Thomas and Sarah Lincoln

Th omas Lincoln was born on Linville Creek in Rockingham County Virginia on January 7, 1778 to Abraham and Bathsheba Lincoln. Around 1781 the family joined other settlers crossing the Cumberland Gap attracted by the new lands opening up in Kentucky, but tragedy struck in 1786 when Th omas’s father was killed by an Indian while clearing his fi elds. Th e story of the death of Captain Abraham would be told many times by Th omas over the years and it was the one story his son Abraham said was “more strongly than all others imprinted on my mind and memory.”

According to Lincoln’s 1860 biography “by the early death of his father, and very narrow circumstances of his mother, even in childhood (Th omas) was a wandering laboring-boy.” Th is “wandering boy” grew up to be a well-respected man in his community. In 1795 during Indian troubles in Kentucky, Th omas served in the Washington County Militia “in defense of the frontier” and in 1802 he moved to Hardin County, KY, where he worked as a carpenter and house joiner saving enough money to buy his fi rst farm north of Elizabethtown. In 1805, he was nominated to serve as an offi cer in the 3rd Hardin County Regiment. On June 12, 1806 Th omas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks.

Th e family lived briefl y on the Mill Creek Farm before moving back to Elizabethtown where Th omas owned several lots and continued his work as a carpenter. In 1807 they welcomed their fi rst child, a daughter, named Sarah. Th e family moved to a new farm on the Nolin River shortly before the birth of their second child, Abraham, named for his paternal grandfather, on February 12, 1809. Th roughout the remainder of their years in Kentucky, Th omas remained busy, farming, serving on juries, surveying the Nolin to Bardstown Road and most likely also engaging in carpentry. In the fall of 1816 the Lincolns left Kentucky for Indiana. Although Th omas Lincoln’s reasons for moving to Indiana were never recorded, his son Abraham said that while the move may have been because of Th omas’s aversion to slavery, it was chiefl y because of his diffi culties with land titles. Other family members soon followed the Lincolns, including Nancy Lincoln’s uncle and aunt, Th omas and Elizabeth Sparrow, and her cousin Dennis Hanks. When the Sparrows fell ill the following year it was Nancy Lincoln who came to help nurse them, before she too fell victim to the same illness, the milk-sick, from which they all died. Little understood at the time, the milk-sick was caused by cows eating the toxic white snakeroot plant and then passing the toxins on through

The Sargent ConnectionJust as the Lincoln family did, Nancy Sargent’s family

also migrated to Illinois in the early 1800s. Her father, John Chenoweth, brought his family from Mercer Co., KY to Illinois, in 1816, settling on the Wabash River where he served as County Commissioner, plied his trade as blacksmith and also started a ferry business at York,

IL. It was there in 1822 that Nancy married her fi rst husband Jacob Harlan. Jacob had come to Illinois at the insistence of his brother-in-law William Archer and was soon followed by his brothers Justin, Newton, and Howard as well as their Uncle Silas Harlan. William Archer was prominent in early Whig politics Illinois and acquainted with Abraham Lincoln from their years in the state legislature, though

they may have fi rst met in 1832 when both served in the militia during the Black Hawk War. Archer would later nominate Lincoln as the Vice-Presidential candidate during the Republican national convention in Philadelphia in 1856. Nancy’s brother-in-law Justin Harlan served many years both as a lawyer and a judge on the 4th judicial circuit and was well acquainted with Lincoln. In 1841, Lincoln supported Harlan’s nomination for Lt. Governor and in 1849 while Lincoln served in Congress, Harlan sent him a letter seeking a patronage job for a “crony” of theirs. Lincoln would appointed Justin Harlan to be an Indian Agent for the Cherokee Indians. Silas Harlan, the uncle of Nancy’s fi rst husband, was also the grandfather of Mary Eunice Harlan, who became the wife of Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln in 1868. Nancy married Stephen Sargent in 1842 and they built their home in what is present-day Clark County, Illinois. Today their 1843 house is preserved on the grounds of the site.

THE PRESIDENT-ELECT’S LAST VISIT TO COLES COUNTY On the morning of Th ursday, January 31st, 1861, Abraham Lincoln went to the home of his cousin Dennis Hanks in Charleston to have breakfast with the family. After breakfast he was joined by Augustus Chapman, husband of his niece Harriet Hanks, for the drive down to the Goosenest Prairie. Lincoln would soon be leaving for Washington D.C. and had taken a short respite from the preparations in Springfi eld to visit his family in Coles County, and to make arrangements for the care of his step-mother in his absence. Chapman recalled that on the drive down the conversation “was mostly concerning family aff airs. Mr. Lincoln spoke to me...of his stepmother in the

most aff ectionate manner. Said that she had been his best friend in this world and that

no man could love a mother more than he loved her.” By this time a widow of ten years, Sarah Lincoln was staying with her daughter Matilda Moore in the village of Farmington, just north of the Lincoln Farm. Matilda was twice widowed; fi rst having been married

to Abraham’s cousin Squire Hall, then later to Reuben Moore in 1856. Th e

Moores’ relationship quickly soured after their wedding and they soon agreed to a separation. As a part of that agreement Reuben Moore provided

Matilda a cabin in the village. After Moore’s death Matilda sued the estate to gain her dower rights as a widow and wrote her step-brother asking for his assistance. However, her timing was poor, as Lincoln would soon be engrossed in his campaign for the presidency and it is unknown what assistance, if any, he provided her. At the time of Lincoln’s last visit and the dinner held in his honor at the Moore home, local history places Matilda in a cabin on the southern edge of the village. Some of the attendees at the dinner that day said that it was held in Reuben Moore’s new home because it was vacant and still unfi nished at the time of his death which meant that it could hold the large crowd of well-wishers who had gathered to see Lincoln. It is also likely that the home was vacant due to Matilda’s lawsuit. Th e 1860 census records seem to indicate that Matilda Moore was not living in the new house at the time as her real property was valued at $15 on the census in comparison to her neighbor Dr. Nelson Freeman, whose real property, a small brick house, was valued at $300. Whether the home was vacant or lived in by his step-sister, it was the scene of Lincoln’s fi nal farewell to his family. After the dinner which had seen people of all walks of life come to pay their respects to the new president, Lincoln’s niece Sarah Fox said that the family was able to spend some private time together during which time Sarah told her step-son that she had always thought there was something great in him and with the impending war he was certain to have a hard time. In an 1865 interview about their last visit Sarah stated: “I did not want to see Abe run for President, did not want him elected, was afraid somehow or other, felt it in my heart that something would happen to him…and that I should see him no more.”

Uncle Abe’s VisitsBy the time his parents moved to this farm on the Goosenest Prairie in 1837, Abraham Lincoln had

been reelected to a second term in the state legislature and had begun his career as a lawyer in Springfi eld. Although the family was separated by nearly 100 miles they remained close, communicating through letters and occasional visits. In 1832 during the Black Hawk War, Lincoln and his step-brother John Johnston were reunited briefl y when they ser ved together as “mess-mates” but the frequency of his visits ultimately increased when he began traveling the 8th judicial circuit and attending court in Charleston. He may have taken one of his earliest cases in Coles County at the behest of his step-mother, Sarah Lincoln. In May of 1841, Abraham Lincoln successfully defended Hiram Radley and Charles Sawyer on a charge of failure to pay a debt. Hiram Radley was the son of Sarah’s sister, Hannah, at whose Coles County home the Lincoln family stayed on their journey from Indiana to Illinois in 1830. Lincoln represented various family members in Coles County over the next decade including his father, step-brother and cousins, when they were sued for failure to pay debts incurred while they operated a mill on the Embarras River. Whenever Lincoln returned to Charleston he would always make time to visit with his family, bringing small gifts of candy for the children and often money for the care of his parents. Lincoln’s niece Amanda Hanks remembered his visits fondly; “In the spring of the year, when court was to be in session a week in Charleston, we always looked forward to the coming of Uncle Abe, who would be at our home and spend the week there, giving his days to work in the courtroom and his nights to us in our home. We would gather around him in front of the fireplace and he would tell us stories far into the night…”

their milk. After what was

a very sad year for the Lincoln children, Th omas traveled back to Kentucky in 1819 and married Sarah Johnston, a widow with three small

children of her own, whom he had known while living in Kentucky. When Th omas arrived back in Indiana with his new wife, life changed for the family. Sarah Lincoln soon had the house and children back in order. Abraham and John Johnston always signed their correspondence between them as ‘your brother’, indicating their acceptance of this blended family.

Of his stepmother Sarah, Abraham said that no son could love a mother more, and she in turn said that Abe was the best boy ever. Among Sarah Lincoln’s possessions

when she arrived in Indiana were books which fed her new step-son’s hunger for learning. Th omas, due to his own lack of education, was determined that his son should have the opportunity to learn. In an 1865 interview Sarah Lincoln said that Th omas would do the work himself rather than disturb his son when reading.

Much has been written regarding the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his father. Some claim that Th omas and Abraham Lincoln had a strained relationship. While Abraham Lincoln himself said very little about

his father and his upbringing, others did comment on the man who raised the future 16th president.

John Hanks, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln’s who lived with the Lincoln family for fi ve years in Indiana described Th omas Lincoln as “…a good quiet citizen, moral habit, had a good sound judgment, a kind Husband and Father Even and a good disposition was lively and cheerful.” Dennis Hanks, another cousin, said of Th omas that he was “…good humored sociable and never appeared to be off ended.” He further said “ Mr. Th omas Lincoln was a good, clean, social, truthful & honest man, loving like his wife Evry thing & every body.”

Th omas Lincoln’s granddaughter Harriet Hanks, who spent a great deal of time with her grandparents and who also lived in Springfi eld for several years with Abraham and Mary Lincoln described her grandfather as “…not profane-always asked grace at table-read the bible-he could write-not a good reader or scholar…” Clearly those who knew Th omas Lincoln genuinely liked the man. He had another notable habit not unlike that of his son Abraham-- Th omas Lincoln loved to tell stories and jokes; some even said that his abilities out shown those of his son.

Dennis Hanks, ca 1860

Matilda Johnston Moore, ca 1870