The History of Abraham Lincoln's Father, Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851).

According to the date on his headstone, Thomas Lincoln was born on January 6, 1778, although there is evidence that he was born in 1776. His place of birth was in Rockingham County, Virginia, and he was the fourth of five children born to Abraham and Bathsheba Lincoln. 

Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851)

Thomas Lincoln moved to Kentucky in the 1780s with his family. In May of 1786, Thomas witnessed the murder of his father by Indians "...when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest." That fall, his mother moved the family to Washington County, Kentucky (near Springfield), where Thomas lived until he was eighteen. From 1795 to 1802, Thomas held various jobs in several locations—positions that increased his earnings and helped feed the Lincoln family. In 1802 he moved to Hardin County, Kentucky, where one year later, he purchased a 238-acre farm. Four years later, on June 12, 1806, he married Nancy Hanks. Their first child, a daughter named Sarah, was born a year later.

In 1808, Thomas bought a 300-acre farm on Nolin Creek. There, on February 12, 1809, his son Abraham was born. A third child, named Thomas, died in infancy.

Thomas was active in community and church affairs in Hardin County. He served as a jury member, a petitioner, and a guard for the county prison. He could read a little, was a skilled carpenter, and was a property owner. In 1815 he purchased—for cash—still another farm, the Knob Creek farm. This Knob Creek farm was the first home Abraham Lincoln could remember in later life. 

The Lincoln family lived on 30 acres of the 228-acre Knob Creek Farm when Abraham was 2½ until he was ne 8 years old. Replica Log Cabin. 

Dozens of Kentucky farmers and Thomas fell victim to Kentucky's chaotic land laws. The title to each of the three farms he had purchased proved to be defective, and he lost land or money in each case and, in disgust, moved to Indiana in December 1816. There, the land ordinance of 1785 ensured that land was retained once purchased and paid for. Abraham Lincoln claimed many years later that his father's move from Kentucky to Indiana was "partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty of land titles in Kentucky."

Slavery was outlawed in Indiana. It is interesting to know that in Hardin County, Kentucky, there were 1007 slaves and only 1627 white males over 16 in 1811. The Little Mount Separate Baptist Church broke from the Regular Baptist Church over the issue of slave ownership. Thomas Lincoln, a carpenter, farmer, and laborer, was forced to compete against wageless workers.

In Indiana, the Lincolns settled near Little Pigeon Creek in Perry County, later part of Spencer County. Here, Thomas farmed and sold his skills as a carpenter. He put his strong, tall eight-year-old son to work planting, harvesting, cabin building, and wielding an ax.

The autumn frosts of 1818 had beautifully colored the leaves of mature oak, hickory, and walnut trees when Nancy Lincoln became critically ill. She was stricken with a milk sickness that was poisoned, caused by the plants White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) and Milkweed (Asclepias).

Cows occasionally ate this abundant weed and passed the poison on in their milk. People who drank this poisoned milk or ate its products faced death. 

Nancy Lincoln died on October 5, 1818.

NOTE: Dr. Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby (1812–1873) from the village of Rock Creek, Illinois, discovered that White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) or Milkweed was the cause of milk sickness from grazing cows eating the wild plant which fatally poisoned the cow's milk consumed by frontier settlers.

Left without a wife and mother for his children, the resourceful Thomas remarried on December 2, 1819. He chose a widow from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Sarah Bush Johnston. These two hardy pioneers, Thomas and Sarah, united their two families. Sarah's three children—Elizabeth, Matilda, and John—joined Abraham, Sarah, and cousin Dennis Hanks to make a new family of eight. Besides trading his carpentry skills, managing a farm, and looking after his family, Thomas found time during the next few years of his life in Indiana to assist in building the Little Pigeon Baptist Church, become a member of the church, and serve as a church trustee. By 1827, Thomas realized his dream by becoming the outright owner of 100 acres of Indiana land.

Fear of white snakeroot poisoning, news of the fertile Illinois soil, and the possible breakup of his family lured Thomas Westward in March 1830. Thomas sold his Indiana land and moved first to Macon County, Illinois, and eventually to Coles County in 1831. His son Abraham left home to make his way in the world during the family's move to Coles County. Thomas Lincoln remained a county resident for the rest of his life.

Thomas Lincoln's status as a respectable, responsible, and talented citizen is now secure from his detractors. He, no doubt, did leave a mark on his famous son. Thomas was by all accounts well-liked by his neighbors and a good storyteller, as was his son. Thomas's evident dislike of slavery created an atmosphere in Lincoln's youth that would allow Abraham to say many years later that he could not remember a time when he was not antislavery in sentiment. 

Thomas Lincoln died in his house in 1851 (at 73 years old), and where his widow died in 1869 stood three miles from Shiloh Cemetery, where they are buried. Thomas had lived in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, paid his taxes regularly and left no unpaid debts behind him. 

FATHER AND SON RELATIONSHIP
During Lincoln's youth, and particularly after the death of his mother, Abraham's relationship with his father changed and became increasingly strained. Due to his failing eyesight and likely declining health, Lincoln relied on Abraham to perform the work needed to run the farm. He also sent Abraham to work for neighbors, generating money for Thomas. Michael Burlingame's book, "The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln," classified Abe's subservience, "Abraham Lincoln was like a slave to his father," he penned in his personal biography.

Thomas was a stern disciplinarian who would cane, slap, or knock Abraham down for minor infractions and innocent mistakes, like forgetting a chore or speaking to strangers who approached the family farm before his father did. As Abraham got older, he eagerly awaited coming of age to move away and have as little to do with his father as possible.

Although the degree to which it impacted their relationship is unclear, there was a struggle between Abraham's yearning for knowledge and Thomas' lack of understanding about the importance of studying in Abraham's life. Abraham seemed particularly critical of his father's lack of education and lack of an earnest drive to see that his children received a good education. Historian Ronald C. White wrote that negative portraits of Thomas Lincoln come "from a son who said his father 'grew up literally without education,' the very value Abraham would come to prize the most." Abe was unaware of his father's early struggles, particularly how the death of his grandfather forced Thomas to become a laborer.

Abraham never fully understood how hard his father struggled during his early years. It required an immense effort from Thomas, who earned three shillings a day for manual labor or made a little more when he did carpentry or cabinetmaking. To accumulate enough money to buy his first farm." Father and son also differed in their religious beliefs; Thomas was a conventional Baptist. Growing up in a nonconformist household, Abe developed independently as a free-thinker. Lastly, some say that Thomas favored John Johnston, his stepson, over Abraham. Their relationship had become strained after Abraham left his father's house and even more so after Abraham reluctantly bailed Thomas out of financial situations. His stepbrother, John D. Johnston, also made repeated requests for money.

Although Abraham provided financial assistance on a few occasions and once visited Thomas during a bout of ill health, when he was on his deathbed Abraham sent word to a stepbrother: "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 is his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope before long to join them." Abraham preferred not to attend his father's funeral and would not pay for a headstone for his father's grave. Aside from the strained and distant relationship between father and son, Abraham's actions may have been influenced by a "painful midlife crisis" and depression.

During Thomas Lincoln's lifetime, he and his wife were not invited to Abraham's wedding and never met Abraham's wife or children. In his book Lincoln, David Herbert Donald stated, "In all his published writings, and indeed, even in reports of hundreds of stories and conversations, he had not one favorable word to say about his father." However, Abraham did name his fourth son Thomas, the choice of which, Donald said, "suggested that Abraham Lincoln's memories of his father were not all unpleasant, and perhaps hinted at guilt for not having attended his funeral."

In response to his unhappy relationship with his stern, demanding father, Abraham was caring and indulgent with his children, particularly Willie and Tad, with whom he had more in common than Robert.

FACT OR FICTION: The Lincoln's Early Poverty A Myth, Says Authority In 1974 Kiwanis Club Speech.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The First Daguerreotype Photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken in 1846.

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This daguerreotype (the correct horizontal view) is the earliest confirmed photographic image of Abraham Lincoln. It was reportedly taken in 1846 by Nicholas H. Shepherd in Springfield, Illinois, shortly after Lincoln was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Shepherd studied law at the law office of Lincoln and Herndon.

Séances in the White House Red Room with Mary Todd Lincoln.

HOW SPIRITUALISM COMFORTED THE NATION DURING AND AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.

Death plagues us all: it is the only certainty in life and plays an integral role in the human experience. When a loved one perishes, it is their survivors who are left to pick up the pieces. In a time of mourning, grief-stricken loved ones turn to a plethora of coping mechanisms, and over time, the way we mourn has evolved dramatically. Often, people turn to organized religion or spirituality as a source of comfort and connection to lost people. Many White House ghost stories, most of which are centered on the Lincoln family, have roots in the nineteenth century when spiritualism and séances were relatively common because the Civil War changed how Americans understood death and how they mourned.

The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the bloodiest conflict in the nation's history. Fought over the expansion of slavery, the Civil War resulted in approximately 750,000 American fatalities, nearly equal to the total number of American deaths in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined. Never before had the nation experienced death like this. The survivor must understand the meaning of their loved one's life and death to properly grieve. According to historian Drew Gilpin Faust:

The particular circumstances of the Civil War often inhibited mourning, rendering it difficult, if not impossible, for many bereaved Americans to move through the stages of grief. In an environment where information about deaths was often wrong or entirely unavailable, survivors found themselves both literally and figuratively unable to 'see clearly what… has been lost.'

When these soldiers perished far away from home, observance of grief was impossible, and the state of the soul of the deceased at the time of death was forever lost to the family. Bodies were left on the battlefield for a variety of reasons: lack of a structured recovery system, attempts to disgrace the enemy and lower its morale, junctures of battle, and discrimination between officers and their subordinates.

The White House during the Lincoln administration (1861-1865). Mathew Brady.

While spiritualism, a belief system centered on a doctrine in which the dead can communicate with the living, existed long before the Civil War, it was not popularized until the mid to late nineteenth century. By 1897, it was believed that spiritualism had more than eight million believers in the United States and Europe, primarily drawn from the middle and upper classes. The uniqueness and scope of death during the Civil War left thousands of families without the proper outlets to grieve. It transformed wives into widows, children into orphans, and mothers into mourners. According to one study on the rise of spiritualism during the nineteenth century, "Spiritualist activity increased rapidly in America at a time when bereaved citizens were seeking new assurance of continuity and justice after death and when traditional religion was becoming less able to offer this assurance." For instance, séances were used as an attempt to reach out to lost loved ones with the assistance of a trained medium. This professional claimed the mystic ability to communicate with the deceased. Spiritualism expanded so rapidly during and after the Civil War because it offered grieving survivors closure that the war had denied them.

Ordinary Americans were not the only ones to turn to spiritualism as a coping mechanism during the Civil War. In fact, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, practiced spiritualism in the White House. Mrs. Lincoln was born into a wealthy Protestant family from Kentucky in 1818. Throughout her life, she suffered an immense amount of loss, including her mother at a young age, three out of four of her children, and the Brutal Assassination of her husband before her very eyes. She first turned to spiritualism as a tool for processing her grief after the death of her second youngest son, William, or "Willie", in February of 1862. According to a newspaper article published the day after Willie's death, "His sickness, an intermittent fever assuming a typhoid character, has caused anxiety and alarm to his family and friends for a week past… The President has been by his side much of the time, scarcely taking rest for ten days past." Willie was only eleven years old at the time of his passing, a victim of typhoid fever.

Mary Todd Lincoln as the First Lady of the United States (1861-1865).

Mary became inconsolable after the passing of Willie and desperately searched for an outlet for her grief. Shortly after his death, she was introduced to the Lauries, a well-known group of mediums in Georgetown. Mrs. Lincoln found such comfort from the séances held by the group that she started hosting her own séances in the Red Room of the White House. Evidence suggests that she hosted as many as eight séances in the White House and that her husband was even in attendance for a few of them. The séances proved to be such an effective coping mechanism for Mrs. Lincoln that she once remarked to her half-sister that "Willie Lives. He comes to me every night and stands at the foot of the bed with the same sweet, adorable smile he always had. He does not always come alone. Little Eddie [her son who perished at the age of four] is sometimes with him." Through spiritualism, Mrs. Lincoln, like many Americans at the time, found solace in the belief that one could communicate with lost loved ones. Despite this, Mrs. Lincoln did take a step back from her practice after several months due to societal pressures.

William (Willie) and Thomas (Tad) Lincoln pose with their cousin,
Lockwood Todd is the nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln. This photograph
was taken in Mathew Brady's Washington, D.C. studio in 1861.

The ghosts of Willie and Eddie Lincoln were not the only Lincoln ghosts believed to haunt the White House. The ghost of their father, President Abraham Lincoln, is arguably the most well-known spirit at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The assassination of President Lincoln shook the nation to its core, and almost immediately, rumors about his spirit began to circulate. Many cite that he appears in the Lincoln Bedroom and the Yellow Oval Room. First Lady Grace Coolidge, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands have all claimed to have seen Lincoln's ghost. These rumors were perpetrated by White House employee Jeremiah "Jerry" Smith. He served as the official duster of the White House for over thirty-five years, starting in the late 1860s. He often congregated around the North Entrance and told reporters stories of ghost sightings on slow news days.

William H. Mumler photographed Mary Todd Lincoln around 1872 in Boston, Massachusetts. Mumler was a spiritual photographer who claimed his technique captured his subjects and their departed loved ones.

In 1870, Mary secretly visited William H. Mumler, a self-proclaimed spirit photographer. Even though he was accused of fraud, the former first lady requested to be photographed with her late husband. The resulting picture, which depicts the ghost of President Lincoln looking over his wife, was circulated widely, though it was not alone. In fact, "Prints, photographs and literary representations of Lincoln as a spirit abounded in the months and years after his assassination, chronicling his passage into the afterlife from the moment the Angel of Death appeared above his bed." The nation fought hard to hold on to Lincoln's ghost because he represented a spirit coming home and looking over its family from above. During a time when so many families had lost fathers and sons, it was comforting to know that the father of the nation was still looking over them as well. Hearing stories of Lincoln's ghost gave these families hope that their own fallen father figures were also looking over them as well. Moreover, his ghost demonstrated that he and the soldiers who perished in battle were able to find comfort despite the circumstances of their untimely deaths.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. on April 14, 1865. The President was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the following morning. Currier & Ives

The majority of White House ghost stories developed during the nineteenth century when spiritualism reached its peak. This was a side effect of the nation's shifting conceptions of death and mourning during the Civil War. Today, these stories have lost most of their prevalence because death is perceived much differently in the twenty-first century. The level of deaths that occurred during the Civil War no longer holds true in comparison to modern warfare. Fallen soldiers are easier to identify thanks to advancements in DNA and the use of dog tags.

Additionally, life expectancy and childhood survival rates have climbed exponentially since the nineteenth century. Death is less commonplace and visible than it was during the Civil War. Spiritualism offered a coping mechanism that was necessary during a time when life was shrouded in death. While today's society sees Lincoln's ghost as a silly myth, it once brought solace to a wounded nation.

By Alexandra Kommel
White House Historical Association
Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.