Lincoln Lincoln Lore - Is It True?

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I grew up in the area of Kentucky where Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks courted and married. Jesse Head, the minister who married them, married some of my ancestors too. I went to high school with kids who were descendents of the Hanks and Berry families. The farm next to ours had a tenant whose last name was Sparrow.
I am hoping the Lincoln scholars on this forum can confirm or deny some of the stories I was told about the Lincoln family. One of the most interesting to me is why Thomas and Nancy moved away from their families. The story goes that the Lincoln, Hanks and Berry families attended a local church where the parishioners began having disagreements on whether slavery was supported by scripture. Feelings became so strong that a portion of the anti-slavery congregation, which included Thomas and Nancy, broke off and formed another church, even though Thomas at one point had acted as a "patroller" - a man who patrolled a section of road at night to make sure any slaves who were out after dark had permission from their masters and were not trying to escape.

This particular part of Kentucky had a large slave population and anti-slavery sentiments were not popular at all. Thomas began to be shunned and his prospects for employment dropped because of this, so he and Nancy moved to another county after they married. Does anyone know of any documentation that would support this story?

 

[Fairfield]

This is the story that Doris Kearns Goodwin tells in her Team of Rivals. Right now, I'd due for a meeting at the historical society but--on my return mid afternoon--I'll check her sources.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

This is the story that Doris Kearns Goodwin tells in her Team of Rivals. Right now, I'd due for a meeting at the historical society but--on my return mid afternoon--I'll check her sources.

Thank you!

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Here's another bit of Lincoln lore from my youth:

When Lincoln was running for President, one of the many insults thrown at him was that he was illegitimate - his parents never married. Even Lincoln himself, I have read, was not sure they were married. A kinswoman of mine, Marythelma Kelly, while researching family history in the early 1960s came across the original marriage bond of Thomas and Nancy still in the local courthouse. At first no seemed too excited about it, but eventually three people from the Smithsonian came to town (that was a big deal) and took the document back with them to Washington, which kind of miffed the locals because they wanted to use it as a tourist attraction.

So, why did it take so long to prove Lincoln's parents were lawfully married? Here's the story I was told:
As noted above, this section of Kentucky had a large slave population. When Lincoln ran for President in 1860 he received only one vote in the entire county. The historical society actually put up a marker outside the house of this man to note this fact. During the election some inquiries were made regarding the marriage bond but no one claimed to know anything about it. It was perfectly ok with the locals that Lincoln be considered a bast**d because that is what they thought of him. They didn't want to do anything that would increase his chances of being elected.

https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/124

 

[Fairfield]

This is the story that Doris Kearns Goodwin tells in her Team of Rivals. Right now, I'd due for a meeting at the historical society but--on my return mid afternoon--I'll check her sources.

On returning home, I pulled out Dr. Goodwin's book. Alas, I couldn't find the story but, because that is the only Lincoln book I've been in recently, it must be a reference made in flash-back. So I went online: that story is pretty general. Looking for something with documented sources, I found:

Louis A. Warren: Lincoln's Youth: Indiana years, seven to twenty-one (Hathi--https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013336584&view=1up&seq=315&skin=20210, pp. 12-13. Sources are Lincoln's address at Indianapolis, 19 Sept. 1859 (in Collected Works III:463) and a poem that Lincoln wrote in 1844 on his return from a visit to Indiana

C.W. Hackensmith: "Lincoln's Family and his teachers" published in the Journal of the Kentucky Historical Society, Oct. 1969, pp. 328 (sources: Autobiography IV:61; Albert J. Beveridge (Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858, I:33); Herndon & Welk (Herndon's Life of Lincoln, 20); Louis A. Warren (Slavery Atmosphere of Lincoln's Youth) and South Fork Baptist Church Record Book July 3, 1808 & July 1810)
Photostats of the Church Record Book entries, Lincoln National Foundation in Fort Wayne
Church Record Book source also references LA Warren's Slavery Atmosphere...)

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

@Fairfield Thank you so much. These are rich resources! I will try to access them all. The South Fork Baptist Church Record Book is particularly interesting and I look forward to reading it.
Some years ago I took a Creative Writing class and the teacher told us, in deep sincerity, that Abraham Lincoln's real father was actually her gggrandfather. He had lived in either Virginia or North Carolina, I forget which, and had a servant girl named Nancy Hanks, whom he got pregnant, and to keep peace in the family and avoid scandal, he sent Nancy to Kentucky where she met and married Thomas Lincoln. This teacher was writing a book about it, which she hoped to have published.
Known facts about Lincoln's parents and his birth (he was after all, not the first born!) that showed this story to be impossible did not seem to deter her in the least.

 

[Fairfield]

Known facts about Lincoln's parents and his birth (he was after all, not the first born!) that showed this story to be impossible did not seem to deter her in the least

It's been my experience as a genealogist that, at the heart of most family stories, is a germ of truth. Granted, often an extremely small germ. I believe that Nancy Hanks came from a solid line on her mother's side but an unidentifiable line on her father's (or visa-versa). If you are interested to dig into this, I'd look at the two works by Louis A. Warren (one is on Hathi--link given above; the other may be there as well). Despite the romantic stories told of his childhood, there isn't really that much; most of the works that I have begin with his days in Springfield, IL. A lot of information on his earliest days seems to come from his own poetry--when this was discussed some time ago, I stumbled on a web site that was devoted to that (if I could find it, you can too--just Google).

Once I had dinner with a woman who was convinced that her grandfather was an illegitimate son of the Duke of Wellington (you know, the one at Waterloo). Sometimes people need to have a bit of glamor.

 

[Fairfield]

C.W. Hackensmith: "Lincoln's Family and his teachers" published in the Journal of the Kentucky Historical Society, Oct. 1969, pp. 328 (sources: Autobiography IV:61; Albert J. Beveridge (Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858, I:33); Herndon & Welk (Herndon's Life of Lincoln, 20); Louis A. Warren (Slavery Atmosphere of Lincoln's Youth) and South Fork Baptist Church Record Book July 3, 1808 & July 1810)
Photostats of the Church Record Book entries, Lincoln National Foundation in Fort Wayne
Church Record Book source also references LA Warren's Slavery Atmosphere...)

Sorry! This work is at Jstor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23376902?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. You can read up to 100 articles for free there.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Some years ago I took a Creative Writing class and the teacher told us, in deep sincerity, that Abraham Lincoln's real father was actually her gggrandfather.

In a similar vein, when I was giving Civil War talks locally for the sesquicentennial, one attendee was convinced Lincoln's biological father was John C. Calhoun. It's apparently a classic Lincoln theory, not original to the individual I met.

IIRC, part of the problem with Lincoln parentage is there were apparently quite a few women named Nancy Hanks, leading to much speculation.

 

[Fairfield]

In a similar vein, when I was giving Civil War talks locally for the sesquicentennial, one attendee was convinced Lincoln's biological father was John C. Calhoun. It's apparently a classic Lincoln theory, not original to the individual I met.

IIRC, part of the problem with Lincoln parentage is there were apparently quite a few women named Nancy Hanks, leading to much speculation.

One of Joshua Chamberlain's brothers was named "John Calhoun Chamberlain". Do you suppose that there is a mix-up between General Chamberlain and President Lincoln?

 

[LoyaltyOfDogs]

Here's another bit of Lincoln lore from my youth:

When Lincoln was running for President, one of the many insults thrown at him was that he was illegitimate - his parents never married. Even Lincoln himself, I have read, was not sure they were married. A kinswoman of mine, Marythelma Kelly, while researching family history in the early 1960s came across the original marriage bond of Thomas and Nancy still in the local courthouse. At first no seemed too excited about it, but eventually three people from the Smithsonian came to town (that was a big deal) and took the document back with them to Washington, which kind of miffed the locals because they wanted to use it as a tourist attraction.

What a great story. It got me curious to see the original document, so I searched online and found in the LOC an interesting publication from 1892 that includes photographs of documents identified as "Marriage Certificate of Thos. Lincoln & Nancy Hanks" and "Marriage Bond and Certificate of County Clerk." It was published by the Lincoln Memorial Company, decorated with a small portrait sketch of Lincoln and a photograph of the "Old Lincoln Cabin. (Near Springfied, Washington County, Ky.)" and can be seen in high-resolution here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm0443/. I'd post the picture, but the LOC reference to the collection that includes it suggests (to me, anyway) that it might not be in the public domain. If anyone knows that it is in the public domain and would like to post it, thanks. Now I'm curious to find out what the Lincoln Memorial Company was all about and what prompted them to publish such a unusual document in the 1890s.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

What a great story. It got me curious to see the original document, so I searched online and found in the LOC an interesting publication from 1892 that includes photographs of documents identified as "Marriage Certificate of Thos. Lincoln & Nancy Hanks" and "Marriage Bond and Certificate of County Clerk." It was published by the Lincoln Memorial Company, decorated with a small portrait sketch of Lincoln and a photograph of the "Old Lincoln Cabin. (Near Springfied, Washington County, Ky.) and can be seen in high-resolution here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm0443/. I'd post the picture, but the LOC reference to the collection that includes it suggest (to me, anyway) that it might not be in the public domain. If anyone knows that it is in the public domain and would like to post it, thanks. Now I'm curious to find out what the Lincoln Memorial Company was all about and what prompted them to publish such a unusual document in the 1890s.

That is totally cool! I hope you will share whatever you find. Evidently Springfield claims to have the original now. Below in italics is quoted from https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/124

Also mentioned is a marker erected June 23, 1963. It sounds like this keeps getting "rediscovered."

The original marriage bond between Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks is housed at this site in the Washington County Courthouse. In the election of 1860, Lincoln's political opponents made accusations that he was illegitimate, a possibility that Lincoln himself considered. Searches were conducted in Larue and Hardin counties to no avail, and the question of Lincoln's legitimacy was not settled until 1901 when the original bond was rediscovered in the Washington County Courthouse.