleged
to have had a hand in planning it, wrote it up in his rough
boyhood, and the community laughed over the joke and his

230 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

account of it. It was not a pretty incident, but it has been
taken too seriously. It was this, chiefly, which was eliminated
in Herndon's second edition.

These stories lend each other no support. On the con
trary, each one of them contradicts all the others at some
vital point. The more nearly any one of them appears to be
true, the more does it become apparent that truth has been
outraged in that and in the others. These stories have no
cumulative value. They effectually disprove each other, and
each is disproved also by independent evidence.

CHAPTER XXVI
A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

THE avowed purpose of those who disseminate these various
stories is to provide for Abraham Lincoln a worthy and ade
quate father. God did not make Lincoln out of nothing, as
one of them remarks, and to believe that Thomas Lincoln was
his father is to hold that view. Some one must have been
his father who was capable of transmitting qualities great
enough to have developed into Abraham Lincoln.

The question naturally rises, If this necessity exists, why
stop with Abraham Enlow? In what respect of body, mind
or estate were the Enlows superior to the Lincolns? Sarah
Bush and the Johnstons looked down upon them both : what
evidence is there that any one of the numerous Abraham En-
lows who are credited with the paternity of Lincoln could have
transmitted to him anything superior to what was inherent
in Thomas Lincoln? The Enlows bred mightily in several
Appalachian States: where is their list of additional Lin
colns ? They are, indeed, a reputable family : the worst thing
that is known against them is the readiness of some of them,
but not all, to smirch the reputation of their own grandfathers
for the sake of establishing a fictitious relationship with Abra
ham Lincoln.1 Why have none of them afforded to the world
more convincing proof by begetting other Lincolns? They
still live, the Enlows, in homes not greatly superior to that
in which Abraham Lincoln was born : why did they not trans
mit thefr genius and enterprise to some other of their sons?

A family that has so much genius to spare that it can de
posit its cuckoo eggs in other nests and hatch eagles should
rear brave birds at home, and have no need to claim what does
not belong to it in other families.

1 The Kentucky Enlows I have found free from any complicity in this
libel of their ancestor.

231

232 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

One is impressed with the poverty of the imagination of
those who exploit these opinions. If a worthy father must be
had for Abraham Lincoln, why stop with Enlow? Why not
select a character really great enough for the purpose?

For instance, there is Benjamin Franklin: why not stir
up one of the stories which are not few, of his gallantries
while he was in France, and obtain an illegitimate son of
high birth, who, returning to Philadelphia, made his way into
what was then the western part of Pennsylvania, there to
quarter his arms with the Lincolns? That would account
for Abraham Lincoln's rare common sense, his native
shrewdness, his sound judgment, his wise and benevolent
humanity.

Or, why not take Thomas Jefferson, whose reputation
would not be greatly damaged by the story, and let the man
who wrote the Declaration of Independence be the father of
the man who wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, each as
serting, and the latter in terms of universal application, that
all men are created free and equal, and endowed by their Crea
tor with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness?

Either of these could be done, and in a very plausible way,
and one that would have much to commend it. Moreover,
there would be even greater opportunity to appeal to Provi
dence, and show how thus God designed through Abraham
Lincoln to accomplish what was inherent in the purpose of the
founders of the Republic, and wrought it through the son of
the one deemed most appropriate.

And there is always George Washington. When he was
a young man he went to the far West — through Western Vir
ginia and Pennsylvania, where the Lincolns foregathered.
He was about twenty-two, and being detained by high water,
he may have spent a few days in the home of, let us say the
Herring family. We do not know that he did so, but no
matter about that. Why should not George Washington be
the father of Bathsheba Herring, the mother of Thomas Lin
coln? To be sure, Bathsheba may have been rather young:
her future husband being only about thirteen: but she may

A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 233

have been three or six years older than her Abraham Lincoln,
the grandfather of President Lincoln, whom she subsequently
married.

And, to make the story complete, why shall not the son
of Martha Curtis, who married George Washington, have a
more or less innocent flirtation with Lucy Hanks, and so
become the father of Nancy?

This would provide for Lincoln a really adequate parent
age. It would explain his height — he and Washington were
about the same stature, and each with very large hands and
feet and relatively small head. And it would show us, too,
why Providence left George and Martha Washington without
children, that he might become the father and she the mother,
by descent, of the greatest of the children of the land that
calls him the Father of his Country.

I am trying to make this whole thing as ridiculous as I
can, — to reduce the whole affair to an absurdity : but like the
hero of Holmes' poem, who did not dare to be as funny as
he could, I dare not work out in detail an absurd imagina
tion like this, because I could make it so plausible that some
foolish reader would surely believe it.

It is not possible even to suggest a line of reasoning in
such matters that shall be sufficiently absurd to be of use as
a reductio ad absurdum. Nothing is too absurd for scandal
mongers in matters of this character. Wherefore I will not
show how plausible this and any of the following suggestions
could be made.

But, to show how easily this sort of thing can be done,
let me remind the reader that if we were really to decide to
propound George and Martha Washington as progenitors of
Lincoln, it would not be necessary to stop there. We could
embellish Lincoln's ancestry through innumerable collateral
lines, and make each one plausible. The farther back we go
the easier it becomes.

Every man has two parents, and in the second genera
tion his ancestors number four. In the next there are eight,
then sixteen, then thirty-two, and so on. In 1700 Abraham
had approximately thirty-two living ancestors, and in 1620

284 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

he had 256. The Lincoln line has been traced by Lea and
Hutchinson; the Hanks line by Mrs. Hitchcock. There is
opportunity, with the assistance of their books, to embellish
the record through almost any of its maternal lines.

For instance, take Samuel Lincoln, Abraham's first Ameri
can ancestor, who was baptized in Hingham, England, August
24, 1622, and, coming to America in 1637, married there a girl
named Martha, whose last name is unknown. Why not let
Martha be a Plymouth girl, of any of the best families who
came over in the Mayflower?

Then, with a little work in the collateral lines of the Hanks
family, why not prove that Nancy Hanks was a descendant
of John Rolfe and Pocohontas? It could very easily be done.
At least, it would be easy to find a plausible possibility, and that
without scandal, to fortify it with wills and marriage regis
ters and other old records, and leave a story that could not
easily be disproved, and one much more to the point than any
of the Enlow stories.

Every female line that breaks off abruptly, as in the old
records a majority of them do, is an invitation to the imagi
nation. A few weeks spent in the library of the New England
Historic-Genealogical Society would give to any person who
liked this sort of thing material to keep the admirers of Lin
coln busy for a generation, and it might be so ingeniously
done that it could never be disproved.

It might be objected by some lover of scandal that while
this would be a very pleasant diversion, it would hardly be
nice to dip one's pen in slime and write all over the fair name
of Martha Washington and other noble women.

But Truth, it must be remembered, is too sacred to be sat
isfied with anything less. To those who deal in these scandals,
Truth, naked and shameless Truth, is so holy that we must
not hesitate to strip the fig-leaf from the reputation of any
woman.

He who slanders the mother of Abraham Lincoln need
have no qualms concerning George Washington or his wife
or mother. This high and holy quest for Truth, TRUTH,
must be pursued though the heavens fall.

A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 235

Very well, let us note a few of these collateral lines, and
see what more we can do for Abraham Lincoln.

We can find among his parental ancestors, Oliver Crom
well, and among his maternal forbears a daughter of Charles
II. and naughty Nell Gwyne. That should be easy. While
we are about it, we might as well find him another paternal
ancestor in Charles VII. of France, and that gay flirt, Agnes
Sorrel; and we might wed one of their sons with a daughter
of the Huguenots. We might also find among the Quaker
friends of the Lincolns in Pennsylvania a descendant of Wil
liam Penn, and there is no reason why his wife should not
be a descendant of stern John Endecott, who did not love
Quakers. It would be well, also, to obtain, still in Pennsyl
vania, one of the Pennsylvania Dutch, descended from Wil
liam, Prince of Orange: and we could wed him to a Scan
dinavian daughter some degrees removed from Gustavus Adol-
phus.

Having done this, we might find what other body of immi
grants to America were most in need of representation in the
ancestry of Lincoln, and with a suitable infusion of Mennonite
and Scotch-Irish and other blood, we could make him the
incarnate spirit of cosmopolitan America.

Let no one suppose this sort of thing to be difficult. If
those who have invented the various stories about Lincoln had
possessed a little more imagination, and access to a good gen
ealogical library, they could have wrought wonders.

But when this mountain of scandal labors, it brings forth
this mouse — Abraham Enlow.

That, positively, is not worth doing. We might as well
accept Thomas Lincoln and be done with it.

If I were interested in smirching the name of Abraham
Lincoln, and had a few hundred dollars to spare, I could put
a good genealogist at work to create for me an ancestral tree
for him that would cast its shade over all the feeble and well-
watered but rootless saplings that have been industriously set
out and named for the various sons of the tribe of Enlow.
But I could not make one sufficiently absurd to prevent its
being believed. It is an easy thing for Aaron to cast down

236 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

his rod and produce a serpent that will swallow the serpents
of the magicians : I will not do so, for it would be sure to raise
up a new serpent cult that would burn incense to my snake.

There is still another and yet more interesting possibility
for the makers of Genealogy to order. Abraham Lincoln was
born in La Rue County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809. Jef
ferson Davis is alleged to have been born in Christian County,
Kentucky, June 3, 1808. Seven months is the time and sixty
miles the distance which is alleged to have separated these two
men at birth. It is preposterous that so brief an interval of
time and so short a distance should stand in the way of the
devotee of Truth. What is more easy than to prove that these
two men were twins ? As to Jefferson Davis' birth there are
as many stories as about that of Lincoln. Both were tall men :
both were by nature kind-hearted men. There are resem
blances enough for the purposes of the story, and a few more
can be invented. Contrasts, also, are abundant.

Now, that would be a story worth while. With these
two men born as twins and separated in infancy, meeting
in the Black Hawk War, and parting to command opposing
armies and governments in the Civil War — what a story that
would make !

For two things we cannot bring ourselves to forgive the
men and women who have disseminated these stories about
Lincoln's birth. The first is that they have ruthlessly de
famed the virtuous mother of America's noblest and best
loved American. The second is that they are possessed of
such poverty-stricken imaginations as to be incapable of in
venting a story worth telling. There are, to be sure, the ex
ceptions of Mrs. Boyd with her Marshall story, and Mr.
Knotts, who really has put some labor and research into his
John C. Calhoun story and believes it. But those who seek
to relieve Abraham Lincoln from the disgrace of being a son
of Thomas Lincoln and can get no further than Abe Enlow,
have weak imaginations.

If we want to unite the name of Abraham Lincoln more
closely to Kentucky, let us remember that Henry Clay, who
was born in Virginia on April 12, 1777, and came to Lex-

A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 237

ington, Kentucky, when he was twenty years old, and died
in Washington on June 29, 1852, was a member of the Legis
lature in 1808, and stumped the State in the interests of his
campaign for home-made clothes, maintaining that we should
always be subject to Europe until we had our own manu
factures, and calling upon America to clothe as well as feed
itself. In this campaign he may well have visited Hardin
County; why should not the great Compromiser have been
the father of the great Emancipator? Why shall we not
bring compromise to an end in the son of the man who for
years invented the compromises?

And, shall we not find in Lincoln's early enthusiasm for
Clay, and his cooled ardor later, a discovery on Lincoln's
part that Clay had not treated Lincoln's mother honorably ?

Henry Clay was tall, raw-boned, awkward, friendly, pa
tient, an orator who appealed to common sense and fair play ;
what more do we want to prove that he was the father of
Abraham Lincoln ? And where might Abraham Lincoln have
looked for a better father? Why need we go to Bourbon
County for Abraham Enlow when Lexington and Henry Clay
were nearer?

With a very little cutting and fitting, the events of Henry
Clay's life could be shaped to the need; and there must still
be old people in Kentucky who, if sufficiently prompted, could
remember that he once loved a girl named Nancy Hanks.

If we decide upon Henry Clay as a suitable father for
Abraham Lincoln, we shall have no serious difficulty in
strengthening our hypothesis by documentary material. It is
not necessary to be so shy of the calendar as are most of those
who advocate these theories, and to say that things happened
in the year 18 — ; we can do better than that without damage
to the theory.

For instance, in 1808, when Henry Clay may have visited
Hardin County, we remember that he had recently returned
from his first experience in Washington, where he had served
a fractional term as United States Senator. He had a gay
time in the Nation's Capital. Besides his salary, he had three
thousand dollars which his friends made up in a purse to retain

238 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

him on certain suits that might rise in the Supreme Court,
and he got his money's worth in Washington. William Plum-
mer, a Senator from New Hampshire, wrote in his diary :

" December 29, 1806. This day Henry Clay, the successor
of John Adair, was qualified, and took his place in the Sen
ate. He is a young lawyer. His stature is tall and slender.
I had much conversation with him, and it afforded me much
pleasure. He is intelligent and appears frank and candid. His
address is good, and his manners easy."

On February 13, 1907, he wrote:

" Henry Clay is a man of pleasure; fond of amusements.
He is a great favorite with the ladies; is in all parties of pleas
ure; out almost every evening; reads very little; indeed, he
said he meant this session should be a tour of pleasure."

It is not necessary to make him a grossly immoral man.
He was fond of ladies and they were fond of him, and he did
not leave all of that fondness in Washington. He returned
to Kentucky, happy to be back in his own State, saying,
" After all that I have seen, Kentucky is still my favorite
country."

John G. Holland tells in his Life of Lincoln that subse
quently to Mr. Clay's defeat for the Presidency, which was a
disappointment to Lincoln, " Mr. Lincoln paid a personal visit
to Mr. Clay. . . . On returning home from this visit, he did
not attempt to disguise his disappointment." (p. 95.) Lamon
denies that Lincoln ever made such a visit; but comments at
length on the fact that, on July i, 1852, Mr. Lincoln was
chosen by a public meeting of his fellow-citizens in Springfield
to deliver in their hearing an eulogy on Clay, who had recently
died ; and that Lincoln did so on the i6th of that month, but
his address was cold and tame. (p. 339.) Surely, here is
material such as we want ! Lincoln, an enthusiastic supporter
of Clay, making a secret visit to him at Ashland, and his biog
raphers trying to hush it up, and Lincoln, with the honor
thrust upon him of delivering an eulogy upon the man whom
he was known to have admired, doing it with such constraint
that it was noticeable! What material have we not here for
scandal! Let us desist from this sort of thing, lest we find

A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 239

ourselves believing the lies we are inventing, and get our minds
tangled in the web we spin out of our own bowels!

But if we really were to undertake the task of rinding a
father for Lincoln, could we not make a story that would cause
all the rest to turn green with envy ?

But it is all nonsense; and is here introduced to show how
easy it is to make better stories than those that very credulous
people have so willingly believed.

This school for scandal is about to close its doors, and
they will not reopen. But before this is done, let me suggest
one more interesting possibility for those who would find
another parent than Thomas Lincoln for Abraham, and who
are not content with anything so contemptibly weak as the
Enloe story.

" In the year 18 — ," meaning thereby in a very early year
of the nineteenth century, a prosperous man in Pennsylvania
addressed his son who had completed his legal studies in lan
guage something like this :

" I have purchased a large tract of land in Kentucky. It is
a land of promise. There will be opportunities there for a ris
ing young lawyer, and in time the land' will make him rich. If
you are disposed to go there and establish yourself in your pro
fession and grow up with the country, the land shall be yours."

In due course the young man, whose name was James,
arrived at Elizabethtown, the county seat of Hardin County.
The county then contained all of what is now Hardin and
La Rue and much beside. It was a hundred and forty miles
in length and had an average width of nearly fifty miles. He
rode his good horse to the tavern, and there took up his abode.

On the first court day he met Ben Hardin, attorney at
law, for whose family the county had been named, and was
shocked to see him enter court in an ill-fitting suit of un
bleached tow-linen which hung in unshapely folds about him;
but a little later was surprised when this and other lawyers
addressed the court in the rough log court house to discover
with what rude dignity and forensic skill they did their legal
business. This, surely, was the place for an educated lawyer
from Pennsylvania.

240 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

At the carpenter shop, where he went to see about a table
and some shelves for his small office, he met not only the car
penter, Joseph Hanks, but he met also a very attractive girl
named Nancy Hanks. Incidentally he met a big, illiterate,
but good-natured, apprentice, Tom Lincoln, by name.

The business of procuring the table and book shelves called
James to the carpenter shop a number of times, and each time
he was more deeply smitten with the charm of Nancy. She,
poor girl, was flattered by the attentions of the best dressed
man in town, the rising young lawyer and owner of a great
domain.

After matters had gone much too far, James considered
the social gap between him and this young woman, and thought
of the more cultured beauties of his early life.

He had a secret interview with the young apprentice, and
said :

" You love Nancy and so do I ; but I will not be selfish.
You loved her first, and while she seems to like me, I know
that her heart is yours. Tomorrow I go to court at Lexington,
and I shall not come back. Marry her, and may you both be
happy."

He rode away, and soon Nancy received word that he was
never to return. Appalled by the situation in which she found
herself, she accepted the offer of Tom Lincoln, who then
learned why James had been so generous, but determined to
make the best of it.

James returned to Pennsylvania and established a lucra
tive practice. In time he entered politics and became noted.
But he never married. Famous beauties attempted to ensnare
his heart, but he never was able to love any of them. All
that he ever told was that he had loved once and found that
he could never love again.

Years went by. The nation was on the brink of civil war.
The man in the White House was unable to command the sit
uation. During the last months of his administration his ex
hibition of weakness was pitiable. The nation and the world
awaited the coming of the man whose mastery of the situa
tion was to save the country.

A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 241

On the fourth day of March, 1861, the retiring President
and the President-elect stood together in front of the Capitol,
and the new President took the oath of office and delivered
his brief inaugural. Why was the retiring President so pale?
Why did he tremble as he stood beside the powerful giant who
had risen from Kentucky's woods to the White House ? Was
it because he saw, underneath all the mighty contrasts between
himself and this man, a resemblance that could mean but one
thing? Had Providence denied him wife and child that he
might see his own son come now to honor while he, the father,
slunk away into merited oblivion?

The reader will see what an attractive theme the scandal
mongers have missed. It would be very easy to make it so
plausible that a goodly number of people would believe it.

Yes, it is true that the father of James Buchanan bought
land in Hardin County, and that James went thither and began
a law practice, and left suddenly and did not return. And
enough more details could easily be discovered or created to
make as good or bad a story as any one might desire. It is
true that he never married.

But before the reader becomes too greatly fascinated with
this interesting story, let him consider the bearing of one or
two inconvenient dates. Abraham Lincoln was born February
12, 1809. James Buchanan first came to Elizabethtown in the
spring of 1813, four years after Abraham Lincoln was born.

It is a pity to wreck so good a story on so small a fact.
But the fact is that Abraham Lincoln was not the son of James
Buchanan any more than he was the grandson of Washington
or Jefferson or Franklin. But he was as much their son as
he was the son of Abraham Enlow.

It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. It is not
fair that Thomas Lincoln should be the invariable cuckold,
or that every woman named Nancy Hanks and no others
should be frail. The worm will turn. Let Thomas Lincoln
have his innings. If we are to invent stories of this character
as freely as stories have been invented, let at least half of them
deal with the notable children of Thomas Lincoln.

Let us send Thomas Lincoln in 1808 on a visit to his uncle,

242 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Isaac Lincoln, in East Tennessee, and on into North Caro
lina. Was there not born in that period a lad who rose so
far above his own supposed heredity and his early environ
ment as to give rise to serious question of his paternity? We
can explain it very easily if we suppose Thomas Lincoln to
have been the father of Andrew Johnson, who was born De
cember 29, 1808, and who became Vice-President with Lin
coln, and succeeded him as President. A great many hitherto
unexplained events will now become clear.

But there is no need to stop here. May not Thomas Lin
coln in the spring before his marriage to Nancy Hanks have
made a journey back to his old State, Virginia? Robert E.
Lee was born January 19, 1807. What a dramatic story
could we make out of the half-brotherhood of Lincoln and
Lee! Moreover, the story can be worked out in elaborate
detail, and with much of plausibility, which I forbear to com
mit to print.

A good many distinguished men were born in Indiana be
tween 1816 and 1830, some of them unaccountably greater
than their fathers. Why may not Thomas Lincoln have been
considering in that period his nation's need of more men like
his son Abraham?

There have lived and still live in Illinois a considerable
number of statesmen born within the period of Thomas Lin
coln's residence in that State who are proud of their resem
blance to Abraham Lincoln. They wear their beards like him.
They affect a style of dress that suggests him. They fall into
poses that remind people more or less vividly of Lincoln. Some
of these men are now dead, but a few still are living, and
the author can bear testimony to their pride in their supposed
resemblance to Lincoln. Shall we account for this wholly in
terms of inches of height or of the work of the barber? Why
not accept the conclusion that they are all half-brothers of
Abraham Lincoln, and that Thomas was the father of innu
merable sons?

If one begins in this way there is no ending. But a series
of stories of this character would have one marked advantage
over the stories that impugn the virtue of President Lincoln's

A SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 243

mother. There is a limit to the number of Nancy Hankses
who could by any possibility have been the mother of Abra
ham Lincoln; but there is no corresponding limit to the
number of sons who might have been born to Thomas Lin
coln. That which is sauce for the goose is sauce for the
gander. If we are to lend a credulous ear to every foolish
story that challenges the paternity of Lincoln, let us remem
ber that if all we have to do is to discover physical possibili
ties, then for every possible illegitimate son borne by Nancy
Hanks, we can produce ten such sons, illustrious and widely
distributed, who might possibly have been sired by Thomas
Lincoln.

And these stories about Abraham Lincoln's parentage are
all lies, and proceed from the father of lies.

This chapter is not as original as I supposed when I wrote
it. Mr. Hugh McLellan informs me that his father, a Con
federate officer, often heard in the army that Abraham Lincoln
and Jefferson Davis had a common father; and I have found
traces of the Henry Clay story also.

This school for scandal is now closed.

But it will have done good educational work if it reminds
the students therein that if one cares for stories of this kind
he can invent them, a dozen in a day, and support them with
dates and details far more plausible than attend any of the
stories about the paternity of Abraham Lincoln.

CHAPTER XXVII
A FEW FIXED DATES

IN the process of this inquiry we have fixed a few dates be
yond question. There are a few more that should be recorded.
For he who undertakes to challenge the record of the parent
age of Abraham Lincoln must deal with definite places and
times. Indictments are frequently quashed because the crimes
alleged are not shown to have occurred within a definite county
or on any particular date.

Quaint old Thomas Fuller wrote:

" Chronology is a surly, churlish cur, and hath bit many
a man's fingers. Blame me not, therefore, if willing to keep
my hands whole."

That little sentiment might well have been adopted by all
who have circulated these stories about Abraham Lincoln.
At the first whistle for that surly dog, Chronology, they flee
in terror; and all of them emerge with bleeding fingers and
clothing torn to shreds.

The importance of the date of Abraham Lincoln's birth
is so great that we may be justified in assuming that some
one will ask on what authority we receive the date of Feb
ruary 12, 1809, as the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

First of all, we have it on the testimony of the Lincoln
family Bible, in which the record was written by Abraham
Lincoln himself, while his father was yet living, and long
before any of these questions came into controversy, and when
there was not the slightest reason on the part of either to
deceive. That is in itself ample evidence, and all that in any
ordinary case can be produced to establish the date of a man's
birth.

Let the reader pause a moment and ask what proof he has
of the date of his own birth; and he may find that he has
little more than this.

244

A FEW FIXED DATES 245

But it happens that we have still another proof. As Abra
ham Lincoln approached his twenty-first year he grew very
restless, and wished for his freedom. On this point Mr. Hern-
don had first-hand evidence from William Wood, the " Uncle
Wood " of the Lincoln household in Indiana. On the basis
of this and such other information as Herndon had assem
bled, Lamon says:

In 1828 Abe had become very tired of his home. He was
now nineteen years of age, and becoming daily more restive
under the restraints of servitude which bound him. He was
anxious to try the world for himself, and make his way ac
cording to his own notions. " Abe came to my house one day,"
says Mr. Wood, " and stood round about, timid and shy. I
knew he wanted something, and said to him, 'Abe, what's
your case ? ' He replied, ' Uncle, I want you to go to the
river, and give me some recommendation to some boat/ I
remarked, * Abe, your age is against you. You are not twenty
yet.' ' I know that, but I want a start/ said Abe. ' I con
cluded not to go for the boy's good." Poor Abe ! Tom still
had a claim on him, which even Uncle Wood would not help
him evade. He must wait a few weary months before he
would be of age, and could say that he was his own man,
and go his own way. Old Tom was a hard taskmaster to him,
and no doubt consumed the greater part, if not all, of his
wages. — " Life of Lincoln" pp. 7071.

" Uncle Wood/' who subscribed for two newspapers, which
Abraham regularly read, had influence with the boy. Abra
ham remained with his father until he was of age. He re
moved to Illinois with the family, assisted his father in erecting
his new home, and then hired himself out to other fanners in
the vicinity, and did not return to his home to live. Abraham
Lincoln knew when his twenty-first birthday occurred, and did
not hesitate to take advantage of his freedom when it was
legally his.

But beside all this, Abraham's memories of Kentucky as
he recalled them in after life were those of a child under ten;
and his growth in body and mind in Indiana was the normal

246 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

growth of such a boy of the age which he should have been
and was, reckoning his birth from February 12, 1809.

The birthday of Abraham Lincoln is a fixed date.

The marriage of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln is a fixed
date. No one knows this better than Mr. Knotts, or realizes
better than he that the marriage record at Springfield, Ken
tucky, is absolutely fatal to his theory. He, therefore, has
recourse to the desperate and futile expedient of attacking
the record. According to his theory, the discovery of the
marriage bond and record was a fraud. There was no Jesse
Head; there was no marriage of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln
at Beechland, Washington County, Kentucky, on June 12,
1806. To prove this, he submits the fact that he has writ
ten to the authorities of the Southern Methodist Church in
Nashville and Louisville, a denomination which had no exist
ence in 1806, or until the Civil War, and that that denomina
tion has no official record of Rev. Jesse Head!

There is record, however, of Rev. Jesse Head.

Jesse Head was a resident of Springfield before 1800,
and in that year was a Justice of the Peace in and for Wash
ington County. At that time there was a bounty for wolves'
scalps, and there are several certificates by Justices authoriz
ing the bounty for those scalps. One of these reads thus:

" This day came Leroy Smith before me, a Justice lor
Washington County, and produced a wolf head above six
months old, and took the oath prescribed by law in that case.
Given under my hand this 8th July, 1800. Jesse Head."

JESSE HEAD'S COURT MARTIAL

A remarkably interesting record has been found for me
by Mr. L. S. Pence, attorney, of Lebanon, Kentucky. It is
contained in an aged book entitled " Record of Court Martials
in Washington County." The records begin tinder date of
July 15, 1791, and come down to the year 1812. The record
concerning Jesse Head is as follows :

" May 25, 1793. Jesse Head, returned as a delinquent is
cleared of [off?] muster roll, he having a license to preach
according to the rules of the sect to which he belongs."

A FEW FIXED DATES 247

Here is a clear official record of Jesse Head absolved from
militia duty in 1793, because he was a licensed preacher; and
we have records of him from that date until 1842.

In 1802 he was a trustee of the town of Springfield.
Among the persons voting for him was Felix Grundy, a jurist
of considerable distinction, whose biography can be found in
the annals of the Kentucky bar. On March 6 of that
year, Felix Grundy was made President of the Board, and on
A'pril 3 of the same year Jesse Head was appointed Commis
sioner "to contract with some proper person to erect posts
and rails around the well and public spring of this town and
all necessary repairs to same."

In the following year, 1803, Jesse Head was again elected
a Trustee of the incorporated town of Springfield, and suc
ceeded Felix Grundy as President of the Board.

Although he was a Justice of the Peace, his marriages in
Washington County appear all to have been performed by
him as a Deacon in the Methodist Church.

Between February 19, 1803, and December 25 of the same
year, he married thirteen couples, making a single return for
them on January 2, 1804, thus : " Witness my hand, January
2, 1804. Jesse Head."

Some of the old records are lost, or at least have not been
located.

The list immediately preceding that which contains the
names of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks was returned by
him April 28, 1806, and contains the names of sixteen couples
married by him in the months preceding that date.

Hon. Joseph Polin, County Attorney of Washington
County, who made for me a more exhaustive search of records
than has ever been made before in that county with respect
to the Lincoln family, writes:

" All these records are signed, ' Jesse Head, D.M.E.C.'
It is to be observed that he uses the old style letter ' s ', making
the name appear as though it were 'Jefse.' His signature
to the orders as Justice is identical in form with that on the
Lincoln marriage certificate, and demonstrates to a certainty
that it was the same man."

248 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

He who would prove Jesse Head a myth and his signed
return of the marriage of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln a for
gery confronts the cheerful task of attacking a series of con
tinuous records in Washington County from 1793 until some
years after the marriage of Thomas Lincoln, these records
being official and of varied character, and relating, in the mat
ter of marriages, to some scores of families known to have
been resident in Washington County; and after that another
series of records in Harrodsburg and vicinity down to the
probation of his estate in 1842. Mr. Kriotts would never have
suggested the forgery theory if he had known what body of
evidence he must confront.

This is the place to mention also the affidavit of Dr. Chris
topher Columbus Graham and the affidavit of William Hard-
esty, both of them unimpeached witnesses, who declare that
they were actually present at the wedding, and the declaration
of Judge Richard J. Browne of Louisville, who was born in
Springfield :

" Old Mr. James Thompson and William Hardesty told
me many years ago that they were at the marriage of Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks at old Dick Berry's, the grand
father of Nancy Hanks, on the banks of the Beech Fork."

The occasion for the search for the documents in Wash
ington County, where it had not been supposed worth while
to look for them, was the fact that people were still living
whose parents had told them that they were present at the
wedding and that it occurred in Washington County and not
in Hardin. The man who made this discovery, Mr. W. F.
Booker, is described by all who knew him as a man of the
highest integrity.

The forgery theory is squarely contradicted by the whole
appearance of the documents, which I have handled and ex
amined, and which bear on their face the marks of their gen
uineness, which is attested also by every detail in the circum
stances of their discovery. Only the most desperate necessity
would have driven Mr. Knotts to the hypothesis of forgery,
and it will not avail to save his theory from utter wreck.

It now becomes our duty to account for Thomas Lincoln,

A FEW FIXED DATES 249

so far as this may be done from records available and in
disputable, during the period when according to these various
stories he was ranging the country from South Carolina
through North Carolina, East Tennessee and Clark and Bour
bon Counties, Kentucky, helping various rascals out of the
troubles into which they had gotten themselves and divers
young women. These several stories present him to us as
a fugitive and a vagabond, wandering from State to State,
going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might marry
who should have married some one else.

The early records of the several counties in Kentucky are
incomplete. The tax lists were made out on sheets of paper
ruled by hand, sewn together with covers of the same, and
made into very insubstantial and easily mislaid books.

In 1796 Thomas Lincoln was listed as resident in Wash
ington County as a male over sixteen years of age and under
twenty-one. His age then was just sixteen and this is doubt
less his first record on the public documents.

His name does not appear in the list for 1797, an(^ the
lists for the next two years have not been found, but his name
appears in the lists for 1800 and 1801.

In 1802 and 1803 m"s name is n°t found there. The rea
son appears to be that he was at that time in Hardin County,
for there we find him in the latter year purchasing land, and
there is where he was living at the time of his marriage. Har
din County does not lie eastward from Washington toward
the old States of Virginia and Carolinas.

Abraham Lincoln, in the sketch which he prepared for
John Locke Scripps, stated that his father, Thomas Lincoln,
passed one year, before reaching his majority, in the farm of
his uncle, Isaac Lincoln, in East Tennessee. He said:

' Thomas, the youngest son, and father of the present sub
ject, by the early death of his father, and very narrow cir
cumstances of his mother, even in childhood was a wander
ing laboring-boy and grew up literally without education. He
never did more in the way of writing than to bunglingly
write his own name. Before he was grown he passed one
year as a hired hand with his uncle Isaac on Watauga, a

250 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

branch of the Holston River. Getting back into Kentucky,
and having reached his twenty-eighth year, he married Nancy
Hanks, mother of the present subject, in 1806. She also was
born in Virginia."

In what year did Thomas Lincoln work for his uncle Isaac?
In one of the years, certainly, when he was not listed on the
tax book of Washington County, Kentucky. And also it was
" before he was grown." It was, therefore, in some year be
tween 1795 and 1800. Possibly his residence there covered
parts of two years, and was longer than twelve actual months;
which might account for two missing years.

It was probably in 1797, when he was seventeen years old,
that he went to the farm of his uncle Isaac in East Tennes
see. He returned to Washington County presumably in 1798
or 1799, for which years the tax lists have not been found,
and was there, as we have seen, in 1800 and 1801, then mov
ing farther west to Hardin County, with which thereafter
he is chiefly identified.

It is unlikely that Thomas Lincoln made any journeys back
to the Eastern States from his home in Hardin County. That
county lies farther west. It was more remote, not less so,
from the temptation to go back along the Wilderness Road
through Cumberland Gap to assist young women in the East
ern States. The farther we go into the records the less likely
does it become that Thomas Lincoln ever made any such jour
ney as would have been necessary for him to participate in any
of these adventures.

At any rate, he was in Washington County in 1796 and
1800 and 1 80 1. He was there in one other year, which can
not certainly be identified at present, because the cover of the
book is worn away and the year cannot be positively deter
mined until some other books are found which may identify
it by the number of taxpayers and of negroes in the
county.

He was not living there in 1802 and 1803, but was then
purchasing a farm of 230 acres in Hardin County, and was
probably there continuously after that time.

He was in Hardin Counfy in June, 1806, and went to

A FEW FIXED DATES 251

Washington County to marry Nancy Hanks, which he did
on June 12, 1806.

He was not wandering abroad in the next few months,
but living in Elizabethtown, where, on February 10, 1807, his
eldest child, Sarah, was born.

We may pause just a moment to consider the baseless
declaration that there was no such child ; that the Sarah whom
Abraham Lincoln called sister was his step-sister, Sarah, a
daughter of Sarah Bush Lincoln. There was such a step
sister, but she did not die in Indiana, as did Lincoln's
sister Sarah, but lived and married Dennis Hanks, her sister
Matilda marrying Squire Hall. Furthermore, William H.
Herndon interviewed Dennis Hanks and his family, and they
told him much about this sister Sarah, who in 1826 married
Aaron Grigsby, and died in childbirth while yet a very young
woman. And, if it were necessary to make the testimony
stronger, we have it in Abraham Lincoln's own letters, as in one
written to his friend Johnson on April 18, 1846, inclosing some
verses which he had written after his visit to his old home in
Indiana :

" In the fall of 1844, thinking I might aid some to carry
the State of Indiana for Mr. Clay, I went into the neighbor
hood in that State in which I was raised, where my mother
and only sister were buried, and from which I had been absent
about fifteen years."

He could not have written thus of a step-sister, for Sarah
Johnston was not his only step-sister, and she was not buried
in Indiana in 1844, but living in Illinois with her husband
Dennis Hanks.

Let us then dismiss all this nonsense about Thomas Lin
coln's daughter Sarah having been a step-daughter. Sarah
was born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln on February
10, 1807, and Thomas Lincoln had little time to roam abroad.
He had to work for a living for his wife and baby. That gives
us another fixed date.

We are very fortunate in knowing one important piece of
work in which he was engaged in the latter part of that year.

Denton Geoghegan, a prominent man in that part of the

252 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

county which still is Hardin, engaged Thomas Lincoln to hew
timbers for a mill. The job was a long one, and a dispute
arose concerning the settlement of it. Geoghegan is a well-
known character and was in his day a man of standing in
the county.

Denton Geoghegan was in later years a Justice of the
Peace. He and his family lived in that part of Hardin which is
still Hardin, and never in that part which is now La Rue. He
sued Thomas Lincoln in 1808, when Lincoln was living in
Elizabethtown.

Mr. O. M. Mather, of Hodgenville, to whom I am indebted
for many kindnesses, was searching for me the records of
Hardin County, when he discovered the record of this suit,
hitherto unpublished. The suit was not finished until March,
1809, when Thomas Lincoln had removed to that part of the
county which is now La Rue, and had become the father of
Abraham. In the months preceding the birth of Abraham
Lincoln, Thomas Lincoln was not moving around the country
assisting young women in distress. He was attending to busi
ness at home, a part of which was defending himself in this
law-suit. Mr. Mather was unable to find the whole record,
but the remainder of it was discovered for me by Mr. George
Holbert of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Thomas Lincoln was not wandering about the country in
the latter part of 1807 and the early part of 1808; he was
hewing timbers for Geoghegan's mill, and assisting in the
erection of that structure. It was no small task. It involved
the manufacture of a great overshot wheel; the construction of
a wooden aqueduct raised to the level of the top of the wheel
and carried back sufficiently far to meet the water at its higher
level. It occupied several months. The dispute lasted no one
knows how long before it came into court, but we know, what
no previous volume about Lincoln has known, the fact and
the date and character of this suit.

This suit of Geoghegan vs. Lincoln was filed June i, 1808.
The petition alleged that Denton Geoghegan, the plaintiff, had
employed Thomas Lincoln, the defendant, to hew certain
timbers for a saw-mill, and to do the work " in good workman-

A FEW FIXED DATES 253

like manner " at il/2 penny per square foot; that the work
was not done in workmanlike manner, the timbers not being of
such workmanship as to answer the purpose; that they were
not square and not true and some were too short; that Geog-
hegan had paid Lincoln $10 more than the work actually
came to at the agreed price ; and by the alleged bad workman
ship had been damaged in the sum of $100.00.

Mr. Holbert writes, " From the judgment in this case it
would appear that Lincoln was vindicated. Geoghegan was
my wife's great-grandfather, and I am interested in the case."

Thomas Lincoln's contract with Geoghegan was the last
important piece of work he did before removal from Eliza-
bethtown, and fixes the approximate date of the removal. In
the spring of 1808 he was working for Geoghegan near Eliza-
bethtown; in the summer he was working for Brownfield near
Hodgen's Mill. It is not necessary to suppose that he did not
move until after the suit was brought; I am inclined to believe
that he moved in May.

The suit continued for several months, and in the end
Thomas Lincoln won it, and recovered the costs of his defense.
The significance of this lawsuit for us is in the dates which it
fixes, and which never before have been published.

Just as I was reading the first proofs of this book, Mr.
Holbert, on July 27, 1920, discovered another record in the
judgments, not of the Circuit, but of the County Court, of
Hardin County. It is of a judgment rendered May 9, 1808.
It shows that Thomas Lincoln, at some earlier date not
recorded, had sued Denton Geoghegan in a magistrate's court,
for the unpaid balance due him on account of his work upon
the mill aforementioned, and had recovered judgment against
him in the sum of four pounds and nine shillings. Geoghegan
took an appeal to the County Court, which at its next monthly
sitting rendered the following judgment, recorded in Order
Book C, page 230, Hardin County Court:

" At a court begun and held for Hardin County at the
Courthouse in Elizabeth Town on Monday, the 9th day of
May, 1808: Present Adin Coombs and Dudley Rountree,
Esquires :

254 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

" Denton Geoghegan against Thomas Lincoln on an appeal
from a Magistrate's judgment. The Court being fully ad
vised of and concerning the premises, do consider and order
that the said appeal be dismissed, and the Magistrate's judg
ment be and hereby is confirmed; and that the defendant re
cover against the said plaintiff the sum of four pounds and
nine shillings & 4/6 costs and also the costs of this appeal."

Twice beaten, Geoghegan came back at Lincoln in the
Circuit Court with a complaint that the work had not been
properly done and that Lincoln had been overpaid. This suit,
as we have seen, continued until the following March, when
Lincoln again, and for the third and last time, was successful.

The following court order is in Record Book C, Hardin
Circuit Court Records, under date of March 17, 1809:
" Denton Geoghegan, Plaintiff,

against
Thomas Lincoln, Defendant.

" This case being agreed and settled by and between the
parties herein, it is therefore considered by the Court that it
be and the same is hereby Dismissed, and that the Defendant
recover against the Plaintiff his cost by him about his defense
expended."

These tax and court records are of great interest and im
portance. Fragmentary as they are, they do not permit of
the wandering of Thomas Lincoln to fill the role assigned to
him in any of the stories that are told to the discredit of his
wife. The carefully arranged scheme of dates which Mr.
Knotts has presented to us, the only one worth a moment's
attention so far as chronology is concerned, falls utterly before
this list of certain records concerning Thomas Lincoln.

From the time he was sixteen until he was twenty-five we
find him in public records, and where there are gaps, we are
able to fill them with reasonable probability.

From the time of his marriage until the birth of his daugh
ter, and from then until the birth of his son, he is well ac
counted for. The suit of Denton Geoghegan, and the con
tract out of which it grew, cover the period from the autumn
of 1807 until after the birth of Abraham Lincoln on February

A FEW FIXED DATES 255

12, 1809. Thomas Lincoln left Nancy with the baby in her
arms, and went to Elizabethtown to court on March 17, 1809.
He returned that evening with the good news that the suit was
settled out of court, and that the court in entering the record
adjudged that the man who had prosecuted him should not
only pay the costs of the suit, but make payment also to
Thomas Lincoln for the damage he had suffered in defending
the suit. So he came home that night either with money in
his pocket, or with something which he had purchased with
money at Helm's store for Nancy and the baby and little
Sarah.

Researches made for this volume give us another fixed
date, September 2, 1803. On that date John Tom Slater, or
as it is recorded in another place, Stator, conveyed to Thomas
Lincoln " of Hardin County " 238 acres of land on Mill
Creek. This locates Thomas Lincoln in the period in which
his name disappears from the Washington County tax lists.
He had left Washington County to work for his uncle Isaac
Lincoln on Watauga River in the hill country of Tennessee;
had returned to Kentucky and taken up his residence in Hardin
County. The deed definitely states Hardin County as his
residence. Hardin County tax lists for the period have not
been discovered at this writing; but no entry is found con
cerning him in any other county until June 12, 1806, when he
was married to Nancy Hanks in Washington County, and
returned to Hardin County to live.

The period between his marriage and his removal to that
part of Hardin County which is now La Rue is fairly well
covered by his large contract to furnish timbers for Geog-
hegan's mill, and by the resulting lawsuit.

These dates appear to indicate that after his return from
Tennessee, Thomas Lincoln lived in Washington County for
two or three years, paying taxes there in 1800 and 1801 ; that
he then removed to Hardin County, where he purchased a
farm in 1803, the deed mentioning Hardin County as his place
of residence; that he remained upon this farm on Mill Creek
in Hardin County until perhaps 1805, when he gave up farm
ing and moved to Elizabethtown, working as an apprentice

256 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

in the shop of Joseph Hanks, where he met and wooed Nancy;
that he was married to Nancy Hanks on June 12, 1806, and im
mediately set up his home in Elizabethtown ; that he thence
forth worked for himself at the carpenter's trade, having at
least one contract of importance, which occupied a considerable
part of the year 1807; that this contract resulted in a law
suit which began in a magistrate's court, presumably in April,
1808, where he won his case, and again on appeal in the
County Court, Monday, May 9, 1808, where he was again
successful, and still again in the Circuit Court, beginning June
i, 1808, and continuing until March 17, 1809.

This record covers all the years in which Thomas Lincoln
might have been wandering in other States in adventures such
as the stories we have been considering imply, and they are
remarkably interesting in all their implications, wholly credit
able to him, and in themselves a sufficient alibi against the
charges that locate him in any other State or in any other por
tion of the State of Kentucky in any of the years between
1800 and 1809.

And that is all we have to say about the whereabouts of
Thomas Lincoln in the period concerning which he has been
falsely accused.

CHAPTER XXVIII
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THOMAS LINCOLN

THE first Atnerican ancestor of Abraham Lincoln was Samuel
Lincoln, who came to Salem, Mass., in 1637, and died at
Hingham, May 26, 1690, aged 71. He was a son of Edward
Lincoln of Hingham, Norfolk County, England, and had an
honorable lineage which has been traced for several genera
tions. Samuel married in America, before 1650, Martha,
whose surname is unknown, and who died April 10, 1693.

The fourth son of Samuel and Martha Lincoln was Mor-
decai, who was born at Hingham, Mass., June 14, 1657 and re
moved to Scituate. He was an iron founder. He died Novem
ber 8, 1727, aged 70. He married Sarah Jones, daughter of
Abraham Jones of Hull, through whom the name Abraham
may have come into the Lincoln family. She died before
1708.

The eldest child of Mordecai and Sarah was Mordecai
Lincoln, who was born April 24, 1686, removed before 1710
to Monmouth County, New Jersey, where he followed his
father's vocation of iron founder. He died May 12, 1736.
He married before 1711, Hannah, daughter of Richard and
Sarah Salter of Freehold, N. J. She died about 1720.

The eldest child of Mordecai and Sarah was John Lin
coln, born May 3, 1711. He was a weaver, and lived in Caer
narvon, Uniontown and other places in Pennsylvania; removed
to Virginia about 1768, and died probably about 1790. He
married Rebecca, whose surname is believed to have been
Moore.

The third son of John and Rebecca was Abraham Lincoln,
grandfather of the President, who was born July 16, 1739.
He was Captain of Virginia Militia in 1776; removed to Ken
tucky in 1781-2, and was killed by Indians about 1785. His
first wife was Mary Shipley, daughter of Robert Shipley of

257

258 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lunenburg County, Virginia, who bore him two sons and two
daughters and died before 1779.

The children of Abraham and Mary (Shipley) Lincoln
were:

(1) Mordecai Lincoln, born 1764; Sheriff of Washington
County, Kentucky; removed to Illinois, and died in 1830. His
three sons were Abraham, James and Mordecai.

(2) Josiah Lincoln, born July 10, 1766; removed to In
diana and died in 1836, leaving one son, Thomas Lincoln of
Corydon, Indiana.

(3) Mary Lincoln, married Ralph Krume or Crume of
Kentucky.

(4) Nancy Lincoln, married William Brumfield of Ken
tucky.

The second wife of Abraham Lincoln was Bathsheba Her
ring, daughter of Leonard Herring, of Heronford, Rocking-
ham County, Virginia.

The only child of Abraham and Bathsheba Lincoln was
Thomas Lincoln, father of the President.

In this volume I have followed the data given by Lea and
Hutchinson as to the date of the birth of Thomas Lincoln.
That book is so imposing in its appearance and in many re
spects so valuable that I adopted it in the beginning, and have
here and there departed from it with reluctance. But the date
given on the tombstone of Thomas Lincoln at Farmington,
Coles County, Illinois, — " Thomas Lincoln, Born January 6,
1778; died January 15, 1851," is in several respects the more
probably correct. The date of his birth was given by Lea
and Hutchinson as January 20, 1780. The place of his birth
was Rockingham County, Virginia. He was little more than
an infant when his parents, Abraham Lincoln, and Bathsheba,
his second wife and the mother of Thomas, removed to
Kentucky. Abraham, father of Thomas, and grandfather
of the President, was killed by Indians when Thomas was a
child of five.

Thomas Lincoln married at the age of twenty-eight, at
Beechland, Washington County, Kentucky, Nancy Hanks,

THOMAS LINCOLN 259

June 12, 1806. They had three children, all born in Hardin
County, Kentucky, as follows :

(1) Sarah Lincoln, often incorrectly called Nancy, born
February 10, 1807, married, August, 1826, Aaron Grigsby,
and died in childbed, May 20, 1828.

(2) Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, 1809, six
teenth President of the 'United States, died April 15, 1865,
He married, November 4, 1862, Mary Todd, by whom he had
four sons.

(3) Thomas Lincoln, born in 1811, and died in infancy
before the family left Kentucky.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of the President, died in
Indiana, October 5, 1818. Her husband married as his second
wife, Sarah Bush Johnston. She had three children by her
first husband, John D. Johnston; Sarah, who married Dennis
Hanks; and Matilda, who married Squire Hall.

Thomas Lincoln spent the greater part of his youth in
Washington County, Kentucky. One year of his late boyhood
was spent with his uncle Isaac Lincoln on the Watauga
River in East Tennessee. He was then a day laborer on other
people's farms, and became a carpenter of no great skill.

In 1803 he purchased an improved farm with buildings
on Mill Creek in Hardin County, paying for the same in
cash, and presumably worked his own farm until an unknown
date which may have been 1805.

After his marriage on June 12, 1806, he settled in Eliza-
bethtown, county seat of Hardin County, Kentucky, where he
resided about two years, and where his first child, a daughter,
Sarah, was born February 10, 1807.

He then removed, probably in May or early June, 1806,
to that part of Hardin County which is now La Rue, living
for the first few months on the farm of George Brownfield,
whence, in the following autumn, he removed to the farm
which he occupied as his own, though without recorded title,
and which is known as the Lincoln Farm. It is located on
Nolin Creek, two and one half miles south from the present
site of Hodgenville, and about as far in the other direction

260 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

from a settlement called Buffalo. Here his son Abraham
was born.

A few years later he lived upon the Knob Creek Farm,
about fifteen miles distant, and across Muldraugh's Hill, and,
though living in the same county, he was in quite another
neighborhood.

There is some reason to believe that between his residence
on the Lincoln Farm and that on the Knob Creek Farm
he spent at least one year among his wife's relations in Wash
ington County, the chief documentary evidence of this being a
tax book in Washington County bearing his name, and ap
parently of the year 1811. This year, however, is not quite
certain.

I had earnestly hoped that the uncertainty concerning the
date of this book would have been cleared up by the time
the present volume went to press. The early tax records of
Washington County were prepared by the clerk upon sheets of
paper 15% inches long and i2l/2 inches wide, written on both
sides and afterwards bound together by stitching at the end.
The cover was a sheet of the same kind of paper, with the
date and clerk's certificate on the outside. In the case of the
book whose date is uncertain, the cover is worn away, but
a cover accompanies it, and is supposed to belong to it, giving
the year 1811, which I still incline to think is the year. Un
fortunately, that is the only place in the book where the year
appears. The dates in the book are those of the month and
day on which the assessment is made. The last leaf, also, is
missing, which would have contained the total number of
white male inhabitants and the number of white males above
1 6 and the number of blacks above 16. These are totaled
at the foot of each page, and are complete to about the mid
dle of the list of names beginning with W. If the books
could be found for years showing a few more or a few less
of each of these classes, it would be easy to fix the year to
which this book belonged. But unfortunately, the books for
these years are not found. Mr, Joseph Polin, County At
torney, who at first was sure that this book belonged to 1811,
now thinks he was mistaken, and that it belongs either to 1809

THOMAS LINCOLN 261

or 1810. In my judgment his previous opinion is the cor
rect one; and if that is not correct, it certainly does not belong
to the year 1809, but either to 1810 or 1812. In either case,
it confirms what on other grounds I have come to believe, that
the residence of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in the Nolin
Creek home, where Abraham Lincoln was born, was a very
brief one, and that between that residence and the one on Knob
Creek, from which in 1816 the family of Thomas Lincoln
migrated to Indiana, he lived for a year in Washington
County, among the relatives of his wife.

This is an unrecorded migration of the Lincoln family,
and one concerning which no assistance is to be gained from
other books. Even so good a book as Lea and Hutchinson's
Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln is hopelessly at sea on these
migrations. Its chapter on " Thomas Lincoln the Man," con
tains many errors. Other and less painstaking works are
wholly unreliable on these and related matters.

Thomas Lincoln was assessed in Washington County,
May u, 1796, as a white male above sixteen. He was as
sessed as Thomas Linchorn, in the same county, on February
14, 1800, as a white male above twenty-one; and he owned one
horse. He was assessed again in the same county on August
5, 1 80 1, and owned a horse. Between the first assessment
in 1796 and the second in 1800 occurs, as I have shown else
where, his year or more of residence with his uncle, Isaac
Lincoln, in East Tennessee; for the list for 1797 is found
and his name is not in it. Also the lists for 1802 and 1803
are found, and his name is not in them ; but that was the time
he was acquiring his Mill Creek farm, in Hardin County, where
he continued to live until some year, which I still think to
have been 1811, when he returned and lived for a year in
Washington County; whence he went back part way, but
stopped east of Muldraugh's Hill, and lived for a few years on
the Knob Creek farm. This was the first home Abraham
remembered, and the place where he first went to school.

The cover of the tax book for 1811 gave a total of 1,827
white males above 21, and 974 negroes above the age of 16.
The list of white males down to the middle of the initial

262 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

letter W seemed to me to give totals both of whites and
negroes just about in proper proportion to have made up those
totals if the lists had been complete. Mr. Polin, however, is of
opinion that they would not reach quite to the necessary ag
gregates, and thus he is inclined to think that the date may
have been one or possibly two years earlier. Possibly he is
correct and the date should be 1810; but the cover appears to
me to belong with the book. It certainly is not of 1809; and
if it be 1810, it only proves that the migration of Thomas and
Nancy from the birthplace of Abraham occurred a few months
earlier than I have supposed.

While Thomas Lincoln was living on the Knob Creek
farm he attained his one political appointment. The records
for Hardin County contain this entry:

" Monday, i8th May, 1816.

" Ordered that Thomas Lincoln be and he is hereby ap
pointed Surveyor of that part of the road leading from Nolin
to Bardstown which lies between the Bigg Hill and the rolling
fork, in place of George Rodman and that all the hands that
assisted Rodman do assist said Lincoln in keeping said road
in repair."

I have ridden over this road, all the way from the Bigg
Hill to Rolling Fork, and my sympathies are with Thomas
Lincoln. Muldraugh's Hill is a Bigg Hill with at least two
g's in Bigg; and the wash of the spring rains is heavy. This
was afterward a section of the Louisville and Nashville
turnpike, and has always been an important strip of road.
The emoluments of Thomas Lincoln's one office cannot have
been large; but the work of keeping that road in any kind of
repair was no sinecure.

In the brief sketch of his own life prepared in 1860 by
Abraham Lincoln he intimates that some trouble concerning
a land title had a shade in the reasons for his father's leaving
Kentucky in 1816, and establishing his home in Indiana. An
intimation of the nature of this trouble would appear to be
furnished in the record of a suit for whose discovery I am
indebted to Mr. George Holbert, attorney, of Elizabethtown,
Kentucky.

THOMAS LINCOLN 263

This was a suit in ejectment, instituted on January i, 1815,
in the Hardin Circuit Court, by " John Doe on demise of Han
nah Rhoades, Thomas Stout and Abraham Sheridan, plaintiffs,
vs Richard Roe, defendant." The old English form of bring
ing suit in the name of John Doe against Richard Roe was
extensively used in Kentucky courts in the early days, espe
cially in ejectment suits. During the progress of the suits all
persons in possession of portions of the premises were ascer
tained, and their names substituted as defendants. However,
in this case Thomas Lincoln did not wait to be substituted, but
on June 13, 1816, on Thomas Lincoln's own motion by at
torney, his name was substituted as defendant. One George
Lindsey also had his name substituted. This suit was over
the Knob Creek farm. Evidently Thomas Lincoln believed that
he was right, and was ready to have the court determine the
matter.

Had the case come promptly to trial, it is possible that
Thomas Lincoln would not have removed from Kentucky, in
which event a large volume of history would have been written
otherwise than as it subsequently occurred. The trial was,
however, postponed for two years and occurred on June 9,
1818. The trial was before a jury whose verdict is of record.
The jury " sworn the truth to speak upon the issue joined, upon
their oaths do say that the defendants are not guilty of the
trespass, ejectment and detention of the premises in the declara
tion mentioned." Judgment follows " that the defendants re
cover of the plaintiff their costs." The records of this suit are
found in Civil Order Books E and F, Hardin Circuit Court.

This suit for ejectment shows that the Knob Creek farm
was part of a tract of ten thousand acres surveyed in 1784, and
patented in 1786 by Thomas Middleton, father of the Hannah
Rhoades who was one of the parties to the suit. She lived in
Philadelphia, as did Abraham Sheridan, Inn Keeper, another
plaintiff.

The jury found for the defendants; and the order of the
Court was " that the plaintiff take nothing for his bill, but
for his false claimour be in mercy, &c., and that the defendants
go hence without a day, and recover against the lessors of the

264 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

plaintiff their costs by them about their defense herein ex
pended, and may have executors, etc."

In this, as in his earlier lawsuit, Thomas Lincoln was
victorious.

In 1816 Thomas Lincoln and his family migrated to In
diana, where his wife, Nancy Hanks, died, October 5, 1818.
A year later he returned to Hardin County, Kentucky, and
married Sarah Bush Johnston, who proved an excellent wife
and a remarkably good step-mother to his children. She had
previously married, March 13, 1806, Daniel Johnston, who
died April, 1814. She died April 10, 1869.

A further record of Thomas Lincoln is found in Hardin
County, Kentucky, in the marriage register, Book A, folio 96.
There his marriage is entered in due form to Sarah Johnson.
This is the spelling of her name as it is found in the Kentucky
records, but her son John D. signed his name Johnston, and
was so addressed by his step-brother Abraham Lincoln.

Sarah Johnson, or Johnston, was a Miss Bush, and came
of an excellent family. She was a great-aunt of W. P. D.
Bush, reporter of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky from
1866 to 1879. There are fourteen volumes of the Kentucky
reports edited by him, and familiarly known to Kentucky
lawyers as the Bush Reports. Another great-nephew, F. H.
Bush, still lives in Elizabethtown, an honored and venerable
member of the local bar, and an old Confederate soldier. By
her first marriage Sarah Bush was united to Daniel Johnson,
jailer of Hardin County. The marriage occurred March 13,
1806, three months before Thomas Lincoln's marriage to
Nancy Hanks. The marriage is recorded in Marriage Register
A, folio 23. An undisputed tradition and one entirely credible,
is that Thomas Lincoln made love to Sarah Bush before he sued
for the hand of Nancy Hanks. It is wholly creditable to
Thomas Lincoln that he returned for his second wife to where
he was so well known as at Elizabethtown. His suit is said to
have been favored by Sarah's male relatives who had accom
panied Thomas Lincoln on a voyage down the river to New
Orleans. Thomas Lincoln's marriage to Sarah Bush Johnson,
or Johnston, occurred, December 2, 1819.

THOMAS LINCOLN 265

In March, 1830, Thomas Lincoln and his family, accom
panied by John D. Johnston and his two sisters and their hus
bands, Dennis Hanks and Squire Hall, migrated to Macon
County, Illinois, and settled on land near to that owned by
John Hanks. Later, and after one or two experiments in
location, he removed to Goosenest Prairie, near Farmington,
Illinois, where he died, January 17, 1851.

Thomas Lincoln was about five feet nine or ten inches
tall, and weighed about a hundred and eighty to a hundred
and ninety-five pounds. He had a well-rounded face, dark
hazel eyes, coarse black hair, and was somewhat round-
shouldered. He was compactly built, so that Dennis Hanks
said that he had never been able to find the point of separation
between his ribs, though he often felt for it. He was slow
of movement, slow of thought. Herndon describes him as
careless, inert and dull. He was sinewy and of great strength.
He was disinclined to constant hard labor, but was capable
of performing it when he chose. He was inoffensive, quiet
and peaceable, but capable of strong anger and of fierce fight
ing. He was fond of jokes and stories, as was his illustrious
son. While not a total abstainer, he was temperate in his use
of liquor. He was neither a drunkard nor a gambler, nor is
he known to have possessed any vicious habit. He was natu
rally indolent, and was lacking in ambition. He did not care
for great physical comfort, and preferred to get on with few
conveniences rather than exert himself unduly to obtain things
which he did not greatly need. When John Hanks said of
him that " pleasure was the end of life for him," he did not
mean that Thomas Lincoln had any inclination toward sen
suality, but that with sufficient hoe-cake and bacon he was
reasonably content.

Thomas Lincoln was a religious man. In another book *
I have shown the error of Herndon in his declaration that
Thomas Lincoln was a Free Baptist in Kentucky, a Presby
terian in Indiana and a Disciple in Illinois. He was a Baptist,
and not a Free Baptist, in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.
Near the end of his life he became a New Light. But that was,

1 The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, by William E. Barton, pp. 36-45.

266 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

from his point of view, no great change. He joined the Little
Pigeon Baptist Church in 1823, and was a consistent member
of it.

In the tax lists of Washington County, Thomas Lincoln
first appears on May n, 1796, as a white male above sixteen.
His name is not in the list for 1797, in which year he was
probably in East Tennessee. He appears in the list of 1800,
the date when listed being February 14. His name in this one
list is spelled " Thomas Lincorn," but in the others it is Lin
coln. He owned one horse, and no other taxable property.
Again he appears, and with his name correctly spelled,
in 1800 and 1801, and was listed on August 5. He still owned
one horse.

It is interesting to note that in only one of these lists
is his name spelled other than " Lincoln." The report that
the name was uniformly known as Linkhorn, and that Abra
ham Lincoln changed it, is incorrect. Thomas was called Lin
coln when a lad, he was married as Lincoln, and he signed his
name, as early as 1806, the date of the first known signature
and uniformly thereafter, as Lincoln.

It cannot fail to surprise us when we learn that Thomas
Lincoln at the age of twenty-three had ready cash to the
amount of 118 pounds with which to purchase a farm, which
appears to have been improved, but that thereafter he lived
upon farms in Kentucky to which he had no recorded title,
and that whatever land he occupied in other states in sub
sequent years he held precariously and lost it by abandonment,
mortgage or other such misfortune as came commonly to
the shiftless and improvident. It cannot fail to suggest the
question where he obtained the money for these initial pur
chases before his marriage.

I am not able to answer this question. The hypothesis
which I suggest is, that, on his return from East Tennessee,
when he was twenty-one or twenty-two, he secured a settle
ment of his father's estate which his eldest brother, Mordecai,
had held in trust until Thomas should reach his majority, and
that Thomas took his share of the estate in cash.

I have read in several books how his hard-hearted eldest

THOMAS LINCOLN 267

brother, Mordecai, taking full advantage of his legal rights
under the old English law of primogeniture, defrauded this lit
tle lad out of his honest share in his father's estate, and how
Thomas, by sheer force of character and resolute industry,
earned money with which to buy the farm which he owned at
twenty-three. That pretty tale may be true, but I doubt it. A
man so industrious at twenty-three would not have been likely
to part with so much of his industry thereafter, nor abandon
a farm which he had earned by his own toil. It is much
more probable that he bought the Mill Creek farm when he
was twenty-three, with money paid him by his older brothers
on the settlement of his father's estate, a few months after
Thomas attained his majority; and that he had more money
then than he ever possessed at one time afterward so long as
he lived.

John D. Johnston doubtless lied in the letter which he sent
to Abraham Lincoln in the name of Thomas, when Abraham
was in Congress, pleading for a gift of twenty dollars to
save the Illinois farm from being sold under judgment : but he
would not have told a lie of that character if he had not
known that Abraham knew that only Abraham's generosity
could be relied upon to keep a roof over the head of his father,
or to prevent his incurring debts that would have robbed him
of his home, except for the timely and repeated assistance of
Abraham.

It is affirmed in many books that Thomas Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks were first cousins. This statement is made on
the assumption that Thomas Lincoln was the son of the first
wife, Mary Shipley, of his father Abraham Lincoln. Thomas
Lincoln was the son and only child of Abraham Lincoln's
second wife, Bathsheba Herring. The statement also assumes
that Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Joseph Hanks and
his wife Nancy Shipley. Mrs. Richard Berry, at whose home
Nancy Hanks was married to Thomas Lincoln, was also a
Lucy Shipley.

Lawyers in Hardin County assure me that the name of
Thomas Lincoln is found on the records of the several courts
in Hardin County as doing jury duty; but, as the jury lists

268 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

are not indexed, such search as they have been able to make for
me has not yet yielded results, and I must leave this to others
or to my own future investigation. The tax-lists of Hardin
County for the years of Thomas Lincoln's residence are lost;
but there is in the Sheriff's office a book of Tax Delinquents
which covers the years from 1798 to 1824, and the name of
Thomas Lincoln is not contained in it. Even if he had owned
no property his name would have been there had he not paid
taxes; for there are hundreds of names of men delinquent on
poll-tax who had no taxable property. But Thomas Lincoln
had real estate in 1803, and always, so far as we know, a horse.

Thomas Lincoln's name, so far as official records go, is an
honorable one. He paid his taxes ; he had four lawsuits and
won them all. The records contain nothing, so far as my re
searches have shown, that is not to his credit.

To the credit of Thomas Lincoln, let it be remembered
that he did not restrain Abraham from his securing of an
education. Sarah Bush doubtless told Herndon truthfully of
her part in the process :

" I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study
at home as well as at school. At first he was not easily recon
ciled to it, but finally he too seemed willing to encourage him to
a certain extent." — Mrs. Thomas Lincoln, September 8, 1865 ;
in Herndon, I, p. 33.

But it should be remembered that before the migration
to Indiana Abe had had three brief terms of school in Ken
tucky, before Sarah Bush appeared on the scene. For this,
doubtless, we have to thank Nancy Hanks, in good part. But
Thomas Lincoln, who, after he had reached manhood, cared
enough for education to learn " bunglingly to write his name,"
must have had some little interest in his son's progress in book-
learning. It need not be assumed that he cared as much for
it as either Nancy Hanks or Sarah Bush ; but it is due him to
remember that he did not oppose Abe's learning more than his
father knew.

The interior wall of the Memorial erected over the Lincoln
cabin contains an interesting inscription in honor of Thomas
Lincoln. It is incorrect in some of its dates; Thomas Lincoln

THOMAS LINCOLN 269

was not born in 1770, and he was twenty-nine and not twenty-
five when he became " possessor of this cabin home and its
neighboring acres." It is not known that he built any one of
the houses which he occupied in Kentucky. The inscription
reads :

THOMAS LINCOLN

January 20, 1770 January 17, 1851

Fifth in descent from Samuel Lincoln, weaver, who landed at
Hingham, Massachusetts, May 26, 1637. Orphaned at six
years of age by an Indian bullet, he grew up homeless in the
wild woods of Kentucky. At twenty-five he was the possessor
of this cabin and its neighboring acres. In 1818 he moved to
Indiana, then a territory. Five years later he followed the tide
of emigration to Illinois, where he lived a peaceable, indus
trious, respected citizen, a genial, honest and contented pioneer.
With courage and energy he built with his hands five homes,
each better than the preceding one. He won and held the
love and confidence of two noble women, and he was the father
of Abraham Lincoln.

" My father insisted that none of his children should suffer
for the want of education as he had." — Abraham Lincoln.

" He was a good carpenter for the times. He had the best
set of tools in Washington County. The Lincolns had a cow
and a calf, milk and butter, a good feather bed, for I have slept
on it. They had a home-woven and single ' kilerlid ' big and
little pots, a loom and wheel. Tom Lincoln was a man, and
took care of his wife. Reverend Jesse Head, the minister who
married Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, talked boldly against
slavery, and Tom and Nancy Lincoln and Sarah Bush were
just steeped full of Jesse Head's notions about the wrong of
slavery and the rights of man as explained by Thomas Jeffer
son and Thomas Payne." — Professor T. C. Graham2 of
Louisville, Kentucky.

1 am sure that the foregoing was written by Jenkin Lloyd
Jones. Its language is very similar to that which he used in his
address at the Lincoln Home. In that address I find another
reference to the five houses, or possibly six, which Thomas Lin-

2 Dr. Graham's name was Christopher Columbus Graham, not " T. C."

270 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

coin is supposed to have built with his own hands. In that
he speaks of Thomas Lincoln as, " A man who built, with his
own hands, three homes as I figure it, in Kentucky, and one in
Indiana and perhaps two in Illinois, each one better than the
last." It must not detract from our high appreciation of the
excellence of this inscription if we remind ourselves that while
Thomas Lincoln built for himself a home in Indiana, beside the
" half-faced " camp whch sheltered him and his family during
their first few months in that state, we have no reason to be
lieve that he built any home for himself in Kentucky.

A distinguished authority has said, —

" Abraham Lincoln came of the most unpromising stock
on the continent, * the poor white trash ' of the South. His
shiftless father moved from place to place in the western
country, failing where everybody else was successful in mak
ing a living; and the boy had spent the most susceptible years
of his life under no discipline but that of degrading poverty." —
WOODROW WILSON, Division and Reunion, p. 216.

There is some truth in this, but it is not unqualifiedly true.
Lincoln's parents were poor and they were white ; but it does
not follow that they were of the " poor white trash." Thomas
Lincoln did, indeed, fail repeatedly, and fail where other men
were succeeding; and none of the apologists for him have suc
ceeded in proving him an industrious or thrifty man. But it
is not certain that the poverty upon which Abraham Lincoln
looked back with such morbid sorrow was really degrading.

The author of this volume was born in the North; but he
lived for seven years among people like the Lincolns and
Hankses in Kentucky and Tennessee, and he does not like to
hear them called " poor whites " or " mountain whites." He
has eaten and slept on many a night in a cabin of one room,
much like the cabin in which the Lincolns lived, and both as
schoolmaster and as preacher he has shared the life of the kin
of the Lincolns and the Hankses. The Lincoln blood was good
blood; and the Hanks blood had in it no vicious or criminal
tendency.

Nicolay and Hay say of Thomas Lincoln:

THOMAS LINCOLN 271

" Thomas, to whom were reserved the honors of an illus
trious paternity, learned the trade of a carpenter. He was an
easy-going man, entirely without ambition, but not without
self-respect. Though the friendliest and most jovial of gos
sips, he was not insensible to affronts: and when his slow
anger was roused, he was a formidable adversary. Several
border bullies, at different times, crowded him indiscreetly,
and were promptly and thoroughly whipped. He was strong,
well-knit, and sinewy; but little over the medium height,
though in other respects he seems to have resembled his son
in appearance. . . .

" Thomas Lincoln joined the Baptist Church of Little
Pigeon in 1823; his oldest child, Sarah, followed his example
three years later. They were known as active and consistent
members of that communion. Lincoln was himself a good
carpenter when he chose to work at his trade : a walnut table
made by him is still preserved as part of the furniture of the
church to which he belonged." — NICOLAY AND HAY: Abraham
Lincoln; A History, I, pp. 23, 32-33.

Perhaps the best tribute we have to the character of
Thomas Lincoln is that of the minister of whose church he
was a member in his last years, and who preached his funeral
sermon on his death in 1851. Of him, in 1887, RCV- Thomas
Goodwin of Charleston, Illinois, wrote:

" In his case I could not say aught but good. ... He
was a consistent member through life of the Church of my
choice — the Christian Church or Church of Christ — and was,
as far as I know — and I was a very intimate friend — illiterate,
yet always truthful, conscientious and religious." — Quoted by
HON. JOSEPH H. BARRETT, in The New England Historical
and Genealogical Register for July, 1894; volume 48, p. 328.

CHAPTER XXIX
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT NANCY HANKS

THE log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born stands
now very near to its original site. It has been carted over the
country to one exposition after another, and shown to the
curious at twenty-five cents a head. While it was away, its
supposed original site was marked by a post, which still is
visible in the middle of the cabin floor, attesting that it stands
where it stood immediately before its migrations began.
Older persons, however, who remember the cabin before its
occupant became President, inform me that it was built lower
down and nearer the spring; and this I think probable. But
it stands in a very fit and sightly place, a long line of polished
stone steps leading up to it from the level of the spring, and
reminding us that the way to such eminence involves a long
climb. Inside the marble temple that enshrines the log cabin
where Abraham Lincoln was born, are tablets to his parents.
I copy that to Nancy Hanks, which I think must be from
the facile pen of my friend, now dead, Jenkin Lloyd Jones.

NANCY HANKS LINCOLN
FEBRUARY 4, 1784— OCTOBER 5, 1818
Born in Virginia. When three years old, her parents,
Joseph and Nancy (Shipley) Hanks, crossed the mountains
into Kentucky. Orphaned at nine, she was adopted and reared
by Richard and Lucy Shipley Berry, at whose home in Beech-
land, Washington County, Kentucky, she was married to
Thomas Lincoln, June 12, I8O6.1 Of this union were born
Sarah, Abraham and Thomas. The first married Aaron
Grigsby and died in Indiana in 1828. The last died in in
fancy. The second lived to write the Emancipation Proclama
tion. The days of the distaff, the skillet, the Dutch oven, the
open fireplace, with its iron crane, are no longer, but home-
tablet erroneously says "June 17, 1806."
272

NANCY HANKS 273

making is still the finest of the fine arts. Nancy Hanks was
touched with the divine aptitudes of the fireside. Loved and
honored for her wit, geniality and intelligence, she justified
an ancestry reaching beyond seas, represented by the notable
names of Hanks, Shipley, Boone, Evans and Morris. To her
was entrusted the task of training a giant, in whose childhood's
memories she was hallowed. Of her he said, " My earliest
recollection of my mother is sitting at her feet with my sister,
drinking in the tales and legends that were read and related to
us." To him on her deathbed she said, " I am going away
from you Abraham, and I shall not return. I know you will be
a good boy, that you will be kind to Sarah and your father. I
want you to live as I have taught you, and love your heavenly
Father."

" All tliat I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother."

Of Nancy Hanks William H. Herndon wrote:

Nancy Hanks, the mother of the President, at a very
early age, was taken from her mother Lucy — afterward mar
ried to Henry Sparrow — and sent to live with her aunt and
uncle, Thomas and Betsy Sparrow. Under this same roof the
irrepressible and cheerful waif, Dennis Hanks, whose name
will be frequently seen in these pages, also found a shelter.
Dennis Hanks, still [1889] living at the age of ninety years
in Illinois, was the son of another Nancy Hanks, the aunt of
the President's mother. I have his written statement that he
came into the world through nature's back door. He never
stated, if he knew it, who his father was. At the time of
her marriage to Thomas Lincoln, Nancy was in her twenty-
third year. She was above the ordinary height in stature,
weighed about 130 pounds, was slenderly built, and had much
the appearance of one inclined to consumption. Her skin
was dark; hair dark brown; eyes gray and small; forehead
prominent; face sharp and angular, with a marked expression
for melancholy which fixed itself in the memory of all who
ever saw or knew her. Though her life was clouded by
a spirit of sadness, she was in disposition amiable and generally
cheerful. Mr. Lincoln himself said to me in 1851, on receiv
ing news of his father's death, that whatever might be said of
his parents, and however unpromising the early surroundings

274 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of his mother may have been, she was highly intellectual by
nature, had a strong memory, acute judgment, and was cool
and heroic. From a mental standpoint she no doubt rose above
her surroundings, and had she lived, the stimulus of her nature
would have accelerated her son's success, and she would have
been a much more ambitious prompter than his father ever
was. — Life of Lincoln, Vol. I, pp. 13-14.

Lamon describes her as:

A slender, symmetrical woman, of medium stature, a
brunette, with dark hair, regular features, and soft, sparkling
hazel eyes. Tenderly bred, she might have been beautiful;
but hard labor and hard usage bent her handsome form, and
imparted an unusual coarseness to her features long before the
period of her death. Toward the close, her life and her face
were equally sad ; and the latter habitually wore the woeful
expression which afterwards distinguished the countenance
of her son in repose. By her family, her understanding was
considered something wonderful. John Hanks spoke rever
ently of her " high intellectual forehead,'* which he con
sidered but the proper seat of faculties like hers. Compared
with the mental poverty of her husband and relatives, her
accomplishments were certainly very great; for it is related by
them with pride and delight that she could actually read and
write. The possession of these arts placed her far above her
associates, and after a little while even Tom began to meditate
upon the importance of acquiring them. He set to work, ac
cordingly, in real earnest, having a competent instructor so
near at hand; and with much effort she taught him what let
ters composed his name, and how to put them together in a
stiff and clumsy fashion. Henceforth he signed no more by
making his mark; but it is nowhere stated that he ever learned
to write anything else, or to read either written or printed
letters. — LAMON: Life of Lincoln, p. n.

Mrs. Hitchcock gives this picture of her appearance:

" Traditions of Nancy Hanks* appearance at this time

(the time of her marriage) all agree in calling her a beautiful

girl. She is said to have been of a medium height, weighing

about 130 pounds, light hair, beautiful eyes, a sensitive mouth,

NANCY HANKS 275

and a kindly gentle manner" (p. 51). " Bright, scintillating,
noted for her keen wit and repartee, she had withal a loving
heart" (p. 51). When she went to live with the Berrys,
" Her cheerful disposition and active habits were a dower to
those pioneers." — HITCHCOCK: Nancy Hanks, p. 73.

These two traditions agree as to her weight. Herndon is
more likely to be accurate than Mrs. Hitchcock where the ac
counts vary. He talked earlier with people who had known
her personally. His authorities were John and Dennis Hanks
and Sarah Bush Lincoln. But we do not have a very clear
picture of her personality, though what we know commends
her to our interest and regard.

The earlier descriptions agree that Nancy Hanks was dark,
but recent sentimental literature tends to make her a blonde,
and not to be content with her possession of all the womanly
arts, enabling her to " spin the longest threads " as members
of the Hanks family affirmed, but also, as in one recent book,
The Matrix, by Maria Thompson Daviess, endowing her with
masculine strength, so that she was famous as a champion at
corn huskings, a breaker of colts, a driver of wild horses, and
a woman of wonderful wit, vivacity and intellectual power.

The Atlantic Monthly for February, 1920, contained an
article by Mr. Arthur E. Morgan, of Dayton, Ohio, who, in
travels through the Ozark mountains came upon a branch of
the Hanks family descended from Polly Hanks, the sister of
Nancy, through her daughter Sophie. Sophie Hanks was
just a month younger than President Lincoln. She is the sister
who, according to Lamon, married Thomas Friend, and ac
cording to others married Jesse Friend. According to " The
Doctor " a son of this Sophie Hanks, from whom Mr. Morgan
obtained most of his information, —

" Sophie Hanks's mother, Sarah or Polly Hanks, was a
sister of Lincoln's mother. Though she never married, she
had six children, all of whom lived to maturity, bearing their
mother's name. Sophie Hanks died in November, 1895, but
her three children, living in different parts of the Ozarks, re
tained a part of the information they received from her."

The name of " The Doctor" is not given; and the article

276 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

is reticent on a number of important points. It leaves upon
the mind of the reader the question whether illegitimacy
stopped with Polly Hanks. It is evident from the article that
the children of Sophie Hanks were the children of more than
one father; and whether she was married to these two or more
men in turn is not stated. The Doctor, however, gives this
very interesting information:

" Those stories about Abraham Linkhorn being an illegiti
mate child are untrue. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom were
married regular. But his mother was an illegitimate child.
I have always understood this from what my mother said
about it. But my cousin said that our grandmother Hanks
and Linkhorn's mother were half-sisters and also cousins.
My mother never told me that, but I have often heard her
say that we were badly mixed."

I was, of course, eager to know if Mr. Morgan had addi
tional information, and I have troubled him with many let
ters. He has searched his notes for me, and he has given me
all the additional information which he can obtain. I have
incorporated it in the Appendix. Let me here call attention
to the fact that while " The Doctor," whose name Mr. Morgan
gives me as James Legrand,2 states positively that Nancy
Hanks was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks, John
T. Hanks, son of Dennis Hanks and Elizabeth Johnston, and
daughter of Abraham Lincoln's step-mother, affirms that she
was a daughter of Joseph and Nancy Hanks.

Although the plan of this book does not contemplate in
vestigation of the maternal line of Abraham Lincoln's ancestry,
I desired to inform myself as accurately as possible on all
questions of the family of Nancy Hanks which had or might
have relation to the special field of this present inquiry. Mrs.
Hitchcock announced in 1909 that her Nancy Hanks would
be followed soon by the publication of a complete Hanks
genealogy. This would have been of considerable service, and
I sought for it, but could not find that it had been published.
I therefore wrote to the New England Historic Genealogical

1 As this book goes to press, a letter informs me of the probably fatal
illness of Dr. Legrand.

NANCY HANKS 277

Society, as Mrs. Hitchcock was a New England woman and
traced the Hanks family from a New England line, and I
received this reply:

BOSTON, MASS., April 23, 1920.
DEAR SIR:

In reply to your letter of April 21 seeking information
about a Mrs. Hitchcock who published a book on " Nancy
Hanks" in 1909, I beg to say that we are unable to tell you
whether Mrs. Hitchcock is still living or not; nor do we know
where her manuscript relating to the Hanks family is at the
present time.

Very truly yours,

THORNTON KIRKLAND LOTHROP, JR.,

Corresponding Secretary.

This ends my hope of securing in time for this volume any
added light on the Hanks family from Mrs. Hitchcock or her
manuscript. For my purpose it does not greatly matter ; but I
think that authors who are hereafter to go into that side of
the question should go more thoroughly into the inquiry than
does her little book. I am not expressing the opinion that
in this particular her book is inaccurate ; I simply have not been
able to confirm all of her affirmations, and I do not know
where the data may be obtained.

Lea and Hutchinson, in their invaluable work on The
Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, have placed all students of
this subject under permanent obligations to them, especially
for their researches into the English ancestry. They have not
always been discriminating in their research in American
records, and I have discovered not a few errors in their book.
In the matter of the Hanks genealogy, they accept almost
without question the results of Mrs. Hitchcock's investigations;
but this has not carried them out of the region of perplexity.
They say :

While the indefatigable researches of a member of the
Hanks family, Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, have forever
silenced by overwhelming and cumulative proofs the vicious

278 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

and unclean fabrications and slanders which cast doubt on the
parentage of the mother of the President, it is greatly to be
deplored that the ascending line of her ancestry, beyond her
parents, still remains without positive proof. Two theories
have been propounded of which both will be given here as
worthy of respectful attention, but of which neither can be
accepted by the writers as demonstrated beyond the reasonable
doubt caused by lack of complete proof. In other words, we
still lack legal demonstration of the paternity of Joseph Hanks,
husband of Nancy Shipley and father of Nancy Hanks, the
mother of the President. — The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln,
p. 112.

The question of the identity of Joseph Hanks is, indeed,
one of difficulty, and Lea and Hutchinson are not the only
ones who have encountered it. It is the same difficulty which
confronts us at every turn in the annals of this family, with
its meager records, its conflicting traditions, its overlapping
generations and its reduplication of names.

The case of Joseph Hanks will serve to illustrate what
meets us in other inquiries. We need one Joseph Hanks, and
we have three. One of them appears as the father and two
of them as the uncles of the mother of the President. Surely
there were not in the family three sons named Joseph. Yet
we have Joseph Hanks of Nelson County, dying in 1793,
leaving to each of his five sons a horse and to each of his three
daughters a heifer, of which the spotted one named " Piedy "
was inherited by Nancy, the youngest daughter, and the rest
of the estate to his wife, Nancy. We also have Joseph Hanks,
uncle of Nancy, living in Elizabeth town in 1808, in whose
shop Thomas Lincoln was an apprentice. And we have
Joseph Hanks, uncle of Nancy, who was a shoemaker, and
not a carpenter, and who married Sarah Freeman. These are
not all the Josephs, but they are more than enough to bewilder
the genealogist.

I venture a suggestion which, if it should be found correct,
would remove from this tangle one of the Josephs. It is that
Joseph Hanks, the carpenter, of Elizabethtown, was not the
uncle, but the brother, of Nancy Hanks, the mother of the

NANCY HANKS 279

President. Lamon, on information derived from Herndon,
said, in 1872, —

" It was in the shop of her uncle, Joseph Hanks, of Eliza-
bethtown, that he [Thomas Lincoln] essayed to learn the trade.
We have no record of the courtship, but any one can readily
imagine the numberless occasions that would bring together
the niece and the apprentice." — Life of Lincoln, p. 10.

Later authorities have followed this without question, and
so has the present author. But in one record in Elizabethtown
I find a suggestion that this Joseph was not her uncle but her
older brother. I have not investigated ; but record the sugges
tion for what it may be worth.

Joseph owned rather large traots of land in Hardin County,
and did jury-duty there, as shown by the court records.

In the case of Nancy Hanks the situation is far more per
plexing. I did not at any time intend to explore it, for at the
outset I relied with entire confidence on Mrs. Hitchcock.

She tells us of Nancy Hanks as born in Virginia, Febru
ary 4, 1784, the daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Shipley)
Hanks, the same Joseph who died in 1793, and left to his
youngest daughter, Nancy, the spotted heifer calf. This Nancy
was adopted and reared by Richard Berry and his wife, Lucy
Shipley Berry, the latter being the sister of Nancy Shipley
Hanks, and so the aunt of Nancy. From this home she was
married, her uncle and guardian, Richard Berry, signing her
marriage bond with the bridegroom, Thomas Lincoln. The
will and the marriage bond are incontestable records, and the
place of the marriage is as certain as human testimony can fix
it at a date so remote, yet within the memory of living and
credible witnesses who have left their signed and sworn and
indisputable testimony. Although in other matters I have
found Mrs. Hitchcock's judgment subject to revision, she has
in this particular too much of irrefutable fact to be disputed
except on evidence much stronger than any that I have found.
The age of this Nancy is essentially correct for her require
ments as the wife of Thomas Lincoln, and if she did not marry
him, we do not know what became of her. The will, the mar
riage bond, the place and date of marriage, all agree. More-

280 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

over, I have found in Washington County large groups of rela
tives and descendants of the Berrys and Shipley s and related
families, who all accept this theory, and who find that it fits
into their local traditions. Mrs. Hitchcock is not, therefore,
to be lightly flouted when she identifies the mother of the
President with the little nine-year-old heiress of the Peid heifer.
In spite of all the inherent difficulties in the theory, I find
myself unable to escape from the logic of it. I still hold it
as on the whole the best theory of the paternity of Nancy
Hanks. I had hoped that in the course of this inquiry into
a closely related question, I should have been able to clear up
the difficulties in a manner that would satisfy myself com
pletely; I regret that I have not been able to do so.

What we encounter on the opposite side is the almost unani
mous tradition of the Hanks family. To be sure, they kept
few records, and their memories do not wholly agree. But
this is what they tell us about the mother of the President,
and it is what he himself apparently believed :

There were four Hanks sisters, Betsy, Polly, Nancy and
Lucy. Betsy married Thomas Sparrow; Polly married Jesse
Friend; Nancy married Levi Hall and Lucy married Henry
Sparrow. Before her marriage to Levi Hall, Nancy became
the mother of Dennis Hanks. Before her marriage to Henry
Sparrow, Lucy became, in 1783, the mother of Nancy Hanks.
The two bridegrooms accepted their respective brides as they
were, but did not accept their illegitimate children, both of
whom were brought up by their maternal aunt, Betsy Hanks,
wife of Thomas Sparrow. Nancy Hanks was called by the
name of Sparrow, not from the man who subsequent to her
birth married her mother, Lucy, but from her aunt Betsy and
her husband, Thomas Sparrow. These were the only parents
she ever knew. She called them father and mother. They
journeyed to Indiana after her, lived and died with her, and
all their Indiana neighbors understood that they were her
parents. All her Hanks cousins called Nancy, not Nancy
Hanks, but Nancy Sparrow. They knew nothing about her
relation to the Shipley s, or of her being the daughter of Joseph
Hanks.

NANCY HANKS 281

They may have been mistaken. The President may have
been mistaken, as he was mistaken about certain other matters
concerning his relations. He was too sensitive about it to make
many inquiries, and those which he made did not reassure
him. We cannot accept his immature opinions on a matter
where he may so easily have been misled. But we may not
throw out of court this whole body of Hanks tradition, tangled
and difficult as it is.

There are certain facts on each side. The truth must be
inclusive of all these facts and of such others as will explain
their relation to each other. The unifying and clarifying truth
has not yet been produced, and it will be very difficult to
obtain it, for the reasons indicated.

I am writing thus concerning the question of the parentage
of Nancy Hanks, partly because I wish to record all that is
certainly known about her, and partly lest my silence, if I
were to be silent, should be construed to mean that I have
formed an adverse judgment. Such judgment I have not
formed. The materials for a final judgment are not avail
able. Moreover, this is not the question which I set out to
answer; though I would gladly answer this in passing if I
could do so.

The two dates given for the birth of Nancy Hanks, one
an undesignated^day in 1783, and the other, February 4, 1784,
present no serious discrepancy; and both traditions place her
birth as in Virginia. It is possible that some one will take
the materials gathered by Mrs. Hitchcock, and those assembled
by Mr. Knotts, which largely for this reason I am printing
in this volume, and those that had previously been collected
by Mr. Herndon, and after further, and I fear extended, in
vestigation, present to us the true story of the parentage of
Nancy Hanks. Until then, we have as our best documentary
proof the will of Joseph Hanks, the marriage bond with his
signature, a significant even if not a certain piece of evidence
of guardianship, and in addition to these the clearly estab
lished fact that she was married under his roof, and that her
relatives resident in that vicinity believe her to have been the
legitimate daughter of Joseph Hanks, an honorable man, who

282 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

died in 1793. There, until conclusive evidence is presented,
my own mind is constrained to rest.

Miss Tarbell gives account of the parents, particularly of
the mother, of Abraham Lincoln as follows :

The father, Thomas Lincoln, far from being a " poor
white," was the son of a prosperous Kentucky pioneer, a man
of honorable and well established lineage, who had come from
Virginia as a friend of Daniel Boone, and had there bought
large tracts of land and begun to grow up with the country,
where he was killed by the Indians. He left a large family.
By the law of Kentucky the estate went mainly to the oldest
son, and the youngest, Thomas Lincoln, was left to shift for
himself. This youngest son grew to manhood, and on June
10, 1806, was married, at Beechland, Kentucky, to a young
woman of a family well known in the vicinity, Nancy Hanks.
There is no doubt whatever about the time and the place of
this marriage. All the legal documents required in Kentucky
at that period for a marriage are in existence. Not only
have we the bond and the certificate, but the marriage is duly
entered in a list of marriage returns made by Jesse Head, one
of the best-known early Methodist ministers of Kentucky. It
is now to be seen in the records of Washington County, Ken
tucky. There is even in existence a very full and amusing
account of the wedding and the fan-fare which followed by a
guest who was present, and who for years after was accus
tomed to visit Thomas and Nancy. This guest, Christopher
•Columbus Graham, a unique and perfectly trustworthy man,
a prominent citizen of Louisville, died only a few years ago.

But while these documents dispose effectually of the ques
tion of the parentage of Lincoln, they do not, of course, clear
up the shadow which hangs over the parentage of his mother.
Is there anything to show that Nancy Hanks herself was of
clear and clean lineage as her husband? There had been
nothing whatever until, a few years ago, through the efforts
of Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock of Cambridge, Mass., who
had in preparation the genealogy of the Hanks family in
America, a little volume was published, showing what she had
established in regard to Nancy Hanks. Mrs. Hitchcock had
begun at the far end of the line — the arrival of one Benjamin
Hanks in Massachusetts in 1699.

NANCY HANKS 283

She discovered that one of his sons, William, moved to
Virginia, and that in the latter part of the eighteenth century
his children formed, in Amelia County of that State, a large
settlement. All the records of these families she found in the
Hall of Records in Richmond. When the migration into
Kentucky began, late in the century, it was joined by many
members of the Hanks settlement in Amelia County. Among
others to go was Joseph Hanks with his wife, Nancy Shipley
Hanks, and their children. Mrs. Hitchcock traced this Joseph
Hanks, by means of land records, to Nelson County, Kentucky,
where she found that he died in 1793, leaving behind a will,
which she discovered in the records of Bardstown, Kentucky.
This will shows that at the time of his death Joseph Hanks had
eight living children, to whom he bequeathed property. The
youngest of these was " My daughter Nancy," as the will
puts it.

Mrs. Hitchcock's first query, on reading this will, was:
" Can it be that this little girl — she was but nine years old
when her father died — is the Nancy Hanks who sixteen years
later became the mother of Abraham Lincoln?" She deter
mined to find out. She learned from relations and friends
of the family of Joseph Hanks still living that, soon after
her father's death, Nancy went to live with an uncle, Richard
Berry, who, the records showed, had come from Virginia to
Kentucky at the same time that Joseph Hanks came. A little
further research, and Mrs. Hitchcock found that there had
been brought to light through the efforts of friends of Abraham
Lincoln all the documents to show that in 1806 Nancy Hanks
and Thomas Lincoln were married at Beechland, Kentucky.
Now, one of these documents was a marriage bond. It was
signed by Richard Berry, the uncle of the little girl recog
nized in the will of Joseph Hanks. Here, then, was the chain
complete. The marriage bond and marriage returns not only
showed that Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln were married
regularly three years before the birth of Abraham Lincoln,
thus forever settling any question as to the parentage of Lin
coln, but they showed that this Nancy Hanks was the one
named in the will. The suspicion in regard to the origin of
Lincoln's mother was removed by this discovery of the will,
for the recognition of any one as his child by a man in his
will is considered by the law as sufficient proof of paternity.

284. PATERNITY OE ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Now what sort of people were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks ? It has been inferred by those who have made no in
vestigation of Thomas Lincoln's life that Nancy Hanks
made a very poor choice of a husband. The facts do not
entirely warrant this theory. Thomas Lincoln had been
forced from his boyhood to shift for himself in a young and
undeveloped country. He is known to have been a man who
in spite of this wandering life contracted no bad habits. He
was temperate and honest, and his name is recorded in more
than one place in the records of Kentucky. He was a church
goer, and, if tradition may be believed, a stout defender of his
peculiar religious views. He held advanced ideas of what was
already an important public question in Kentucky, the right
to hold negroes as slaves. One of his old friends has said
of him and his wife, Nancy Hanks, that they were " just
steeped full of notions about the wrongs of slavery and the
rights of men, as explained by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas
Paine. " These facts show that he must have been a man of
some natural intelligence. He had a trade and owned a farm.

As for Nancy Hanks, less that is definite is known of her.
In nature, in education, and in ambition she was, if tradition
is to be believed, far above her husband. She was famous
for her spinning and her household accomplishments, it is said.

It was to these two people, then, that Abraham Lincoln
was born on February 12, 1809. His birthplace was a farm
Thomas Lincoln owned, and near Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
The home into which the little chap came was the ordinary one
of the poorer Western pioneer — a one-roomed cabin with a
huge outside chimney. Although in many ways it was no
doubt uncomfortable, there is no reason to believe it was an
unhappy or a squalid one. The log house, with its great fire
place and heavy walls, is not such a bad place to live in —
some of us are thankful to get away into the country to one
now and then even in winter. Its furniture was simple, and
no doubt much of it home-made. The very utensils were of
home manufacture. The feathers in the beds were plucked
from the geese Nancy Lincoln raised. She patched her own
quilts, spun her own linsey-woolsey. No doubt Thomas Lin
coln made Abraham's cradle and Nancy Lincoln spun the
cloth for his first garments. They raised their own corn,
dried their own fruit, hunted their own game, raised their own

NANCY HANKS 285

pork and beef. It was the hard life of the pioneer where every
man provides for his own needs. It had discomforts, but it
had, too, that splendid independence and resourcefulness which
comes only from being sufficient to your own needs.

That the two people who endured its hardships and made
in spite of them a home where a boy could conceive and
nourish such ideals and enthusiasms as inspired Abraham Lin
coln from his early years should have their names darkened
by unfounded suspicions is a cruel injustice against which
every honest and patriotic American ought to set his face.

In all the twenty-eight years of her life Nancy Hanks never
was permitted to spend a year or even a day under a roof that
she could legally have called her own. In her first tweruty-
two years she lived among her relatives. The humble cabin
to which Thomas Lincoln took her on her marriage, and where
she lived until her first child Sarah was a little more than a
year old, was not his own; the lot in Elizabethtown which
many years afterward he sold, came to him from his second
wife. On the Brownfield farm he lived for a few months as
a tenant. The Rock Spring farm on Nolin Creek where Lin
coln was born was occupied by Thomas and Nancy Lincoln
without any deed of record, and the title, or at least the
equitable title, rested during his occupancy in a man with whom
Thomas Lincoln is not known to have had any dealings. If
after this he lived for a year in Washington County, as appears
to have been the case, his home was presumably among his
wife's relations, or possibly his own relations; he paid no taxes
there on real estate. The Knob Creek farm, by far the most
picturesque and fertile of his Kentucky holdings, he occupied
without title so far as known, and removed from it without
making a deed. He settled on government land in Indiana, and
in the course of years entered it and received a patent from the
government for half of that which he originally entered; but
before he received his patent Nancy had died. She could have
sung with some of the old time camp-meeting preachers:

No foot of land do I possess,
No cabin in this wilderness,
Till I my Canaan gain.

286 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Like her husband, Nancy Hanks was a Baptist. So far
as we know, their association with Rev. Jesse Head, who was
a local Methodist deacon at Springfield, was casual; but Dr.
Christopher Columbus Graham affirms that Mr. Head was a
strong abolitionist, and that Thomas and Nancy were well
saturated with abolition principles which they learned from
him. This may be true, but we have no other witness to this.
Dr. Graham was a truthful man, but was a very old man when
he made this statement. The minds of old men tend to elabo
rate such themes. The statement that Jesse Head was an
abolitionist is not at all improbable. But I have not found
other evidence than this that Thomas Lincoln was an aboli
tionist. However, his son, Abraham, could say that he could
not remember a time when he did not believe slavery to be
wrong; and it is easily possible that Thomas Lincoln held to
this same opinion, and that he may have learned it, or been
strengthened in it, by Jesse Head. It is easy to believe that
Nancy would have shared this opinion; and there is no good
reason to contradict Dr. Graham ; though we could wish we had
confirmatory proof.

The name Nancy became such a general favorite in the
Hanks family, it would be interesting to discover, if possible,
who was the original Nancy Hanks. Apparently that name
came into the Hanks list of family names with the marriage
of James Hanks of Virginia, son of William. The name of
his wife was Nancy. James, it will be remembered, removed
to South Carolina with his brothers John, Joseph and Luke.
We know nothing about the personality of Mrs. James Hanks,
but it is not going far into the realm of imagination to con
jecture that this daughter-in-law of the family must have
been attractive and good, since all branches of the family ap
pear to have begun at once the practice of naming their
daughters after her; and thus the name came into immediate
and permanent prominence in that family.

CHAPTER XXX
DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS FATHER?

THOMAS and Abraham Lincoln had some traits in common,
such as their coarse black hair, their deep-set gray eyes, their
ability to tell, and their enjoyment in the telling of, a good
story, and their disinclination to perform needless manual
labor. Neither of them ever demanded too much in the way
of physical comfort; Abraham to the end of his life never was
fastidious about his bed or his food, or knew or seemed to
care whether the sheets were clean or the food was well
cooked. Thomas, as Lamon says, "was satisfied with indif
ferent shelter, and a diet of corn-bread and milk was all he
asked. John Hanks naively observes that ' happiness was the
end of life with him ' ' (Life of Lincoln, p. 15). Abraham
was much like Thomas in this, preferring meager physical
comfort to too great physical exertion, and being quite indif
ferent to the refinements of living.

Beyond this, they were not very congenial. If Thomas
Lincoln did not like to work, he wanted Abe to work; and
Abe was given to joking, to mounting a stump and orating,
not only to the total interruption of his own labor in the field,
but the labor also of Dennis Hanks and John Johnston, who
were very willing to stop work and sit down while Abe de
livered stump speeches or sermons. There is good reason to
believe that this more than once vexed the righteous soul of
Thomas Lincoln, who was vicariously industrious, and that
some incidents of reproof and perhaps physical castigation
lie behind Colonel Chapman's statement, derived doubtless
from his wife, and by her from her father Dennis Hanks, and
so with abundant opportunity for exaggeration, that " Abe's
father treated him with habitual cruelty." — LAMON, Life of
Lincoln, p. 40.

The only specific instance, however, that has come down

287

288 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

to us, of the cruelty of Thomas Lincoln, is that he is alleged
by Dennis to have knocked Abe off the fence for answering a
traveler's questions about the road. (LAMON, Life of Lincoln,
pp. 40 and 77.) But it is evident, first, that this incident was
exceptional, and secondly, that we do not have the whole story.
If we knew all the facts, we probably should learn that Abe
sat on the fence for a good while and chatted with the passing
stranger while Thomas waited for him to return and hoe out
his row. If all that Abe did was to answer a civil question,
it was not necessary for him to climb the fence and sit upon
the top rail. He could have answered from the field. Thomas
may have been unduly harsh, but he probably had provoca
tion. The top of a rail fence was an attractive place for Abra
ham Lincoln, who had more than one reason to think highly
of fence rails.

We are justified in moderating somewhat Colonel Chap
man's statement which is to be taken with some abatement.
The most that we need believe is Dennis Hanks' direct answer
to Herndon's question, " Did Thomas Lincoln treat Abe
cruelly?"

" He (Tom) loved him. I never could tell whether Abe
loved his father very well or not. I don't think he did, for
he was one of those forward boys. I have seen his father
knock him down off the fence when a stranger would ask the
way to a neighbor's house. Abe always would have the first
word. The old man loved his children." — LAMON: Life of
Lincoln, p. 77.

This is definite as to Thomas Lincoln's love for Abe,
spite of his rough discipline; and it is about what we might
expect as to Abe's love for his father. Abe was " forward,"
always wanted the first word with a passing stranger, and in
no haste to say the last word, and how much he loved the man
whom he rather quickly outgrew in intellectual attainment and
in ambition, we are not sure. He does not appear to have had
an affection rooted in mutual interests and common sym
pathies, but he loved him as much, apparently, as such a son
would have been likely to love such a father; and to say that
is not to speak very ill of either of them,

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS FATHER? 289

Sarah Bush Lincoln told Herndon that she was interested
in Abe's love of books, and obtained for him leisure to read
and study. Thomas Lincoln appears to have acceded to her
request as cheerfully as, under all the conditions, might have
been expected. But it is not to be supposed that he entered
into all the hopes and vague longings of this lazy, moody,
dreamer.

If half the marriages can be said to be of persons per
fectly adapted to be each other's life companions, there remain
the other half more or less imperfectly matched. Of these,
it may be presumed, the wife is the husband's superior in at
least half the cases. Certainly Sarah Bush was, in education
and social standing and ambition, the superior of Thomas Lin
coln, and there are cases of this sort, not a few.

Every one who will look around him can discover with
out difficulty families in which a mother cherishes higher am
bitions for her son than that he shall follow in the footsteps of
his father. In many cases the father shares the ambition of
his wife and son, feeling painfully his own lack of youthful
advantages and making large sacrifice that his son may rise
higher in the world than he has been able to rise. But it is
not always so. Sometimes such a father, even though willing
to do all that seems to him necessary for his son's welfare,
sees no necessity for educating him above his father's station
and his own probable station in life.

In such a home there is no question of legitimacy; but the
mother, and not the father, becomes the interpreter of the
boy's best impulses. Father is good, but he does not under
stand. The boy shares his hopes with his mother, and she keeps
all these things in her heart, as mothers do, and ponders them.

It is the ambition of the average American man to create
for his wife a leisure which he does not share, and for his son
an opportunity greater than his own. American fathers are
not ungenerous as a rule. Nevertheless, cases are not few
in which the wife has received the better education, has kept
up her reading, and encourages her son in ambitions to which
the father is almost a stranger.

It is easy to understand that in the home of Thomas Lin-

290 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

coin, situated as it was declared by Lincoln to have been, in a
region in which " There was absolutely nothing to excite am
bition for education," as he wrote to Jesse W. Fell, it was
hardly to have been expected that Thomas and Abraham Lin
coln would have lived together for twenty-one years in com
plete sympathy.

On the other hand, it is not known that they quarreled,
and Abraham does not appear to have cherished toward his
father any deep resentment or personal hatred. On the con
trary, what evidence we have of his feeling toward his father,
indicates that he cared for him as much as could reasonably
have been expected under all conditions.

After Abraham Lincoln was of age, and might have claimed
his own time, and was eager for his freedom, he remained
with his father long enough to see him established in his new
home in Illinois, and thereafter he sent him money as long as
he lived. Lamon, who does his best to make his readers think
that Abe cared little for his father, says that the remittances
were sent to his step-mother. This probably is true. She was
the more literary of the two, and money sent to her should
have been safer than if sent to Thomas, for she was likely to
spend it for necessities; but it is doubtful whether her son
John did not coax the most of it away from her. Lamon
says:

" As soon as Abraham got up a little in the world, he began
to send his step-mother money, and continued to do so until
his own death ; but it is said to have ' done her no good/ for
it only served to tempt certain persons about her, and with
whom she shared it, to continue in a life of idleness." —
LAMON : Life of Lincoln, p. 76.

Abraham did, however, give and send money direct
to his father. When Lincoln was on his circuit he repeatedly
visited his father's home, and left money, and he was im
portuned by his father from time to time to send him more.
So far as is known, he invariably did so.

The most damaging answer to the question whether Abra
ham Lincoln honored his father, has been given by Lamon in
his Life of Lincoln, in a letter of Abraham Lincoln, dated

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS FATHER? 291

Washington, December 24, 1848, in which he appears to ques
tion his father's veracity; and Lamon does not hesitate to
call attention to the fact. The letter is as follows:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24th, 1848.
MY DEAR FATHER:

Your letter of the 7th was received night before last. I
very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which sum you
say is necessary to save your land from sale. It is singular
that you should have forgotten a judgment against you; and
it is more singular that the plaintiff should have let you forget
it so long, particularly as I suppose you have always had
property enough to satisfy a judgment of that amount. Be
fore you pay it, it would be well to be sure that you have not
paid it; or, at least, that you cannot prove you have paid it.
Give my love to Mother, and all the connections.
Affectionately your son,

A. LINCOLN.

The implication appears a fair one. Abraham Lincoln, in
receipt of a piteous appeal from his father to send him twenty
dollars to save his land from being sold under judgment, sent
the money, but did not believe that the land was in danger of
being sold under judgment. Did Abraham Lincoln believe
Thomas Lincoln a liar?

I did not know the answer to this question until Mr. W. K.
Bixby of St. Louis who had owned the original letter presented
me a photographic fac-simile of it.

This letter occupies the first fifteen lines on the first page
of a four-page letter sheet, and below it and on the following
pages is Abraham Lincoln's letter to his step-brother, John D.
Johnston. Lamon had both these letters, or copies of them,
and printed them both, but not together. Their significance
is in the fact that they were written on the same sheet. The
letter to Johnston as Lamon says, makes Johnston an inti
mate acquaintance of the reader; but the acquaintance is made
more intimate by the knowledge, which Lamon withheld, if
indeed he knew it, that the two letters are virtually one. The
second letter, without separate date or post-office, begins on the
line below the first signature of Abraham Lincoln:

292 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

DEAR JOHNSTON :

Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it best to
comply with now. At the various times when I have helped
you a little you have said to me, " We can get along very
well now," but in a very short time I find you in the same
difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some defect in
your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You
are not lazy, but you are an idler. I doubt whether since I
saw you you have done a good whole day's work in any one
day. You do not very much like to work, and still you do
not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that
you could get very much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting
time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you,
and still more so to your children, that you should break this
habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer
to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in
it easier than they can get out after they are in.

You are now in need of some ready money; and what I
propose is, that you shall go to work " tooth and nail " for
somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and
your boys take charge of things at home — prepare for a crop
and make the crop; and you go to work for the best money
wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get.
And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise
you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of
next May, get for your own labor either in money or in your
own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By
this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me
you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for
your work. In this I do not mean that you shall go off to St.
Louis or the lead mines, or to the gold mines, in California, but
I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close
at home, in Coles County. Now if you will do this, you will
soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit
that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should
now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep as ever.
You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70
or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply,
for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the
seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months' work. You
say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS FATHER? 293

if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession —
Nonsense! If you can't now live with the land how will you
then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I
do not mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will
but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight
times eighty dollars to you.

Affectionately your brother,

A. LINCOLN.

Now we know the whole story. Abraham Lincoln knew
that Johnston was the author of both requests, the eighty
dollars for himself and the twenty dollars for Thomas Lin
coln. Abraham sent the latter sum, though showing plainly
that he was not deceived by the hard-luck story which accom
panied the request, a story doubtless written by Johnston, to
which Thomas Lincoln may have " bunglingly signed his
name."

I am not aware that any writer has discovered the fact,
or in any event the significance of the fact, that Abraham Lin
coln's letter of December 24, 1848, to his father, was on the
same sheet with a letter to Johnston, and was virtually a part
of the same letter. Certainly Nicolay and Hay had no sense
of this relation. They printed the two letters separated by a
considerable space in time and in book pagination, and as this
leaves the Johnston letter without a date, they supplied the
conjectural date, January 2, 1851, which is a very bad guess,
as will be seen by their Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works,
two volume edition; volume I, pages 147, 164-5; an^ the
Gettysburg edition, twelve volumes, volume II, pages 96, 144-
146. This date, which Nicolay and Hay supplied as con
jectural, other compilations took over from them without ques
tion, as in the Putnam Edition, volume II, and also in the
Current Literature edition of the Life and Works of Abra
ham Lincoln; Letters, volume II.

So far as the letter to Johnston is concerned, the date is not
very important; but as affording the basis of an interpretation
of the spirit of Lincoln's letter to his father, and his alleged
belief that his father was not telling him the truth, the date is
of very great importance ; and the fact that the two letters were

294 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

written on one sheet shows that Lincoln knew who was lying,
and that he wanted Johnston to know that he knew.

Lincoln's letter to his father was all that under the cir
cumstances it ought to be, and he was generous in sending the
money, which, as we know from other sources, Abraham more
than suspected Johnston would be likely to share. His offer
to Johnston was more than generous, and his letter was in
every way admirable.

We must remember that at this period Lincoln himself
was under a heavy strain. He was just paying the last of his
" national debt " that had been a millstone about his neck ever
since the days of his disastrous merchandizing at New Salem.
He already knew that he was not to return to Congress, and
he needed all his money, but he was generous with it.

My impression is that at this time members of Congress
were paid a per diem, and that it then was, or later was in
creased to be, eight dollars a day. In my boyhood, which
was long after the time of this correspondence, I heard a
song like this:

" In Washington full once a year

Do politicians throng,
Contriving there by various arts

To make their session long;
And many a reason do they give

Why there obliged to stay,
But the clearest reason yet adduced

Is eight dollars a day."

To John D. Johnston eight dollars a day seemed the
zenith of affluence, and its possessor a plutocrat to be plucked
and plundered, and he was more skilled in devising ways of
making Abraham divide his wealth than he was in producing
an honest living fo;r himself and his children. These letters
appear to have been both wise and generous. They afford no
reason for the conclusion that Abraham Lincoln did not honor
his father, but they show that he was magnanimous and at the
same time discriminating toward his indolent step-brother.

A family that has always lived upon a farm in conditions
far from market, where very nearly everything eaten and
worn is produced upon the land, handles very little money, and

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS FATHER? 295

has a distorted notion of the value of money. Thomas Lincoln
probably seldom handled two hundred dollars of actual cash in
a year. When Abraham moved to Springfield, and received
fees of twenty dollars for a day's work in court, and sometimes
took in as much as an hundred dollars in a single month, his
relatives could have no real measure of his prosperity. How
could they understand that that very year, 1848, in which this
twenty dollars was requested, was that to whose close Abra
ham was looking forward with hope long deferred, of paying
the last of his " national debt " incurred while he sold goods
at New Salem?

It appears to be true that Lincoln neglected the graves of
both his father and his mother; that the grave of Nancy Hanks
was not marked until 1879, when Mr. P. E. Studebaker of
South Bend, Indiana, erected a suitable marble slab above it;
and that the grave of his father was visited by him in Febru
ary of 1 86 1, at which time he made, and promptly forgot, a
promise to erect a stone above it.

With reference to this it must be said that the grave of
Nancy Hanks shared the fate of all graves in that part of the
wilderness at that time. There probably was no marble slab
within many miles of Gentryville. As to his father's grave,
it must be admitted that Lincoln lacked appreciation of situa
tions which were out of sight, and when he was away from his
father's grave it was easy for him to forget it. On the other
hand, it must be remembered that while Mr. Lincoln had ac
cumulated some money prior to the campaign of 1860, he had
to borrow money to go to Washington for his inauguration,
and that the extravagance of Mrs. Lincoln and other causes
kept him constantly in debt, so that he died in arrears. He
may have hoped from month to month that next month he
would have a little spare money, and so have neglected it till
it passed from mind as a duty requiring immediate attention.
He ought not to have forgotten; but the fact that he did so
does not of necessity imply that he did not honor his father.

It is true that Abraham Lincoln, did not go to see his
father when the latter was dying. There was sickness in his
own home, and he also said frankly that it was doubtful

296 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

whether if he could go it would be more pleasant than painful.
But it is also true that he wrote insisting that his father should
have every attention, and that no medical or other care should
be lacking; and the tone in which he wrote concerning faith
and the life to come implies not only that he had a sincere
religious faith of his own, but that he honored his father's
religion. This is not the kind of letter Abraham Lincoln
would have written to a man whom he believed to be a hypo
crite. The letter is addressed to John D. Johnston:

SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 12, 1851.

DEAR BROTHER: On the day before yesterday I received a
letter from Harriet, written at Greenup. She says she has just
returned from your house, and that father is very low and will
hardly recover. She also says that you have written me two
letters, and that, although you do not expect me to come now,
you wonder that I do not write. I received both your letters;
and although I have not answered them, it is not because I have
forgotten them, or not been interested about them, but be
cause it appeared to me that I could write nothing which could
do any good. You already know I desire that neither father
nor mother shall be in want of any comfort, either in health or
sickness, while they live; and I feel sure you have not failed to
use my name, if necessary, to procure a doctor or anything else
for father in his present sickness. My business is such that
I could hardly leave home now, if it were not, as it is, that my
wife is sick abed. (It is a case of baby-sickness, and I suppose
is not dangerous.) I sincerely hope father may yet recover his
health; but, at all events, tell him to remember and call upon
and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker, who
will not turn from him in any extremity. He notes the fall
of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will
not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to
him, that if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would
not be more painful than pleasant; but that, if it be his lot to
go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with loved ones
gone before, and where the rest of us, through the help of God,
hope ere long to join him.

Write me again when you receive this.

Affectionately,

A. LINCOLN.

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS FATHER? 297

Such evidence as is before us justifies the conclusion that,
while Abraham in his youth smarted under the restraints of
a lazy and spasmodically exacting and more or less unsym
pathetic father, he did not fail either then or afterward to
yield to him a large measure of sincere respect. There is no
evidence of hostility or hatred or contempt, but on the con
trary, a large degree of thoughtful consideration which con
tinued to the end of his father's life. A more ardent love
could be imagined, but filial duty and honor were not lacking.

We have no reason to suppose that Thomas Lincoln was
ever despised in any community in which he lived. Far back
in Kentucky, when he was very poor, Miss Tarbell found, and
recorded in her Early Life of Lincoln book accounts which
showed that he had local credit, and that he paid his debts.
His reputation there cannot have been bad, for he went directly
back in quest of his second wife, who knew all about him.
Lamon records, on the authority of Dennis Hanks, that her
own judgment and heart were assisted by the advice of her
male relatives, with some of whom Thomas Lincoln had made
journeys to New Orleans. If Sarah Bush who knew what the
women said about him. and her male friends who " all liked
Lincoln " were in accord, the fact speaks well for Thomas
Lincoln.

In a word, there is no reason to credit an otherwise un
proved story of bastardy to account for whatever we know
of lack of sympathy between Thomas and Abraham Lincoln.
We understand the situation well enough to be rather well
satisfied with what we learn of the relations between them.
If they were not those of ardent affection, they were those of
mutual regard; on the side of Thomas it is to be remembered
that, though at the instance of Sarah, his wife, he did not
forbid Abraham to study; on the side of Abraham it is to be
remembered that he did a son's duty to the end.

CHAPTER XXXI
DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS MOTHER?

SOME of Lincoln's references to his mother appear to have
been intended for Sarah Bush. Between him and her existed
a strong bond of sympathy which lasted on his side during his
life and on her part after he had gone. Herndon did valu
able service in giving to posterity his interview with her in
1866. It showed an affection on her part for Abraham
and on Abraham's for her which is worthy of all admira
tion.

But some of Lincoln's references to his mother cannot
refer to Sarah Bush. When Lincoln said to Herndon, " God
bless my mother; all that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to
her," he certainly did not refer to Sarah Bush; for that was
the conversation in which he confided to Herndon his belief
that his mother was the illegitimate daughter of a Virginia
planter of good family, and that he had inherited through
this unnamed grandfather the qualities that distinguished
him.

So far forth, therefore, we know that Lincoln held the
memory of his mother in honor. And there are other refer
ences to his mother which may, at least, refer to her. All his
allusions to his " mother," whether intended for Nancy Hanks
or Sarah Bush, are affectionate. He remembered both mothers
with tender regard.

The story has been told that the boy Abraham, sad to
think that his mother should have been buried without re
ligious service, procured the attendance of Rev. David Elkin
to preach her funeral sermon some months after the burial.
In another book the author has dealt with this story.1 The
truth is that it was not the custom among the people to whom

1 See The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, by William E. Barton. George
H. Doran Company, New York.

208

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS MOTHER? 299

the Lincolns belonged to have the funeral at the time of
burial. There was nothing unusual about the funeral of
Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

In the state of society in which Lincoln was born and spent
his youth, there was little pride of family. In the backwoods
of Kentucky and Indiana " kin and kin in law did not count a
cuss." If there was a stain on the family escutcheon, it did
not carry the disgrace which attached to the bar sinister in
some conditions of life. It was recognized that " Accidents
will happen, in the best regulated families; " and when they
happened, the best possible was made of them. If one or more
of the Hanks sisters gave birth to a baby before she was mar
ried, that was recognized as an undesirable situation. But
there was no hiding of it. She had no opportunity to go away
to a hospital, under pretense of visiting relations in the city,
and having her child cared for by a foundlings* home. In
the backwoods, the babies which the family " sorter fell heir
to " were taken in and kept and brought up with the other
children. They knew and felt a difference between them and
other children, but they were not disinherited. The mother
felt the disgrace, but it was not always a hopeless disgrace.
Dennis Hanks was born before his mother was married; but
she married, and behaved herself, and had other children, and
Dennis grew up happy and by no means crushed by the mis
fortune of his birth. He married, and his children married
well, and are not ashamed of their name.

Whether there is more or less immorality in primitive set
tlements than in more refined society, the author does not
care to discuss; he has seen and knows both sorts. But that
in primitive society is the more frank and honest. It is often
unmoral rather than deliberately immoral.

We know more or less about the relatives of Nancy
Hanks, — her half-sisters and her cousins and her aunts. They
were women of a primitive type, nor lacking in fine qualities;
and if they were any of them weak and primitive in their pas
sion, they were not degenerate.

The Lincolns and Hankses were not abnormal people.
They were fair specimens of a large part of the population

300 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

flowing in the early part of the nineteenth century from Ken
tucky into Indiana and Southern Illinois.

But if Gentry ville had little place or occasion for pride
of family, the same was not true of New Salem, where the
Rutledges felt themselves to be representatives of the finest
families of South Carolina. Lincoln could not contemplate
marrying Ann Rutledge without considering the relative stand
ing of the Rutledges with their record stretching back to
colonial days, and always with honor, and the Lincolns and
Hankses. When he arrived in Springfield the situation was
worse. There he met men whose ancestors came over on the
Mayflower, and others who claimed descent from the First
Families of Virginia. When he wrote his little biography for
campaign purposes, and told how he came of Virginia's " sec
ond families," he knew the difference between the patricians
of Virginia and the poor whites.

When he began to think of marrying Mary Todd, he met
the same contrast. He had occasion to remember, as he had
not had occasion in his earlier years, about the privations of his
boyhood, and the low estate of his family. He grew morbid
about it. He felt more sensitive than an entirely normal
man should have felt. The memories of his childhood, which
had not been intolerable at the time, grew painful in the
retrospect.

But there is no occasion to believe that he ever despised
his mother or thought of her otherwise than with affection.

What would Lincoln have said or thought if he had be
lieved himself to have been the son of another and a better
man than Thomas Lincoln? How greatly would he have
blamed his mother for giving to the world a greater man than
Thomas Lincoln could have begotten ? He read Shakespeare,
not entire, but with interest, and he probably at one time or
another read King John. Would he have said to Nancy Hanks
what Bastard said to his mother, Lady Falconbridge ?

Bastard. Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son;

Sir Robert could not do it; we know his handiwork:
Therefore, good mother, to whom am I beholden for these

limbs?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

DID LINCOLN HONOR HIS MOTHER? 301

Lady Falconbridge. King Richard Coeur de Lion was thy father.

Bastard. With all my heart I thank thee for my father;
Who lives and dares to say thou did'st not well,
When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.

It would neither be safe nor fair to accept the judgment of
Dennis Hanks at its face value on the attitude of Abraham Lin
coln toward his relatives. It is evident in the material which
he furnished Herndon that Dennis was no violet blushing to a
mossy stone. He charged Herndon to remember that his book
would not be a success unless it had much in it about Dennis :

" I will say this much to you : if you don't have my name
very frequently in your book, it will not go." — LAMON: Life
of Lincoln, p. 41.

John Hanks has more that commends him to our high
regard than Dennis, but even he had quite a sufficiently exalted
idea of his own importance. Many years ago, an American
actor then in Great Britain, endeavored to write a play about
him. It does not appear to have been a great success, though
the same thing has been done of late by John Drinkwater, and
the public has received the play with enthusiasm. In this
earlier attempt, the playwright obtained his material from John
Hanks. It is interesting for many reasons, one of which is
that it is difficult to tell who is the real hero, John or Abraham.2

We need not be surprised that Dennis was somewhat dis
appointed that Abraham did not distribute offices more freely
among the Hankses, and that Johnston thought he did not do
enough for his parents. On the whole, even these witnesses
give Abraham a very good record.

In recalling the attitude of Abraham Lincoln toward his
relations, one thing is to be remembered, and that is that we
know of these relations almost wholly through people who were
disappointed that Lincoln did not give them office. Abraham
Lincoln, himself a persistent office-seeker, did not like to be
bothered by office-seekers, especially by those who pleaded

2 The Tragedy of Abraham Lincoln, in five acts. By an American
artist. Glasgow: Published by James Brown & Son. There is no date
on the title page, but the copyright is of 1876. The author, unnamed,
was Hiram D. Torrie. It is said that only twenty-six copies of this
pamphlet are in existence, most of them with scorched edges.

302 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

favors they had done him, or kinship with him, and whom he
knew to be incompetent. Lamon was made Marshal of the
District of Columbia by Lincoln, and was kept in that position
by him in spite of protest in high places, but there is reason
to believe that Lamon was none too grateful. Herndon is
alleged to have wanted an office, and would not take the one
which Lincoln offered him. John D. Johnston, Lincoln's
worthless half-brother, was ready for anything, and finally got
a concession to make daguerreotypes in the army, but was not
satisfied with that. Old John Hanks, who could not read, was
an eager applicant for office. Dennis was ready for anything
from the postoffice at Farmington to a place in the Cabinet.

These people could not very well discuss Lincoln's rela
tions to his family without some prejudice. Yet they agree
in such statements as are here recorded, and they are, on the
whole, highly creditable to Lincoln.

When Dennis was asked about this matter, he said that
in his judgment Lincoln " done more for John Johnston than
he deserved." He also recorded that John did not think Abe
did enough for the old people, which is not surprising, con
sidering who got the money that Abe sent to them.

CHAPTER XXXII
A FINAL WORD ABOUT HERNDON

WILLIAM H. HERNDON was born in Greensburg, Kentucky, on
December 28, 1816. Two years later, his father, Archer G.
Herndon, moved to Troy, Madison County, Illinois; and
thence, in 1821, to Sangamon County, to a farm five miles
northeast from Springfield. This was nine years before the
Lincolns came to Illinois, and while Chicago was a micro
scopic village. Archer Herndon was active in efforts to make
Illinois a slave-state; but his son, William, imbibed anti-
slavery views at Illinois College, for which reason his father
removed him from that school before the completion of his
course. In 1825 Archer Herndon moved to Springfield, and
erected a tavern, which was not good for his son.

Young Herndon first saw Lincoln in 1832, when Lincoln
was engaged as assistant to Rowan Herndon, a cousin of
William, as pilot of the Talisman, the famous little steamer on
the Sangamon River. Many years later he became Lincoln's
partner, and continued in that relation until Lincoln's election;
the partnership was never formally dissolved, and the sign
" Lincoln and Herndon " continued to adorn their office in
Springfield until the death of Lincoln.

Herndon served as Mayor of Springfield, a position in
which Lincoln had no interest; for local politics never troubled
him. Herndon, though a victim of alcohol, was an advocate
of temperance, the earliest directory of Springfield showing
his name as an officer in a temperance lodge; one of his
early publications, like one of the earliest of Lincoln, being a
temperance address. Herndon was counted an infidel, and
sometimes accepted the term; but his three daughters, sepa
rately, have testified to me that their father constantly
taught them reverence for God. He wrote to Theodore
Parker :

303

304 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

" I love and reverence religion with all my whole soul ; it
is as deep in me as my being."

Herndon's study of Lincoln may be said to have begun with
his acquaintance with the future President, and it continued
until the death of Herndon. A few days before he died he
wrote to Horace White :

I am still diligently gathering well-authenticated facts about
Lincoln. Many I reject, because they are not in harmony with
the fundamental elements in his nature, and because they came
to me in unauthentic shape. I expect to continue gathering
facts about Lincoln as long as I live, and when I go hence, the
reading world shall have the manuscripts, unchanged and un
altered, just as I took them down. I think they will be of
value to mankind some time. I have been at this business since
1865. Every day I think of some fact, and it suggests other
facts. The human mind is a curious thing. I have been sick
all winter.

On March 14, 1891, he died on his farm five miles from
Springfield, his invalid son dying earlier on the same day.
His last words were :

" I have received my summons. I am an over-ripe sheaf;
but I will take the weaker one with me."

His life possessed many contradictions. He was an ardent
temperance man, and a drunkard. He was an early and sin
cere Republican, but in his later years affiliated with the Demo
crats. He believed in God, and had a reverent regard for much
that was high and noble in religion, but was called and called
himself an infidel. He loved Lincoln with passionate admira
tion, and is remembered as the chief of sinners among Lin
coln's detractors.

Among all the charges against him, none is more bitterly
alleged, nor with more color of justice, than this, that he caused
the world to doubt the honorable birth of Abraham Lincoln.

In an earlier chapter I have given the views of William
H. Herndon on the paternity of Lincoln, including not only
what he published, but also a short tract hitherto unpublished,
which appears clearly to indicate that at the time it was written

A FINAL WORD ABOUT HERNDON 305

Herndon believed Mr. Lincoln to have been an illegitimate
child. That Herndon held this view is the opinion of his
biographer, Dr. Joseph Fort Newton, who says :

After a diligent search at Elizabethtown, the county seat of
Hardin County, no record of the marriage [of Thomas Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks] was found; and no one need be told that
such a discrepancy would occasion all sorts of campaign gos
sip, especially at a time when the swarm of lies was blacker
than usual. When, in 1865, Mr. Herndon went to look into
the matter for himself he found no record, and was assured
that there had been no marriage at all; so he concluded that
Lincoln, like Alexander Hamilton, had been born out of wed
lock. Nor is it easy to see, with such a state of facts before
him, how he was much at fault; though, upon the advice of
Horace White, he removed all hint of it from the second edi
tion of his biography. That is the sum of the matter so far
as Mr. Herndon had anything to do with it. — Lincoln and
Herndon, pp. 320, 321.

I am convinced that there were times when Herndon was
inclined to this view of Lincoln's parentage. Mr. Jesse W.
Weik assured me that such was not the final opinion of Hern
don; and I was not sure for a time that Mr. Weik was correct
in this affirmation, though he had better opportunity to know
than any other man.

I have, however, complete assurance that Mr. Weik is cor
rect in this declaration; and that on quite independent au
thority. There exists an important collection of Herndon
manuscripts which, so far as I am aware, Mr. Weik has never
seen, and which, as I have reason to believe, no biographer of
Lincoln except myself has ever examined, which goes into this
matter in detail much more minute and particular than Hern
don ever went into it in print. I am not at liberty to disclose
the ownership of those documents, nor will I answer inquiries
by mail concerning them ; but to any serious student who for a
worthy purpose desires to know their content I will show
copies which I made with my own hand, and will inform him
where the originals are and give him satisfactory proof of their
genuineness. They are where they are not likely to be lost or

306 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

burned, and where they cannot be seen by the prurient or the
curious, but where they are available for the verification of the
statements in this chapter, and for such serious use as this
volume makes of them.

Let me now be as specific as I deem it right to be, in order
that I may make a clear and incontestable statement. Mr.
Herndon at one time had, or believed he had, one more reason
than he ever published for believing that Abraham Lincoln was
not the son of Thomas Lincoln. This reason was based upon
what he believed to be a fact, and which, in the very con
fidential letters and manuscript notes alluded to, he affirms
with the greatest confidence. He does not give the source of
his information, and I infer that it was Dennis Hanks. For
myself, I should not count this conclusive evidence, and I do
not think that Dennis gave it to Herndon with any supposition
that it would be used as the basis of Herndon's inference, as I
do not know that Dennis Hanks was the source of Herndon's
information : I am of that opinion because I do not think that
Herndon could have learned of this particular fact, if it was a
fact, from any other source. Certainly he did not learn it
from Abraham Lincoln.

I learn from Herndon's manuscript -that when Dennis be
gan to suspect, from the nature of Herndon's questions, the
inference which Herndon was drawing, he became uncom
municative. This interview with Dennis occurred in Chicago
in 1866, and Herndon at intervals afterwards endeavored to-
get Dennis to add to what he there said. His reticence in
creased Herndon's suspicion. In his notes covering these inter
views, and the other rumors and suspicions which he had
gathered up to that time, Herndon wrote : " From all this evi
dence, Abraham's legitimacy may be doubted." This was
Herndon's state of mind in 1866 and subsequent years. He
later revised this judgment, as the quotations in this chapter
clearly show.

This fact, if it was a fact, was circumscribed by certain
limitations; if it occurred outside of certain geographical or
time limits, it weighed heavily against the legitimacy of Abra
ham Lincoln; if, on the other hand, it occurred within certain

A FINAL WORD ABOUT HERNDON 307

other limits, its implication was the exact opposite. This fact
in itself was not derogatory to the moral character of either
Thomas or Nancy.

I trust I am making clear the logical implications of this al
leged fact, without betraying any indication of its nature. Its
nature was somewhat remote, but its implication, in the one
event or the other, was important, provided Herndon was cor
rectly informed.

I do not wish to tell what this fact was, because it has never
been printed, and I have no desire to be the first to print it;
indeed, I know of no good reason why it should ever be
printed. But if Dennis told it to Herndon, I am confident
that Dennis did it without himself drawing any such inference
from it as Herndon drew or supposing such an inference from
it to have been possible ; and I am not convinced that Dennis,
if it was Dennis who told it, was correct. For these suffi
ciently good reasons I do not state, nor mean to suggest, the
nature of this fact, or alleged fact.

There was a time when this alleged fact, in addition to such
other facts as Herndon knew or thought he knew, inclined
him to the belief that Abraham Lincoln was a bastard. / am
able to state unqualifiedly that this was not Ms final view.
By a process of reasoning which I cannot here reproduce, but
which lies before me in the copy which I made from his own
handwriting, he came to believe that the preponderance of
evidence was in favor of that interpretation of this alleged
fact which supported the legitimacy of Abraham Lincoln in
stead of disproving it. He wrote thus as his deliberate opinion,
and I have reason to believe that he never .altered it :

" It was — it is still charged that Abm. Lincoln was the son
of one Enlow. My own opinion after a searching examina
tion is that Mrs. Lincoln (Nancy Hanks) was not a bad
woman, was by nature a noble woman. My own opinion is
that Abraham Lincoln is the son and heir of Thomas Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. I admit all things are not per
fectly clear to me, and yet I think that the weight of the testi
mony is in my favor on both these grounds."

By " both these grounds " he meant the grounds of the

308 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

argument on which, by two converging lines of investigation,
he had arrived at this conclusion.

This conclusion was written subsequent to the little tract
which is quoted in the earlier chapter.

Those persons, therefore, who have been disposed to be
lieve that Lincoln was illegitimate because they believed his
partner Herndon to have believed it, are at liberty to revise
their judgment as Herndon did. During the last seven or eight
years of his life, whatever he may have thought before, Hern
don believed Abraham Lincoln to have been the legitimate child
of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. There is no possible
escape from this view unless there be in existence somewhere
documentary proof that Herndon again revised his opinion,
and this I do not only not believe, but am confident that I
have proof that there was no such change of opinion by Hern
don. The discovery of the marriage return was an important
element in the changed view of Herndon, and there was at
least one other reason. The mature and final opinion of
William H. Herndon, " after a searching investigation," was
that Abraham Lincoln was the child of Thomas Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks Lincoln, born in lawful wedlock; and that
all previous opinions to the contrary, either his own or Mr.
Lincoln's, were erroneous. I am in position to substantiate
this affirmation concerning the opinion of Mr. Herndon. He
is henceforth not to be quoted among those who denied, but
among those who believed, in the legitimacy of Abraham
Lincoln.

I am able to state also that Herndon's literary associate,
Mr. Jesse W. Weik, is unqualified in his affirmation that he
believes Abraham Lincoln to have been the legitimate son of
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln.

Incidentally I may mention that I have found evidence in
Mr. Herndon's unpublished manuscripts that he encountered
the report that some man or men living at the time of his
investigations declared that he or they had had intercourse
with Nancy Hanks. So far as I am able to judge he did not
personally meet this man or these men, for he does not name
the man or men or give such details as he was accustomed to

A FINAL WORD ABOUT HERNDON 309

record in such instances. He did not credit the report. He
remembered that there was another Nancy Hanks, mother of
Dennis, and thought if there was any truth in these statements,
it was more likely to have been true of the other Nancy than
of the mother of the President. The report as a whole did not
appear to him to be worthy of credence. It deserves only such
attention as belongs to the allegation of a senile and unclean
imagination. The unnamed old blackguard who recalled from
his misspent youth the alleged memory of such an incident
may without any great risk be assumed to have been a liar
as well as the doer of other ill deeds.

One story which Herndon heard in Kentucky from men
whom he thought he could believe, and whom he did believe,
was that, " Old Abe Enlow always claimed that Abe Lincoln
was his child." This was stated with complete confidence,
and Herndon felt that he must accept it as true that Enlow
made that claim. That did not in itself prove that the claim
was true, but it was a thing that Herndon recorded in his
private notes, and it had weight with him.

I am able to state with confidence that Herndon was mis
informed. Abraham Enlow never claimed that Abraham Lin
coln was his child. He claimed that the boy was named for
him on account of his going for the midwife or granny-woman,
and because of the kindness of his family to the Lincolns at the
time of the boy's birth. The rest of the story is a lie.

Further, I have learned definitely that it was Herndon who
heard, and told Lamon, about the fight between Abe Enlow
and Thomas Lincoln. As Herndon did not print this in his
own book, I thought that Lamon obtained his information
from another source. I now know that this was a mistake.
Herndon heard the story and told it to Lamon ; and Herndon
was misinformed. There was no such fight between those two
men.

In my own investigations I have not discovered any such
testimony that seemed worthy of a moment's attention; and
Herndon held much the same opinion.

I have talked this matter over in full with Hon. Hardin
W. Masters of Springfield, who knew Herndon intimately,

310 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

who talked with him innumerable times about Lincoln, and
who was chosen by the Herndon family to deliver the oration
at the dedication of the monument to Herndon. I have talked
with Hon. G. W. Murray, who was Herndon's law-partner
in Herndon's last years. These men assure me most positively
that Herndon never receded from this opinion. He died be
lieving that Abraham Lincoln was the legitimate son of
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln.

I greatly desire that the full significance of this disclosure
of the final opinion of Herndon shall have its full force in
the mind of the reader. The first man to suggest in print that
Lincoln was illegitimate was Lamon, and his authority was
Herndon. I am confident that I am correct in my opinion
that what Herndon furnished to Lamon was virtually,
and probably exactly, a copy of the four-paged tract which I
have quoted. I have found to a certainty that it was Lamon's
book that started the discussion at the Atherton distillery that
led to the discovery of the marriage record of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln. Lamon's book, and Herndon's, are the basis
of the Coleman pamphlet, and, except for its North Carolina
local color, of Cathey's book.

Here, then, is the deliberate and final opinion of the man
on the basis of whose mistaken and immature judgment, these
reports got into print, and grew to such volume :

" MY OWN OPINION, AFTER A SEARCHING EXAMI
NATION, IS THAT MRS. LINCOLN (NANCY HANKS)

WAS NOT A BAD WOMAN WAS BY NATURE A NOBLE

WOMAN FREE, EASY AND UNSUSPECTING. MY OWN

OPINION IS THAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS THE SON AND
HEIR OF THOMAS AND NANCY HANKS LINCOLN."

Did Herndon ever change this opinion? I have shown
that his friends did not believe that he changed it. I have
further evidence in the unpublished manuscripts, which I have
copied, and which continue until a few days before his death,
some of them written while he was sick and making mention
of his illness. These manuscripts in places show that he did
not forget the evidence, or apparent evidence, on the basis

A FINAL WORD ABOUT HERNDON 311

of which he had at one time doubted whether Lincoln was
legitimate. In several places I find him writing in language
that shows how serious he had at one time considered these
charges, and by what a careful weighing of the evidence he had
come to his conclusion, in which still he encountered some diffi
culties. But I find him re-affirming his conviction in unmis
takable terms, and in an assurance which, after he had ar
rived at his conviction, never left him. In another place I
find this unqualified declaration, which expresses the faith in
which he died :

" I AM SATISFIED THAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS
THE LAWFUL CHILD OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY

CHAPTER XXXIII
THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF THESE STORIES

I HAD little hope when I began this study that I should reach
a settled conviction as to the precise origin of these stories; all
that I thought to discover was their truth or falsehood; but
I have succeeded beyond my expectation. How easy it is for a
lie to begin — in a question, a shrug of the shoulder, a circum
flex accent, a suggestion that some one has suggested that it
may be so! And how nearly impossible it is thereafter to
keep up with the lie itself in its many transformations, its
protean changes, its adaptation to circumstances! How un
likely that any one, even if he could assure himself of the
falsity of rumors that had their origin a half century ago, and
traveled long underground before they appeared in print, could
reach their actual beginning ! And yet, I think that I have ac
complished this, which at the outset I did not anticipate. I
have followed the sluggish estuary of these rumors with their
seven clogged and befouled mouths back to where they begin
in a single muddy stream, and I am confident that I have
reached its fountain head.

Let us remember first that the earliest biographers of Lin
coln did not make swift journeys to Hodgenville to learn all
they could about Lincoln on the ground. They were correct
in their opinion that there was not very much to be learned
there that would meet their requirements. The number of
men living there who had known Abraham Lincoln as a small
child was very few, and their testimony had in it nothing of
value for a campaign biography. None of them were pre
pared to write such a biography. D. W. Bartlett had just
published a book of 360 pages on the Presidential Candidates
of 1860, containing twenty-one biographies, beginning with
William H. Seward and ending with John C. Fremont, and
the name of Abraham Lincoln was not included in his list of

312

ORIGIN AND DESTINY 313

presidential possibilities. Bartlett had to hurry around and
pick up what material he could for a campaign Life of Lincoln
and Hamlin, and get his material where he could, which was
from the sketch which Lincoln furnished Scripps; this he was
able to work up into a cloth-bound book of 354 pages, which
was doing well with his material, but it involved no journey to
Kentucky. Nor did any of the 1860 biographers go there for
material: they rushed to the press as quickly as they
could.

The campaign of 1864 produced no necessity for local
investigation; people then were chiefly interested in the events
of the War. Moreover, La Rue County was not then a
friendly place in its attitude toward Lincoln. Hodgenville
was difficult of access and there was little to be learned by
going there. So there was little to stimulate the people on the
ground to invent stories of this character.

The rumor began with the knowledge that Samuel Hay-
craft, clerk of the County Court at Elizabethtown, had written
to Abraham Lincoln, just after his nomination by the Chicago
convention in 1860, asking whether he was not born in Eliza
bethtown, and whether he was not the son of Thomas Lincoln
and Sarah Bush. Lincoln wrote to him under date of May 28,
1860:

In the main you are right about my history. My father was
Thomas Lincoln, and Mrs. Sally Johnston was his second wife.
You are mistaken about my mother. Her maiden name was
Nancy Hanks. I was not born at Elizabethtown, but my
mother's first child, a daughter, two years older than myself,
and now long since deceased, was. I was born February 12,
1809, near where Hodginsville [Lincoln misspelled the name]
now is, then in Hardin County. I do not think I ever saw
you, though I know very well who you are — so well that I
recognized your handwriting, on opening your letter, before I
saw the signature. My recollection is that Ben Helm was
first clerk, that you succeeded him, that Jack Thomas and
William Farleigh graduated in the same office. Am I right?
My father has been dead near ten years; but my step-mother
(Mrs. Johnston) is still living.

314 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Mr. Haycraft had already found what he first supposed
was the record of the marriage of the parents of Abraham
Lincoln, Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Johnston, and he
thought that Abraham was born in Elizabethtown. On receipt
of Lincoln's letter he made diligent search for the record of
the marriage of Lincoln's own parents, and was unable to find
it. This failure gradually became known; and as the search
was pursued in the counties immediately adjacent and did not
yield results, the suspicion gradually took shape, at first in
political circles, that Lincoln's parents were not married, a
suspicion that found some approach to confirmation in Lin
coln's own reticence and the reserve of his biographers. But
this at first was not construed to mean that any other man
than Thomas Lincoln was Abraham's father.

Only gradually did Hodgenville awake to the fact that
Lincoln was born in the county of which by division it had be
come the shire town. Elizabethtown had claimed that honor,
and for that matter is still disposed to claim it, and Hodgen
ville displayed no great alacrity in setting up claim to the
birth of Lincoln. Yet there were a very few old people who
knew that while Tom Lincoln had a daughter when he came
to the Rock Spring Farm, on Nolin Creek, a son was born
to him there.

One of those very few men, in all not more than a half
dozen living in 1860 and named as remembering him, was
Abraham Enlow. He had a personal recollection which he
told in 1860 and until his death in 1861. Not yet, however,
did Hodgenville know of the rumor that Lincoln was illegit
imate; Mr. Haycraft was still pursuing his search. It was
some months before he gave it up, anG the news of his failure
spread slowly, and at first was quietly discussed by politicians.
There was no immediate attempt to learn anything by gather
ing local gossip; the quest was for the records. When that
stopped, the gossip began. Gradually it reached Hodgenville.
By that time Abraham Enlow was dead. He died in 1861.

As this rumor spread, it took on an uglier form. It was
not enough to say that Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, being poor
white trash, lived together without the formality of marriage.

ORIGIN AND DESTINY 315

It was easy to go a step farther, and that step was taken, in
the inquiry, which soon grew to a rumor and the rumor into
an affirmation, as to the responsibility of some other man than
Thomas Lincoln for the birth of the boy. At first this story
was told without any attempt to name the man, but by the
time it got fairly well noised abroad in La Rue County, a
name became almost necessary.

When La Rue County fully woke to the realization that
Lincoln was born within its bounds, it took its honor without
due elation. Lincoln was no favorite there, as shown by the
three votes which the county gave him in 1860. But by 1864
the political pot was boiling, and the ugly rumor was current in
the country, and finally its backwater came seeping through
the sluggish soil of La Rue County that Abraham Lincoln who
was born there was of illegitimate birth.

To its honor, let it be recorded that La Rue County's
first response was an emphatic denial. Men who are still liv
ing, and are of the highest character, remember the effect of
the rumor upon the old people, the few then living, who had
known the Lincolns. They denied it. They declared that no
such rumor had been current there at the time of the birth
of Lincoln, and that Mrs. Lincoln bore a good reputation dur
ing the short period of her sojourn in that community.

But these people were few in number, and their voices did
not reach the outer world. One by one these old people died ;
and the lie lived on.

But if Abraham Lincoln was conceived and born in La
Rue County, and was not the son of Thomas Lincoln, a father
must be found for him ; who could he be ?

We can trace the actual process by which the myth was
built up, and almost the hour of its birth.

Abraham Enlow was one of the nearest neighbors of the
Lincolns, living only a matter of two miles away, and one of
the few living in 1860 who had even the faintest memory of
him. He had this one recollection:

On a day which must have been Saturday, February n,
1809, he was on his way to the Kirkpatrick mill. He was rid
ing his horse, having on his saddle under him a sack of corn

316 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

which the dull stones of the mill would reduce to meal. As
he passed the house of Thomas Lincoln, he was hailed by
that gentleman with a request that he return home and bring
his mother, who was locally famous as a " granny-woman."
He and Thomas lifted the sack down, and he rode back home,
and soon returned with his mother, Mary La Rue Enlow,
seated on the horse behind him. His half-sister, Peggy La
Rue, who was twenty years old, and married to Conrad Wal
ters, was there, also ; and there were other women.

Abraham let his mother down at the cabin, replaced the
sack of corn with the help of Thomas Lincoln, and rode on
to the mill, returning late in the afternoon. The granny-
woman and her assistants were still occupied, and he went
home with his sack of meal. Some time after midnight, on
the morning of Sunday, February 12, 1809, a little boy was
born.

Either then or later Abraham Enlow got the idea that the
child was named for him in recognition of his kindness in
going after the granny -woman. He did not know that the
boy's name was already chosen, being that of Thomas Lincoln's
own father.

It pleased his fancy when he was an old man, in 1860, to
tell, and he did tell, that he had the impression that Tom Lin
coln named little Abe for him as a reward for assisting in the
bringing of the granny-woman. If that innocent illusion
did Abraham Enlow any good, no one should begrudge him
that measure of satisfaction. But we know for whom
Abraham Lincoln was named ; and Abraham Enlow had small
consideration in the choice of the name.

Abraham Enlow died in 1861, and the rumor that Abraham
Lincoln was an illegitimate child reached Hodgenville during
the campaign of 1864. Not before that time is there one
vestige of record of any such rumor in La Rue County.

When that rumor got afloat, and began to find willing and
credulous listeners, it became the manifest duty of La Rue
County to furnish a father for Abraham Lincoln. The choice
was limited. There were no living candidates for the honor.
There were few dead men who were known to have known

ORIGIN AND DESTINY 317

Abraham Lincoln. Knowledge of the family as having ever
lived on the Rock Spring farm had almost totally vanished.
There was not a shred of record of the birth in the county
offices. Everything depended upon the declaration of Abra
ham Lincoln that he was born there, and on the dim recollec
tions of a very few elderly people who could recall hardly
any incidents.

But people began to remember that Abraham Enlow, who
had died three or four years before, had boasted that Abe
Lincoln was named for him, and that he was hanging around
the cabin when Abe was born. Why should he have been there
unless he had reason to be interested ? Why should the child
have been named for him unless it was his?

Necessity is the mother of invention. La Rue County,
faced with the necessity of finding a father for Abraham Lin
coln, did the best it knew with the very scanty materials at its
disposal, and about 1865 the story was in full tide of cur
rency, that Abe Lincoln was named Abraham for his real
and Lincoln for his putative father.

And this is the way it began. I have traced it from this
beginning, through all its multitudinous forms, and they all
come back to this.

By 1872, when Lamon's book was published, these stories
were at high tide. One had no need to go to Hodgenville to
learn them. Indeed, by keeping away from there one could
learn more than any one in Hodgenville knew, as for instance,
the story about the fight between Tom Lincoln and Abe Enlow,
which was the story of another fight, in another county, that
came to embellish the Lincoln story as lawyers retold it and
amplified in the telling.

Did not Hodgenville know the age of Abraham Enlow,
and that he was only a boy when Lincoln was born ? For the
most part, no. Abraham Enlow died an old man, and in that
region an old man is an old man, and that without overmuch
concern about his precise age. But that part of Hodgenville
that gave much real thought to the matter knew at once that
the story was untrue; less because of any computation of
Abraham Enlow's age than because the Lincolns were not yet

318 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

resident of his neighborhood until several months after Abra
ham Lincoln was on the way. That was why the Brownfield
story was invented. People who said that the Enlow story
was impossible would sometimes add that if such a story were
true at all, there was only one man of whom it could well be
true, and that was George Brownfield; Tom Lincoln worked
for him that summer and fall, and George Brownfield's sons
were tall men; and there might possibly be something in that
suggestion. But the Brownfield story, though it had at least
the fact of physical possibility in its favor, never found any
favor outside the immediate neighborhood, and not very much
there. And the Abe Enlow story spread.

It is not necessary to show in detail how the story took
on a new form wherever there was or had been a man named
Abraham Enlow. There had been a man in Bourbon County,
near the border of Clark, named Abe Inlow, a miller; and
there once was a young woman named Nancy Hornback, who,
though the mother of an illegitimate child, found a husband
and went with him and her child to one of the western counties
of Kentucky. There was a girl in North Carolina who had
worked as a servant and was sent over the mountains into
Kentucky or Tennessee, and there was an Abraham Enlow
there, of whom, a half century afterward, it was possible to
relate the story with suitable local adaptations. And so the
story grew.

The discovery of the marriage record of Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln in Washington County had no effect upon the
story as it was told in La Rue County; for there it had always
been assumed that Thomas and Nancy were married; and if
theirs was only a common law marriage, that did not greatly
alter the situation as it related to Enlow. No one there cared
whether the certificate was found or not. The discovery of the
certificate was indeed a nightly important event as establishing
the conjugal relations of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, but
if Nancy was untrue to Thomas, as the La Rue County
story assumed, the certificate was not of any considerable im
portance. And the story, once rooted, persisted. But it never
would have started if the marriage return had been found be-

ORIGIN AND DESTINY 319

fore Abraham Lincoln became a candidate for the Presidency,
and if he could have told Jesse Fell and John Locke Scripps
the date of his parents' marriage. It would not have started
if Abraham Lincoln had not displayed that " significant re
serve " of which so many of his biographers speak, and which
he would not have displayed had he been sure of that fact
and date. As it was, the failure of Samuel Haycraft to find
the record started a story that locally had little to do with the
record, and which proved the root of all the other stories.

Now this is the way it began, and the conditions were ripe
for its dissemination. But it was false from beginning to end,
and the time has come to say so with an emphasis that shall
forever forbid its repetition even as a conjecture or a per-
adventure.

Thus far we deal with the story as oral tradition. When
and how did it get into print? How did it evolve from local
gossip into general publicity?

The story that Lincoln had reason to be ashamed of his
birth began in a vague rumor to the effect that Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln were " white trash " who lived together with
out the formality of marriage; but when this rumor began,
about 1861, it was without the slightest intimation that any
other man than Thomas Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln's
father. When, about 1864, the rumor reached Hodgenville,
it had enlarged into the report that another man than Thomas
Lincoln was Abraham's father, but no other man was named.
Hodgenville itself supplied the name, choosing from among
the few neighbors of Thomas Lincoln one who was remem
bered to have told that he was interested in the birth of
Abraham Lincoln to the extent of loaning a horse to bring the
midwife, and that Abraham Lincoln was named after him.
The name of Abraham Enlow having once been spoken, it
gave occasion for a new form of the story wherever there was
a branch of the Enlow family.

But not in 1861 nor yet in 1864 was there a word in print
that hinted that Abraham Lincoln was not born in lawful
wedlock.

I have been very desirous of learning where the first sug-

320 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

gestion appeared in print, and to this end I wrote to several
authorities. The first of these was Jesse W. Weik, Hern-
don's associate in the preparation of his Life of Lincoln.
Mr. Weik, who has studied this question for many years,
replied at once that the first appearance of this story in print
was in Lamon's Life of Lincoln, issued in 1872.

Hon. Daniel Fish is the foremost authority on Lincoln
literature, and the compiler of the standard Bibliography of
Lincolniana. He replied :

" Lamon's biography, so far as I know, was the first
publication in book or pamphlet form to suggest a query about
the legitimacy of Lincoln; and that, as you know, is very in
definite."

Judd Stewart, besides being the owner of the largest Lin
coln collection in existence, is a discriminating student of
Lincoln literature. He wrote:

" I think Lamon's Life of Lincoln, published in 1872
(preface dated May, 1872) is the earliest publication that in
any way suggests the illegitimacy of Abraham Lincoln."

Mr. Appleton P. C. Griffin, Chief Assistant Librarian of
the Library of Congress, made search for me, and gave the
same answer.

I could think of only one other way of learning. The
Senators of the United States are permitted to ask for assist
ance in the Library of Congress to an almost unlimited extent
in the gathering of literary material that may be of value to
them for their speeches. I have found occasion to avail myself
of the courtesy of Senators in this and other matters, and I
wrote to Senator Medill McCormick, asking him to have thor
ough search of periodical literature in the Library of Congress
to find whether in any newspaper or magazine this rumor
appeared prior to the publication of Lamon's book. The an
swer is :

" With reference to the attached letter of Dr. Barton, we
have made a careful search and have been unable to find any
reference to Lincoln's alleged illegitimacy before 1872."

Some men are said to be born great, others to achieve
greatness, and others to have greatness thrust upon them. To

ORIGIN AND DESTINY 321

the last class belonged Abraham Enlow; and he died before he
knew it.

He was a life-long Democrat, and with all his family he
sympathized with the South when the! Civil War broke out.
La Rue County cast three votes for Abraham Lincoln, and
Abraham Enlow's was not one of them. He had been sick in
1859, and knew, as he said in his will, that his years at most
could not be many; and he had no mind to imperil his immortal
soul by voting for a Republican on the chance that posterity
might assign him a paternal interest in the candidate. He
voted in the autumn of 1860, casting a good old-fashioned
Democratic ticket as was his wont, and died a year later with
the> consciousness that he had done his duty. But when he
knew that Abraham Lincoln was elected, he was as little dis
pleased as he could well have been with a candidate whose
political views he did not approve; and he told his friends, as
he stood in front of the Hodgenville drug-store, that when
Abe Lincoln was born, he loaned his horse to fetch the granny-
woman, and he rather thought they named the boy Abe in his
honor. With this pleased reminiscence, he spent his last few
months, and died, never suspecting what use would be made
of his boyish act of generosity.

It was meager material for the manufacture of so great
a lie, and for the propagation of so large a family of lies; but
it sufficed.

It no longer suffices. It is weighed in the balance and
found wanting. Let Abraham Enlow have full credit for hav
ing lived an upright and honest life, and for a name which he
did nothing to dishonor; but among the good or bad deeds that
he did there is one that is not to be included. Neither he nor
any other man than Thomas Lincoln was the father of Abra
ham Lincoln.

The hills of Kentucky have their own stolid type of mirth,
and their sententious sayings are sometimes informed with a
quizzical humor. There is a saying current there, and Abra«
ham Lincoln would have heard it had he lived there longer,
when a story or a political issue or candidate is completely
and effectually disposed of. They say, as I have heard them

322 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

say in stump speeches, that that story or issue or candidate is
now buried so deeply that if he or it ever scratches out, it will
be less laborious " to keep on a-scratchin* downwards, and
come out face to the fire/'

That is the depth at which I have now buried the story
that Abraham Lincoln was an illegitimate child. Let any
man who proposes to exhume that putrid reminiscence go
prepared to dig deep and stay long, for he will not find it on
this side of the place prepared for every one that loveth and
maketh a lie.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I
REV. JESSE HEAD

I. A LETTER FROM REV. E. B. HEAD

After the publication of the discovery of the marriage rec
ord of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, of
the New York Christian Advocate, conducted a correspondence
to secure information about Rev. Jesse Head, who solemnized
the marriage. A number of letters were received from men
who had known him, the most important being from Jesse
Head's grandson, Rev. E. B. Head, Presiding Elder of the
Lawrenceburg Conference in Kentucky:

LAWRENCEBURG, KENTUCKY,
ANDERSON COUNTY, May 3, 1882.
To THE REV. J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D.

Dear Sir and Brother: — Your favor reached me on the eve
of my leaving Harrodsburg for this place, hence the delay in
responding to your request. The Rev. Jesse Head referred to
was my grandfather. He was born in Maryland, near Baltimore ;
was married to Miss Jane Ramsey, of (what is now) Bedford
County, Pennsylvania. He removed to Kentucky, and settled
at Springfield, Washington County. He was an ordained min
ister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but was never con
nected with the itinerancy in Kentucky, on account of feeble
health. He held several prominent civil offices while living in
Springfield, and was actively engaged preaching the gospel of
God's grace. He celebrated the rites of matrimony between
Thomas Lincoln and Miss Nancy Hanks, father and mother of
President Lincoln, in 1806, near Springfield. He afterwards
moved to Harrodsburg, Mercer County, where he lived until
his death, which occurred in March, 1842. At Harrodsburg he
engaged in merchandizing, also owned and edited the county
paper for a term of years. He was largely instrumental, if not
wholly, in building the first church ever erected in Harrodsburg ;
also organized and conducted the first prayer-meeting. In gospel
labors he was always abundant. His house was the home for
several years of Rev. H. B. Bascom, afterwards Bishop; also

325

326 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of Bishop McKendree especially, as they were bosom friends.
Some time before his death he left the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and connected himself with the Radical Methodists, on
account of slavery, and also some dissatisfaction with the Epis
copacy. He then had charge of and preached for a church for
years at Lexington, Kentucky. His name at Harrodsburg and
through the surrounding country is as ointment poured forth.
He was a man of decided and positive character, bold and aggres
sive, and died loved and honored by all. He died as he lived,
in the triumph of the faith of the Gospel of God's Son.
Fraternally yours,

E. B. HEAD, P.E.,
Lawrenceburg Circuit, Kentucky Conference.

2. THE RETURN OF MARRIAGES, INCLUDING THAT OF THOMAS
LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS BY REV. JESSE HEAD

Copied from the Original in the Office of the County Clerk
in Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky, by William E.
Barton.

I do hereby certify that the following is a true list of the
Marriages Solemnized by me the subscriber from the 28th of
April 1806 untill the date hereof.

June 26th 1806 Joined together in the Holy Estate of Mat
rimony agreeable to the rules of the M.E.C. Morris Berry &
Peggy Simms

Nov 27th 1806 David Mige(?) & Hannah Xten(?)
March 5th 1807 Charles Ridge & Anna Davis
March 24th 1807 John Head & Sally Clark
March 27th Benjamin Clark & Dolly Head
Jany I4th Edward Pyle & Rosanah McMahon
Deer 22nd 1806 Silas Chamberlin & Betsey West
June 1 7th 1806 John Springer & Elizabeth Ingram
June I2th 1806 Thomas Lincoln & Nancy Hanks
September 23rd 1806. John Cambion & Hanah White
October 2nd 1806 Anthony Lykey & Keziah Putte
October 23rd Aaron Harding & Hannah Rottet
April 5th 1807 Daniel Payne & Christiana Pierre
July 26th 1806 Benjamin Clark & Polly Clark
May — 1806 Hugh Haskin & Betsy Dyer
September 25th 1806 John Graham & Catherine Jones
Given under my hand this 22nd day of April 1807

JESSE HEAD, D. M.E.C.

REV. JESSE HEAD 327

3. MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS AT

SPRINGFIELD, KENTUCKY

Copied from the Original by William E. Barton.

Know all men by these presents that we Thomas Lincoln and
Richard Berry are held and firmly bound unto his Excellency
the governor of Kentucky for the Just and full sum of fifty
pounds current money to the payment of which well and truly
to be made to the said governor and his successors we bind our
selves and our heirs &c Jointly and severally firmly by these
presents sealed with our seals and dated this loth day of June,
1806. The Condition of the above Obligation is such that whereas
there is a marriage shortly intended between the above bound
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks for which a license has issued
now if there be no lawful cause to obstruct the said marriage
then this obligation to be Void or else to remain in full force &
virtue in law.

THOMAS LINCOLN (Seal)
RICHARD BERRY (Seal)
Witness, John H. Parrott.

John H. Parrott, the witness, was also the clerk of court.

The writing shows that it was the custom of the clerk to
write out the text of marriage bonds in blank, filling in the names
as occasion demanded. The names and dates show spaces larger
than required, and give evidence that the clerk found it conveni
ent to keep one or two bonds in readiness.

Miss Tarbell credits the discovery of the marriage return
correctly as by W. F. Booker, Clerk of the Court of Washington
County, Kentucky, but sets the date of discovery as 1885. Un
fortunately the exact date is not known; but it was discovered
at least as early as 1878.

4. ALLEGED MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND

NANCY HANKS

From tracing by Henry Whitney Cleveland, of Louisville,
in Miss Tarbell's " Early Life of Lincoln."

I do hereby Certify that by authority of License Issued by
the Clerks Office of Washington Co. I have solemnized the rites

828 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of Matrimony between Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, June
1 2th 1806 A.D. agreeable to the rites and ceremonies of the
Methodist Episcopal Church witness my hand

JESSE HEAD Dn.M.E.C.

I do not know from what source this document emanated,
and I propound no theory as to who, if any one, forged it. But
in my judgment Miss Tarbell was imposed upon. This does not
appear to me, as shown in the tracing, to be a genuine document.

5. THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE MARRIAGE RECORD

So many and such contradictory accounts have been published
concerning the discovery of the marriage bond, and the minister's
return for the marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks I
was very desirous of learning not only how but if possible exactly
when the discovery was made. I have interviewed Mr. Booker's
successor, who has made for me a signed statement, with the seal
of the court affixed. I have also been able to procure a very small
pamphlet which Mr. Booker issued, and which is now prac
tically impossible to obtain, relating how these documents were
found. The essential facts of the story are given in this volume,
and are based upon first-hand testimony. They do not, however,
give the date of the discovery. The county officers of Washing
ton County are agreed that it was in the early eighties, — 1881 or
1882. I had found definitely that it was earlier than 1882, and
had accepted 1881 as the probable date, when by rare good for
tune, I found, in the Massachusetts Historic Genealogical Society
in Boston, an editorial clipping from the Boston Journal of Mon
day, January 27, 1879, referring to an article in the New York
Tribune of the preceding Saturday, and containing the following
statements :

It has long been a disputed point whether the parents of
Abraham Lincoln were ever married ; and in a Life of Lincoln,
published by Ward H. Lamon in 1872, it was intended to show
that, owing to their extreme poverty, the parents of Lincoln
never were legally married, as, according to the laws of the
State of Kentucky, it would have been necessary to file a bond
to guard the State against an over-supply of paupers. Much
other matter bearing on the same part was also intended to be
included in the book, and the Lincoln family desired to have
it suppressed. The family and its most intimate friends were

REV. JESSE HEAD 329

positive that there was not the least ground for a charge of
illegitimacy against Lincoln. Accordingly, Judge David Davis
and Leonard Swett, a prominent lawyer living in Illinois, who
had been a firm friend of Lincoln, exerted themselves success
fully to have much of this matter suppressed. Lamon, however,
stated in the book that no record of the marriage could be found,
and represented Lincoln as very reluctant to talk about his
parents and their early life. The New York Tribune of Satur
day says, however, that while in Kentucky last fall ex-Secretary
Bristow met a lawyer of high reputation, R. J. Browne. Mr.
Browne lives in Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky, is
a man of wealth, a Republican, and one who takes great pride
in guarding the memory of the dead President. He heard of
the reports referred to above, and caused a diligent search to
be made for the record of the marriage of Lincoln's parents.
The search was successful, and Mr. Browne mentioned the fact
to Mr. Bristow, who urged him to make the result public in
order to remove the doubt in the minds of many on the subject.
Mr. Browne promised to send copies of the bond and certificate
to General Bristow, and recently he did so.

The letter of Mr. Browne to General Bristow follows under
date of December 16, 1878. With it is an accurate copy of the
marriage bond, certified by W. F. Booker, clerk; and also a
condensed copy of the return of Jesse Head, abbreviated so by
the omission of the names of all the couples except Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. In making the copy, Mr. Booker
inadvertently copied the date belonging to the next couple, and
that is why some of the Lives of Lincoln give the marriage date
as September 23, 1806, instead of June 12, 1806.

This form, also, as I suspect, suggested to some one clever
with the pen that he could create a certificate that would have
commercial value. But this I suspect only: I do not know the
origin of the so-called certificate.

The reference to the marriage bond is incorrect. The pur
pose of the bond is not to guarantee the State against the birth
of paupers; nor is it certain that a bond that makes marriage
difficult would have that result. The bond is issued to protect
the officer who issues the license against the possibility that the
persons may be under age or already married. The bond is
usually a mere formality. In the case of a man of 28 and a
woman of 23, there would have been no difficulty in securing
bondsmen.

330 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Nicolay and Hay derive the interest of the Berrys in the
marriage of Thomas and Nancy, not from their supposed re
lation to the bride, but through their relation to the Lincoln fam
ily, through the first wife of the father of Thomas:

Richard Berry was a connection of Lincoln; his wife was a
Shipley. — Abraham Lincoln: A History, I, p. 24.

I think General Bristow was mistaken in his impression that
Mr. Browne caused the record to be discovered. Mr. Browne
had probably learned of the recent discovery of the document
by Mr. Booker, and his conversation with General Bristow led
to its publication, first of all, as I suppose, in the New York
Tribune, January 25, 1878.

This seemed to me so important that I went at once to New
York, and found the original article. I am able now definitely
to fix, not the date of discovery but the date of publication of the
discovery ; and it is several years earlier than is usually claimed
for it. I give this article in full:

(From the New York Daily Tribune, Saturday, January 25, 1879)
LINCOLN'S PARENTAGE

NEW FACTS ABOUT HIS FAMILY

Letters and documents now first published, which prove the
legal marriage of Lincoln's father and mother. Flat contradiction
of the story told in Lamon' s " Life of Lincoln!'

Recent developments promise to settle the long disputed ques
tion whether the father and mother of Abraham Lincoln ever
were legally married. Shortly before Ward H. Lamon published
his Life of Lincoln in 1872, it became known to some of those who
had been the warmest friends of the dead President that Lamon
intended to publish the statement that on account of their extreme
poverty the parents of Lincoln never were legally married, as,
according to the laws of the State of Kentucky, it would have been
necessary to file a bond to guard the State against an over-supply
of paupers. Much other matter bearing on the same point was
also intended to be included in the book, and the Lincoln family
desired to have it suppressed. The family and its most intimate
friends were positive that there was not the least ground for a
charge of illegitimacy against Lincoln. Accordingly, Judge David
Davis and Leonard Sweet, a prominent lawyer, living in Illinois,

REV. JESSE HEAD 331

exerted themselves successfully to have much of this matter
suppressed.

It appears, however, from Lamon's book, that in his own
mind the author had grave doubts as to whether Lincoln's parents
ever were married, and he seems to wish to render the home of
Lincoln's parents as unattractive as possible in order to make the
contrast between Lincoln's early and later surroundings as strong
as possible. Lamon speaks of Thomas, Abraham's father, as
*' wanting in character " and says that this was one of the reasons
why " Sally " Bush, " a modest and pious girl and all things pure
and decent" refused to marry him. Lamon refers to the marriage
of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks as follows:

" Sometime in the year 1806 he married Nancy Hanks. It
was in the shop of her uncle, Joseph Hanks of Elizabethtown,
Hardin County, that he had essayed to learn his trade. ... It
is admitted by all the old residents of the place that they were
honestly married, but precisely when and how, no one can tell.
Diligent and thorough searches by the most competent persons
have failed to disclose any trace of the fact in the public records
of Hardin and the adjoining counties. The license and the minis
ter's return in the case of Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Johnston
his second wife, were easily found in the place where the law
required them to be; but in the Nancy Hanks marriage there
exists no evidence but that a mutual acknowledgment and co
habitation. At the time of their union Thomas was twenty-eight
years of age and Nancy about twenty-three."

Again, on page 17 is found the following:

" The lives of his (Abraham's) father and mother, and their
history and character of the family before their settlement in
Indiana, were topics upon which Mr. Lincoln never spoke but
with great reluctance and significant reserve. In his family Bible
he kept the register of births, marriages and deaths, every entry
being carefully made in his own handwriting. ... It has not a
word about the Hankses or Sparrows. It shows the marriage of
Sarah Bush first with Daniel Johnston and then with Thomas Lin
coln, but it is entirely silent as to the marriage of his own mother.
It does not even give the date of her birth but barely recognizes
her existence and demise to make the vacancy which was speedily
filled by Sarah Johnston."

To show Mr. Lincoln's reticence about his parentage, Lamon
gives several extremely brief replies which were sent to appli
cants for biographical sketches. " Mr. Lincoln," writes one of
these applicants, " communicated some facts to me about his an
cestry which he did not wish published, and which I have never
spoken of or alluded to before."

While in Kentucky last fall, ex-Secretary Bristow met a law-

332 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

yer of high reputation, R. J. Browne. Mr. Browne lives in Spring
field, Washington County, is a man of wealth, a Republican, and
one who takes great pride in guarding the memory of the dead
President. He heard of the reports referred to above and caused
a diligent search to be made for the record of the marriage of
Lincoln's parents. The search was successful, and Mr. Browne
mentioned the fact to General Bristow who urged him to make
the result public, in order to remove the doubt in the minds of
many upon the subject. Mr. Browne promised to send copies
of the bond and certificate to General Bristow, and recently he
did so. Mr. Browne's letter and the accompanying copies of
documents were as follows :

" Springfield, Ky., Dec. 16, 1878.
Dear Sir : —

When I saw you last in Louisville I promised to send you a
copy of the record of President Lincoln's father's marriage. I
now send it to you. The record ought forever to silence the
charge of the President's illegitimacy. I have talked with men of
the highest veracity who have told me that they attended the
wedding. With a sincere wish, etc., I am,

" Truly yours,

" R. J. Browne."

" To Genl. B. H. Bristow,

New York City.

The following is a copy of the bond :

Know all men by these presents that we Thomas Lincoln and
Richard Berry are held and firmly bound unto his Excellency the
Governor of Kentucky for the Just and full sum of fifty pounds
Current money to the payment of which well and truly to be made
to the said governor and his successors we bind ourselves our
heirs &c., Jointly and Severally firmly by these presents sealed
with our seals and dated this loth day of June 1806. The Condi
tion of the above obligation is such that whereas there is a mar
riage shortly intended between the above bound Thomas Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks for which a license has issued now if there be
no lawful cause to obstruct the said marriage then this obligation
to be Void or else to remain in full force & Virtue in Law.

THOMAS LINCOLN (Seal)
Witness JOHN H. PARROTT. RICHARD BERRY (Seal)

The certificate is as follows:
Washington County ss.

I do certify that on the 22nd day of September 1806 I
solemnized the rites of matrimony between Thomas Lincoln and

REV. JESSE HEAD 333

Nancy Hanks according to the rites of the Methodist Episcopal
church.

JESSE HEAD, D. M. E. C.

The above are sworn to be true copies as follows:
STATE OF KENTUCKY
WASHINGTON COUNY

I, W. F. Booker, Clerk of the Washington County Court, do
certify that the within is a true copy of the marriage bond, as well
as of the marriage certificate of the minister of the marriage of
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, as shown from the records on
file in my office.

Given under my hand and seal of office as Springfield, Ky.,
this I7th day of December, 1878.

W. F. BOOKER, Clerk.

By this certificate which is now published for the first time,
it appears that the marriage of Lincoln's parents occurred on
September 23, 1806. Lamon, however, states that the first child
of the family was born February 10, 1807 — a girl at first called
Nancy, and subsequently, on the death of her mother, Sarah.
Search for this certificate was made in La Rue County some time
ago by a man named Samuel Haycraft, but without success, for
the obvious reason that when the certificate was issued Washing
ton County included La Rue County.

NOTE ON THE FOREGOING ARTICLE

The article above is of remarkable interest and appears to
have escaped notice of all previous authors. We are not yet in
formed concerning the precise date of the discovery of this
record. It is safe to assume a slight error in the article and to
be reasonably certain that Mr. Browne knew of the discovery of
the bond and return of the minister at the time of his conference
with General Bristow in Louisville in the autumn of 1878. He
could hardly have been so confident of his ability to furnish a
copy of these documents if he had not known that the documents
had been found. Knowledge of their existence must have been
common property in Springfield at that time, but neither Mr.
Browne nor Mr. Booker had thought of giving this information
to the press.

The publication must certainly be credited to General Bristow.

Benjamin Helm Bristow was born in Elkton, Todd County,
Kentucky, June 20, 1832, and was graduated from Jefferson Col
lege, Pennsylvania, in 1851. He was admitted to the bar in 1853

334 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

and practiced law in Kentucky. On the outbreak of the Civil
War he entered the Union Army as Lieutenant-Colonel of the
25th Kentucky Infantry, and distinguished himself on the battle
field, where he won the rank of Brigadier-General. At the close
of the war he removed to Louisville, where in 1870 he became
law partner of General John M. Harlan. In 1871 President Grant
appointed him Solicitor-General, and in 1874 Secretary of the
Treasury. At the Republican National Convention in 1876 he
received on the first ballot 123 votes, the largest number cast for
any candidate on that ballot for President of the United States.
He removed to New York City where he practiced law until his
death June 22, 1896.

Attention must certainly be called to the fact that in attempt
ing to issue a certificate which would include the record of the
Lincoln-Hanks marriage without the necessity of copying all the
others in Jesse Head's return, Mr. Booker made the very serious
mistake of taking the date September 22, 1806 from the marriage
next recorded, instead of June 12, 1806, which belonged to this
marriage.

It may also be added that if Samuel Haycraft's failure to
find the certificate could have been attributed to so obvious a
reason as that " when the certificate was issued, Washington
County included La Rue County," Samuel Haycraft, County
Clerk of Hardin County, would have been of all men on earth
most likely to remember it. Washington County at that time did
not include La Rue ; Hardin County included La Rue, and it was
in Hardin County he looked for the record of the marriage.
Thomas Lincoln was listed as a tax-payer in Hardin County
before his marriage, and Nancy Hanks was supposed to have
lived in the home of her uncle, Joseph Hanks, of Elizabethtown
where Thomas Lincoln learned his trade. The explanation of the
failure to find the record is entirely intelligible; but if it had
been quite so " obvious " the effort would not have failed.

This article affirms that Lamon intended to have told more
than he did, but was restrained by the Lincoln family, and by
David Davis and Leonard Swett. This raises the question what
Lamon would have told had he not been restrained? He might
have elaborated more than he did, and said a little more plainly
what he evidently thought; but I am confident he told all he
knew, and somewhat more. In this my opinion is fully sustained
by Mr. Weik, who answers my inquiry on this point:

REV. JESSE HEAD 335

Greencastle, Ind., July 16, 1920.
DEAR DR. BARTON:

Your letter is just received. Yes, I have heard the story that
David Davis and Leonard Swett kept Ward Lamon from reflect
ing on Lincoln's legitimacy. Horace White and Henry C. Whit
ney both told me something about it; but the truth is (and I
joined them in the belief) neither thought Lamon knew very
much beyond what Herndon had told him. He never visited Ken
tucky or Indiana in pursuit of information — in fact, never dug
into the subject. When he conceived the project of a Life of
Lincoln, he simply bought and copied what Herndon had so
carefully gathered, and he essayed to write the book; and even
then he did not write the book, but turned the material over to
Chauncey F. Black of Pennsylvania, who did the required work.

I have never seen the article alluded to by you and published
in the N. Y. Tribune, January 25, 1879, but would be delighted if
you could furnish me a copy.

My understanding has been that inasmuch as, at the time
Lamon entered upon the preparation of his book, he was unable
to locate the record of the marriage of Thomas Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks, and fell into the error of concluding that they were
not married at all. He drank a good deal, and his reckless talk
doubtless stirred David Davis and Leonard Swett into believing
that he was in possession of some vital and possibly damaging
evidence. Hence their so-called attempt to bottle him up.

Hastily,

JESSE W. WEIK.

My own opinion is in complete agreement with that of Mr.
Weik, that Lamon had no evidence on the basis of which he could
have added anything of importance to what he actually wrote. I
am confident I have seen all that Herndon gave to Lamon touch
ing this matter, and much that he wrote subsequently which
Lamon never saw; and Mr. Weik has wider experience with
regard to the Herndon manuscripts than any one else.

APPENDIX II

WITNESSES TO THE MARRIAGE OF THOMAS
LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS

I. AFFIDAVIT AND STATEMENT OF DR. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

GRAHAM

The following affidavit by Dr. Graham was procured by Cap
tain J. W. Wartman, Deputy Clerk of the United States Circuit
Court at Evansville, Indiana, in whose home Dr. Graham was
visiting at the time:

I, Christopher C. Graham, now of Louisville, Kentucky, aged
ninety-eight years, on my oath say: That I was present at the
marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, in Washington
County, near the town of Springfield, Kentucky; that one Jesse
Head, a Methodist preacher of Springfield, Kentucky, performed
the ceremony. I knew the said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks well, and know the said Nancy Hanks to have been
virtuous and respectable, and of good parentage. I do not remem
ber the exact date of the marriage, but was present at the mar
riage aforesaid; and I make this affidavit freely, and at the re
quest of J. W. Wartmann, to whom, for the first time, Lhave
this day incidentally stated the fact of my presence at the said
wedding of President Lincoln's father and mother. I make this
affidavit to vindicate the character of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks, and to put to rest forever the legitimacy of Abraham
Lincoln's birth. I was formerly proprietor of Harrodsburgh
Springs; I am a retired physician, and am now a resident of
Louisville, Kentucky. I think Felix Grundy was also present
at the marriage of said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the
father and mother of Abraham Lincoln. The said Jesse Head,
the officiating minister at the marriage aforesaid, afterward re
moved to Harrodsburgh, Kentucky, and edited a paper there,
and died at that place.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS GRAHAM.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this March 20, A.D. 1882.
N. C. Butler, Clerk United States Circuit Court, First District,
Indiana. By J. W. Wartmann, Deputy Clerk.

336

WITNESSES TO LINCOLN MARRIAGE 337

2. DETAILED STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS GRAHAM.

The foregoing was published, and led to a further statement
which Dr. Graham made two years later to Mr. Henry Whitney
Cleveland by Dr. Graham, written by Mr. Cleveland, and signed
by Dr. Graham. It was published in the Louisville Courier-
Journal and in other papers, and has appeared in Miss TarbelPs
Life of Lincoln and in other books:

DR. GRAHAM'S STATEMENT

I, Christopher Columbus Graham, now in my hundredth year,
and visiting the Southern Exposition in Louisville, where I live,
tell this to please my young friend Henry Cleveland, who is nearly
half my age. He was often at the Springs Hotel in Harrodsburg,
Kentucky, then owned and kept by me for invalids and pleasure-
seekers. I am one of the two living men who can prove that
Abraham Lincoln, or Linkhorn, as the family was miscalled, was
born in lawful wedlock, for I saw Thomas Lincoln marry Nancy
Hanks on the twelfth day of June, 1806. He was born at what
was then known as the Rock Spring Farm — it is now called the
Creal Place — three miles south of Hodgensville, in Larue County,
Kentucky.

Kentucky was first a county of Virginia after its settlement,
and then was divided into three counties ; and these, again divided,
are pretty much the present State. The first historian was Filson,
who made and published the first map of the separate territory,
with the names of streams and stations as given by Daniel Boone
and Squire Boone, James Harrod, and others. I knew all of
these, as well as President Lincoln's parents.

I think they lived on the farm four years after he was born.
Another boy was born in Hodgensville, or, I should say, buried
there. The sister, Sally, was older than Abe, I think. I think
the paper now owned by Henry Cleveland is the " marriage
lines " written by Rev. Jesse Head, a well-known Methodist
preacher. I do not think the old Bible it was found in was that
of Tom Lincoln. It would cost too much for him. All of the
records in it were those of the father's family — the John M.
Hewetts — of the wife of Dr. Theodore S. Bell. Dr. Bell was
only about twenty years younger than I am, and probably got
the certificate in 1858 or 1860, when assertions were made that
Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were not married when Abe
was born.

338 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

He was reputed to have been born February 12, 1809, and I
see no good reason to dispute it. Sally, I am sure, was the first
child, and Nancy was a fresh and good-looking girl — I should
say past twenty. Nancy lived with the Sparrow family a good
bit. It was likely Tom had the family Bible from Virginia,
through his father, called Abraham Linkhorn. His brothers,
however, were older — if they were brothers, and not uncles, as
some say. I was hunting roots for my medicines, and just went
to the wedding to get a good supper, and got it.

Bibles cost as much as the spinning-wheel, or loom, or rifle,
and were imported in the main. A favorite with the Methodists
was Fletcher's, or one he wrote a preface for. Preachers used it,
and had no commentaries. A book dedicated to King James or
any other king did not take well in Revolutionary times. The
Bibles I used to see had no printed records or blanks, but a lot
of fine linen hand-made paper would be bound in front or back.
On this, family history and land matters were written out fully
like a book. Some had fifty pages. The court-houses even were
made of logs, and the meeting-houses too, if they had any. No
registers were kept as in English parish churches, and are not
yet. Before a license could be had, a bond and security was
taken of the bridegroom, and the preacher had to return to the
court all marriages of the year. This was often a long list, and
at times papers were lost or forgotten, but not often. The
" marriage lines " given by the preacher to the parties were very
important in case the records were burned up by accident. Such
is the paper that Henry Cleveland has shown to me. The ring
was not often used, as so few had one to use. The Methodist
Church discipline forbid " the putting on of gold or costly
apparel," and I think a preacher with a gold watch — if not an
inherited one — would have been dismissed. A preacher that
married was " located," and that ended his itinerancy in the
Methodist Church. The Presbyterians were educated and mar
ried ; Baptists not educated.

Tom Lincoln was a carpenter, and a good one for those days,
when a cabin was built mainly with the ax, and not a nail or
bolt or hinge in it, only leathers and pins to the door, and no
glass, except in watches and spectacles and bottles. Tom had
the best set of tools in what was then and now Washington
County. LaRue County, where the farm was settled, was then
Hardin.

Jesse Head, the good Methodist preacher that married them,
was also a carpenter or cabinet-maker by trade, and as he was
then a neighbor, they were good friends. He had a quarrel with
the bishops, and was not an itinerant for several years, but an

WITNESSES TO LINCOLN MARRIAGE 339

editor, and county judge afterwards, in Harrodsburg. Mr.
Henry Cleveland has his commission from Governor Isaac
Shelby.

Many great men of the South and North were then opposed
to slavery, mainly because the new negroes were as wild as the
Indians, and might prove as dangerous. Few of the whites could
read, and yet Pope and Dryden and Shakespeare were as well
known as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Baxter's Saints' Rest.
Some were educated in Virginia and North Carolina before they
came, and these, when they became teachers, wrote out their
school-books entirely by hand.

Thomas Lincoln, like his son after him, had a notion that
fortunes could be made by trips to New Orleans by flatboat. This
was dangerous, from snags and whirlpools in the rivers, from
Indians, and even worse — pirates of the French, Canadians, and
half-breeds. Steam was unknown, and the flats had to be sold
in New Orleans, as they could not be rowed back against the
currents. The neighbors joked Tom for building his boat too
high and narrow, from an idea he had about speed, that has since
been adopted by ocean steamships. But he lacked in ballast.
He loaded her up with deer and bear hams and buffalo, which
last was then not so plenty for meat or hides as when the Boone
brothers came in. Besides, he had wax, for bees seemed to follow
the white people, and he had wolf and coon and mink and beaver
skins, gentian root (that folks then called " gensang " or
:<'sang"), nuts, honey, peach-brandy and whisky, and jeans
woven by his wife and Sally Bush, that he married after Nancy
died. Some said she died of heart trouble, from slanders about
her and old Abe Enloe, called Innlow, while her Abe, named
for the pioneer Abraham Linkhorn, was still little. But I am
ahead of my story, for Nancy had just got married where I was
telling it, and the flatboat and Sally Bush Lincoln come in before
he goes over to what people called " Indiany." I will finish that,
and then go back.

He started down Knob Creek when it was flush with rains;
but the leaves held water like a sponge, and the ground was
shaded with big trees and papaw and sassafras thickets and
" cain," as Bible-read folks spelt the cane, and streams didn't
dry up in summer like they do now. When he got to the Ohio
it was flush, too, and full of whirlpools and snags. He had his
tool-chest along, intending to stop and work in Indiana and take
down another boat. But he never got to the Mississippi with
that, for it upset, and he only saved his chest and part of his load
because he was near to the Indiana shore. He stored what he
saved under bark, and came home a-f oot, and in debt to neighbors

840 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

who had helped him. But people never pressed a man that lost
by Indians or water.

Now I go back for a spell. Thomas and Nancy both could
read and write, and little Abe went to school about a year. He
was eight years old at the time of the accident to Tom Lincoln's
down-the-river venture. Thomas and Nancy were good common
people, not above nor below their neighbors, and I did not take
much notice of them, because there was no likelihood that their
wedding would mean more than other people's did.

The preacher Jesse Head often talked to me on religion and
politics, for I always liked the Methodists. I have thought it
might have been as much from his free-spoken opinions as from
Henry Clay's American-African colonization scheme in 1817, that
I lost a likely negro man, who was leader of my musicians. It
is said that Tom Corwin met him in Ohio on his way to Canada,
and asked if I was along. The boy said no, he was going for
his freedom. Governor Corwin said he was a fool ; he had never
been whipped or abused, but dressed like a white man, with the
best to eat, and that hundreds of white people would be glad of
such a good place, with no care, but cared for.

The boy drew himself up and said : " Marse Tom, that
situation with all its advantages is open to you, if you want ter
go an' fill it."

But Judge Head never encouraged any runaway, nor had any
" underground railroad." He only talked freely and boldly, and
had plenty of true Southern men with him, such as Clay. The
Eli Whitney cotton-gin had now made slavery so valuable that
preachers looked in Hebrew and Greek Testaments for scripture
for it.

Tom Lincoln and Nancy, and Sally Bush were just steeped
full of Jesse Head's notions about the wrong of slavery and the
rights of man as explained by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas
Paine. Abe Lincoln the Liberator was made in his mother's
womb and father's brain and in the prayers of Sally Bush ; by
the talks and sermons of Jesse Head, the Methodist circuit rider,
assistant county judge, printer-editor, and cabinet-maker. Little
Abe grew up to serve as a cabinet-maker himself two Presidential
terms.

It was in my trip to Canada after my negro that I met the
younger brother of the great chief Tecumseh. A mob wanted
to kill me because I was after my property that had legs and
a level head. The Indian was one of the finest-looking men I
ever saw, and in the full uniform of a British officer. He pro
tected me, and we had a talk after the danger was over. He
said that history was right about the death of his great brother

WITNESSES TO LINCOLN MARRIAGE 341

Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames in 1813. But the story
of his skin being taken off by soldiers to make razor-straps was
all a lie, as they never had the chance. He was not even slain
at the point in the battle indicated by Colonel Richard M. Johnson,
whose accession to the Vice-Presidency in 1836 was largely due
to the credit which he gained for this supposed exploit. My
Indian protector said he was a lad at the time, but [was] there;
and that the red men never abandoned their chiefs, dead nor alive.

I come back again to the Lincoln-Hanks wedding of 1806.
Rev. or Judge Jesse Head was one of the most prominent men
there, as he was able to own slaves, but did not on principle.
Next, I reckon, came Mordecai Lincoln, at one time member of
the Kentucky legislature. He was a good Indian fighter; and
although some say he was the elder brother of Tom Lincoln, I
understood he was his uncle, or father's brother. The story of
his killing the Indian who killed old Abraham Linkhorn is all
"my eye and Betty Martin."

My acceptance of this whole pedigree is on hearsay, and none
of it from the locality of Tom Lincoln's home. There is a Vir
ginia land warrant, No. 3,334, of March 4, 1780, for four hun
dred acres of land, cost one hundred and sixty pounds, located
in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on Long Run; and signed by
William Shanon, D. S. J. C., and William May, S. J. C, witnessed
by Ananiah Lincoln and Josiah Lincoln, C. C. (chain-carriers),
and Abraham Linkhorn, Marker, dated May 7, 1785, five years
later. " Mordecai Lincoln, Gentleman," is the title given one
who died in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1735, and his will
is recorded in the Register's office in Philadelphia. New Jersey,
Virginia, and Tennessee also have the name correctly, in the
last century. The fame of General Benjamin Lincoln of the
Revolution was on every tongue at that time. In the field-book
of Daniel Boone, owned by Lyman C. Draper, five hundred
acres of land was entered for Abraham Lincoln on treasury war
rant No. 5,994, December u, 1782. The officers of the land-
office of Virginia could spell, and so could the surveyor and
deputy surveyor (Record " B," p. 60 of Jefferson County in
1785). The two chain-carriers spelled the name correctly. Why
not also think that the third man spelled his correctly? A very
illiterate man could pronounce what he could not spell, and
Abraham Linkhorn, who had money and could write, knew his
own name. President Lincoln told James Speed : " I don't know
who my grandfather was, and am more concerned to know what
his grandson will be." I am not sure that we know, either, per
fectly yet.

While you pin me down to facts I will say that I saw Nancy

342 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Hanks Lincoln at her wedding, a fresh-looking girl, I should
say over twenty. Tom was a respectable mechanic and could
choose, and she was treated with respect. . . .

I was at the infare, too, given by John H. Parrott, her
guardian, and only girls with money had guardians appointed by
the court. We had bear-meat (that you can eat the grease of,
and it not rise like other fats) ; venison; wild turkey and ducks;
eggs, wild and tame (so common that you could buy them at
two bits a bushel) ; maple sugar, swung on a string, to bite off
for coffee or whisky; syrup in big gourds; peach-and-honey ;
a sheep that the two families barbecued whole over coals of
wood burned in a pit, and covered with green boughs to keep
the juices in; and a race for the whisky bottle. The sheep cost
the most, and corn was early raised in what is now Boyle County,
at the Isaac Shelby place. I don't know who stamped in the first
peach-seed, but they grew before the apples. Our table was of
the puncheons cut from solid logs, and on the next day they
were the floor of the new cabin.

It is all stuff about Tom Lincoln keeping his wife in an open
shed in a winter when the wild animals left the woods and stood
in the corners next the stick-and-clay chimneys, so as not to
freeze to death; or, if climbers, got on the roof. The Lincolns
had a cow and calf, milk and butter, a good feather bed, for I
have slept in it (while they took the buffalo robes on the floor,
because I was a doctor). They had home-woven " kiverlids,"
big and little pots, a loom and wheel; and William Hardesty,
who was there too, can say with me that Tom Lincoln was a man
and took care of his wife.

I have been in bark camps with Daniel and Squire Boone and
James Harrod. We have had to wade in the " crick," as Daniel
spelt it, to get our scent lost in the water, and the Indian dogs
off our trail. When trailed and there was no water handy, I
have seen Daniel cut a big grapevine loose at the bottom, with his
tomahawk, from the ground. Then, with a run and swing from
the tree it hung to, swing and jump forty feet clear, to break
the scent on the ground. I have done it too, but not so far.
He could beat any man on the run and jump, but it took more
than two Indians or one bear to make him do it. If no dog
barked in the silent woods, we could run backward very fast,
and make Mr. Indian think we had gone the way we came. They
went that way, and we the other for deer scalps and hair,
Squirrels barking or chattering at Indians, or dogs, often told
us of our danger. I wanted to have a pioneer exhibit at the great
Louisville Southern Expositions of 1883 and 1884. I wanted
the dense laurel and the pawpaw thickets planted in rich soil ; the

WITNESSES TO LINCOLN MARRIAGE 343

bear climbing the bee-tree, and beaten by the swinging log hung
by the hunter in his way ; the creeping Indian with his tomahawk,
and the hunter with the old flint-and-steel rifle, just as I had
seen them. Then I wanted to have women from the mountains
and the counties that railroads and turnpikes have not opened,
and have them in real life, to spin and weave, or bead and
fringe the moccasin and hunting-shirt and leggings as they did
when I was a boy. This, by the side of the industries and arts
of the new era, and the wool and cotton machinery in its present
perfection, would indeed tell to the eyes of the changes seen
by an old man who has lived a hundred years. As they did not
listen to me, I have asked Henry Cleveland, who was a boy
and played with my little children at the Harrodsburg Springs
in the forties, to write it as I talked to him. I am very deaf,
but can see and talk, and will now write my autograph to what
he has written and copied off, and will take up James Harrod
at another time.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS GRAHAM

in my loodrth year.

3. STATEMENT OF MRS. C. S. H. VAWTER

An important independent witness to the marriage of Thomas
and Nancy Lincoln is revealed in the testimony of Mrs. C. S. H.
Vawter, who published a communication in the Louisville Courier
of April 18, 1874, saying:

In the year 1859 I went to Springfield, Ky., to teach, and
was in the same neighborhood when Lincoln received the nomi
nation for President. On the announcement of the news of
the candidate all were on the qui inve to know who the stranger
was, so unexpectedly launched on a perilous sea. A farmer
remarked that he should not be surprised if this was the son
of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, who were married at
the home of Uncle Frank Berry. In a short time this suppo
sition of the farmer was confirmed by the announcement of the
father's name.

She then gives details of the wedding as she gathered them
from neighbors.

It will be noted that this publication, as early as 1874, defi
nitely located the marriage in Washington County. Mrs. Hitch
cock attributes the discovery of the marriage bond to the publi-

344 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

cation. Miss Tarbell rather credits it to the discussion that
followed the publication of the affidavit of Dr. Graham.

In this Miss Tarbell is mistaken. The affidavit of Dr. Graham
did not lead to the discovery of the marriage record ; for the
discovery was made not later than 1878, and published January
25, 1879, and Dr. Graham's affidavit is dated March 20, 1882,
more than three years after the record was in print.

The testimony of Dr. Graham is not without value; but it
would have been worth ten times as much if it had been pub
lished, as Miss Tarbell supposed that it had been published, prior
to the publication of the discovery of the record. We cannot help
asking why, if Dr. Graham knew all this, he did not tell it sooner.
The fact that he waited does not discredit his evidence, but it
makes it impossible for us to recognize him as a wholly inde
pendent witness.

Mrs. Vawter, however, brings to us testimony which possesses
that distinct value. Her letter was published April 18, 1874, more
than four years before the publication of the finding of the mar
riage bond and return. It bears irrefutable witness that there
existed, in Washington County, a tradition, supported by the
testimony of truthful people who claimed to have been eye
witnesses, that Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were legally
married, and that in Washington County. These old people made
that statement before any one knew that there was any record of
the fact ; and they agreed that the marriage occurred in the house
of Richard Berry, the very man whose name subsequently ap
peared with that of Thomas Lincoln on the bond. Mrs. Vawter
is a much more important witness than Dr. Graham. But his
testimony is in full accord with hers, and, while it is evidently
inaccurate in certain minor details, it is in its essential content in
accord with truth.

APPENDIX III
THOMAS LINCOLN AS A LANDHOLDER

I. DID HE INHERIT LAND FROM HIS FATHER?

The grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln, whose name
also was Abraham, was killed by an Indian, at a date which Lea
and Hutchinson fix conjecturally as in the early summer of 1785.
Lincoln, from family tradition, gave it as 1784. He appears to
have been alive and to have acted as a marker in the survey
of his tract of 400 acres in Jefferson County, May 7, 1785.

Thomas Lincoln was five years old when his father, Abraham,
was murdered.

Concerning his inheritance in his father's estate, Lea and
Hutchinson, who do not appear to have given much original
investigation to that part of their otherwise excellent book, say:

Taking advantage of the old English law of primogeniture
then in force in Kentucky, the two elder brothers ousted their
infant half-brother from all his rights of inheritance in his
father's estate, his own mother, Bathsheba, being then almost
certainly dead, or we may be sure that she would have protected
him at least to the limit of her own dower rights, and the
unhappy child was left to the tender mercies of strangers in a
wilderness swarming with savage beasts and still more savage
men.— (pp. 83-4.)

The three sons of Abraham Lincoln were:

1. Mordecai Lincoln, born probably in 1764; a prosperous
farmer and large landed proprietor; sometime sheriff of Wash
ington County; removed to Howard County, Indiana, and about
1828 to Hancock County, Illinois, where he died in 1830. He
was married, and had three sons, Abraham, James and Mordecai.

2. Josiah Lincoln, born July 10, 1766; removed to Harrison
County, Indiana, where he died in 1836. He was married and
left one son, Thomas Lincoln, late of Corydon, Harrison County,
Indiana.

3. Thomas Lincoln, born in Rockingham County, Virginia,

345

346 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

January 28, 1780; married, June 12, 1806, Nancy Hanks ; and died
near Charleston, Illinois, December 2, 1849. His first wife
died October 5, 1818, and he married Sarah Bush Johnston
(December 2, 1819), who survived him and died April 10, 1869.

The Field Book of Daniel Boone shows an entry of 500 acres
of land by Abraham Lincoln, on Treasury Warrant Number
5994, on December n, 1782. The land was located on Licking
River, A facsimile of the entry is in Abraham Lincoln: A His
tory, by Nicolay and Hay, I, p.12.

On May 7, 1785, a survey was made of 400 acres of land
for Abraham Lincoln, located in Jefferson County, on Treasury
Warrant Number 3334. He himself served as marker at this
survey, which fixes a possible limit on the date of his death.
A facsimile of the surveyor's certificate is given in Nicolay and
Hay, supra, I, p. 14.

As yet I have been unable to determine what disposition
Mordecai Lincoln made of all his large landed estate, a portion
of which was in Hardin County, or whether he inherited it all
from his father, and whether he took it all under the right of
primogeniture, or whether he acted as guardian of his minor
brother Thomas and as custodian of his interests. One naturally
conjectures that the land which Thomas Lincoln appears to have
owned in Hardin County in 1803 may have been some part of
his father's domain; but his deed to Milton, given eleven years
later, gives the name of John Tom Stator as the man from
whom he acquired it. No record appears to show why Thomas
Lincoln lived around on other men's farms when he had one
of his own. The old records in these Kentucky counties were
not filed systematically and many of them are hopelessly lost.
I suppose myself to have made a much more diligent search than
has ever been made before, and have, of course, the advantage
of all that has previously been discovered ; but questions remain
unanswered. The men who have kindly assisted me in these re
searches in several Kentucky counties hold out little hope of the
discovery of more papers. It is possible, however, that growing
interest and some fortunate accident may later lead to the dis
covery of some document which thus far has eluded me. I give
what I have been able to find.

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 347

2. THOMAS LINCOLN'S LAND AS MRS. HITCHCOCK IMAGINED IT

Mrs. Hitchcock says:

Considering the disadvantages under which he labored, he
had a very good start in life when he became engaged to Nancy
Hanks. He had a trade and owned a farm which he had bought
in 1803 in Buffalo, and also land in Elizabethtown. If all the
conditions of his life be taken into consideration, it is not true,
as has been said, that Thomas Lincoln was at this time a shiftless
or purposeless man. — Nancy Hanks, pp. 57-8.

The farm which Thomas Lincoln is supposed to have bought
in 1803 was not the farm at Buffalo, which is the farm on
Nolin Creek, where Abraham was born. Nor did he own any
land in Elizabethtown. We did not know how he obtained money
to buy his land on Mill Creek in 1803, but he abandoned it long
before he occupied the land near Buffalo in 1808.

The tax lists of Washington County contain the names of
the three Lincoln brothers, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas. Both
Mordecai and Josiah owned land. Josiah had 100 acres, Mor
decai had 275 acres in Washington, 940 in Madison and 1130
acres in Hardin Counties. Mordecai continued to acquire land.
Deed Book A, of Washington County, shows the transfer from
Terah Templin to Mordecai " Linkhorn " of 600 acres of land
on " Beech Fork River." Terah Templin was brother of Rev.
Moses Templin, an early Presbyterian minister, who appears to
have written the deed. It is a deed quite unusual in its language.

But while the two older brothers had land in abundance and
added to their acreage, Thomas Lincoln is known to have owned
the only land which appears to have been the farm on Mill Creek
which he acquired five years before his marriage, and abandoned.

He may have been wronged out of his inheritance by his
older and designing brothers, but any one who really wanted
land in that day could obtain it.

3. THE TITLE TO THE LINCOLN FARM

The ownership of the farm where Abraham Lincoln was
born from the time of its original patent to the present is given
me by Mr. Charles F. Creal of Hodgenville, Kentucky, as follows :

The chain of title from the Commonwealth to the present
owner, so far as I have been able to trace it, is as follows :

348 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

1. The Commonwealth of Virginia to William Greenough.
At a date unknown to me, but prior to July 29, 1786, William
Greenough patented 30,000 acres, that is to say he was granted
a patent or land grant, from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

2. William Greenough to Joseph James. By deed of July 29,
1786, Greenough conveyed one half of said grant, or 15,000 acres,
to Joseph James of New York City.

3. Joseph James to Richard Mather. On June n, 1798,
Joseph James by endorsement on the deed of Greenough trans
ferred his right and title to Richard Mather. In a legal pro
ceeding of some character Charles Helm and Samuel Haycraft,
Commissioners, by deed of date February, 1817, and of record
in the office of the County Court of Hardin County, Kentucky,
in Deed Book F, page 172, conveyed the 15,000 acres to Richard
Mather.

4. Richard Mather to William Duckworth. By a title bond
dated March 19, 1814, Richard Mather conveyed 100 acres of
land to William Duckworth.

5. E. Duckworth to Micajah Middleton. By a bond still
preserved, E. Duckworth conveyed to Micapah Middleton 300
acres " on which William Duckworth, deceased, formerly lived."

6. Micajah Middleton to Richard Creal. By endorsement
on the above bond, dated July 21, 1828, Micajah Middleton trans
ferred the 300 acres to my grandfather, Richard Creal, who held
that portion of the land now known as the Lincoln farm down
to the time of his death, when it passed by inheritance to his
heirs.

7. Creal Heirs to rA. W. Dennett. My father, J. C. Creal,
and the other heirs of Richard Creal, conveyed the Lincoln Farm
to Alfred W. Dennett of New York on February 12, 1895.

8. Decretal Sale to Robert Collier and the Lincoln Farm
Association. Mr. Dennett attempted to convey the farm to the
Christian Missionary Alliance, but his trustee in bankruptcy at
tacked the conveyance as fraudulent; and in a proceeding in
the Circuit Court of this County the conveyance was set aside
and a decree entered for the sale of the farm. At the decretal
sale, in 1904, Robert J. Collier was the purchaser. He conveyed
it to the Lincoln Farm Association, which was organized to take
over the property; and it has since been transferred to the
Government.

It will be seen from the foregoing that Thomas Lincoln had

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 349

no title to the farm, unless it may have been a verbal contract
or written land bond which he forfeited by non-payment. It is
evident from the above that Richard Mather had at least the
equitable title to the Lincoln Farm when Thomas Lincoln lived
here.

4. THE MILL CREEK FARM

The only land which Thomas Lincoln is known to have
owned in Kentucky was located on Mill Creek in Hardin County,
and title was obtained from John Tom Stator, September 2, 1803.
This farm so far as known was not identified until the researches
made for this book. Previous writers have made errors with
reference to it. Lamon and Herndon supposed it to have been
the Knob Creek farm. Others have thought it the farm where
Abraham was born. Others have suggested that it might have
been land adjacent to Elizabethtown, and that Thomas Lincoln's
home in that town was on a corner of it. All are wrong. Mill
Creek is well known, and the farm was none of those above
suggested.

This land was deeded by Thomas and Nancy Lincoln to
Charles Milton, October 27, 1814. The family continued to live
upon the farm for one or two generations, and was known as
" Melton."

The County Court Clerk of Hardin County, Mr. J. L. Irwin,
was copying for me the deed of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln,
when a well-known surveyor of the county came in, and by
comparison of the boundaries with others which he had run,
identified the Lincoln farm. I am informed that Mr. Morgan
is a thoroughly reliable surveyor. Mr. Irwin writes :

While I was copying this deed, Mr. William Morgan, who
was sitting in here and who has done a great deal of surveying
over the county, said that this description just fits the boundaries
of the Melton land on Mill Creek. He knew the land and the
family, but the family are now all dead or have moved away.

5. DEED OF THOMAS AND NANCY LINCOLN TO CHARLES MILTON

This Indenture made this twenty seventh day of October in
the year of our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and fourteen,
between Thos. Lincoln and Nancy his wife of the County of
Hardin and State of Kentucky, of the one part and Charles

350 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Milton of the county and state aforesaid of the other part, Wit-
nesseth :

That the said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy his wife, hath this
day granted, bargained, sold and by these presents doth grant,
bargain, sell, alien and confirm unto the said Charles Milton a
certain tract or parcel of land containing two hundred acres, for
and in consideration of One hundred pounds to the said
Lincoln and Nancy, his wife, in hand paid by the said Milton,
the receipt whereof is acknowledged, which land was patented
in the name of William May and is conveyed from John Tom
Stator to said Lincoln by deed bearing date the 2nd day of
September 1803, lying and being in the said County of Hardin
on Mill Creek and bounded as follows, to wit:

Beginning at a hickory corner to Robert Huston's survey, part
of a sixteen hundred acre survey, thence south thirty degrees
west one hundred and eighty three poles to a stake, corner to
Huston, thence north forty five degrees west one hundred and
fifty five poles to a black oak, corner to the original survey, north
twenty four degrees west one hundred and forty poles to a white
oak in Shepherd's line, corner to the original, thence north thirty
one degrees west sixty poles to a dogwood, white oak and gum
corner to Thomas Williams in the original line, thence with
Williams' line south sixty seven east two hundred and fifty poles
to a white oak and hickory, south thirty one degrees west twenty
two poles to the beginning which courses contains two hundred
and thirty eight acres, and the said Milton is at liberty to take
two hundred acres out of the said two hundred and thirty eight
acres where he thinks proper and the said Lincoln and Nancy
his wife does forever warrant and defend the said two hundred
acres- of land from themselves and their heirs executors, admin
istrators or assigns forever, to the said Milton, but not from the
claim or claims of any other person. But if the said land should
be lost by any better or prior claim, then the said Lincoln is to
pay to the said Milton the sum of one hundred pounds. In
witness whereof the Said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy, his wife,
hath hereunto set their hands and affixed their seal the day and
date before written. Interlined before signing.

THOMAS LINCOLN (seal)
her

NANCY X LINCOLN

mark
HARDIN COUNTY set.

I Samuel Haycraft, Jr., Deputy Clerk of the county court
for the county aforesaid, do hereby certify that on the day of
the date hereof, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy his wife, personally

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 351

appeared before me and acknowledged the within indenture or
deed of bargain and sale to Charles Milton as and for their
voluntary act and deed, she the said Nancy being at the same
time examined by me separate and voluntarily relinquished her
right of dower which she has or may have in and to the land
hereby conveyed, and that she was willing the same should be
recorded and that I have truly recorded the same this 27th day
of October 1814.

SAMUEL HAYCRAFT, JR. D.C., H.C.C.

Recorded Deed Book E, page 193.

A copy attest,

J. L. IRWIN, Clerk H.C.C.

It will be noted in the above deed that the thirty-eight acres
was apparently abandoned. Probably Milton had another deed
with the same boundaries calling for two hundred acres, and
Thomas Lincoln's was virtually a quit claim. No attempt was
made to draw any boundary line between the two hundred acres
conveyed and the thirty-eight acres supposed to have been left
over.

6. THE DEED OF SLATER TO LINCOLN

The deed of John Tom Slater, or Stator, to Thomas Lincoln
shows a transfer of 238 acres of land to Thomas Lincoln of
Hardin County, Kentucky, in consideration of 118 pounds, paid
in cash. The deed was signed and sealed, and left with the
Clerk of the court to be delivered, and it remained with him for
nearly eleven years. Apparently Lincoln abandoned the farm,
and did not trouble to take the deed until he was approached
by Milton with an offer for his equity in the farm. The record
shows in the margin the following entry:

1814 — Apr. 23rd. Delivered to Thomas Lincoln.

This was shortly before his sale to Milton, who paid two
hundred pounds, or made some payment which was acknowl
edged as the equivalent of that amount, and took title October
27, 1812, to a tract of land with the same general boundaries,
but whose acreage was stated as two hundred. The deed of
Lincoln to Milton stated that the courses called for two hundred
and thirty-eight acres, and he was at liberty to take the two
hundred where he chose; which meant that Thomas Lincoln

352 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

sold to Milton the whole tract, but did not guarantee that it
contained more than two hundred acres. The original deed is
in Deed Book B, page 253, Hardin County Deeds.

This indenture made this 2nd day of September one thousand
eight hundred and three, between Dr. John F. Slator of Green
County and state of Kentucky, of the one part and Thomas Lin
coln of Hardin County, state aforesaid of the other part WIT-
NESSETH : That for and in consideration of the sum of one
hundred and eighteen pounds in hand paid, the receipt of which
before the signing and sealing of these presents, he the said Dr.
John F. Slator doth hereby acknowledge have bargained and sold
and by these presents doth grant, bargain and sell unto the said
Thomas Lincoln a certain tract or parcel of land containing two
hundred and thirty-eight acres, part of the 1600 acre survey
patented to William May, bought by said Slator of Joseph Fen-
wick and bounded as follows, to wit: Beginning at a hickory
corner to Robert Huston survey, part of said 1600 acre survey,
thence South thirty degrees west one hundred and eighty three
poles to a stake corner to Huston, thence North forty five degrees
West one hundred and fifty five poles to a black oak corner to
the original survey North twenty four degrees West one hundred
and forty poles to a white oak in Shepherds line corner to the
original, thence North thirty one degrees West fifty poles to a
dogwood white oak and gum corner to Thomas Williams in the
original line, thence with Williams line South sixty seven East
two hundred and fifty poles to a white oak and hickory South 31
degrees West twenty two poles to the beginning.

_ To have and to hold the above mentioned two hundred and
thirty eight acres of land with all its appurtenances barns, stable,
ways, houses, water and conveniences, to the above mentioned
Thomas Lincoln his heirs executors and administrators forever
against him, the said Dr. John T. Slator, his heirs executors or
administrators forever, and he the said Dr. John F. Slator as well
for his heirs as for himself doth further covenant and agree to
and with the said Thomas Lincoln and his heirs that he will war
rant and forever defend the above mentioned two hundred and
thirty eight acres of land with all its appurtenances to the said
Thomas Lincoln his heirs executors and administrators forever
to their only proper use and behoof, against him the said Dr. John
T. Slator and his heirs executors, etc. forever, but not against
the claim or claims of any other person or persons whatever, but
be it plainly understood should said land be taken by any prior
or legal claim, then the above bound Dr. John T. Slator his heirs
executors &c., to pay to the said Thomas Lincoln his heirs, ex-

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 353

ecutors etc., the above mentioned sum of one hundred and
eighteen pounds. In witness of the above bound Dr. John T.
Slator doth hereunto set his hand and affix his seal the day and
date above written.

JOHN TOM SLATOR (Seal)
Hardin County:

Set. s.s.

I hereby certify that on the second day of September last this
indenture. . from John Tom Slator to Thomas Lincoln was ac
knowledged by the said Slator to be his act and deed and the
same was admitted to record on this 26th day of November 1803.

BENJAMIN HELM, H.C.C.
A copy attest: —

J. L. IRWIN,

Clerk H.C.C.
Recorded in Deed Book " B," page 253.

7. THE KNOB CREEK FARM

Of this farm, Lamon, relying upon Herndon's researches,
said:

The land he now lived upon (two hundred and thirty eight
acres) he had pretended to buy from a Mr. Slater.1 The deed
mentions a consideration of one hundred and eighteen pounds.
The purchase must have been a mere speculation, with all pay
ments deferred, for the title remained in Lincoln but a single
year. The deed was made to him, September 2, 1813 ; and
October 27, 1814, he conveyed two hundred acres to Charles
Milton for two hundred pounds, leaving thirty eight acres of
the tract unsold. No public record discloses what he did with
the remainder. If he retained any interest in it for the time,
it Was probably permitted to be sold for taxes. The last of
his voluntary transactions, in regard to this land, took place two
years before his removal to Indiana; after which, he seems to
have continued in possession as the tenant of Milton. — LAMON,
Life of Lincoln, p. 15.

Lamon is completely mistaken about this farm. Thomas
Lincoln had no title to the Knob Creek farm, so far as records

1The name is given in the deed of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln as
Stator. But the earlier deed to Lincoln gives the name as Slater, which I
judge to be correct. But the deed was not to the Knob Creek Farm.

354 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

show. The farm which he " pretended to buy " from Slater,
was bought in 1803, and that was the farm which he and Nancy
sold on October 27, 1814. It was located on Mill Creek, in
that part of Hardin which is still Hardin County. There is no
evidence that Thomas Lincoln ever lived upon it after his mar
riage. He may have lived there alone or with some fellow pio
neer when he first secured title in 1803, when he was twenty-
three years old.

The record of ejectment suit on the Knob Creek Farm is
cited in the chapter on Thomas Lincoln.

8. THE ELIZABETHTOWN LOT

On September 8, 1829, in consideration of $123, Thomas
Lincoln and his wife, of Spencer County, Indiana, conveyed to
T. J. Wathen a lot in Elizabethtown, sometimes alleged to have
been the lot on which stood the log cabin to which Thomas
Lincoln took his bride after their marriage, June 12, 1806.

Perhaps the money, $123, received by Thomas and Sarah
Lincoln from the sale of this lot, assisted in paying the balance
due on the eighty acres that remained of his Indiana farm
before he sold it to Charles Grigsby ; or he may have invested it in
oxen for the removal into Illinois. The date of the sale would
indicate that the money came most opportunely.

This deed is recorded at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in Deed
Book L, page 219.

When the author discovered that Thomas Lincoln on Sep
tember 8, 1829, sold to Thomas J. Wathen of Hardin County,
Kentucky, at lot in Elizabethtown, the county seat of Hardin
County, he was happy in what he hoped might prove an indica
tion that Thomas Lincoln took Nancy Hanks to spend her honey
moon with him in a house which though primitive, was certainly
his own. That hope was doomed to disappointment. So far as
any records thus far discovered show Thomas Lincoln never
had or gave title to any land in Elizabethtown. The lot which
he and Sarah sold for $123.00 in 1829, was one-half of a lot
containing one and a quarter acres, and had never belonged to
Thomas Lincoln. It was the property of Sarah Johnston after
the death of her first husband. The lot was well located, and
adjoined the Haycraft residence. It was sold to her at an un
known date by Samuel Haycraft, Sr. Her first husband had been

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 355

the jailer, and during his lifetime they probably lived either
in a residence adjacent to the jail and owned by the county,
or as sometimes happens in Kentucky county seats, in a hotel.
Some early Kentucky jailers found it profitable to operate a
hotel as well as a jail. To this deed both Thomas and Sarah
Lincoln made their mark.

Samuel Haycraft, Sr., was one of the oldest and most
reputable citizens of Elizabethtown. The deed was acknowledged
before Samuel Haycraft, Jr., for many years clerk of the County
and Circuit courts. He was the man with whom Abraham Lin
coln corresponded in 1860 with reference to the record of his
parents' marriage. Mr. Haycraft lived to a ripe old age. He
wrote a history of early times in Hardin County which was pub
lished in the Elizabethtown News but the articles have never been
issued in book form.

This indenture made this 8th day of September in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred twenty nine, between
Thomas Lincoln and Sarah, his wife, of the county of Spencer,
and state of Indiana, of the one part and Thomas J. Wathen of
the county of Hardin and state of Kentucky, of the other part,
witnesseth; That the said Thomas Lincoln and Sarah his wife
for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred and twenty
three dollars to them in hand paid before the signing and sealing
and delivery of these presents the receipt whereof in hereby
acknowledged, have this day granted, bargained and sold, and
by these presents do grant, bargain and sell to the said Thomas
T. Wathen his heirs and assigns forever one undivided moiety or
half part of a certain lot or piece of ground containing one acre
and one-quarter lying near Elizabethtown, adjoining Samuel Hay-
craft, or the lot on which said Haycraft now lives, which lot is
bounded as follows, to wit : Beginning about four feet northeast
of the southeast corner of said Haycraft lot running thence
South seventy degrees East twenty poles to a stake thence North
thirty one degrees West twenty two poles to a stake in a line of said
Haycraf ts lot, thence west the same to the beginning. The moiety
hereby conveyed to be taken off the end adjoining said Haycraft.

To have and to hold the said undivided moiety or half part
of the aforesaid lot together with all and singular the appur
tenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining thereto
to the said Thomas J. Wathen his heirs and assigns forever. And
the said Thomas Lincoln and Sarah his wife, do further covenant
and agree to and with the said Thomas J. Wathen that they will
forever warrant and defend the aforesaid undivided half part of

356 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

the said lot with its appurtenances from the claim of themselves
their heirs and every other person or persons whomsoever claims
the same. The said lot above described being the same conveyed
by Samuel Haycraft, Sr., and wife to said Sarah Lincoln late
Sarah Johnson. In testimony whereof, the said Thomas Lincoln
and Sarah his wife have hereunto set their hands and seals the
day and year above written.

his

THOMAS (x) LINCOLN (Seal)
Attest : mark

G. A. F. GEORGE her

SARAH (x) LINCOLN (Seal)

mark
Commonwealth of Kentucky

Hardin County s.s.

I, Samuel Haycraft, clerk of the county court, for the county
court for the county aforesaid, do hereby certify that the fore
going deed from Thomas Lincoln and Sarah his wife, to Thomas
J. Wathen, was on the 8th day of September 1829 produced to
me in my office and acknowledged by the said Thomas Lincoln as
and for his act and deed.

And the said Sarah being at the same time examined by me
privately and apart from her said husband, declared that she
did freely and willingly seal and deliver said writing and wishes
not to retract it, and acknowledged said writing again shown
and explained to her to be her act and deed and consented that
the same may be recorded.

Whereupon the same is duly admitted to record in my office.
Given under my hand this i8th day of November 1829.

SAMUEL HAYCRAFT, clerk.
A copy attent:

J. L. IRWIN,

Clerk H.C.C
Recorded in Deed Book " L," page 219.

9. THOMAS LINCOLN'S LAND IN INDIANA

William H. Herndon made inquiry concerning Thomas Lin
coln's title to land in Indiana and obtained from the Commis
sioner of the General Land Office information concerning the
patent that was issued " Thomas Lincoln, alias Linckhern." The
letter contained the following information:

In reply to the letter of Mr. W. H. Herndon, who is writing
the biography of the late President, dated June 19, 1865, herewith

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 357

returned, I have the honor to state, pursuant to the Secretary's
reference, that on the fifteenth of October, 1817, Mr. Thomas
Lincoln, then of Perry County, Indiana, entered under the old
credit system, —

1. The South-west Quarter of Section 32, in Township 4,
South of Range 5 West, lying in Spencer County, Indiana.

2. Afterwards the said Thomas Lincoln relinquished to the
United States the east half of the said South-west Quarter; and
the amount paid thereon was passed to his credit to complete
payment of the West half of the South-west Quarter of Section
32, in Township 4, South of Range 5 West; and accordingly
a patent was issued to Thomas Lincoln for the latter tract. The
patent was dated June 6, 1827, and was signed by John Quincy
Adams, then President of the United States, and countersigned
by George Graham, then Commissioner of the General Land
Office.

Commenting on the transaction, Lamon says:

It will be observed, that, although Lincoln squatted upon the
land in the fall of 1816, he did not enter it until October of the
next year. And that the patent was not issued to him until
June, 1827, but a little more than a year before he left it alto
gether. Beginning by entering a full quarter section, he was
afterwards content with 80 acres, and took eleven years to make
the necessary payments upon that. It is very probable that the
money which finally secured the patent was furnished by Gentry
or Aaron Grigsby, and the title passed out of Lincoln in the
course of the transaction. Dennis Hanks says:

" He settled on a piece of government land, — eighty acres.
This land he afterwards bought under the two dollar act; was
to pay for it in installments; one-half he paid, the other half
he never paid, and finally lost the whole of the land." — LAMON :
Life of Lincoln, pp. 25-26.

Lamon says :

On the first day of March, 1830, after fifteen days' tedious
and heavy travel, they arrived at John Hanks' house, four miles
north-west of Decatur. Here John Hanks had cut some logs
in 1829, which he now gave to Lincoln to build a house with.
With the aid of John, Dennis, Abe, and Hall, a house was
erected on a small bluff, on the north bank of the north fork of

358 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

the Sangamon. Abe and John took the four yoke of oxen and
" broke up " fifteen hundred acres of land, and then split rails
enough to fence it in. — LAMON : Life of Lincoln, p. 75.

Concerning the land near Decatur the Circuit Clerk says :

We have made a pretty thorough search of the records of
this office from 1829, the beginning of the County, down to 1840,
during which time we do not find anywhere the title of any
property vested in Thomas Lincoln or Dennis Hanks. We do,
however, find numerous conveyances made to John Hanks, and
to various other people by the name of Hanks. For instance
we find upon September 2, 1834, John Hanks received a deed
from John Tuttle for the West T/2 of the N.W. % of Section 33,
Township 17 North, Range 2, East of the Third Principal
Meridian. I also find where the heirs of Joseph Hanks received
a deed from William Hanks, Senior, for the East % of the
West l/2 of the N.E. *4 of Section 22, Township 16 North,
Range I East of the Third Principal Meridian. This is a small
tract of land very close to the place where Thomas Lincoln
erected a log house and lived during his stay in Macon County.

Thomas Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln occupied a piece of
land in the S.W. *4 of Section 28, Township 16 North, Range I
East of the Third Principal Meridian, which is about two and a
half miles south of the site of the present village of Harristown;
but neither Thomas nor Abraham Lincoln ever held title to
the land. At that time it belonged to the government.

JOHN ALLEN, Clerk Circuit Court, Decatur, 111.

10. THOMAS LINCOLN'S FINAL HOME IN ILLINOIS
Lamon says:

It is with great pleasure that we dismiss Tom Lincoln, with
his family and fortunes, from further consideration in these
pages. After Abraham left him, he moved at least three times
in search of a " healthy " location, and finally got himself fixed
near Goose Nest Prairie, in Coles County, where he died of a
disease of the kidneys, at the ripe old age of seventy-three. The
little farm (forty acres) upon which his days were ended, he
had, with his usual improvidence, mortgaged to the School Com
missioners for two hundred dollars, — its full value. Induced by
love for his step-mother, Abraham had paid the debt and taken
a deed for the land, " with a reservation of a life-estate therein,
to them, or the survivor of them." At the same time (1841)
he gave a helping hand to John Johnston, binding himself to

THOMAS LINCOLN, LANDHOLDER 359

convey the land to him, or his heirs, " after the death of Thomas
Lincoln and his wife," upon payment of the two hundred dollars,
which was really advanced to save John's mother from utter
penury. No matter how much the land might appreciate in value,
John was to have it upon these terms, and no interest was to be
paid by him, " except after the death of the survivor as afore
said." This, to be sure, was a great bargain for John, but he
made haste to assign his bond to another person for " fifty
dollars paid in hand." — LAMON : Life of Lincoln, pp. 76-7.

APPENDIX IV
HERNDON'S ATTITUDE TOWARD LINCOLN

I have asked every one known to me in Springfield who knew
William H. Herndon such questions as these:

Beyond the sale to Lamon of copies of his manuscripts, and
his public defense of Lamon after the publication of his book,
how far was Herndon responsible for what Lamon published?
How do you account for some things which Herndon published
about Lincoln, particularly after he had witnessed the reception
of Lamon's book? Was Herndon jealous of Lincoln? Did he
wish to bring Lincoln down to his own level? Was it a case in
which no man is a hero to his valet? Was Herndon resentful
because Lincoln did not give him office?

To these questions I obtained a very wide variety of answer.
One of the best examples of the reply unfavorable to Herndon
was furnished me in a recently discovered letter of Hon. Milton
Hay, who knew both men well, and who wrote while the Hern
don book was undergoing active discussion in Springfield.

Hon. Logan Hay, former State Senator of Springfield, gives
me this information about his father:

My father, Milton Hay, was born in Kentucky in 1817, and
died in 1893. He came to Springfield in 1832. He was the
uncle of John Hay, the secretary of President Lincoln; my
father's brother, Dr. Charles Hay, was John Hay's father. My
father was in Lincoln's office as a student and young lawyer.
His contact with Lincoln was at the beginning the contact of a
boy with a man, but he came to know Lincoln intimately. There
was a break of some years in their close association. My father
practiced law in Pittsfield from 1843 to 1857, but his father's
family lived here, and he met Lincoln frequently. From 1857 to
1861 he was very close to Lincoln.

I. LETTER OF HON. MILTON HAY

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Jan. 26, 1892.
HON. THOS. VENNUM :

Your letter of the 24th instant in regard to that queer produc-

360

HERNDON'S ATTITUDE 361

tion, Herndon's Life of Lincoln, came duly to hand, and but for
a spell of the grip would have been answered sooner.

Herndon was a peculiar kind of crank, and his work is re
garded as deserving of but little credit by those who were ac
quainted with both Lincoln and Herndon. Although professing
to have been gotten up with friendly intentions toward Lincoln,
such professed good intentions are not credited. Herndon had
a sort of loose connection with Lincoln as a partner in local
business of this county, and after Lincoln's election, as the under
standing is here, he went to Washington, as an applicant for
some place and was disappointed. He returned home soured
and sore-headed, and thereafter was active with the Democrats.

Immediately upon Lincoln's death, he proclaimed himself as
the only living man who knew all about Lincoln, assumed that
he had been Lincoln's conscience-keeper, that he was the man
who had made Lincoln what he was, and particularly that Lincoln
confided to him secrets known to nobody else.

It is not believed here that any such confidence had existed.
Much of the narrative contained in the book is known to be
erroneous here. Herndon states the matter as though he was
personally acquainted with the facts, and it has impaired credence
in whatever he has stated as being only within his own knowl
edge.

The general opinion of the book seems to have been to
magnify disproportionately those acts of Mr. Lincoln's life which
Mr. Lincoln himself outgrew and would have wished his friends
to forget. As illustration of this, we may take the undue promi
nence given to his rather ridiculous love scrapes as told by
Herndon, but of which much is known to be misstated and ex
aggerated ; also the Shields dual affair. About this latter affair,
Mr. Lincoln in after life was rather sore. I was present on
one occasion when one of the participants in the affair was in
Mr. Lincoln's office, trying to rehearse the particulars of that
affair, to which Mr. Lincoln seemed much disinclined. After
that person left Mr. Lincoln remarked to me, " That man is try
ing to revive his memory of a matter that I am trying to
forget."

The story of Lincoln's having told Herndon that his mother
was a bastard is wholly discredited by everybody who knew
Lincoln, as well as much other matter in the book alleged to
have been derived from conversations with Lincoln.

I think I have fairly given you the criticism made here by
those best acquainted with both Lincoln and Herndon.

Yours truly,

M. HAY.

362 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The above letter by Hon. Milton Hay, uncle of John Hay,
and a close friend of Lincoln, at one time in the office with him,
was found in the papers of the law firm of McAnulty, Allen &
Humphrey, who were successors to the firm of Green & Hum
phrey, who were in turn successors to the firm of Hay, Green &
Littler. It was furnished and certified, April 4, 1919, by the
senior member of the firm, Mr. R. H. McAnulty.

2. MORE FAVORABLE OPINIONS

On the other hand, Hon. Hardin W. Masters, who knew
Herndon intimately, assured me that in innumerable conversa
tions with Herndon, hg never detected any indication of resent
ment, but that Herndon always spoke of Lincoln with deepest
reverence. I went with Mr. Masters to Petersburg, where he
spent many years of his life, and where for a time he was
district attorney. During the period of Masters* activity there,
Herndon habitually attended court at Petersburg. His brother-
in-law lived there, and Herndon, reduced in circumstances, could
obtain free board during the term of court, and pick up a few
dollars in fees as associate or senior counsel with younger lawyers.
When Herndon was not thus employed, he would sit on one of
the settees on the court-house lawn, glad to have any one sit
down beside him, and listen to him while he talked about Lincoln.
Mr. Masters tells me that he saw Herndon in all moods, and
under varying conditions, for I regret to say that Herndon was
not always a sober man, and Mr. Masters tells me that Herndon
never spoke the name of Lincoln without reverence. His feeling
reached the level, as he declares, of adoration; and he is con
fident that gross injustice is done Herndon in attributing to him
spite or resentment.

I called on Hon. G. W. Murray, who for one year was
Herndon's law-partner. He tells a pathetic story of the close
of Herndon's public career. Herndon struggled on against pov
erty, against his temptation, against failing sight and hearing.
One day he slammed his book shut, lifted his hand, and, rising,
cried out in agony of spirit : " My God ! I can't see ; I can't hear !
I'm going to quit." He put on his hat, left the office, and did
not return. Judge Murray gave to me a formal statement and
signed it. It deserves to be printed, and I give it herewith :

HERNDON'S ATTITUDE 363

LINCOLN AND HERNDON
By HONORABLE G. W. MURRAY of Springfield

The following statement was made by Hon. G. W. Murray,
of Springfield, Illinois, to Rev. William E. Barton, D.D., April
21, 1920:

I was partner of William H. Herndon in this city in the year
1878. I had come in 1876 from Ohio, my native State, in 1876.
I was born near Troy, Ohio, in July, 1839, and shall be 81 on
my next birthday. I was elected Judge in 1890, and served
continuously, excepting between 1894 and 1898, when I was not
on the bench. My whole term of service as judge was sixteen
years.

I came to Illinois with great admiration for Abraham Lincoln,
and was glad to be associated with a man who had known him
intimately as Mr. Herndon had known him. Mr. Herndon was
as willing to talk about Lincoln as I was to listen.

Continuously, when we were not busy, and perhaps at some
times when we should have been at work, he talked to me of
Lincoln. There was hardly any period of Lincoln's life or
phase of his character that we did not discuss.

It has been charged that Mr. Herndon was embittered against
Mr. Lincoln, and a reason has been assigned in Mr. Lincoln's
alleged refusal to give Mr. Herndon an office which Herndon is
alleged to have coveted. I believe this to be untrue, both as to
the fact and the motive.

So far from Mr. Herndon's cherishing resentment against
Mr. Lincoln, the whole character of his conversations, which
were many, discredits that statement. I can remember no single
word spoken by him concerning Mr. Lincoln in which there ap
peared to be any such animus. He held Lincoln in the highest
admiration. He had no regrets for anything that had ever
occurred between them.

Mr. Herndon told me that Mr. Lincoln offered him office.
My impression is that there was more than one such offer. One
that I remember was of a judicial character, a position in what
I think was called the Court of Claims, a court established to
consider claims of Southern people against the Government for
damages alleged to have been suffered by them during the war.
He spoke of other positions which he believed he might have had.
He said that he did not desire office.

364 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

There is absolutely nothing in the charge that Mr. Herndon
cherished any spirit of unfriendliness toward Mr. Lincoln, or
any feeling of disappointment because of his failure to secure
through Mr. Lincoln political appointment.

Toward Mrs. Lincoln, Herndon had no kindly feelings. He
did not denounce her, nor refer to her in terms which a gentle
man might not with propriety use toward a lady, but he did
not like her and she did not like him ; and he believed that she
made Mr. Lincoln's home life unhappy. He believed that Mr.
Lincoln had loved Ann Rutledge, and that her memory was very
dear to Lincoln.

Mr. Herndon continually spoke of Mr. Lincoln's greatness
and goodness. He told me of traveling over the State from
one county seat to another with the meager law-library in saddle
bags. Often Lincoln went to a session of court without any
client, but he almost always secured clients on the ground,
through his association with local attorneys. Herndon spoke
of Lincoln's ability as a lawyer and statesman. He also admired
greatly Lincoln's kindness of heart, his forgiving disposition.
He was greatly impressed by Mr. Lincoln's attitude of kindness
toward young men in the army who were found guilty of trans
gression of military regulations.

His habitual attitude toward the memory of Lincoln was
one of admiration.

In short, I cannot remember a single instance in which he
spoke unkindly of Lincoln, but invariably the reverse.

I was a warm admirer of Abraham Lincoln before I became
Herndon's partner; but under the influence of Herndon that
admiration grew to a sincere affection and devotion.

Largely through what Mr. Herndon related to me, I have
spoken from time to time about Mr. Lincoln, in public addresses,
one of which I delivered at the Lincoln monument in this city
in 1903, and another before the Authors' Club in 1913. The
sincere admiration which in these and other addresses I have
invariably expressed for Abraham Lincoln is in full accord with
the spirit in which Mr. Herndon always spoke of him.

It has been charged that Mr. Herndon believed and charged
that Abraham Lincoln was an illegitimate child. I know what
Herndon wrote which has been thus construed, and in my
judgment Mr. Herndon did not intend to convey that impression.
I believe that Herndon believed that Lincoln was of legitimate
birth, and would have resented a charge to the contrary.

I knew Mr. Herndon too intimately and talked with him
too freely to be mistaken about his real feeling toward Mr.
Lincoln. He honored Lincoln, and I learned in association with

HERNDON'S ATTITUDE 365

Herndon, to honor more and more the character of Abraham
Lincoln. G. W. MURRAY.

April 2ist, 1920.

3. STATEMENTS BY HERNDON'S DAUGHTERS

Mrs. Fleury, Mr. Herndon's eldest daughter, said to me:

" It is a serious wrong to the memory of my father to speak
of him as an infidel. He was not orthodox in his belief, and
he was driven into controveries which caused him to emphasize
what he did not believe rather than what he did believe. But
the inscription on his monument, copied from his own signed
statement, refutes completely the claim that he was an infidel.
I know that people called him so, and he did not always take
the trouble to deny it; but he was a reverent man.

" His reverence, however, was not so much for the God of
the Bible, whom he identified with the God of certain creeds
that he could not accept, as for the God of nature. He did not
believe in miracles, nor in supernatural revelation. He held that
nature and the human mind are the vehicles of God's revelation.
He loved nature, and he studied it constantly. In this respect
he was very unlike Mr. Lincoln, who did not care for such
studies.

" It was his custom on Sunday to send to the livery stable
for a slow horse and carriage, and take his children out into
the country. He studied botany and geology and the habits of
birds. Nothing escaped his attention, and he did not permit it
to escape us. He pointed out to us the beauty of the earth and
sky, and said, ' Remember, a great Power made all this/ He
plucked flowers and showed them to us, and pointed out their
parts and their functions, and the wonder of them, and spoke
reverently of the God who made them, and the birds and our
selves.

" He was an habitual teaser. He joked with his children.
He was always teasing his daughters. When he came home
from the office, he would ask me, * Who was that dirty-faced
little boy I saw kissing you through the fence ? ' He was de
lighted with my indignant denials, and would catch me up and
laugh heartily at my loudly proclaimed innocence. When he
was through with his teasing, he would romp with us, and
instruct us. He was a loving father. He was not orthodox,

366 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

and was much opposed to the theology of his time. I think if
he were living now he would not be thought of as an infidel.
He had his faults and his weaknesses; and his children have
some memories that are not happy ones. But he was an honest
man, an intelligent man, a man who loved freedom and God
and his children and Mr. Lincoln."

Similar testimony comes to me from his other daughters, both
those by his first wife and one by his second wife, and I am
confident they are essentially correct.

APPENDIX V
THE SUPPRESSED PAGES OF THE REED LECTURE

The first publication that suggested the illegitimacy of Abra
ham Lincoln was the Life of Abraham Lincoln by Ward Hill
Lamon, published in 1872. It was based upon manuscripts sold
to Lamon by William H. Herndon, who had been for many
years the law-partner of Lincoln. It would be difficult to ex
aggerate the indignation which the publication of this book roused
against Lamon, Herndon, and Chauncey F. Black, who was
known to have some share in the authorship and whom Herndon
afterward declared to have " written quite every word of it."
The Rev. James A. Reed, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church
in Springfield, prepared and delivered, there and elsewhere, a
lecture which was published in Scribner's Monthly in 1873 and
is now difficult to obtain.2 Mr. H. E. Barker, bookseller and
collector in Springfield, obtained the original manuscript of cer
tain portions of this address which were eliminated before pub
lication. They appear, however, to have been used in the de
livery of the lecture. They contain very hot shot for those who
were understood to have been responsible for this slander against
Lincoln and his mother. These sentiments, as expressed by Dr.
Reed, met the hearty approval of the major part of his audi
ences, while some thought them needlessly severe in their casti-
gation of Herndon, who was still living in the city where this
vehement denunciation was uttered. These suppressed pages
may now be published without any harm to any one, and will
serve to show what Lincoln's Springfield neighbors heard with
approval when this address was given by the minister of the
church which he attended. The largest section of this manu
script begins without a heading, at page i of the lecture, and
contains twelve consecutive pages. There are three other pages,
detached and less important:

2 The text of this lecture, as published in Scribners' Magazine, is
reprinted in the appendix to The Soul of Abraham Lincoln.

367

368 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

THE SUPPRESSED PAGES

THAT INJUSTICE has been done the life and sentiments
of Mr. Lincoln, is not simply the judgment of my own mind.
Judge Advocate General Holt, has expressed sentiment that no
pains have been spared, to collect materials with which to de
fame the character of Mr. Lincoln. And while he is now so
loved as to render what has been published in a measure harm
less, yet he fears it is calculated to do him great injury in another
generation.

A prominent and influential Journal of the country also
makes an appeal to the old friends and neighbors of Mr. Lincoln
at Springfield to defend his good name against the attacks of
those who, while claiming to be his friends, seek to blacken and
defame his character. " We arraign them all," says this journal,
" in the name of the dead, who cannot be heard again ; in the
name of the Nation; in the name of religion and morality, for
the crime of remaining silent while one of their own citizens,
pretending to speak for them, persists in blackening the reputa
tion of him they love.

" By common consent of this country the body of Abraham
Lincoln was borne from the scene of his martyrdom to his home
in the city of Springfield, and by loving hands laid to rest at
Oak Ridge. Shall it be said that those who of old knew him
and loved him, and take to themselves something of the honor
that clings to his name, and who are to keep watch and ward
by his grave, shall sit in dumb self-complacency while birds of
evil ornen croak and mousing owls peck at his laurels ? "

Whether the public is generally aware of it or not, it is very
evident from this appeal that Mr. Lincoln's character has been
unfairly dealt with from some quarter. And the first question
that is asked is, Who are the persons and what are their mo
tives ?

This is the question I am first of all compelled to answer.
And these gentlemen cannot complain of me if I am as frank as
they have been in telling who Mr. Lincoln was.

The first man who attempted to blacken the reputation of
Mr. Lincoln after his death was a low, drunken, infidel by the
name of William H. Herndon ; a man of such disreputable char
acter and sentiments that nobody about Springfield cared to give
the notoriety even of a passing kick. This man, soon after Mr.
Lincoln's death, collected what he considered sufficient materials
with which to immortalize himself as the historian of Mr. Lin
coln. But not having the means to publish it, as it seems, he

REED'S LECTURE 369

deposited the manuscript for safe-keeping in the First National
Bank of Springfield, where it remained in durance vile as a sort
of collateral security for a small claim which the distinguished
author was not able to discharge, and where it would most likely
have remained in its merited obscurity but for the assistance
of his distinguished friend and associate, Colonel Ward H.
Lamon, who brought the precious document to light by purchas
ing it, paying $2,000 for it, as I am reliably informed, and in
corporating it in a book of his own. These gatherings of Mr.
Herndon, thus coming before the public, endorsed by Mr.
Lamon, and published in a large and expensive volume, and
circulated all over the country, claiming to be the only real and
fair and reliable history of Mr. Lincoln and his sentiments, it
does seem fitting that some notice should be taken of these gen
tlemen and their infamous publication.

In all that has been written and published of the life and
services of Abraham Lincoln, these two men are the only ones
who have had the complacency like Joab of old to come forward
and take their hero by the beard with the right hand, and to
kiss him and then gallantly stab him under the fifth rib.

While the voice of calumny was silent, speaking no evil of
the dead, these two men, professing to be his familiar friends,
and who did eat at his table, and whom like the little ewe lamb
that did sleep in the poor man's bosom, and brought up; Mr.
Herndon as an indifferent and second-rate lawyer, enjoying for
a time the advantages of a connection with him, the vanity of
which caused him to force himself upon the notice of the public;
and Mr. Lamon, reaping the emoluments of an office, as martial
of the District of Columbia, worth from $10,000 to $15,000 a
year ; these two worthy friends of the President, with the assist
ance of a third, whose name does not appear in the book, but
who is known to be the son of Jeremiah S. Black of this state,
by a singular combination of their wits and meager talents,
form a tri-partite mountain of authorship, and this mountain
labors, and there comes forth this ridiculus mus — Lamon's
Life of Lincoln — a volume that will disgrace its author as long
as it will disgrace the character and do injustice to the memory
of Abraham Lincoln.

The motives of these men, in contributing to this work, vary
with their individuality. No one can read this book without
making the discovery that it is written only in the pretense of
friendship. The chagrin of an unrecognized and disappointed
aspirant for political favors appears on all that Mr. Herndon
writes. And Mr. Lamon writes as one who has heard the voice
of his master saying, " Give an account of thy stewardship, for

370 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

thou mayest no longer be steward." Mr. Lincoln had evidently
read the character of both these men, and had given them to
understand that he did not need their services. They were
weights he cared no longer to carry. And for this they under
take the grateful task of writing his biography, and make him
out a bastard and an infidel. The patriarch Job once exclaimed
in the midst of a persistent attempt of his distinguished friends
to defame his integrity, " Oh, that mine enemy had written a
book ! " Mr. Lincoln has been spared that wish. His distin
guished friends have written a book, and a book that proclaims
them and justifies him as clearly as it did Job in calling them
his enemies. For never was there cooler or meaner detraction
if not malignancy, concealed beneath the mask of apparent friend
ship than we have in this book.

It has been said that the celebrated Dr. Johnson once made
the remark that he thought a man might be justified in taking
the life of another to estop the biographical taking of his own.
It is not to be supposed that Dr. Johnson seriously meant to
justify the killing of a man short of self-defense. But if there
was a clear case in which a man could be justified, for biographi
cal reasons, in killing off a few of his anticipated and ambitious
historians before he died, I don't know a clearer case than that
of Mr. Lincoln.

Mr. Herndon's earnest and zealous effort to prove that Mr.
Lincoln was an infidel to the day of his death is simply the last
service to which he can put his hero to his own advantage. It
is well known that the infidelity which he attributes to Mr. Lin
coln is simply the reflection of his own infidel sentiments. He
would fain give them character by palming them off as the dying
sentiments of a man whose shoe latchets he is not worthy to
stoop down and unloose. He so shapes his detraction of the
President as that he may have the prestige of his name to bolster
up and give currency to his own miserable infidelity.

It is easy to detect the underlying motive in this bold and
unscrupulous effort to fasten this charge of final scepticism upon
Mr. Lincoln. The very pains and persistency of the effort of
these men to make the allegation good, bears on its face the
confession that the public impression of a change in Mr. Lincoln's
sentiments previous to his death was well founded, and betrays
the fear that unless the evidence which sustains this impression
be annihilated, Mr. Lincoln's name will go down to posterity
bearing its testimony to the truth of Christianity rather than
to the lie of infidelity. There would have been no necessity for
such a labored effort of friendship to keep Mr. Lincoln's name
in the rank and file of infidelity had there not been a strong

REED'S LECTURE 371

and general impression that Mr. Lincoln had changed his senti
ments and was not an infidel when he died.

I wonder not that a distinguished gentleman writing me
from Washington expresses his indignation by saying, " I am
amazed at Lamon's book. It is the compound fruit of a serpent
and a jackal."

APPENDIX VI
WASHINGTON COUNTY AFFIDAVITS

It is firmly believed in Washington County, Kentucky, that
Abraham Lincoln was born there and not in Hardin. These
affidavits, excepting that of County Attorney Polin, which was
made for this book, were procured for the purpose of estab
lishing that claim. In another place that opinion is discussed.
These depositions are here recorded because, apart from the
question of the birth of Lincoln, they show a body of consistent
recollection concerning the marriage of his parents.

I. AFFIDAVIT OF WILLIAM THOMAS HARDESTY

The deposition of William Thomas Hardesty, taken before
me at the Law Office of Polin & Polin, in Springfield, Kentucky,
and in the presence of the County Judge, W. A. Waters, and the
County Attorney, Joseph Polin, for the purpose of preserving
his testimony as a historical record for Washington County.
Witness after being duly sworn and examined by Joseph Polin,
testified as follows:

Q — State your name, age, residence and occupation?

A — William Thomas Hardesty, born April 3Oth, 1837, reside
near Walton's Lick, in Washington County and am a farmer.

Q — Please state your father's name and your mother's maiden
name?

A — William Hardesty, who married Annie Moody. William
Hardesty was born on the .... day of 17 ...

Q — Please give us a short sketch of your father.

A — My father came from Maryland about the year . . . . , in
company with his father, Charles Hardesty, and settled near
Walton's Lick, where Edward Smothers now lives. This Walton's
Lick is named for General Matthew Walton, who manufactured
salt at this place in the days of the early settlement of the county
and the old salt well is on the north bank of Lick Creek just
east of the ford. I still have in my possession one of the old
kettles which were used by Walton in the manufacture of salt.
It is rather peculiar looking, the vessel having no legs and only
one ear, and holding 40 gallons. People came to this place for
miles and carried away salt on horseback. My father died

372

WASHINGTON COUNTY AFFIDAVITS 373

about the day of 18. . . There lived in the same

neighborhood the Moodys, the Berrys, the Reddings, the Haydens,
and the Lincolns and quite a number of others.

Q — Please state what you know about the history of the
Lincoln family in Washington County from having heard your
father talk about them.

A — I have often heard my father say that he knew Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks: that he remembered distinctly when
as a small boy he slipped away from home and went to their
wedding in the year 1806 when they were married by Jesse
Head in the small log cabin which formerly stood on the east
side of the Litsey and Valley Hill pike at a point just north of
the Mill Race near Poortown. They afterwards lived in this
cabin and it was there that Abraham Lincoln, the President of
the United States, was born. The spring near the roadside
has been called the Lincoln Spring since my earliest recollection.
I have heard my father talk of Abraham Lincoln, the grand
father of the President, being killed by the Indians a short dis
tance from his home in this county. This older Abraham Lincoln
lived on the farm now owned by James L. Moran and at a point
near the forks of the Litsey and Valley Hill pike with the pike
leading to Springfield and on the stream known as Lincoln's
Run. At this place there is a small branch emptying into Lin
coln's Run and the house was located on the north side of the
Litsey and Valley Hill pike and on a point between this branch
and Lincoln's Run. I recollect that there is a small mound and
formerly there were some rocks where the house stood. I re
member of seeing many times and of having used many times
in hunting the old powder horn which was taken from around
the neck of Abraham Lincoln after he was killed by the Indians.
This horn had on it the Masonic emblem of a compass and a
square. There was also carved on it the image of an eagle
beneath which were the words, " Liberty or Death," and the
name, " A. Lincoln." This horn remained in our family for
quite a number of years. I don't know how my father came
into possession of it but have often heard him say in speaking
of it what I have related above. He finally gave this horn to
the late attorney, Richard J. Brown, and that is the last trace
I have of it. I have frequently heard my father say that he
knew Abraham Lincoln, the President, when he was a small
boy living with his parents in this county. My father was
always quite positive of the fact that the President was born
in this county, being born a few years before the family moved
to that portion of Hardin County which is now Larue.

W. T. HARDESTY.

374 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

STATE OF KENTUCKY.
WASHINGTON COUNTY.

I, Olive Walker, Examiner for and within the county and
state aforesaid, certify that the foregoing deposition of William
Thomas Hardesty, was taken before me at the time and place
and for the purpose stated in the captain ; that said witness was
duly sworn before giving it ; that it was written by me in short
hand and afterwards transcribed by me on the typewriter and
that it was signed by the witness : that there were present County
Judge, W. A. Waters, and County Attorney, Joseph Polin.

Given under my hand, this 7th day of November, 1919.

OLIVE WALKER,
Examiner for Washington Co. Ky.

2. AFFIDAVIT OF R. M. THOMPSON

This affiant, R. M. Thompson, says that he is native of
Washington County, Ky., 79 years of age. He was raised in
said county, and has lived therein all of his life except eight
years, when he resided at Indianapolis, State of Indiana. His
present address is Springfield, County and State aforesaid. The
mother of Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln, who was the mother of
Abraham Lincoln, was an own cousin of affiant's mother. Affiant
knew well Richard Berry, Jr., who was a grandson of Richard
Berry, Sr., who was the guardian of said Nancy (Hanks) Lin
coln, wife of Thomas Lincoln. Said Richard Berry, Jr., lived
with his father, Frank Berry, a son of Richard Berry, Sr. The
marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, parents of Pres
ident Abraham Lincoln, occurred in the same house or premises
recently sold and conveyed by Mrs. Sallie Reed, wife of Henry
F. Reed, to Maj. D. W. Sanders, of Louisville, Ky. Said Richard
Berry, Jr., told affiant as he now recollects, and his memory
serves him well, about the close of the late Civil War, that
President Abraham Lincoln was born in said house in Washing
ton County, Ky., the same in which his parents were married.
Affiant was well acquainted with William Hardesty, who lived
to an extreme old age, and whose residence was always in the
neighborhood of said premises.

Said William Hardesty was an honorable, reputable and
creditable citizen, and every way worthy of belief. He has
made affidavit (that is said William Hardesty) and sworn that
he was present, and witnessed the marriage of Thomas Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks in said house, by the Rev. Jesse Head, deacon
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Said William Hardesty

WASHINGTON COUNTY AFFIDAVITS 375

has frequently told affiant that there was born to Thomas Lincoln
and his said wife a daughter older than President Abraham
Lincoln, said daughter being the first child and born in said
house. She died at an early age. Said Richard Berry, Jr., was
a good citizen, reputable and worthy to be believed.

R. M. THOMPSON.

STATE OF KENTUCKY, WASHINGTON COUNTY, ss.

I, James L. Wharton, Clerk of the Circuit Court for the
State and county written above, certify that R. M. Thompson,
who is a most reputable citizen, subscribed and made oath and
was sworn to the foregoing affidavit this day. He is entitled
to be believed, and reputable, upright, moral, and creditable in
every way. Before he executed said affidavit, I read it over to
him and explained its contents to him and he understood the
same, and did, in my presence freely and voluntarily execute
said affidavit. Said affidavit was dictated for said R. M.
Thompson.

Witness my hand and seal of office this I3th day of April,
1891.

J. L. WHARTON (Seal)
Clerk of Washington Circuit Court.

3. AFFIDAVIT OF MR. JOSEPH POLIN, COUNTY ATTORNEY OF
WASHINGTON COUNTY, SPRINGFIELD, KENTUCKY

Affiant, Joseph Polin, states that he was born in Washington
County, Kentucky, April 28th, 1883; that he has made diligent
search for record evidence and evidence traditional concerning
all matters relating to Abraham Lincoln and his antecedents, so
far as they belong to the history of this county. He is familiar
with the rumors that gained currency at one time in Larue
County, concerning the alleged illegitimacy of Abraham Lincoln.
The affiant states that to the best of his knowledge and belief
these rumors were never credited in this county among the
people who had known the Lincoln family. The record of the
Lincoln family in this county, as shown by records both published
and unpublished, is an honorable one. The Berrys and the col
lateral families also were reputable people and their descendants
are still living in this county and are highly esteemed. Before
the discovery of the marriage return for Thomas and Nancy
Lincoln, the reliable people of this county, indignantly denied, as
I have been reliably informed, the charges which they deemed
slanderous, affecting the character of the mother of Abraham

376 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lincoln. The discovery of that document is a complete confirma
tion of their confidence in the chastity of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

JOSEPH POLIN.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by Joseph Polin, this
i6th day of March, 1920.

JNO. A. POLIN.

Notary Public.
My commission expires May 22, 1923.

APPENDIX VII
LA RUE COUNTY AFFIDAVITS

I. THE AFFIDAVIT OF HON. RICHARD W. CREAL

STATE OF KENTUCKY sg
COUNTY OF LARUE

The affiant, Richard W. Creal, states as follows, after being
duly sworn —

My name is Richard W. Creal. I was born in Larue County
Kentucky 1853 an<^ I am a son °f Richard Creal who formerly
owned the farm in Larue County upon which Abraham Lincoln
was born, the same now owned by the Lincoln Farm Association.
Upon one occasion when with my father, " Aunt " Peggy Walters,
who was an old woman, pointed out to us the place where
Abraham Lincoln was born. The cabin which she said Abraham
Lincoln was born in was situated a short distance from the Cave
Spring (now known as the Lincoln Spring). I was about twelve
years old at the time I heard Mrs. Walters make this statement.
She stated further that she knew the Lincoln family well, both
before and after the date of the birth of Abraham Lincoln ; that
she was living hardly a mile away from the Lincolns at the
time of the birth of Abraham.

Affiant further states that shortly after this conversation he
and his father were passing the home of one of the early settlers
Jack McDougal who lived on the Bardstown and Green River
Turnpike, about four miles from the Lincoln farm. That he
heard a conversation between his father and McDougal in which
McDougal stated that he knew the Lincoln family, that they
were living in this county at the time Abraham Lincoln was
born; that they lived in a cabin about two and one half miles
south of Hodgenville, on the Hodgen's Mill and Aetna Furnace
road.

(Signed) RICHARD W. CREAL.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by Richard W. Creal this
July 6th 1906, CHARLES WILLIAMS

NPLC
377

378 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

2. THE AFFIDAVIT OF W. D. KIETH

STATE OF KENTUCKY ss
COUNTY OF LARUE

The affiant, W. D. Kieth, after being duly sworn deposes
and says —

My name is W. D. Kieth, and I live at Buffalo, Larue County,
Ky., and I am 62 years of age. I was born in the state of Indiana.
I am a son of Nehemiah Kieth who was born in Hardin County,
Ky. (now Larue County) the I4th day of February 1807, on a
farm about three fourths of a mile from the farm now owned
by the Lincoln Farm Association, the birthplace of Abraham
Lincoln.

When Lincoln was making his first race for the presidency,
and while we were living in Indiana, I heard my father say that
he remembered Lincoln when they were boys together down
in Larue County, and that they had played together many a
day. My father told me further that his mother, my grand
mother, was present at the birth of Abraham Lincoln, in Feby
1809; that he was born near the Cave Spring about two and
one half miles south of the Hodgen's Mill and Aetna Furnace
road, on the farm now owned by said Lincoln Farm Association
in Larue County, Ky. My grandmother was a Larue, a daughter
of one of the early pioneers in this section of the country.

And further the affiant sayest not.

W. D. KIETH.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by W. D. Kieth this
July 6, 1906. CHARLES WILLIAMS,

Notary Public Larue Co. Ky.

3. THE AFFIDAVIT OF ROBERT ENLOW

STATE OF KENTUCKY
COUNTY OF LARUE

The affiant, Robert Enlow, after being duly sworn, upon his
oath states that he is 45 years old, was born and reared in
LaRue County, Kentucky, on the North Fork of Nolin, about
2^2 miles east of the town of Hodgenville. Affiant further says,
I am a farmer, have resided on a farm all my life. I taught in
the public schools of LaRue County fourteen years, and have for
the last two sessions represented LaRue County in the legis
lature.

My Grandmother Kirkpatrick stated in my presence that at
the time of Abraham Lincoln's birth she was living on the South
Fork of Nolin, about two miles west of Hodgenville; that she

LA RUE COUNTY AFFIDAVITS 379

knew of her own personal knowledge that he was born on the
farm ever since known as the Lincoln Farm, and now owned
by the Lincoln Memorial Association. She further stated that
the affiant's great-grandmother, and the mother of Abraham
Enlow, was sent for and taken to the Lincoln home on this event
and attended on Mr. Lincoln's mother, she being a practicing
physician at the time.

At the time my grandmother made this statement there was
a conversation going on as to the exact spot of Lincoln's birth
place and my grandmother detailed these facts as facts that she
knew of her own personal knowledge.

(Signed) ROBERT ENLOW.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by Robert Enlow, this the
loth day of July 1906.

CHARLES WILLIAMS
Notary Public LaRue County Ky.

4. THE AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN BROWNFIELD

STATE OF KENTUCKY
COUNTY OF LARUE

The affiant, John Brownfield, after being duly sworn upon
his oath states that he was born in Hardin County Ky. (now
Larue Co.) and is now 86 years old. He says " I have heard
my father George Brownfield, who came to what is now Larue
County and located at Buffalo, about 2,^/2 miles from the Lincoln
farm, in 1790, say that Abraham Lincoln was born in this county
on the farm known as the Lincoln Farm.

I have also heard Wm. Cessna, another very old citizen and
father of Judge Jonathan Cessna of Larue Co., say that he knew
it to be a fact that Lincoln was born on said farm in Larue
County. I have lived all my life in the vicinity of this farm.

JOHN BROWNFIELD, SR.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by John Brownfield this
the 6 day of July 1906. I further certify that this affiant's
memory was clear at the giving of this statement and he read
this affidavit and signed it without the aid of his eye glasses,
which he had forgotten and left at home.

CHARLES WILLIAMS
Notary Public Larue Co. Ky.

5. THE AFFIDAVIT OF THOMAS C. WALTERS

STATE OF KENTUCKY sg
COUNTY OF LARUE

The affiant, Thomas C. Walters, after being duly sworn
deposes and says:

380 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I was born in Larue County, Ky., in 1855, and I now live
in said county, and my post office address is Sonora, Ky. I am
a grandson of " Peggy " Walters, one of the early pioneers in
this section of the country. Upon an occasion I heard her speak
ing to one Mr. Helm in which she said that she knew the Lincoln
family well; knew them while they were living about two and
one half miles from Hodgenville, Ky., on the farm now owned
by the Lincoln Memorial Association; that she knew this family
well both before and after the birth of Mr. Lincoln (Abraham) ;
that Abraham Lincoln was born at this place; that she frequently
went to see the Lincoln family, who were in poor circumstances,
and that she assisted the mother with the infant child (Abraham
Lincoln). Affiant further says that the mind and memory of
grandmother was perfectly clear at the time of this conversation.

Affiant further says that he knew Abraham Enlow, another
old settler; that he heard Enlow say that Abraham Lincoln was
born out at the Lincoln farm in Larue County. That he ren
dered the Lincoln family many little acts of kindness and that
he believed they named their infant son for him " Abraham "
because of the kind treatment he had given the family.

THOMAS C. WALTERS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by Thomas C. Walters
this July 4th, 1906.

CHARLES WILLIAMS,

Notary Public.

6. THE AFFIDAVIT OF AMOS WALTERS

My name is Amos Walters. I live in Larue County about
two miles from the town of Hodgenville and am a fanner. I
was born in this county (Larue) in 1841 and I have made this
my home all my life. I had an aunt by the name of " Peggy "
Walters who was present at the Lincoln home the night Abraham
Lincoln was born. She, together with my uncle, Conrad Walters,
lived in that vicinity about one mile from the Lincoln place.

Some time before the death of my aunt, and about the time
Mr. Lincoln was coming into prominence, I heard my old aunt
make this statement: That she recollected very well the birth
of Mr. Lincoln; that she was present at the time of his birth;
that she knew the father and mother of Mr. Lincoln ; that he
was born in the cabin near the old spring on the farm now
owned and controlled by the Lincoln Memorial Association in
Larue County, Ky.

Affiant states further that his aunt at the time of this con-

LA RUE COUNTY AFFIDAVITS 381

versation was quite an old woman, but her mind was bright and
her memory was clear on this.

AMOS WALTERS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by Amos Walters this
the 3<Dth day of June, 1906.

CHARLES WILLIAMS,

Notary Public.

7. THE AFFIDAVIT OF DAVID T. BROWNFIELD

STATE OF KENTUCKY gs
COUNTY OF LARUE

The affiant, David T. Brownfield, after being duly sworn de
poses and says:

My name is David T. Brownfield. I was born in Larue
County, Kentucky, in 1837. I was born about two miles from
the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. My father, George Brown-
field, came to this county in about 1790 and moved to the site
of my birthplace. He knew the Lincoln family and I have
heard him speak of them. He knew they were living in Larue
County at the time of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. I have
heard him say that Abraham Lincoln was born in this county.
Affiant further says that he knew Abe Enlow and Charles Friend,
two early pioneers of this section of the country; that they
were each living in this county at the time Abraham Lincoln
was born here and they each said that the old Creal farm, about
two and one half miles south of Hodgenville, was the place
where Abraham Lincoln was born.

The affiant further says : " I was in Washington City July
1861 and visited the president. I asked Mr. Lincoln the direct
question where he was born as I wanted to hear this from his
own lips. He told me that he was born at the Cave Spring about
2,y2 miles south of the town of Hodgenville, that this farm was
situate on the road known in the early days as the Hodgen's
Mill and Aetna Furnace road. In this conversation Mr. Lincoln
asked me about his boyhood friend and playmate Austin Gol-
laher, and appeared to be very much interested in the old settlers
of Larue County.

The affiant further states that he lives in Louisville, Ky.,
and that his street address is 620 West Chestnut.

DAVID T. BROWNFIELD.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by David T. Brownfield
this the 5th day of July 1906.

CHARLES WILLIAMS
Notary Public for Larue Co.

382 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

8. THE AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN C. FRIEND

STATE OF KENTUCKY
COUNTY OF LARUE !

My name is John C. Friend and I live in Hodgenville, Ky.,
and I have been in the active practice of law for over fifteen
years. Many years ago I heard a conversation in front of the
old drug store building on the site of which now stands the
business house of G. O. Kirkpatrick in Hodgenville, Ky., in
which Mr. Abraham Enlow, who at the time was a very old man
and who has been dead for a number of years, made the follow
ing statement:

That he was on the way to the old Kirkpatrick mill with a
" turn " of corn, and Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham
Lincoln, halted him and asked that he loan him the horse that
he (Enlow) was riding, explaining that he wanted to go after
a midwife or " granny-woman " as he denominated her. Mr.
Enlow said that Mr. Lincoln assisted him in removing the sack
of corn from the horse and that he (Enlow) remained by the
roadside until Mr. Lincoln returned with the old woman riding
behind him. In a few days thereafter, Mr. Enlow continued,
he heard that a boy baby was born into the Lincoln family and
that it had been given the name of Abraham. Mr. Enlow
thought that possibly this little act of kindness on his part had
something to do with the new baby being named Abraham, not
knowing quite likely that the name was a family name. Mr.
Enlow in this conversation explained that Thomas Lincoln lived
at the time the child " Abe " was born on what has since been
known as the Richard Creal farm, and that it was necessary
for him to pass by it in going from where he (Enlow) lived to
the old Kirkpatrick mill aforesaid.

JOHN C. FRIEND.

Subscribed and sworn to before me by John C. Friend this
June 30th 1906.

CHARLES WILLIAMS
Notary Public for Larue Co.

9. THE AFFIDAVIT OF CHARLES WILLIAMS

STATE OF KENTUCKY-
COUNTY OF LARUE

I, Charles Williams, Notary Public in and for the County
of Larue and State of Kentucky, hereby certify that I am per
sonally acquainted with each and every witness who has testified

LA RUE COUNTY AFFIDAVITS 383

to the several foregoing affidavits, as to the birthplace of Abra
ham Lincoln; that I know the families of all save one, Jack
McDougal, and considerable of the family history of all, and cer
tify to the fact that each of these affiants is personally known to
me to be worthy of credit on oath, that their families, to wit : the
Walters, Brownfields, Friends, Enlows, Kieths, McDougals and
Creals are now and have been since the early days of Hardin
and Lame counties among the best and leading families of this
section. A short time ago I, in company with my law partner,
Mr. L. B. Handley, visited the old graveyard near South Fork
Church, on the south bank of Nolynn, and being shown the grave
stone of " Aunt Peggy Walters " referred to in the accompanying
affidavits, by her grandson, we found that she was born on
December nth 1789 and died on the 26th day of Oct. 1864,
which becomes an important fact in connection with the statement
of her oldest son, the date of her marriage, and her statement
that she was present at the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
Given under my hand the loth day of July 1906.

CHARLES WILLIAMS
Notary Public for Larue Co.

APPENDIX VIII
WHERE WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN BORN?

These appendices contain affidavits and other documents from
Washington County, Kentucky, tending to show that Abraham
Lincoln was not born in what is now La Rue County, but in
Washington County, and in the home of Richard Berry, where
his parents were married. It is commonly, if not universally,
held in that county that Thomas and Nancy Lincoln lived for
three or more years with the Berrys, and later removed to
Hardin County. This affirmation is based on the testimony of
old men after the Civil War that they had seen Abraham Lincoln
as a little child, playing at the Berry home, and also on a tax
return, believed to be of the year 1811, and which contains the
name of Thomas Lincoln as a resident of Washington County.

I am rather sorry that Hon. Joseph Polin, County Attorney
of Washington County, to whom I am much indebted for assist
ance, has come to question whether the tax list referred to, and
which I have examined carefully, is really of the year 1811, and
he has not yet determined in what year it belongs. I am still
hoping that it will be found to belong to 1811, as it will then
confirm an opinion which I hold tentatively that Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln lived only two winters in the cabin on Nolin
Creek, where Abraham Lincoln was born, and that before they
made their new home on the Knob Creek farm, from which, in
1816, they removed to Indiana, they returned for at least a year to
Washington County, and lived with Nancy Hanks' relatives.

The claim of Washington County to have furnished the birth
place of Abraham Lincoln is inadmissible. It is honor enough
that his parents should have been married there, and that that
county should have preserved the record of the marriage. The
house, too, was preserved, and now, much remodeled, it is stand
ing at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and is used as a sort of historical
museum.

Some of the early biographers of Lincoln, apparently learn
ing that he was not born in the Elizabethtown cabin, confused
it with the Knob Creek farmhouse, and thus added to the con-

384

WHERE WAS LINCOLN BORN? 885

fusion. Henry J. Raymond, of the New York Tribune, in his
octavo volume of more than 800 pages, issued in 1865, printed
a good steel engraving, with this title, sub-title and note:

THE EARLY HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS IT NOW STANDS IN
ELIZABETHTOWN, HARDIN COUNTY, KY.

His father built this Cabin, and moved into it when Abraham
was an infant, and resided there until he was seven years of
age when he removed to Indiana.

Thomas Lincoln did not build it, and Abraham never lived in it.

Abraham Lincoln was born in the log cabin, now standing
inclosed in a marble temple, above the Rock Spring, on the
Lincoln farm, about two and one-half miles south of Hodgen-
ville, in what was then Hardin and now is La Rue County, Ken
tucky. The farm now is owned by the Government, and is a
national park. The purchase of the farm, and the preservation
of the cabin, is due to the good work of the Lincoln Farm
Association. Of the birth of this Association, and of its suc
cessful work in preserving this important building, the president,
Mr. Richard Lloyd Jones, said on February 12, 1907:

The most valuable assets of any nation are the traditions, the
sacred associations, and shrines made holy by the accumulatory
love with which successive generations bedeck them. George
Eliot said : " No nation has ever become great without holidays
and processions dedicated to the noble." The United States
as yet is notoriously poor in this direction. This is not wholly
on account of its youth, but on account also of the indifference
to spiritual welfare which has characterized a youth enamored
of material plenty and drunk with the prosperity that comes from
the easy conquest of fertile acres and exhaustless mines. Ameri
can youths have turned longing eyes toward the holy places of
Europe, and visited the birthplaces of Robert Burns and Schiller,
the tombs of Walter Scott and Victor Hugo, and the millennial
monument of King Alfred at Winchester; while the birthplace
of our matchless American — the strong-handed, clear-headed, and
great-hearted Lincoln — has been left, after its acres have been
impoverished by careless tillage, to become a humiliation to the
poet and the historian, and the butt of ridicule to the irreverent.

Since that strong yeoman pioneer, Thomas Lincoln, moved

386 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

his family across the Ohio into the almost unbroken wilderness
of Indiana, this historic ground has been transferred by title
but three times. A year ago last August this " little model farm
that raised a Man," as Mark Twain has happily called it, was
placed on sale at public auction on the court-house steps at
Hodgenville, Kentucky, the neighboring town, to free it from
the entanglement of a protracted litigation between a private
estate and that of a religious society that had tried to acquire it.
At the time the Commonwealth of Kentucky directed this public
sale it was discovered that this historic spot was coveted by at
least two large mercantile establishments, both of which were
planning to exploit it for commercial ends. To prevent this, and
believing that this birthplace of the " First American " should
forever belong to the American people, one of the present officers
of The Lincoln Farm Association bought the farm, and at once
interested a group of representative American citizens in forming
a national association for the preservation of this ground.

This group of citizens, acting as a self-appointed board of
trustees, organized the Lincoln Farm Association, which was
promptly incorporated under the laws of the State of New
York. The title of the Lincoln birthplace farm was transferred
to this association, and the program for enlarging the membership
of the society was at once begun.

Rather than make it possible for a few men of great wealth
to contribute large sums to the development of this national
shrine it was decided to receive into membership in the society
any one who contributed to the general fund of the association
as small a sum as twenty-five cents, and to limit all contributions
to twenty-five dollars — thus making the great memorial to Lin
coln represent the tributes of all the people, whom he loved and
served, and not those of a privileged few.

The purpose and plans of this new patriotic society that was
to make this Kentucky farm, almost in the center of population
of the United States, a worthy companion of Mt. Vernon in the
affections of our countrymen were placed before the President
of the United States and his Cabinet, one of whom was one of
the organizers of the society. All gave it most enthusiastic and
hearty support. The scheme was then laid before members of
the United States Senate and House of Representatives, Gov
ernors of States, men of letters everywhere, and educators of
national fame. With their unqualified endorsement, a year ago
this week the Lincoln Farm Association, through the pages of
some of the most prominent weekly and monthly publications and
the newspapers throughout the country, appealed to the American
public for members. The response was immediate and generous.

WHERE WAS LINCOLN BORN? 38T

Subscriptions came in from every State in the Union — North and
South, East and West. To every subscriber the Association
issued a handsomely steel-engraved certificate of membership,
bearing a portrait of Lincoln, a picture of the log cabin in which
he was born, the White House as it appeared when he occupied
it, the autographs of all the officers and trustees, and the seal
of the Association. The names of these members are filed in
card catalogues and classified by States. When the list of mem
bers has been completed and the constructive work of the Asso
ciation has culminated in the centenary of February 12, 1909,
this list will be preserved and guarded in the Historical Museum,
which will have been erected on the farm, as the honor roll that
built the Lincoln Farm Memorial.

The Lincoln Farm Association to-day represents about twenty
thousand members. The average subscription has been a little
less than a dollar and forty cents to a member, and both the
average of the subscriptions and the issue of certificates of mem
bership have increased with each succeeding month.

During the year the trustees of the Association have placed
the farm under the personal charge of a competent caretaker, who
lives on the ground. They have sent Mr. Jules Guerin and
Mr. Guy Lowell, two of America's foremost landscape architects,
to survey the ground and plan its development, and they have
purchased the cabin in which Lincoln was born from the specu
lators who took it from the little knoll where it originally stood
and exploited it as a side-show at various fairs and international
expositions. This cabin was found stored in a cellar at College
Point, on Long Island, New York. The Pennsylvania Railroad
provided a special car, which Mr. John Wanamaker decorated
with flags and the national colors. The Governor of Kentucky
sent to New York a special squad of State militiamen to escort
the old weather-worn logs, Lincoln's old Kentucky home, back
to its native soil. Its ride to Louisville is historic. It rested a
day under military guard at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Harrisburg,
Altoona, Pittsburg, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Thousands of
citizens came to see and begged the privilege of touching the
sacred pile. Mayors of cities and Governors of States paid
eloquent tribute to the rude timbers that first sheltered the sad
humorist of the Sangamon. And when at last the special train
that bore it, brilliant in red, white, and blue, crossed the Ohio
into its native border State it was met at the Louisville depot
with martial music and military honors. It was carted through
the city's streets and placed in the city's park, where Colonel
Henry Watterson, one of the trustees of the Association, and
Adlai E. Stevenson, former Vice-President of the United States,

388 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

himself a Kentuckian, made the formal orations welcoming back
to its native soil the cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was
born.

The most cordial cooperation has been pledged by many o!
the surviving commanding generals of the Confederate Army,
and the Grand Army of the Republic has officially endorsed the
work of the Association, and empowered its commander-in-chief
to call upon its upwards of six thousand posts and to enlisting
all patriotic citizens as members of the Association.

On the 1 2th day of February, 1909, the nation will celebrate
the one hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth. On that day
the Lincoln Farm Association will dedicate the birthplace farm
to the American people. The principal address will be made
by President Roosevelt, and the nation's most distinguished
representatives, North and South, will take part in this dedication
and centennial celebration. No national park within our vast
domain can emphasize our national ideals and our abiding union
as will this birthplace farm.

Ninety-eight years have passed since these rough rolling acres
made claim to the affections of coming generations. The soil
which cradled the man of tender strength, and the air which
first fed the heart that suffered for a whole distracted people,
and not for a single section, can serve a nobler end than ripening
corn and squashes. The inspiration of high citizenship must ever
emanate from such a spot. In these years, so crammed with
eager life and so possessed with appetite for gain, the lesson
of the Lincoln Farm becomes the nation's imperative need.
Democracy is ever humble. The full-grown souls made at simple
shrines are worth our emulation. The light of history is with
each succeeding year revealing with greater clearness the rare
beauty of Lincoln's strong spirit. He harmonized his high ideals
of speech with conduct; and back of the black clouds of passion
through which this uncouth figure led his divided people there
always shone the soft radiance of a love unsoiled by a single
touch of hate. The country not only reveres the memory of
Abraham Lincoln, but it loves the man. To his people — the
" plain people " — shall ever be entrusted the care of his first
home, and there they shall, as he himself said he always tried
to do, " pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever a flower will
grow."

The past half century's unparalleled development of material
riches and prosperity has not given our nation the supremacy of
the commercial world without cost. Our keener patriotic sensi
bilities have been dulled in the strenuous competition for indi
vidual success. It is a pathetic truth which supports Colonel

WHERE WAS LINCOLN BORN? 389

Henry Watterson's assertion that to-day we love the dollar as
once we loved liberty. Though we are a virile people we are
not without need of these things that remind us of times when
cheeks blushed for the sorrows of men.

To Lincoln's people to-day is given the rare privilege of
revealing to all generations to come that high strain of patriotism
known to Lincoln's men of nearly fifty years ago. If laws
safeguard nations less than songs, and sentiment alone inspires
the souls of men, how better can we ensure the perpetuation
of our country's glory than by keeping alive and before us the
heroic and unselfish achievements of those who made firm our
foundations in the past?

This birthplace farm will symbolize to our posterity the strong
heroism that left the New England hills and the fertile valleys
of Virginia, self-sufficient in their needs, to hew a nation out of
a wilderness. It lies in the neutral State that in our great crisis
was torn by its loyalty to all the stars in the flag. It will forever
be a monument to our union rather than to our lamentable differ
ences — and it will be the most signal tribute ever paid by the
American people to the nation's greatest servant.

Richard Lloyd Jones, who represented Collier's Weekly in
the purchase of the Lincoln Farm, and was made President of
Lincoln Farm Association, was at the time managing editor of
Collier's Weekly. It was through his influence, in good part,
that Mr. Collier became interested. Back of the interest of Mr.
Jones lay the interest of his father, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones,
Pastor of All Soul's Church, Chicago, editor of Unity, veteran of
the Civil War, and fearless champion of a hundred good causes.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, more than any other man, deserves to be
remembered as the rescuer of the Lincoln Birthplace.

He visited the place in February, 1904, and found it neglected
and held in no high local regard. He wrote an article which was
published in Unity March 24, 1904, calling on Congress to pur
chase the farm and on the people to contribute memorial buildings,
museum, and so on. His whole plan has not been followed, and
need not here be reprinted, but the substance of his article and
plea was this :

A slow, chilly drive through a drizzling rain over a pasty red
clay road of three miles from the little village of Hodgenville,
Kentucky, brought me to the cradle spot of the greatest American,
the sole American who shares with Washington the love and
admiration of the civilized world. Washington and Lincoln are

390 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

the two names that have been lifted above all sectional, party and
social prejudices. They have ceased even to be American — they
belong to Humanity. King and Peasant, Monarchy and Republic,
rich and poor, foreign and native, North and South, unite in
honoring them.

It is a touching tribute to both that their names are so often
connected and are fast becoming indissoluble. In the estimation
of the competent as well as in the admiration of the young it is
not Washington or Lincoln, but it is Washington and Lincoln.
There is no occasion for invidious comparison. So different are
they there is no chance for rival interests, for local or other
jealousies. So removed are they in time and temperament, so
different were their tasks, that they can never be considered as
antagonists or rivals. Washington created, Lincoln perpetuated.
Washington directed the crude forces of a primitive country,
Lincoln directed and controlled the same forces grown turbulent
and for a mad space of time defiant and antagonistic

Proud is the Nation that has produced both a Washington
and a Lincoln, so different and yet so near akin. Washington
was noble; so was Lincoln, but he was loving too. Washington
was just; so was Lincoln, but he added to justice, gentleness.
Washington was sagacious; so was Lincoln, and he was also
witty. Washington was pre-eminently guided by the head, he
was the judgment of his people and his cause; Lincoln, not
wanting in judgment, was dominated by the heart; he was the
providence of his people, the friend of his foes, and in the light of
time his foes have become his appreciative friends and loyal
champions.

And still the birthplace of this great American is the picture
of desolation and neglect. The humble cabin wherein he was
born has been carried away as a curious show; there remain to
mark the spot only a crude pole set in the ground and a few
flagstones left there by Nature or by chance. Even the famous
spring of water is desecrated and neglected accessible to pigs,
cattle and horses. This spring still flows with delicious water,
but the pilgrim who drinks from it must drink as I was glad
to do without the help of cup or goblet. It still pours its wealth
of water from under the overhanging cliffs, as it did when it at
tracted Thomas Lincoln, the carpenter, and led him to pre
empt his homestead, to cut the logs and to build the hut into
which he brought his bride, Nancy Hanks, and where the three chil
dren were born to them.

The great trees are gone, but the ride of sixty-four miles
from Louisville enables the tourist to judge even yet what the
great forest must have been in its pristine glory. The solitary
sycamores, the stately elms, the great oaks and the vigilant pines

WHERE WAS LINCOLN BORN? 391

that still remain, suggest the impressive surroundings of the
little cabin into which, on the twelfth day of February, 1809,
Abraham Lincoln was born. The farm of no acres, the title of
which is only two or three removes from the land warrant of
Thomas Lincoln, is now worse than an abandoned field. The
title is in litigation, and the local estimate holds the land well
nigh valueless. Fifteen hundred dollars was mentioned as an
extravagant price for it. An old house in a state of advanced
dilapidation remains on the place and is occupied by an intelligent
man of the mountain type, who seems to act as an unauthorized,
at least as an unremunerated custodian. A bill was introduced
into the Kentucky Legislature a few weeks ago for the purchase
by the State of this farm and providing for setting it apart as a
memorial park, forever dedicated to the public; but the fate of
this bill seemed to be a matter of supreme indifference to the
residents of Hodgenville; indeed, its very existence appeared to
be unknown to many of them. The attitude of this otherwise
thrifty little village seems to be that of indifference, not of igno
rance. My driver expressed the public sentiment when he said,
" We people here think it mighty common, but folks what come
from north of the Ohio river make a great to-do about it, and
fuss around cutting sas'f ras sticks and the like." Surely this ought
not to be. The intelligence of our own country, our obligation
to the future and our respect for the " consensus of the com
petent " of the world over ought to lift this neglected shrine into
the dignity and respect that become the birthplace of a great
historical character.

This cannot be done by local enthusiasm, nor does it seem
to me to be a State problem or obligation. It is a national lesson,
a national opportunity which rises into a national obligation.
Surely the government that is expending millions of dollars on the
historic parks of Arlington, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Missionary
Ridge and Vicksburg, could spend a few thousands in preserving
this shrine as a pacific memorial to the civilian whose splendor
outshines all the epauleted heroes of all our wars.

How is this to be done? First let the Lincoln farm be bought
by the Government, then all else will follow easily. Once the
title is secured, a sense of permanence and of adequate mainten
ance will be assured. Then something like the following should
speedily follow:

A word as to the general treatment of the farm. It should
be all fenced with a good honest rail fence, worm pattern, six
rails high, properly blocked, staked and ridered — " such a fence
as father used to build." Such a fence could be made picturesque,
for there is the possibility of art in a rail fence as there is in a
marble statue.

392 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The farm is divided by a public road. On the spring side
it should be brought to as high a stage of park cultivation as pos
sible ; lawn treatment with a few sheep, a lot of chickens and one
or two old-fashioned little red cows, not the new-fashioned Jer
seys. The opposite section of the farm, on the other side of the
road, should be restored as soon as possible to forest glory. Let
all the old trees be planted back, the necessary walks arranged
for, and then let Nature do her work, and a hundred years from
now there will be a forest indeed, dense and majestic, such as
the botanist will delight to visit. Near the entrance on the spring
side let the Government put the noblest statue of Abraham
Lincoln that art ever produced. Awaiting something better, this
might well be a replica of St. Gaudens' noble statue, now
situated in Lincoln Park, Chicago, the most worthy representation
of the great emancipator yet modeled by sculptor's hand.

Has the time not come? Abraham Lincoln can wait; his
fame is sure, but the American children and coming generations
cannot afford to lose the passing opportunity. The old settlers
are dying, the back woods are nearly all cleared, the type of
American life represented by Thomas and Nancy Lincoln is fast
passing away. Even the relics of that life are becoming scarce,
and that life is too valuable, too full of spiritual potency, to
pregnant with divine grace and power to be forgotten and lost.
For this reason there is occasion for haste. Let the legislators
at Washington cease for awhile their clamorings and their clash-
ings in the interests of parties, sections and the enginery of
destruction, and apply themselves to this constructive task, so
easily accomplished, so filled with pacific potencies, so benignant
a contribution to history.

Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States,
was the principal speaker on the day when the Lincoln Memorial
was dedicated; but on Sunday, February n, 1917, not many
months before his own death, a service of remembrance was
held at the farm near Hodgenville, and Jenkin Lloyd Jones was
the chief orator. He was permitted to see of the fruit of his own
toil. The author of this volume met him a few days afterward
at Cumberland Gap, and the glow of that memory was still upon
the heroic old soldier.

The early illustrated biographies of Lincoln contain a steel
engraving showing what purports to have been his birthplace.
Even in the Lincoln home in Springfield, this engraving is shown
as " the house where Mr. Lincoln was born and where he lived
the first seven years of his life." Even the Chicago Historical

WHERE WAS LINCOLN BORN? 393

Society displayed the engraving with the same information until
it was recently corrected. That picture is not of the house
where Lincoln was born, but of the house where Thomas and
Nancy lived in Elizabethtown when they were first married,
and which the early biographers assumed to have been also his
birthplace. A number of reputable works have easily, and par
donably, fallen into the same error.

Even among such cabins as abounded in primitive Kentucky,
the Lincoln home was humble. Many log houses had two rooms,
with an open porch between and a stone fireplace at each end.
Not so the Lincoln house, which was small and with a stick
chimney.

The farm which Thomas Lincoln occupied was as sterile as
any in the region. It was nearly destitute of timber and its
growth was low bushes and " barren grass." The land was pleas
antly rolling, and nearly all of it tillable. But the soil was a
stubborn clay, which even now is only meagerly productive. If
Thomas Lincoln had been a very enterprising man he would have
bought a better farm, for land was the cheapest thing in sight in
those days and no one possessed of enterprise had difficulty in
buying a really good tract.

What title, if any, Thomas Lincoln ever had to this farm is
not known. Recorded deeds were few., Land transfers were
commonly made on what was called a land bond. The bond by
which a portion of this same farm, including the site of the
birthplace, came into the possession of the Creal family is in
existence. It is signed by E. Duckworth, who had inherited it
from William Duckworth, deceased, and is made to Micajah
Middleton under date of August 17, 1827. A year later, on
July 21, 1828, Micajah Middleton endorsed this contract to
Richard Creal, whose name in the contract is spelled Crail. The
maker of such a bond was theoretically required at any time to
change a warranty deed for it, but in a majority of cases this
formality was dispensed with.

It is not known that Thomas Lincoln had even this kind of
title. Land was sometimes taken over by verbal contract and
boundaries were established by piling a little brush at each of the
corners. Exact boundaries were seldom attempted, excepting
where a stream or other natural object gave a fixed line. Tech
nically, Thomas Lincoln's title to the place where his son Abraham
was born may have been nothing more than that of a squatter;

394 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

but even squatters' titles had a value in that day and they were
generally respected. Whatever the character of Thomas Lin
coln's claim upon this land, it afforded him all the protection
he needed during the brief period of his occupancy. This is
supposed to have been about four years, but there is good reason
to doubt his living there for even so long a period as this.

APPENDIX IX
DOCUMENTS OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY

1. THE WILL OF ISAAC LINCOLN

In the name of God, Amen. I, Isaac Lincoln, of the County
of Carter and State of Tennessee, being sick and weak of body,
but of sound mind and disposing memory (for which I thank
God) and calling to mind the uncertainty of human life, and
being desirous to dispose of all such worldly substance as it has
pleased God to bless me with, I give, devise, and bequeath the
same in manner following, that is to say:

1st. I desire that all my just debts and funeral expenses be
paid out of my perishable property, by my executrix hereinafter
named.

2ndly. After the payment of my debts and funeral expenses,
I give, devise and bequeath to my wife, Mary Lincoln, all my
real and personal estate to dispose of as she may think proper.

3rdly and lastly. I do hereby constitute and appoint my be
loved wife, Mary Lincoln, my sole executrix of this my last will
and testament, hereby revoking all others or former wills or
testaments, by me heretofore made. In witness whereof I have
hereunto set my hand and seal this the 22nd day of April in the
Year of our Lord, 1816.

Signed, Sealed, Published and Declared to be the last will
and testament of the above named Isaac Lincoln, in the presence
of us, who at his request and in his presence have hereunto sub
scribed our names as witnesses to same.

(Signed) ISAAC LINCOLN.

GEORGE W. CARTER.

GODFREY CARRIGER.

DANIEL STOVER.

CHRISTIAN CARRIGER.

2. THE WILL OF MARY LINCOLN

I, Mary Lincoln, of the County of Carter in the State of Ten
nessee, being of sound mind and memory, though weak of body,
and being anxious to dispose of all such worldly property as
my Creator has left me with, do hereby make, ordain and estab
lish this as my last will and testament. I give my soul to God

896 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

who created it, hoping that He will receive and bless me in a
world of happiness hereafter; and when I shall have departed
this life, I desire that my executor hereinafter named shall give
my body a decent and Christian burial.

First. I will, give, devise and bequeath to Campbell Crow,
the lower plantation, it being the one on which he now lives,
adjoining the lands of Alfred M. Carter on the West and South,
and of John Carriger on the East.

Second. I will, give, and bequeath to Phoebe Crow, wife of
Campbell Crow, my negro girl, Margaret and her four children,
to wit, Lucy, Mina, Martin and Mahalla.

Third. I will, give, devise and bequeath to William Stover,
the plantation on which I now live, with all the hereditaments
appurtenances to the same belonging, the said plantation sup
posed to be composed of two different parcels and adjoining
John Carriger's home plantation and believed also to adjoin the
land of Alfred M. Carter on the South and bounded on the East
and North by Watauga River.

I give the said plantation to the said William Stover, to have,
hold and enjoy during his life and at his death to descend to
his heirs.

Fourth. I will, give, and bequeath to William Stover, the
following negroes, to wit, Patsy (a negro girl) and her two
children, Cynthia and Landon ; also negro woman, Jane and her
two children Sam and Tom; also negro woman Mary and her
six children, to wit, Elizabeth, Campbell, Margaret, Charlotte,
Delphy and Bill ; also Caesar and Lucy, to whom I desire the
said William Stover to permit to remain during their lives on the
plantation which I have hereinbefore bequeathed to him. It
is my will that the said Stover, so long as the said Caesar and
Lucy continue to live, shall clothe and support them. I also give
and bequeath to the said William Stover, to wit, George, Phoebe,
Eliza, children of Lucy, whom I wish the said William Stover
to remain on the home plantation that they may take care of the
aforesaid negroes, Caesar and Lucy during their lives.

I also give and bequeath the following other negroes to the
said William Stover, to wit, Esther, and her seven children, that
is to say, Lavisa, Violet, Juba, Lucinda, Mary, Lewis, and Phoeba.
I also give and bequeath to the said William Stover, two other
negroes, to wit, William and Isaac, children of Lucy.

Fifth. I also give, devise and bequeath to the said William
Stover, all my horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, my wagon, all
my farming utensils, my household and kitchen furniture and
all the debts, dues and demands which may be owing to me at
the time of my decease.

DOCUMENTS OF LINCOLN FAMILY 397

Sixth. I also will, give and bequeath to Campbell Crow my
interest in any crop which he may have attended for himself
upon my land, or which he may be attending for himself upon
my land at the time of my decease.

Seventh. I also will, give and bequeath to William Stover
all the grain of every description which I own at the time of
my death.

Eighth. I will, give and devise and bequeath to Christian
Carriger, Senior, the following negroes, to wit: Negro woman
Letty and five of her children, to wit, Christy, Tennessee, Mor-
decai, Nathaniel, and also said Letty's youngest child.

Ninth. I will, give and devise to Mary Lincoln Carriger,
daughter of Christian Carriger, Senior, two negro girls, children
of Letty, to wit, Sarah, Seraphina and Ann.

Tenth. I will, devise, give and bequeath to William Stover
all the other real and personal estate, not hereinbefore specifically
named of which I may be possessed, or the owner at the time
of my decease.

Eleventh. I require the said William Stover out of the estate
herein bequeathed to him to pay and discharge all the honest
debts or claims which I may be owing or which may be against
me at the time of my death.

Lastly. I do hereby constitute, nominate and appoint the
said William Stover the executor of this my last will and testa
ment, and it is my will that the said William Stover be not
required to give any security for the discharge of his duties as
executor of this my last will and testament.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal
this the 27th day of April in the Year of our Lord, one thousand
eight hundred and thirty four.

her

MARY X LINCOLN (Seal),
mark

Signed, sealed and acknowledged in the presence of

THOS. A. R. NELSON
A. M. CARTER
A. W. TAYLOR.

3. THE FAMILY OF ISAAC LINCOLN

Memoranda of James G. Jenkins, Elizabethtown, Tenn., from
letters in 1914 and 1915, to D. J. Knotts.

I went to see L. W. Hampton, a grandson of Johnson Hamp
ton, the horse-trader you spoke of. He says he had always un
derstood that his grandfather, Johnson (not John) Hampton was

398 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

a horse-trader and visited North Carolina, West Virginia and
South Carolina in his travels. At the time of my call Mrs.
Hampton had become a spiritualist and Mr. Hampton was getting
into the business also. In a short time he lost his mind over
spiritualism and is now in the insane asylum. He came to me
and told me that he had called up the spirit of his grandfather
and his grandfather refused to talk on the subject very much.
He came to the conclusion that his grandfather was the father
of Abraham Lincoln.

Isaac Lincoln married Mary Ward, and my great grand
father, Daniel Stover, married also a Ward, a sister of Mary.
Isaac had one child and it was drowned when very young. They
took my great uncle, William Stover and raised him, and at
Mrs. Lincoln's death he inherited most of their estate. They
were wealthy for their day. William Stover married Miss Sarah
Drake, who claimed to be a descendant of Sir Francis Drake.
The Stovers came to Tennessee from Pennsylvania and were of
German descent. They were Baptists.

There is a tradition that Abraham Lincoln was born here
and his parents took him to Kentucky when a babe in their arms.
There was a cabin on the side of Lynn Mountain, near Isaac's
residence, where Tom lived. Dr. Nat Hyder, who has been dead
many years, gathered up much history and he contended that
Abe was born here and was taken to Kentucky, when a babe.

This valley was settled by God-fearing people. At first the
Presbyterians predominated, but the Baptists, being more evan
gelical, grew faster. Now the Baptists predominate, with Meth
odists second in numbers.

No family stood higher here than the Stovers. I never heard
of one of their women going astray. They were noted for
their purity. Colonel Daniel Stover married Miss Mary Johnson,
daughter of President Andrew Johnson. My grandfather was
Solomon Hendrix Stover, son of Daniel Stover and brother of
William Stover.

I am under the impression that Abraham Lincoln was born
here, but of course have no way to prove it. Of course Ken
tucky claims him.

4. ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ACCOUNT OF HIS GRANDFATHER
AND UNCLES

In a letter addressed to David Lincoln, of Virginia, and written
from Washington, April 2, 1848, and included in his works edited
by Nicolay and Hay, Vol. I., page 117, Abraham Lincoln said,
among other things :

DOCUMENTS OF LINCOLN FAMILY 399

There is no longer any doubt that your Uncle Abraham and
my grandfather was the same man. His family did reside in
Washington County, Kentucky, just as you say you found them,
in 1801 or 1802. The oldest son, Uncle Mordecai, near twenty
years ago, removed from Kentucky to Hancock County, Illinois,
where within a year or two afterward he died, and where his
surviving children now live. His two sons there now are Abra
ham and Mordecai, and their postoffice is La Harp.

Uncle Josiah, farther back than my recollection, went from
Kentucky to Blue River, Indiana. . . .

My father, Thomas, is still living in Coles County, Illinois,
being in the seventy-first year of his age. His postoffice is
Charleston, Coles County, Illinois. I am his only child. I am
in my fortieth year and live in Springfield, Sangamon County,
Illinois.

I think my father has told me that his grandfather had four
brothers, Isaac, Jacob, John and Thomas. Is this correct?. And
which of them was your father? Are any of them alive? I
am quite sure that Isaac resided on Watauga, near a point where
Tennessee and Virginia join, and that he has been dead more
than twenty, perhaps thirty years. Also that Thomas removed
to Kentucky, near Lexington, where he died a good many years
ago.

APPENDIX X
HANKS MEMORANDA

I. THE WILL OF LUKE HANKS

In the name of God, Amen, I Luke Hanks of South Carolina,
Pendleton County, being now in a weake and low state of health
but sound of memory do make this my last will and testament
this twenty first day of May seventeen hundred and eighty nine
in maner and for following viz.

Imperimus I bequeath my sole to allmighty God in hopes of
a blessed and glorious reserrection thro the merits of Jesus Christ
my savior and my body to the Earth to have a decent and Chris
tian Burial at the charge of my executors and as touching and
concerning such worldly goods as it hath pleased God to bestow
upon me I give bequeath dispose them in the maner and form
following in the first place I will that my just debts and funeral
charges be pade.

Item I give and bequeath to my dear and well beloved wife
Ann Hanks all my hole estate real and personal during her nat
ural life and at her death to be equally divide among all my chil
dren and if any of my children should marry I will that my
wife may dispose of any of my estate to them toward their sus
tenance but shall be accounted for at her death to rest of the
children and lastly I constitute and ordain my loving wife, Anne
Hanks executrix and my friend John Haynie executor of this
my last will and testament sind with my hand and sealed with
my seal the day and year within written.

his

LUKE X HANKS.
mark

In presence of

BLAKE MAULDIN
JOHN REAVES.

Note apparently by Clerk of Court:

There is no papers with the will showing what disposition
was made of the land.

400

HANKS MEMORANDA 401

2. INVENTORY AND APPRAISEMENT OF ESTATE OF LUKE HANKS,

DECEASED

Recorded in Book No. i, page 106, Records of Probate Court
of Abbeville County, South Carolina; furnished by J. F. Miller,
Judge of Probate, January 17, 1911, and certified with seal of
the Court.

I. Inventory.

We the underscribers in obedience to our order of the Court
of Abbeville County to us directed, do make the following in
ventory and appraisment of the estate of Luke Hanks, deceased,
to wit:

L S d

2 Cows and Calves — 747 — One Steer — 357 —
One Heifer 2O/ 6 — 9 — 8

1 Mare and Colt — 1507 — One Bay Filly — So/. . . IT — 10 — o

2 Bells — 5/6 — 6 Hogs — at io/ each 6o/ —

4 Shoats — 12/ 3 — 17 — 6

i Feather Bed & Furniture — I2O/ — i do do — 160
— do — do — 60 17 — o — o

1 Chest — 12/6 — i Table 3/ — i Churn — 3/ — i

Tub 2/— i— 0 — 6

2 Sad Irons — 4/ — 2 Hammers — 3/ — I Pr — Nip
pers — i/ — o — 8 — o

Table Utencils — 12/ — Parcel of plantation tools

— 39/ 2 — ii— o

2 Iron — & Hooks & other kitchen furniture 2 — 9 — o

A Parcel of Pewter & Tin— 45/— i Muskett Gun

— 17/6 3— 2 — 6

A Parcel of Leather— 57/— I Cotton Wheel— 2/

Cards 17/4 3' — 14 — 4

2 Water Pails — & 2 Piggon — 7/ • o — 7 — o

1 Tract of land — 210 acres — 42 — o — o

2 Razor Hones & Strap o — io — o

i

Given under our hands and seals this 6 day of August,. 1792 —

STEPHEN WILLIS
JOHN READ LONG
JAMES NASH
South Carolina,

Stephen Willis, James Nash and John Read Long appeared
before me and being duly sworn to appraise the estate Real and

402 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

personal, of Luke Hanks, deceased, that shall be shown them
by Ann Hanks, executrix, and John Haynie, executor.
Sworn to this 6th day of September, 1792.

ELIJAH BROWNE, P-J

II. Probation of Will, Luke Hanks, deceased.

STATE OF CAROLINA, )

ABBEVILLE COUNTY, to wit : j

In open Court this seventh day of October One thousand
seven hundred and eighty nine. Personally came Blake Mauldin,
one of the witnesses to the above will, and made oath that he
saw Luke Hanks, deceased, sign, seal, publish, pronounce and
declare the same to be his last will and testament, and that he
was then of sound and perfect mind, memory and understanding
to the best of Deponents knowledge and belief and that John
Reaves together with this deponent did subscribe their names
thereto as witnesses, in the present of the testator and at his
request, and in the presence of each other — Certified by order
of Court the day and date above written.

JOHN BROWN, C.C.

Ann Hanks, the executrix, and John Hainey, the executor,
named in the above will took the oath of executors of said will
in open Court of Abbeville County the seventh of October, 1789

(Seal of Probate Court.)

III. Extract from Letter, J. F. Miller, Probate Judge
December 30, 1910.

I find among the papers pertaining to the said estate the
following papers ; to wit ; the will of testator, the Appraise War
rant, the Appraise Bill.

The testator does not give the name of his children.

The personal property was appraised at 100 pounds — $500.
Real Estate — 210 acres — 42 pounds — $210. Date of appraise
ments August 6, 1792. J. F. MILLER.

Note. — It is important to notice that Judge Miller says, and
these documents show, that Luke Hanks does not name his
children.— W. E. B.

3. THE WILL OF JOSEPH HANKS

In the name of God Amen. I Joseph Hanks of Nelson
County, State of Kentucky, being of sound mind and memory,
but weak in body, and calling to mind the frailty ot all human

HANKS MEMORANDA 403

nature, do make and devise this my last will and testament in
the manner and form following, to wit:

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Thomas one sorrel horse

called " Major ".
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Joshua one gray mare

called " Bonny "
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son William one gray horse

called " Gilbert ".
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Charles one roan horse

called " Dove ".

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Joseph one sorrel horse
called " Bald." Also the land whereon I now live con
taining one hundred and fifty acres.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth one

heifer yearling called " Gentle."
Item. I give and bequeath to my daughter Polly one heifer

yearling called " Lady."
Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Nancy one heifer

yearling called " Piedy ".

Item. I give and bequeath unto my wife Nancy all and singular
my whole estate during her life. Afterwards to be
equally divided between all my children.
It is also my will and desire that the whole of the property
above bequeathed should be the property of my wife during
her life.

And lastly I constitute ordain and appoint my wife Nancy
as Executrix of and Executrix to this my last will and testament.
Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of us this eighth day
of January, One thousand seven hundred and ninety three.

his

JOSEPH X HANKS (seal)
ISSAC LANSDALE mark

JOHN DAVIS
PETER ATHERTON.

At a court begun and held for Nelson County on Tuesday
the fourteenth day of May, 1793. This last will and testament of
Joseph Hanks dec'd was produced in court and sworn to by
William Hanks, one of the executors therein named and was
proved by the oaths of Isaac Lansdale and John Davis, sub
scribing witnesses thereto, and ordered to be recorded.

Attest. BEN GRAYSON, Clerk.
A Copy

Attest. MORGAN GILKEY, Clerk

Nelson County Court, November 10, 1913.

404 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

4. NOTES ON THE HANKS FAMILY

From Letters of Mrs. J. T. Manon (Mary Ellen Hanks,
daughter of John Hanks), with some assistance from her cousin
Mrs. M. E. Jordan, in letters to D. J. Knotts, February and
March, 1913, and July n and October 27, 1913.

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION.

I am a daughter of John Hanks, who split rails with Abraham
Lincoln and carried the rails into the Republican Convention in
1860.

I was born in Illinois in 1844, married Dec. 31, 1868, to J. T.
Manon, and removed to Humbolt County, California, November

1875.

My father's father lived near the Falls of Rough Creek,
Kentucky. His name was William Hanks.

My father, John Hanks, was born near the Falls of Rough,
Ky., February 9, 1802; married Susan Malindy Wilson. He
moved to Illinois in 1826, and died July I, 1889, near Decatur.

My mother, Susan Malindy Hanks, was born Feb. 14, 1804,
and died March n, 1865, m Macon County, Illinois.

John and Susan Hanks were parents of the following children :
William, married
Louis
Jane
Phelix

Emily Grayson
Mary Ellen
Levi

The children of William (?) and Hanks were:

Sons : Charles married a Miss Morehead

John (my father) married Susan Malindy Wilson
James

William married Polly Young
Joseph married Sarah Freeman
Jackson

Daughters : Nancy married a Mr. Miller
Celia married a Mr. Dunham
Lucy or Lucinda married a Mr. Douglas
Elizabeth or Betsy married a Mr. Ray and

afterward a Mr. Dillen.

I remember hearing Father speak of the Sparrows and Ship-
leys, but know nothing definite about them.

HANKS MEMORANDA 405

My grandfather was a shoemaker and a farmer. He died
in Sangamon Co., 111.

I knew Dennis Hanks very well. He was a shoemaker, and
a first (?) cousin of my father. I think his mother was a sister
of Lincoln's mother.

I know nothing definite about the Friend family.

Dennis was one of those stray boys who often come into
the world with no known father. He took the name of Hanks
from his mother. His mother was a cousin of John Hanks.

John Hanks was a Universalist until a few years before his
death when he joined the Disciples. Some of my brothers be
longed to the Baptist Church; one sister to the Congregational;
one to the United Brethren. I belong to the Methodists.

I know nothing about our distant relatives.

My uncles were rather above the medium height; so was
my father, who weighed about 200 pounds.

My cousin, Mrs. M. E. Jordan, is a daughter of my father's
sister Lucy or Lucinda. Her maiden name was Douglas.

Mr. Knotts has made a pencil note on Mrs. Manon's letter
with reference to her grandfather's name. At first she was not
sure if it was Joseph or Thomas. Later, after conferring with
Mrs. Jordan, they agreed that it was William. Mr. Knotts says
that records show that William's wife was Betty, and the His
torical Society says it was Elizabeth Hall.

Mrs. Manon's statement that her father was first cousin to
Dennis Hanks appears to be contradicted by the statement that
his mother was a cousin of John Hanks. John and Dennis were
not first cousins ; Mrs. Manon is mistaken about this, and appears
to be correct in saying that Nancy, the mother of Dennis, was
John's first cousin. However, the question is difficult, and I
have not been able, with the information now available, to reach
a conclusion in these matters. I give these memoranda for what
ever they are worth.

The article in The Atlantic Monthly for February, 1920, by
Mr. Arthur E. Morgan, a prominent civil engineer of Dayton,
Ohio, told a very interesting story of Mr. Morgan's travels in
the Ozarks and of his meeting with certain representatives of
the Hanks family ; and also of his securing additional information
through a friend, who, as I now learn from Mr. Morgan, was
then Miss Lucy Griscom, and is now Mrs. Arthur E. Morgan,
on a journey to Oregon, where she met other representatives

406 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

of the Hanks family. The following is my own summary of
the genealogical part of Mr. Morgan's article :

THE HANKS FAMILY.

As disclosed by Mr. Arthur E. Morgan in Atlantic for
February, 1920.

SARAH, or POLLY HANKS, sister of Lincoln's mother,
never married, but had six children, inter alia, SOPHIE, who
died in November, 1895. Her three children were living in differ
ent parts of the Ozarks in 1909.

These three children of SOPHIE HANKS were children of
at least two different fathers, one of whom was named Lynch.
The other's name is not given. It is not stated whether she was
married to either or both of these men.

Of only one of SOPHIE HANKS' children is much detail
given, and his surname is not stated.

These three children are :

1. JOHN LYNCH, who lived east of Iron Mountain, Mo.
Very old, memory failing. He was a voter in 1861, and voted
against Lincoln, and is thus older than the son who was Mr.
Morgan's chief source of information.

2. Mrs. NANCY DAVIDSON, maiden name not given, liv
ing in 1909 with her husband at Limestone Valley, Ark.

3. "THE DOCTOR" born in Dubois County, Indiana,
December 26, 1843; his name withheld. In spring of 1847 ^e
moved from Indiana to St. Francis County, Mo. Taught school,
served in Civil War, and " practiced physic " living in Jasper,
Ark., 1874-1909 since when he has lived in Harrison, Ark., hav
ing given up his practice. The Doctor is Mr. Morgan's chief
source of information concerning Lincoln's school days in Indi
ana, and his information is in essential accord with such as we
already have, and confirms that of Dennis Hanks, our best wit
ness on the youth of Lincoln, though he is none too good. The
Doctor's information is through his mother, Sophie Hanks.

The. Doctor said his grandmother, Sarah or Polly Hanks, and
Nancy Hanks, Lincoln's mother, were half-sisters, and also
cousins. This means that one man, President Lincoln's grand
father, had relations with the two Hanks sisters, Polly and
Nancy. If so much as that was known in the Hanks family,
more must have been known. What was the name of this man?

The article interested me much, and raised more questions
than it answered.

Mr. Morgan has generously given me all the information
which he has been able to secure. I regret that it does not

HANKS MEMORANDA 407

answer the more important of my questions. He gives the
name of " The Doctor " as James Legrand, and says that on
the question of the father of Nancy Hanks he could obtain no
additional information:

Referring to the Doctor's remark that Nancy Hanks, and
Sarah, or Polly, were half-sisters, also cousins, I have no in
formation beyond that contained in the Atlantic article and the
notes inclosed. In many cases interesting facts were lost. Some
times the Doctor or his wife were willing to fill in the gaps, but
when I questioned them closely, I found they were uncertain.
I last heard from the Doctor indirectly in January, 1920, at
which time he was very sick with pneumonia. Letters to his
wife have not been answered. I am at present making an effort
to get in touch with the family, and hope to be able to supply
this information soon.

The Doctor had 18 half-sisters and brothers, and one whole
sister, nineteen in all.

The information obtained by Miss Griscom, now Mrs. Mor
gan, is from John T. Hanks, son of Dennis Hanks, and grandson
of Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln. He said to her:

" Abe Lincoln's step-mother was my grandmother," which
was true. John was born in Indiana in 1828, and was one of
the sixteen people who went to Illinois in 1830. He was sure
that Abraham Lincoln's mother died, not in Indiana, but in
Kentucky. He was sure the poverty of Abe in his boyhood
had been exaggerated; Abe did not need to read by the light
of pine-knots, since there were candles abundant from the fam
ily's own hogs.1

In the same place in Oregon lived James Lewis Hanks, a
son of John Hanks. He and John T. were rivals in their stories
about their intimacy with Abraham Lincoln.

Miss Griscom compiled in a family tree their joint knowledge
of their lineage. Mr. Morgan calls attention to manifest errors
in it, and they lie plain on the face of it. It is very well worth
reproducing here, however, for it shows that in the memory
of these two old men, one the son of John Hanks and the other
the son of Dennis, Nancy Hanks was legitimate.

The family, as these two men gave the data to Miss Griscom,

*Did people make candles from the lard of hogs? The author does
not remember candles of that character.

408 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

was descended from Joseph and Nancy Hanks. They gave the
names of five children of this couple :

1. William Hanks, father of John Hanks, who split rails
with Lincoln; who had, at the time of this interview, two living
children, James Lewis Hanks, of Canyonville, Oregon, and Mrs.
Mary Ellen Hanon, of Eureka, California.

2. Nancy Hanks, who married Thomas Lincoln and became
the mother of Abraham.

3. Sarah Hanks, who married M. M. Broun, and who had
a living daughter, Mrs. Billy Carrol, of Portland, Oregon.

4. Lucy Hanks, mother of Dennis. Dennis married Sarah
Johnston, daughter of the step-mother of President Lincoln ; and
had four living children when this interview was had, — Mrs.
Harriet Chapman, of Charleston, Illinois ; Mrs. Amanda Porman,
of Matoon, Illinois ; John T. Hanks, of Day's Creek, Oregon, who
had eleven children, all scattered; and Theophilus Hanks, of
Denver, Colorado.

5. " Mrs. Sparrow!' John T. Hanks said that Mr. Sparrow
brought Dennis up as his own son, and left him his property;
which is doubtless correct.

This is all the information which Mr. Morgan could procure
for me up to July 2, 1920. It is not all reliable, but it is valuable
to any one who is to work on the Hanks family, and is given
here, with thanks to Mr. Morgan, for whatever it may be worth.

As this book goes to press, I have a letter from Mrs. Legrand,
wife of " The Doctor." He is seriously ill, probably with tuber
culosis, and not expected to recover. Mr. Morgan did well to
obtain the information when he did. Mrs. Legrand makes one
correction. " My husband is not first cousin, but second cousin,
of Abe Lincoln. Abe and the Doctor's mother were not sisters,
but first cousins."

APPENDIX XI
WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN A GERMAN?

In 1901 a paper was read before the Fifteenth Annual Meet
ing of the Society of Germans in Maryland, by Louis Paul Hen-
nighausen, in which he endeavored to prove that Abraham Lin
coln was of German descent. The argument was based largely on
the fact that the name Lincoln is found in several documents
spelled " Linkhorn," which, the writer claimed, is a German
name. He held, with considerable skill of argument, that this
name had been Anglicized into Lincoln and a false pedigree
manufactured to fit the change. The ancestors of the President,
as he set forth, came from Pennsylvania into Virginia; and he
maintained that they were originally Pennsylvania Germans.

This paper was published in the proceedings of the German
Society and it attracted wide attention. The Germans claim
Shakespeare; why not Lincoln?

Ingenious as was the argument of Herr Hennighausen, it
was utterly fallacious. The name Lincoln is a good, old English
name, and it has been traced back, generation by generation,
through Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, to
Massachusetts and thence to England, and President Lincoln's
right to use it in its original spelling is incontestable.

Moreover, no German name Linkhorn has been found in
Pennsylvania, nor has any family connection been traced whereby
a German family of any like name could have quartered arms
with the family of Abraham Lincoln.

The Hennighausen argument is fully answered in a book
entitled Abraham Lincoln: An American Migration, published,
1909, by William J. Campbell, of Philadelphia. The author is
Marion Dexter Learned, Professor of the Germanic Languages
and Literature in the University of Pennsylvania.

The typical American is often represented as necessarily
of mixed nationality ; Abraham Lincoln's claim to be fairly repre
sentative of the life of his nation cannot be based upon any
such admixture. While we are not able to trace with complete

409

410 PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

certainty the ancestral line of Nancy Hanks, we have no reason
to believe that she was on either side of other than Virginia blood.
The Hanks line is Anglo-Saxon, unmixed so far as we know,
through its generations in the colonies, with families other than
those of English descent. Thomas Lincoln was on both sides, of
pure Anglo-Saxon blood. Both families came originally from
New England through Virginia into the western country. In
coming down through Pennsylvania either family might have
intermarried with the Pennsylvania Germans, but so far as we
know neither family did. The hardy Scotch-Irish stock which
contributed so worthily to the conquest of the wilderness and to
the population of the hill country of Kentucky, yielded so far as
we are informed no single drop of its warm red blood to the life
of Abraham Lincoln. Few American families have been traced
with greater care than his, and so far as we know he was in every
line of his ancestry American of pure Anglo-Saxon descent.

INDEX

"Andrew," alleged foster son of
Chief- Justice Marshall, 107-112,
207-213.

Antietam, Lincoln's visit to battle
field, 22-3.

Arthur, John P., 114, 123, 132, 143,

145, 204, 215.

Athertpnville distillery, 201.
Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 275, 406

seq.

Barrett, Joseph H., 271.

Bartlett, D. W., 312.

Bartlett, Truman H., xi.

Battle, Walker, 83.

Beck, H. J., 90.

Berea College Library, xi.

Berry, Richard, 218, 279, 327, 330.

Beveridge, Albert J., 208-9.

Binns, Life of Lincoln," 33.

Bixby, W. 1C, 291.

Black, Chauncey F., 41, 42, 46, 335,

Bonham, Gen. M. L., 145.
Booker, W. F., 35, 201, 248, 329 seq.
Boone, Daniel, 25.
Boyd, Lucinda J., 107-112, 207-213.
Bristow, B. H., 329 seq.
Brown, Dr. W. C, 133.
Browne, R. J., 248, 329 seq.
Brownfield, David T., 69, 381.
Brownfield, George, 20, 69-71, 189-

191, 259.

Brownfield, John, 379.
Buchanan, Pres. James, 239 seq.
Buckley, Rev. J. M., 325.
Burt, Gen. A., 127, 135, 224.
Burton, John E., 98-100, 156.
Byrd, Mrs. Anna L., 122.

Calhoun, John C., 18, 24, 103, 113-

146, 214-225.
Camp-meeting, 60, 162-5.

Cathey, James H., 79 seq., 124, 202-
206, 214.

Chapman, " Latest Light on Lin
coln," 33.

Charlotte, "Observer" 74, 203.

Charnwood, "Life of Lincoln," 33.

Christie, P. B., 138.
Clay, Henry, 236^.
Cleveland, H. W., 337.
Coleman, W. M., 55 seq.
Collier, Robert J., 348, 389.
Collier's Weekly, 389.
Collins, History of Kentucky, 161.
Collins, J. A., 88.
Conley, W. H., 84
Courier- Journal, Louisville, 30.
Creal, Chas. F., 165, 347.
Creal, Hon. Richard W., 165, 171-5,
377-

Daviess, Maria T., 275.

Davis, David, 328-335.

Davis, Jefferson, 73, 117, 135, 136,

138, 236.

Davis, Valentine, 146.
Davidson, Colonel A. T., 77, 78,

124, 203.

Dennett, A. W., 173, 348.
Dills, Philip, 82.
Dills, William, 87.
Dunlop, J. K., 42.

Elkin, Rev. David, 45, 112, 137,

299.

Enlaw, or Enlaws, Isom, 176 seq.
Enloe, Abraham, 19, 24, 74 seq., 117,

203-206.

Enloe, Wesley, 74 seq., 92.
Enloe, W. A., 91.
Enlow, Abraham, 19, 24, 46, 57, 65-

68, 157-188, 309, 314, 317, 320-321.
Enlow, Robert, 182, 378.
Everett, Capt. Ep., 85.

Fell, Jesse W., 17, 27, 53, 290, 319-

Fish, Daniel, xi, 320.

Franklin, Benjamin, 232.

Friend, Jesse, 44.

Friend, John C, 382.

Fremont, John C, 312.

Fuller, Thomas, 244.

Geiger, G. H., xi, 120, 221.
Geoghegan, Denton, 251 seq.
Goodwin, Rev. Thomas, 271.

411

412

INDEX

Graham, Christopher C, 25, 30, 31,

269, 336 seq.
Grant, U. S., 334-
Griffin, A. P. C, xi, 320
Grigsby, Aaron, 127, 139, 251, 259,

272, 355

Grundy, Felix, 247, 336.
Gunther, C. R, xi.

Hall, Levi, 44

Handley, L. B, 70, 165.

Hanie, John, and his family, 119.

Hanks, Betsy, wife of Thomas
Sparrow, 44, 218, 280.

Hanks, Dennis F., on Thomas Lin
coln's treatment of Abraham, 36,
43; his statements concerning
Abraham and Thomas Lincoln,
42, 286, 302; his parentage, 44,
141, 299, 405; his veracity arid
accuracy, 46, 51-54, 301, 306-7, 407.

Hanks family, their social status,
36, 60, 93; their tangled geneal
ogy, 115, uSseq., 216, 219, 276,
277, 280, 401 seq.

Hanks girls, their behavior, reputa
tion and marriages, 44, 60, 162-5,

299-
Hanks, John, 45, 140, 141, 287, 301,

302, 405.
Hanks, Joseph, 217, 2^S seq.; memo

randa of family, 401 seq.
Hanks, Lucy, mother of Nancy, and

wife of Henry Sparrow, 39, 44,

in, 115, 207, 280.
Hanks, Luke and Ann, and their

descendants, 115, 145, 215-225.
Hanks, Mary Ellen (Manon), 115,

131, 139, 140, 142, 144,
Hanks, Nancy, mother of Dennis,

and wife of Levi Hall, 44, 280.
Hanks, Nancy, confusing frequency

of the name, 216, 217, 218, 226;

the first Nancy Hanks, 286.
Hanks, Polly, wife of Jesse Friend,

44, 280.

Hanks, Sophie, 275, 407.
Hardesty, William, 245, 372.
Hardin, Martin D., 20, 24, 105-6,

200-202, 334.
Harris, Benjamin, 119.
Hay, Milton, 360.
Haycraft, Samuel Jr., 3,5, 160, 161,

313, 319, 350, 358.
Haycraft, Samuel, Sr., 188, 354.
Head, Rev. E. B., 325.
Head, Rev. Jesse, 25, 28, 73, 115,

116, 142, 196, 197, 202, 226, 246-
248, 286, 326, 336 seq.

Helm, Ben Hardin, 161 ; his widow,
161, 176.

Helm, J. B., 60, 98, 161, 198.

Henry, Patrick, 202.

Herndon, Archer G., 303.

Herndon, William H., quoted, 20,
95; his theory of Lincoln's pa
ternity, 25, 37; knew the date of
marriage of Lincoln's parents,
27; history of Lincoln's secret,
39; the alleged suppression of his
first edition, 37, 96, 100, 117, 206,
228; his visit to Kentucky, 160;
story of camp-meeting, 161 ; de
scription of Nancy Hanks, 273;
his^ final opinion of Lincoln's
legitimacy, 303-311; mayor of
Springfield, 303 ; contradictions
of his life, 304; his daughter's
testimony, 365 ; his feeling toward
Lincoln, 360 seq. ; Reed s sharp
criticism, 367 'seq.; his death, 304.

History, what is it?, 149^5.

Hitchcock, Mrs. Caroline Hanks,
19, 31, 274, 277, 279, 347, 383.

Holbert, George, xi, 252, 262.

Holland, J. G., Life of Lincoln, 192.

Homer, 21.

Hornback, Nancy, no, 195-7, 207.

Illinois College, 303.

Ingersoll, R. G., 102.

Inlow, Abraham, 20, 72-3, 107-112.

Irwin, J. L., 349, 35O, 359-

Jefferson, Thomas, 232.
Jenkins, J. D., 127.
Johnson, Andrew, 29, 242.
Johnston, John D., 267, 200, 292-4,

302.
Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 269, 272, 295,

389 seq.

Jones, Richard Lloyd, 385^4., 389.
Journal, Boston, quoted, 328.

Kieth, W. D., 378.

Knotts, D. J., 113-146, 214-225.

Lamon, Ward Hill, sang songs for
Lincoln, 23; wished to deny a
slanderous story, 23; his theory
of Lincoln's paternity, 25, 28, 37,
40, 41-48, 95; alleged attempt to
suppress his book, 37, 96, 100,
206, 228; admitted marriage of

INDEX

413

Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, 160;
his book first to suggest Lincoln's
illegitimacy, 320; gave rise to the
Hardin story, 200; occasioned the
discovery of the marriage return,
201 ; his description of Nancy
Hanks, 274; his possible error as
to Joseph Hanks, 279; his book
quoted, 287, 288, 290, 291, SZQseq.,

LaRue, Rev. A. W., iSoseq.

LaRue, John, 176 seq.

Latimer, Hon. A. C, 132.

Lea and Hutchinson, cited, 19, 257,
261, 277, 345-

Lee, Robert E., 103, 242.

Legrand, Dr. James, 276, 406^5.

Lewis, J. B., 122.

Libel, law of, protects the reputa
tion of the dead as well as living,

154-

Library of Congress, xi, 320.

Lincoln, Abraham, sixteenth presi
dent of the U. S., meagerness of
biographical information in 1860,
17, 159; campaign of 1864, 17,
159; knew of rumors concerning
his birth, 22, 39-40; felt the pri
vations of youth, 38; did not
know in what county the mar
riage of his parents was recorded,
23, 40; his birth, fact and date,
41, 165, 225, 244 seq.; where be
gotten, 166, 225 ; did he honor his
father and mother?, 287 seq.; the
place of his birth, 384 seq.; his
lineage not German but Anglo-
Saxon, 409-410.

Lincoln family in America, 257.

Lincoln family record, 115.

Lincoln, Isaac, 117, 126, 249 seq.;

259, 395-

Lincoln, Mary Todd, 300.

Lincoln, Mary, wife of Isaac, 395.

Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, mother of
the President, her marriage to
Thomas Lincoln, 25, 226, 246, 279,
325, 326, 330 seq.; discovery of
the marriage return, 328 seq.; her
appearance, 45, 58, 273 seq.; Hern-
don's tract concerning her, 50-54;
her home in Elizabethtown, 285;
her home in the " plum-orchard,"
70; her home near Hodgenville,
70; date of her birth variously
given, 116; signed her name with
cross, 127 ; was she the heiress of

the pied heifer?, 141, 220, 226, 278,
279, 280 ; left no personal memory
of herself in Elizabethtown, 160;
no rumor affecting her chastity
during her life in LaRue or
Hardin Counties, 161, 167, 170,
174, 188, 190; not a cousin of
Thomas Lincoln, 267 ; her ances
try, 218-221, 276, 280, 407; what
we know about her, 272 seq.;
Herndon's description, 273 ;
Lamon's description, 274; Mrs.
Hitchcock's description, 274 ; ten
dency to change her to a blonde,
275; never lived in a home of her
own, 285; her religion, 286; her
funeral, 298 ; her grave, 295.

Lincoln, Sarah Bush, 36, 59, 136,
137, 259, 289, 297, 298, 313, 314.

Lincoln, Sarah, sister of Abraham
and wife of Aaron Grigsby, 28,
166, 187, 106, 197, 251, 259, 271,
314, 333, 338.

Lincoln, spelling of the name, 56,
266.

Lincoln, Thomas, father of the
President; birth, 258; marriage to
Nancy Hanks, 18, 25, 27, 251, 259,
325, 326, 336^9.; his character
and social standing, 25, 173, 271 ;
resemblances and contrasts to
Abraham, 36, 42, 287; mutual re
lations with Abraham, 36, 41, 287;
his alleged fight with Enlow, 167,
170; his whereabouts from 1796
to 1809, 249 seq.; known facts
concerning him, 257 seq.; personal
appearance, 265 ; habits and re
ligion, 265-6, 271 ; where did he
obtain money in 1803?, 266; was
he defrauded by his brothers?,
266; not a cousin of Nancy
Hanks, 267; not an industrious
man, 270; did Abraham honor
him?, 287 seq., 296; as a land
holder, 345^-; his grave, 43.

Logan, Gen. Benjamin, 200.

Manon, Mary Ellen, see Hanks,

Mary Ellen.
Marshall, Chief-Justice John, 18, 20,

107-112, 207-213.
Marshall, sons of Chief-Justice

John, 208 seq.
Martel, Charles, 187.
Massachusetts Historical Society,

xi.

414

INDEX

Masters, H. W., 309, 362.
Mather, O. M., xi, 165, 177.
McClellan, Gen. G. B., 22, 23.
McCormick, Medill, 320.
McDougal, Jack, 172.
McLellan, Hugh, xi.
Meserve, F. H., xi, 113.
Miller, W. A., 74.
Morgan, Arthur E., 275, 405.
Morgan, William, 349.
Morse, John T., Jr, 32.
Morse, Prof. S. F. B., 17.
Murray, G. W., 310, 363.

New England Historic Genealogi
cal Society, 234, 277, 328.

New England Historical and
Genealogical Record, quoted, 271.

Newton, Joseph Fort, 42, 49, 304.

Nicolay, John G., and Hay, John,
secretaries and biographers of
Lincoln, 32, 219, 271, 293, 330.

Oldroyd, O. H., xi.

Orr, James L., 120, 132, 134, 225.

Paxton, Mrs. M., 208, 209, 212.
Pendleton, Geo. H., 23.
Peters, B. J., 72-3
" Plum-orchard," home of Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln, 70.
Polin, Joseph, 260, 375.
Proof, burden of,

Rathbone, Thomas W., 176.

Reed, James A., suppressed pages

from his lecture, 367 seq.
Rogers, Rev. Samuel, 109.
Rutledge, Ann, 300.

Scripps, John Locke, 17, 35, 38, 45,
S3, 59, 60, 313.

Seward, W. H., 312.

Shipley family, 217, 258 seq., 404. .

Slater, or Stator, Dr. John Tom,

255, 351^4.
Sparrow family, 18, 44, 52 seq., 280,

404.

Stewart, Judd, 320.
Stover, D. L., 127.
Stover, William, 306.
Studebaker, P. H., 295.
Swett, Leonard, 328, 335.

Tarbell, Ida M., 19, 24-5, 32, 105,

282, 297, 328.

Teillard, Dorothy Lamon, 47.
Terrell, J. W., 85.
Thompson, James, 248.
Thompson, Nancy Enloe, 203.
Thompson, R. M., 201, 374.
Torrie, Hiram D., 301.
Transylvania University Library, xi.
Tribune, New York, quoted, 330.
Tuttle, J. H., xi.

Van Diver, Peter, 146.
Vawter, Mrs. C. S. H., 343.

Walker, Felix, 75, 86, 123, 204,

335.
Walters, Margaret LaRue, 171, 175,

Wartr

fartman, J. W., 336.
Washington, George, 231 seq.
Watterson, Col. Henry, 29, 94, 102.
Weik, Jesse W., quoted, 20, 57, 73,
„ r?6, 107, 229, 305, 308, 320, 335-
White, Horace, 304, 335.
Whitney, Henry C., 335.
William the Conqueror, 19, 187.
Williams, Charles, 383.
Wilson, Woodrow, 270.
Wood, William, 245.

re 58153

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