April 24, 1800: Library of Congress Established

Thomas Jefferson

The United States of America had barely set up a permanent government when its legislators, the Congress, determined that an in-house reference library was necessary to assist the senators and representatives of the two Houses to prepare materials for debates and legislation. Two hundred and eleven years ago this week, Congress passed an act, endorsed by Vice President Thomas Jefferson and signed by President John Adams, establishing the Library of Congress.

Today’s Library of Congress, the largest library in the world with over 147 million items, consists of three buildings. But in 1800, no separate building was yet needed to hold the library. The first volumes were housed in the office of the secretary of the Senate.

A permanent library had not been created previously, because the seat of federal government had moved every year to different prominent cities in the young nation. Since a federal city - Washington - had been incorporated, however, and the seat of government had set up house-keeping within it, a permanent library was now feasible.

Five thousand dollars were earmarked for the establishment of the library, and soon, 740 volumes and three maps arrived from England, including books on law, political science, and history.

British set fire to Capitol 1814

Within its first fifty years, the library was beset with three fiery trials. In August 1814 (during the War of 1812), the British invaded Washington and set fire to every handy federal building, including the White House and the Capitol. Although a providential thunderstorm provided a downpour which put out the flames before the whole Capitol was consumed, the 3,000 volumes of the Library of Congress made good kindling. In January the following year, Thomas Jefferson restored the library by selling his personal library - 6,487 volumes - to the government. By May 1815, the library was up and running again, located in the Old Brick Capitol building across the street from the Capitol, where the Supreme Court now stands.

Two more fires struck the Library of Congress during the 19^th Century, once in 1825, when a small fire destroyed some duplicate volumes, and again on Christmas Eve, 1851, when a major fire destroyed 35,000 volumes, which amounted to about two-thirds of the library’s holdings. This destruction included the Jefferson collection. Besides the quick appropriations of Congress to replace the lost volumes, the library was significantly supplemented in the late 1850s when the Smithsonian Institution, devoting itself strictly to scientific research, handed over its 40,000-volume library to the LOC. Other significant American collections in the latter half of the 19th Century broadened its holdings as well.

Book acquisition came much more easily after President Lincoln appointed Ainsworth Rand Spofford as Librarian of Congress in 1864. Spofford served in this position until 1897. He revolutionized copyright procedures and saved tax dollars by convincing Congress to pass a law in 1870 requiring all copyright applicants to submit two copies of their work - books, pamphlets, maps, music, prints, photographs, etc. - to the Library as part of the copyright registration (for which a fee was also charged). As a result, the Library of Congress grew exponentially.

Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Within a few years, it had far outgrown its space, and Congress approved the construction of a building to house the library. After many delays, the ornate Jefferson Building was completed in 1897, at which time the library was opened to the public as well as for the government offices.

With continued growth, the library expanded into the Adams Building which opened in 1939, and again in 1980 into the new Madison Building. The Jefferson Building was restored in the 1990s, reopening in 1997, and is a magnificent tribute to the arts.

SOURCES

Library of Congress  http://www.loc.gov

“Washington, DC, Blue Guide” by Candyce H. Stapen, Ph.D., W.W. Norton, New York, 2000.

The Sweetness of Mary

This week, Massachusetts and Maine celebrate Patriots' Day to honor those who stood up to face the world’s finest army in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. In the 236 years which have intervened, this historical event has spawned endless cultural activities across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which chronicle and commemorate the disillusioned colonists who mustered and marched to defy the British Crown.

The Fifes and Drums of the Lincoln Minute Men

As a Revolutionary War reenactor and as a member of a fife-and-drum corps which portrays the rag-tag regimental music of Cambridge Camp of 1775 who answered the April alarm, I have taken part in these celebrations and commemorations for over three decades.  I am consistently surprised that I learn something new and notable at each one, which keeps my experience fresh and my interest piqued.

Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps

My corps, The Musick of Prescott’s Battalion, is one of the regularly performing corps at the Lincoln Salute in Lincoln, MA, a small musical muster featuring eight fife-and-drum corps. Besides our hosts - The Fifes & Drums of the Lincoln Minute Men - the other corps usually attending this fine musical tribute include the William Diamond Junior Fife and Drum Corps, a talented group of youngsters which honors William Diamond, who played his drum on Lexington Green on that fateful morning; the Bluff Point Quahog Diggers Band, a raucous, masterful corps which has mentored the William Diamond corps; the Connecticut Valley Field Music, which portrays the 1862 Civil War soldier and plays the music of the Civil War, often in brilliant, original arrangements but always in traditional 'ancient' style; Sudbury Ancient Fyfe and Drum Companie, one of the oldest corps in Massachusetts which has set standards in the fife-and-drum world; the 1^st Michigan Colonial Fife and Drum Corps, a prominent corps which has come East from Michigan every year since 1981 to participate in the week’s many reenactment and musical activities; and the Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps, another accomplished junior corps which, in order to accommodate suburban youth, broadens the interpretation of 4-H beyond the raising of prize sheep.

This past Sunday at the Lincoln Salute was when I first heard about the “Sweetness of Mary” drum set, named after a lilting Canadian slow strathspey and created by the 1^st Michigan Colonial Fife and Drum Corps.  The ultimate team in body and spirit, the corps co-founders Mark and Mary Logsdon were deeply impressed with the Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps when they first heard them play.  The Logsdons were astonished at the high level of achievement of the 4-H youngsters, aged 8 to 16: their professionalism, their dedication to the music and its history, their clean and precise delivery.

1st Michigan Colonial Fife and Drum Corps

After Mary died of ovarian cancer in 2002 - a profound loss to the corps and to the fife-and-drum world as well as to her devoted husband - an idea grew in Mark to have a set of drums made, each one to be presented to a corps which presents the tradition of fife-and-drum music far beyond the ordinary. Each of the chosen corps was selected because Mark and Mary both believed its work to be exemplary in keeping alive the spirit of the music and what it represents in American history.  Mark commissioned Cooperman Fife & Drum Company, a fine drum-maker then in Connecticut, to make four wood-shell, rope-tension snare drums.  Each drum was made to match the drums carried by the chosen corps, in color, size, and construction. When they were complete, Mark, Director and Drum Major of the 1^st Michigan, made gifts of these drums to the chosen corps, christening them the “Sweetness of Mary” drums after his wife Mary, in recognition of the dedication of these corps to the music, to those who stood up to the British army in 1775, and to all veterans since who have stood up for this nation.

2006 Sweetness of Mary Drum Reunion, Lincoln, MA

The 1^st Michigan Colonial Fife and Drum Corps carries one of the “Sweetness of Mary” drums. The other corps are the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums, a junior corps which performs as one of Colonial Williamsburg’s major attractions; the Middlesex County Volunteers, a premier corps with many international tours under its belt; and our own Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps. In 2006, the complete set of drums shared the muster field at the Lincoln Salute when all four corps mustered, the first time the drums have been together since they were made.

Mark Logsdon, Drum Major

We can thank Mark Logsdon for creating a new tradition by which we honor those who have gone before. The drum sergeant in each corps is the keeper of the drum, and only he or she plays that drum. Every year, in each corps, as the current drum sergeant is mustered out, the Sweetness of Mary drum is passed to the incoming drum sergeant in a small ceremony. At Lincoln this year, I was a fortunate witness to this changing of the guard, as the outgoing Middlesex County 4-H drum sergeant handed the Sweetness of Mary drum to Drum Major Mark Logsdon, who passed it to the new drum sergeant. The poignancy of the moment, linking Mark again so closely to his beloved Mary, left no dry eye in the room.

For more information about these units, check these links:

1^st Michigan Colonial Fife and Drum Corps  http://1stmichigan.com

Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps  http://www.4hfifeanddrum.org

The Fifes & Drums of the Lincoln Minute Men  https://www2.bc.edu/~hafner/lmm/

MAINE BECOMES A STATE: March 15, 1820

It was on the Ides of March in 1820 (191 years ago this week) that Maine became the 23^rd of the United States, part of the Missouri Compromise. (This Congressional agreement between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions involved primarily the regulation of the expansion of slavery into the western territories. In a nutshell, Maine was admitted as a free state to balance the admission of Missouri as a slave state.)

Previously referred to as The Province of Maine or The District of Maine, the territory was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from its settlement in the earliest days of the 17^th Century. Therefore, its territory was part of the original 13 colonies which won independence from Great Britain, but it was another thirty-seven years before it was established as a political entity separate from Massachusetts.

Although geographically as big as the other five New England states put together, Maine is 39^th in size compared to the rest of the states in the Union. Most of it is only sparsely settled (the 40^th most populous), its economic history having been dominated by rural industries - timber, granite, ice, lime, agriculture, fishing, and paper. Its current population stands a little over 1.25 million. It is the least densely populated state east of the Mississippi River. Four hundred of the 833 townships are unorganized territories, primarily paper company lands, which have never been settled. Maine is the only state in the Union to share a border with only one other state.

Although its etymological origins are obscure, some historians believe that the name “Maine” refers to the early island culture along the coast. The islands were settled first, with growing populations later moving onshore to the mainland, or “main.” Other documents indicate other origins, including the largest of the Orkney Islands in Scotland which is called Mainland. Whatever its origins, the name “Maine” was officially fixed on the region in 1665 on land grant records prepared by British commissioners working in the name of King Charles II.

Even after the famous Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which finally established the boundary between Canada and the United States in the State of Maine, the ownership of a few remote Maine locations continues to be contested. Machias Seal Island and North Rock off Maine’s easternmost point fall into this dual claim. But the two nations have rarely exchanged fisticuffs over these locales. Indeed, the neighboring communities divided by the international boundary have fostered community cooperation for centuries, despite any international disputes which have divided their federal centers of government.

Calais, Maine, USA, and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, share this international border way Down East. The War of 1812 came about when Great Britain (of which Canada was a colony) and the United States came to loggerheads over the impressment of American sailors into the British Navy, among other issues. Because Calais is a border community which could be an important stronghold against an invasion of the British from eastern Canada, the federal government sent arms, ammunition, and other military supplies to the town authorities in Calais, for its defense against such an invasion.

Calais, ME, USA, & St. Stephen, NB, Canada - 1889

The town fathers welcomed the supplies, for this recognition boosted their political status in far distant Washington City. But they had no arsenal in which to store the munitions properly.  St. Stephen, however, across the river in Canada, had an arsenal. The town fathers of Calais discussed the situation and decided that no matter how angry London and Washington might be with each other, residents of Calais and St. Stephen had a neighborly relationship which succeeded because they supported each other. The two communities, in a very remote locale, were closely linked economically and culturally. War or no war, they had to live with each other.

So the town fathers of Calais crossed the international boundary and consulted with the town fathers of St. Stephen. They asked if they might store the federal military supplies in the St. Stephen arsenal. The town fathers of St. Stephen listened to their reasoning, and agreed with it.  There was no indication that the war would come close to their communities, 665 miles from Washington and 3000 miles from London.

And thus it came to pass that Calais stored its federal-issue arms in enemy territory for the duration of the war. St. Stephen and Calais were so friendly that St. Stephen supplied Calais with gunpowder for its Fourth of July celebrations. When the war ended, the town fathers of St. Stephen allowed the town fathers of Calais to reclaim the supplies in order to return them to Washington.

This kind of independent thinking, relying and acting more on the knowledge of one’s immediate environment contrary to the incomplete ideas of an authority far removed from the situation, has been typical of the Maine people since the earliest days of settlement. It is a form of innovation, that pioneer spirit which breeds success under often adverse conditions. It’s part of what makes me proud of my home state.

SOURCES

Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine

Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen,_New_Brunswick

State Map: Merriam-Webster’s Atlas, Merriam-Webster Online  http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/nytmaps.pl?maine 

Bird’s-Eye View Map: Some rights reserved by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library http://www.flickr.com/photos/normanbleventhalmapcenter/

THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN: Carl Schurz (March 2, 1829 - May 14, 1906)

This week celebrates the 182nd anniversary of the birth of Carl Schurz.  The name of Carl Schurz means little to most Americans today, but one hundred years ago, it was synonymous with integrity. This German immigrant advised presidents from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt, and his power and public voice were such that those who would take advantage of the system for personal gain thought twice. During his 54 years on American soil, during the latter half of the 19^th Century, Schurz became the nation’s leading political advocate for human rights, corruption-free government, and principles.

Born near Cologne, Germany, on March 2, 1829, Schurz’ mission in life soon became human rights. His passion for history and literature, and his mastery of debate supported this mission throughout his life. He became a leader in the rabble which challenged (unsuccessfully) King Wilhelm of Prussia in 1848 for the institution of a constitutional government with the popular vote. Escaping capture at the collapse of the movement, he became a fugitive, and after a few years in London, he immigrated to the United States with his new wife Margarethe, having determined that the Old World culture of Europe could never provide the hope and future offered in the New World.

Once in America, Schurz taught himself to read and write English within a few months, and began lecturing to fellow German-American immigrants about American policies and issues affecting this population. His ability to articulate what they could not themselves express made him very popular, and in short order, he found himself employed using words professionally, polishing his passions and opinions on current affairs into intelligent and thoughtful essays, pamphlets, and editorials. This work soon launched him onto the national stage.

Besides his private professions as a lawyer, editor, author and biographer, Carl Schurz served capably in many public capacities: ambassador, brigadier general, senator, cabinet member, and advisor to eleven presidents, no small feat for one man in only half a century. He was a peerless statesman, in every admirable sense of the word. His participation in public issues illustrates what an immigrant can do - what anyone can do – with hard work and determination. He was wholeheartedly an American.

He and Margarethe, who introduced the kindergarten to the United States, had five children. His two older daughters, Agatha and Marianne, by their own choice never married. After Margarethe died, the girls cheerfully served their father and managed the household and Carl’s business affairs, despite his admonition to go out and meet young men. They raised the two younger boys, Carl Lincoln Schurz, and Herbert. (A third daughter, Emma, had died as a toddler.)  Herbert died quite suddenly in England just after graduating from college. Carl’s son Carl Lincoln married, but had only one stillborn child. Therefore, this line of the Schurz family ended when Marianne died in 1929.  Agatha and Carl Lincoln Schurz preceded her in 1915 and 1924, respectively.  Incidentally, Carl Lincoln’s birthday celebrated its 140^th anniversary this week, on February 28, 1871. The younger Schurz was a notable lawyer.

Carl Schurz died in New York City at age 77 on May 14, 1906, after a short bout with pneumonia. His autobiography, The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, was incomplete, but even incomplete, it amounted to three volumes in publication.

Schurz blessed us with many significant quotations, the most well-known of which is an adaptation of Stephen Decatur’s patriotic toast: “My country: right or wrong.”  At first glance, this seems blind faith, but Schurz’ complete quote illustrates his clear-sighted devotion to and practical application of American ideals: “My country, right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right.” 

If you would like to read a more comprehensive article about Carl Schurz, please click here. Neither this short blog posting nor the attached longer article can begin to credit Carl Schurz properly, but perhaps one or the other of these will serve to reintroduce a remarkable man to the American public. Even today, all of us could learn much from Carl Schurz.

SOURCES

Terzian, James P., Defender of Human Rights, Carl Schurz (New York: Julian Messner, Division of Pocket Books, Inc., 1965)

“An Evolving Family Tree for Carl Schurz” http://homepage.mac.com/pannier/schurz

Terzian, James P., Defender of Human Rights, Carl Schurz (New York: Julian Messner, Division of Pocket Books, Inc., 1965)

Biographical Directory to the United States Congress http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s000151

Wallace A. Rayfield, black architect (1874?-1941)

 This day, February 28, marks the 70^th anniversary (1941) of the death of Wallace Augustus Rayfield, an Alabama architect of local reknown, although now mostly forgotten. He is the first black architect in Alabama to practice professionally, and the second black architect in the United States to practice professionally.

Not much is known of Rayfield, but more is being discovered as researchers trace his records. Most resources (but not all) list his birth year as 1874. All sites agree that he was born on May 10^th in Bibb County near Macon, Georgia.  His father worked as a porter for the railroads. Some accounts have it that his mother had attended Atlanta University; others claim she was a maid.

His mother died when Rayfield was twelve, and he went to Washington, DC, to live with an aunt. He graduated with a B.S. from Howard University in 1896. He worked for A. B. Mullett & Company, an architectural firm in Washington, for two years before moving to Brooklyn, NY, where he attended Pratt Institute for formal architectural training. After graduating from Pratt in 1898, he went on to Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree the next year.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

It was during this year at Columbia that Rayfield met Booker T. Washington, who offered him a position at the Tuskegee Institute. Rayfield spent the next eight years there, teaching mechanical and architectural drawing. From there, he went to Birmingham, Alabama, where he established his professional office, the first black-owned architectural firm in Alabama. He soon began collaborating with a black contractor, Thomas C. Windham, and these two men produced many buildings in Birmingham for a growing black clientele. Besides residences, banks, offices, private clubs, schools, institutional buildings, and hotels, Rayfield designed many local churches, including the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, tragically launched into the national spotlight when the bombs placed by white supremacists during the Civil Rights movement killed four girls in Sunday school on September 15, 1963.

He designed more than 400 buildings across 20 states, 130 of them in Birmingham. Besides architecture, Rayfield was noted in his day for his talent in the printing industry, which supplemented and broadened his architecture practice. He designed newsletters, brochures, plan books, and advertisements.  He even developed his plan books for the designs of different buildings to appeal to different clientele - color, religious denomination, field of industry, and so forth.

He died of a stroke on this day in 1941 in Birmingham.

He is not well remembered today for several reasons.  He was black, and therefore given little attention in his day by a profession almost exclusively white. (Even today, blacks make up only about 1.5 percent of the architects in the United States.)  His practice collapsed during the Great Depression; in Birmingham, the unemployment rate was twice the national average. And besides these factors, who ever remembers the architect of almost any building or structure, famous or otherwise?

In 1993, Allen R. Durrough of Bessemer, AL, a white Southern Baptist preacher, discovered a collection of hundreds of Rayfield’s printing plates in a decrepit barn that he was cleaning out before demolition. He has made it his mission to discover who Rayfield was, and to bring his accomplishments to light. His efforts have renewed interest in this obscure architect, and he has recently published a book about Rayfield and his work (see resource below).

This African American, who figured significantly in the development of the South’s urban landscapes, is no longer hidden or lost. Many of his buildings still stand - at least four are listed on the National Register of Historic Places - for all to appreciate.

SOURCES:

BookRags.com http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/wallace-augustus-rayfield-tf/

Ward, Logan. “The Remarkable Mr. Rayfield,” Preservation Magazine, Jan-Feb 2011.

Durrough, Allen R. The Architectural Legacy of Wallace A. Rayfield, University of Alabama Press, 2010.

JIM LIMBER (1858? - ?) Black Orphan in the Confederate White House

Jim Limber - James Henry Brooks

On February 15, 1864, Varina Davis, the First Lady of the Confederacy, while conducting errands in Richmond, witnessed a small black boy being severely beaten by a black woman. Mrs. Davis, known for her kindness and concern for the welfare of others, drove away the woman and rescued the child, whose age was estimated about seven. She took him home to the Confederate White House, had his injuries tended to, clothed and fed him, and integrated him into her household.

The boy, known as Jim Limber on weekdays, called himself James Henry Brooks when he was dressed up for Sundays. It is likely that Varina’s two sons, William and Jefferson, knew Jim Limber before the rescue. The Davis boys were members of the Hill Cats, a Richmond boy gang. Jim Limber was a staunch ally of the Hill Cats. Some accounts of the rescue have it that Billy and Jeff saw the abuse and fetched their mother to stop it. In any case, the two boys became fast friends with their new housemate.

First Lady Varina Davis

Records or statements of Jim’s status within the Davis family are rare and obscure. Various histories have called him “pet,” “adopted,” “ward,” “foster child,” and “protégé.” He was not a slave when Varina found him. His mother, a free woman of color, had died when he was an infant, leaving him in the care of her friend, a cruel woman who neglected him when she wasn’t abusing him.

Jim readily assimilated into the Davis family, and Mrs. Davis is reported to have treated him as she did her own sons. She notes in her memoir that Jefferson Davis himself went to the Richmond City Hall to register the boy, to secure his status as a free black. Some speculate that the Davises adopted him, but Virginia had no formal or legal adoption law in place during the 19^th Century, and so with only very sketchy records which remain, whether they did or did not adopt him will probably never be confirmed. Most documents - federal, state, and municipal - were destroyed when the Confederate administration and its supporters evacuated Richmond in the first week of April 1985, so records of President Davis' actions no longer exist.

Jim remained with the Davis family through the fall of the Confederacy, traveling with Mrs. Davis and her household as it fled to Georgia, but Federal military officials took him away in May of 1865. The boy fought like a tiger, and both he and the Davises cried out loudly to each other as he was bodily carried away.  He was eventually sent north to a family which saw to his education and acquisition of a trade.

Sadly, the Davises never heard from him or of him again. With their own status in severe straits for many years following the war, they made no overtures to find him. By the time they were allowed to settle into quiet retirement, neither Jefferson nor Varina had the physical health to follow through on what had become a closed chapter of their lives.

Jim Limber, with an education and a trade, may have ended up with a better life than the Davises did. Varina’s rescue started him on a better path, and her efforts at the time of his removal to see him sponsored by a family who would treat him well undoubtedly provided him with opportunities better than if he had been left an urchin on the streets of Richmond.

No more information about Jim Limber seems to exist, including his trade, whether he married and had a family, or when he died.

SOURCES

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: Encyclopedia Virginia http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Limber_Jim

Civil War Memory Blog by Kevin Levin http://cwmemory.com/2008/06/20/john-coski-on-jefferson-davis-and-jim-limber/

Ross, Ishbel. First Lady of the South: The Life of Varina Davis. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958.

Davis, Varina. Jefferson Davis, A Memoir by his Wife, 2 vols. New York: Belford Company, 1890.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: His Ancestry and The Extinction of His Line

Abraham Lincoln was born 202 years ago on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, and died in Washington, DC, on April 15, 1865, the victim of an assassin's bullet.

In his professional portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln, my husband Phillip often is asked if any direct Lincoln descendants live today. The answer is no. The last of the line died in 1985, with no further issue. Only ten generations of Lincolns, of the bloodline of which our 16^th president is a part, lived in North America.

The first of Lincoln’s ancestors to set foot in North America was Samuel Lincoln of Hingham, England, a teenager apprenticed to the weaver Francis Lawes of nearby Norwich, who immigrated in 1637 with family and business to Salem in Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Within weeks, young Samuel was drawn to New Hingham Plantation (Hingham today) where two of his older brothers, Thomas and Daniel, had already settled, having crossed the fierce Western Ocean (as the Atlantic was called) in 1633.

1.  SAMUEL married Martha Lyford, who bore eleven children, of whom four sons and four daughters reached maturity.

2.  The fifth of these children, MORDECAI, born in 1658, trained in Hull as a blacksmith under Abraham Jones, whose daughter Sarah he married.  She bore him two sons, Mordecai (1686) and Abraham (1688), the first Abraham in the Lincoln family, and three daughters.  When Sarah died in the late 1690s, Mordecai married the widow Mary Chapin, who bore two more children.

3.  MORDECAI the younger and Abraham fledged their wings and settled in Freehold, New Jersey, where they established a forge in their father’s tradition.  Mordecai married Hannah, daughter of their landlord.  Hannah bore Mordecai six children, one daughter of which died in 1720 at age three.  Hannah died in 1727; Mordecai soon married Mary Robeson, who added three more sons to the family.  In 1730, Mordecai pulled up stakes and headed into Schuylkill country in Pennsylvania, where his neighbors were the families of the frontiersman Daniel Boone.

4.  Mordecai’s oldest son JOHN married Rebecca (Flowers) Morris in 1743, a widow with one son. She and John had nine more children, five sons and four daughters.  They lived near Lancaster, PA, for about 20 years, until 1768, when John moved the family to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, near present-day Harrisonburg.

5.  ABRAHAM, John’s eldest child, born in 1744 while the family still resided in Pennsylvania, was 24 when this move occurred.  He wed Bathsheba Herring in 1770.  His neighbor and friend, Daniel Boone, a frontiersman and explorer, told stories of the Kentucky land beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. These stories sang a siren song that Abraham could not resist.  He went with Boone in 1781 and purchased land there.  In 1782, he packed Bathsheba, his four children - Mordecai, Josiah, Mary, and Thomas - and his goods through the Cumberland Gap, never to be seen again by the Valley folk. He was soon killed by raiding Indians while clearing his land.

Lincoln cabin at Knob Creek, KY

6.  THOMAS, age eight, witnessed his father’s death. After living with various kinfolk, Thomas apprenticed himself in 1800 to a carpenter and cabinetmaker in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  By all accounts, Thomas became proficient in this trade, producing work of impeccable quality.  By 1806, he had created a small estate for himself and married Nancy Hanks. He and Nancy had three children, Sarah, Abraham, and an infant son who died within a few days of birth. Sarah and Abraham lived into adulthood.

7.  ABRAHAM grew up on the frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. He settled in Illinois once he reached his majority. Despite minimal formal education, he learned how to read, write, and cipher. With these skills, he learned many trades, mastering few, particularly the law. He married Mary Ann Todd, whose family had founded Lexington, Kentucky. Their children numbered four: Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas, of whom only Robert attained adulthood. Abraham moved in and out of politics, serving four terms in the state legislature, one term in the U. S. House of Representatives, failing in his 1858 bid for the U. S. Senate, and succeeding in his 1860 bid for the White House. He presided over the Civil War. As the war ended, shortly after his second inauguration, he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.

Robert Todd Lincoln 1843-1926

8.  ROBERT, a young man at the time of his father’s death, took over as the family’s administrator, attending to his mother’s affairs the best he could in the deep grief and despair that dogged her for the rest of her days.  He married Mary Harlan, and they raised three children in their Chicago home. Robert built a summer home in southern Vermont, which he called Hildene, eventually retiring there. Of his and Mary’s children - Mary, Abraham II ("Jack"), and Jessie Harlan - only Mary and Jessie lived into adulthood and married.

9.1  Robert’s elder daughter MARY married Charles Isham, and they named their single child Lincoln.

9.2  Robert's younger daughter JESSIE married three times, but had children only in her first marriage to Warren Beckwith. One of the three children was stillborn. The other two were named Mary and Robert.

Lincoln Isham 1892-1971

 10.1 LINCOLN ISHAM married, but he and his wife had no children. 

Mary Lincoln Beckwith 1898-1975

10-2.  MARY LINCOLN ("PEGGY") BECKWITH lived from 1898 until 1975, spending most of her adult years in the Hildene homestead in Vermont. She never married.

Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith 1904-1985

10.3 Her brother ROBERT TODD LINCOLN BECKWITH lived in several places around the country, and eventually settled on an estate in tidewater Virginia. He married three times, but none of these unions produced children. Born in 1904, he died in 1985.

Thus the bloodline from President Abraham Lincoln died out 348 years after it had landed in Salem, Massachusetts. Today, many related Lincolns still live in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, all the descendants of great-greats of grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins related to our sixteenth president.

RESOURCES
Tarbell, Ida M.  Abraham Lincoln and His Ancestors.  Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1997.  Originally published in 1924 as In the Footsteps of the Lincolns by Harper & Brothers, New York.

Keelan, Donald B.  Robert Todd Lincoln's Hildene and How It Was Saved, 1975-1978.  Arlington, VT: The Keelan Family Foundation, 2001.

Miers, Earl Schenck, Editor-in-Chief, Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission.  Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology 1809-1865.  Dayton, OH: Morningside House, Inc., 1991, facsimile edition.  Original published in 1960.

Neely, Mark E. & Harold Holzer.  The Lincoln Family Album.  Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990, 2006.

Lincoln’s Virginia Ancestors  http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=15634

Hildene: The Lincoln Family Home  http://www.hildene.org/