h u m ug s n I n do n n

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! IR! ! ! ! MIL! ! M! RI! ! ! !

R! L P! L I! ! ! By G . ! R! M

with ! o rew o rd

! R! ! I By . R ! ! ! !

LIN ! OLN ! ! L L ! ! ! ! IP ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! R ! ! ! L I! ! R ! I!

! ! R E W ! R !

! o M ! ! ! o f the material that has appeared in the public press co ncerning the L inco ln family ! and ! braham Linco ln s antecedents has been co m o e o f m ! e act a ct o o r as p und d i d f nd fi i n , h ee ase o n le tra t o o r t ct re b n b d id di i n , in u d by sect o al re ce t at t s o ll rel a le i n p ! udi , h i i wh y un i b as a co rrect appraisal o f the man himself o r as a reco rd o f his immediate ancestry .

It s t ere o re re res to amo t e i h f f hing find , ng h c rre t e s a er o er s a art cle so u n n w p p ff ing , n i act al a t al so terest l r tte as f u , nd wi h in ing y w i n , L t e o ne Ral ! . stro m a ear h by ph ind , pp ing in ! t e L o s ! n eles ! im es ! ! M! o f ! e r ar h g b u y 7, and bearing the arresting title g iven in t s o l hi b o k et .

! esiring to preserve this wo rthwhile and timely co tr t o am let o rm fo r rea re er n ibu i n in p ph f , dy f e ce b st e ts a co llecto rs t e L coln n y ud n nd , h in ! ello wship o f ! o uthern ! alifo rnia has reprinted t s art cle as o n e o f its o ic al l cat o s hi i ff i pub i i n , in ! to ken o f its sincere appreciatio n o f the autho r s research and scho larship in the realm o f Lin lni co ana .

! . R! ! RISDON

! o llywo o d

Ma rc 2 1 h ,

~3° 08° «2° 02° «to

! ! ! I! I! skies above the ! last, best hope of earth

were dark and lowering . ! Secession and civil war threatened . strong, rugged, unshakable helmsman was needed . An obscure Illinois prairie editor saw one man ! s greatness and fit ! ness for the ! o b . Editor Jesse W . ell was telling his readers that Abraham Lin coln should be elected the ne! t Pres ident of the ! nited States . There had been country ! wide discussion of the !

! Li n c o l n ! o u gl a s debates . s

Cooper ! nion speech was yet to come . ! So ell insisted on an autobiography, and modest wrote in ! 1 8 ecember, 5 9 ‘I ! My parents were both born in Vir ginia of un di sti n gui sh e d families I second families , perhaps should say . ‘I But Lincoln was wrong ! His paternal ancestry was among the finest in Eng

land and America . We shall see that ! ! ! he came of a rst family . ‘I Why, at the m o m e n t o f Pr e s i d e n t ! Lincoln s birth , one of his relatives , Levi

Lincoln, Sr . , was Governor of Massa chusetts ! This Governor Lincoln and his

! r . brother, Abraham Lincoln, for a ! uarter of a century were powerful fac — tors in New politics so power ! r ful that Levi s son, Levi , I . , was made Governor of Massachusetts in 1 8 2 5 by

o ut o f vo t e s c a s t . H e served a lo nger term in that office than any other of Massachusetts ! more than

5 0 Governors . Not only this but Enoch r Lincoln , younger brother of Levi, J . , at the same time served for three terms as

Governor of the State of . And

r . 1 8 6 Levi, J , in 4, as Presidential elector, cast his vote for his modest kinsman,

Abraham Lincoln, who mistakenly be ! ! li eved he came from second families ! ‘I Lincoln ! s assassination found both men still unaware that they had a com mon ancestor, Samuel Lincoln , the Pres ! ident s great ! great ! great ! great ! grand father . Still another honored in this family was a descendant of Samuel who became an Attorney General of the

! nited States . ! I President Lincoln was never able to trace his ancestry back of his paternal

grandfather for whom he was named . He knew that Grandfather Abraham Lincoln went to Kentucky from Rock ingham County, Virginia , and that prior o ancestors c a m e fr m B e rk s C o unty,

! . Pennsylvania . urther he never learned

‘ fa J Also , Lincoln knew about those ! mous Lincolns of Massachusetts . Some what in awe he wrote to Editor ! ell ! ! An effo rt to identify them ! Lincoln s ancestors ! with the New England fam ily of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a simila r ity of Chris tian names in both families , such as

Enoch , Levi , Mordecai , Solomon , Abra ! ham and the like . ‘I Not only is it true that these famous Lincolns with similarity o f Christian names ! were in his ancestral family but it is also true that this mo dest prairie statesman became the most illustrious Lincoln of them all !

«b ir ds

W! ! ! ! ! R ! ! ! ! turn in the economic and social e! perience of a br anch of a

! m en family of self reliant, successful c o u l d b ri n g s o c o mp l e t e a b r e a k i n knowledge of ancestry! It is not difficult to understand when the facts are known . ! William H . Herndon s vulgar miscon c ep tio n that we must have a Lincoln i ! emerg ng from a silent, putrid pool has been accepted too long by many writers . ‘ I Grandfather Abraham Linc o ln was born of Great! gr andfather J o hn Lincoln 1 in Berks County, Pennsylvania , in 744 . Remember that those were days of pio neering . This Abraham went to Virginia as a young single man . He accumulated substantial landholdings in Virginia , where he married and had three sons 1 and two daughters . In 78 0 he sold all he had in Virginia and wi th men such as ! aniel Boone took his family through the wilderness of Cumberland Gap into ! Kentucky . acility of communications was not of those days . ‘I Virginia ! s westernmost point is the top of a spearhead separating Kentucky to the north and Tennessee to the south . Cumberland Gap is the ! unction of the three States . All pioneers from Virginia moved west through this mountain pass, but at Cumberland Gap some shunted back into the East Tennessee counties .

These people , too , are of finest English stock . 'I ! thers , including the Lincolns, went on north and west . Grandfather Abra ' ha! m Lincoln broke virgin soil on acres of land in Jefferson County, Ken ! i tucky, up near the hio R ver . Then stark tragedy struck when President ! e 6 Lincoln s father, Th mas , was only ! and the President s grandfather, Abra 2 ham, only 4 . A stalking Indian shot and instantly killed Grandfather Abra ham and was about to kidnap Thomas when another son, Mordecai, shot the

Indian and saved Thomas . ‘ I With her five young children, one

65! ! younger even than year old Thomas,

1 0 Grandmother Bersheba Lincoln moved to Washing t on County in Kentucky . Thus di d hardship become the lot of this branch of the Lincolns . Thomas

grew into unlettered manhood, but he was by no means the worthless roust about that Herndon and other biog raphers have depicted . accumulated substantial Kentucky land holdings . He was among the thousands o f victims of then ! defective Kentucky

! K . l a n d titl e s . A t El i a b ethto wn , y , Thomas was 1 6th from the top in as 0 ! sessed values among 9 ta payers . He was a farmer and mechanic of at least

average success . ‘I 8 0 Abraham, who became President, was born to this Thomas Lincoln and

his wife, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, at a low ebb point in social and economic com in fort the line . Never thel ess , their status was at least average

high . But thus was produced the char acter of sturdy self! reliance which alone could become the savior of that indivis ! still ible union which is the last, best ! hope of earth, as this man himself so

aptly put it . ‘I ! But let s go back, way, way back . We know five generations of the Lincoln

ancestors in England . These Lincolns r were ever leade s in their community .

The fifth in line was Samuel Lincoln,

I I born in Hingham , who came to New s 1 6 Hingham, Mas , near Boston, in 5 7 . ! And hat does England, at Hingham there , think of these Lincolns! In the

Church of St . Andrew, under a Volk bust of President Lincoln, they proudly point to this tribute inscribed there In this parish for many generations lived the Lincolns , ancestors of Abra ham Lincoln, to whom , greatest of that ! lineage , many citi ens of the ! nited States have erected this memorial in the hope that, for all ages between that land and this land and for all lands , there shall be malice toward none with char ! ity for all . ‘I In New Hingham one can visit the ! ! ld ur 1 6 8 1 Ship Ch ch, built in and in which Samuel Lincoln and many of his descendants have worshipped for gen r i n ! n e e at o s . of these descendants was

Rev . Calvin Lincoln, minister of that very church while Abraham Lincoln was President . ‘I l 1 1 This elder Samue had children, one of whom he named Mordecai , who in turn had a son who also bore that name . This second Mordecai was Pres !

! ! ident Lincoln s great great grandfather .

He moved to Monmouth County, New r Jersey, and ma ried Hannah Saltar, ! ! at daughter of Richard Saltar, King s ! torney and later ! udge of the county .

1 2 ! f this union was born John Lincoln, the great! grandf ather of President Lin ! Penn s lva coln . John s father went to y nia and engaged in the iron industry . John had e! tensive holdings in New

Jersey and Berks County, Pennsylvania . ‘J ! aniel Boone ! s ancestors came into the Lincoln picture in the generation of the second Mordecai , as his son Abra ham married Anne Boone . There were at least five m arri a g e s b etw e e n th e Boones and the Lincolns in Pennsylva ma ‘ I ! John Lincoln, the great grandfather, moved into the Shenandoah Valley of 1 68 Virginia in 7 when he was 5 0. He bought 6 00 acres of land near Harrison burg . Again we find the Boone influ ence . S! uire Boone moved from Penn 1 0 sylvania to Virginia in 75 , and Josiah Boone apparently accompanied John Lincoln ! s family and also settled in the

Shenandoah Valley . It probably was ! aniel Boone who persuaded John ! s ! son , Abraham, the President s grand father, to migrate to Kentucky .

! I! ! ! M ! T Abraham, the grandfather, becam e a captain in the ! nited States

Army . Gen . Ben! amin Lincoln of Revo lutio n ary War fame was a descendant

1 3 Li of a brother of Samuel ncoln, the common ancestor . ‘I When communication is poor, word o f ! mouth tradition is strong from parent to child . Thomas was unlettered and did not know that nine of the ancestral family were graduates of Harvard by 1 8 2 7 and another from Brown ! niver i s t y . B ut tr a diti o n a l s o mu s t h a v e brought untold other riches of culture and rugged civics to the Lincoln who became President and savior of our country .

' ‘I Here w e have but a few of the attain ments in seven generations of Lincolns ! ! in America . This is no second family . It is outstandingly among the first

American families . In the seventh gen eratio n we find the family capstone in the man whose greatness, if it be kept alive by emulation in American hearts ! an and in civic e perience , will forever swer tyrannical pomposity of whatever age in these words of the Great Eman cip ato r

! ! ! I would not be a lave,

So I would not be a master .

This e! presses my idea of democracy .

Whatever differs from this, ! To the e tent of the difference,

Is no democracy . ONE ! ! NDRED ! ! ! ! OP IES ! ! T! IS B OOK LET ! ERE P RINTED B ! ! ! ! ! P ! I N S TI T TE R ES S , OOD , ! ! ! OOD OOD , AT LOS AN ELES , ! ! ! ! ! ! P ALI ORNIA , NDER ERSONAL

! ! ! ! . ! DIRE TION EARLE OOD , IN P 1 A RIL, 94.3 .