Pioneer life was hard for a man with two children but no woman to care for them, nor to help with the chores at home. Thus Thomas Lincoln remarried about a year after the death (1818) of his first wife, Nancy Hanks, Abrahams mother. The new “mother” was a widow, Sarah Bush Johnston, with three youngsters of her own. According to historians, Abraham Lincolns stepbrother, John D. Johnston, five years Lincolns junior, turned out to be shiftless and lazy. The following letter was written to his young stepbrother when Lincoln was 39 years old and a U. S. Congressman from Illinois.
Washington, December 24, 1848 Dear Johnston: Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it best to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, “We can get along very well now,” but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work, in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work; and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of needlessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in.
You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is, that you shall go to work, “tooth and nails,” for somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of things at home—prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of next May, get for your own labor, either in money, or on your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this, I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in California, but I [mean for you to go at it for the best wages you] can get close to home in Coles County. Now if you will do this, you will be soon out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and, if you don’t pay the money back, you will deliver possession. Nonsense! If you can’t now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been [kind] to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to you.
Affectionately your brother,
A. Lincoln
Thomas Lincoln left Ky ,to Indiana where Nancy Hanks died.
ReplyDeleteAbraham & Dennis & Thomas & Sara Lincoln came Illinois.
First they went to area near Decatur illinois built cabin.
Thomas Lincoln his wife Sara lived in Coles Co Illinois.
Dennis Hanks wife Elizabeth Johnston lived Coles Co il.
Dennis Hanks daughter Harriet married August chapman.
John Johnston son Abram lived coles Co il.
John Johnston son Tommy was crippled got into trouble.
Tommy Johnston jail Urbana for charge steal watch.
Tommy Johnston already charge for steal gun Charleston.
Sara Johnston son John Johnston did not like to work.
Abraham Lincoln partner William Herndon was alcoholic.
ReplyDeleteAbe used to get up in the morning, get into action , to
get Herndon out of jail cause he vandalise some saloon/
store which Lincoln had to pay out money. I am sure that
Mary did not like Abe do that. Abe took it upon himself
to care for his parents Thomas/Sara in cole co illinois.
Mary named Tad Thomas after Abe dad. She even wrote
to Sara .Mary Todd Lincoln father Robert S Todd gave
Mary dowry which he gave her money & 80 acres land.
Mary and Abe lived Globe Inn when mary dad robt visited.
Mary had just gave birth to Robert Todd Lincoln she named
after her father . Which Robt lived adulthood He was the man
that put his mother in aslyum he end up with mother's estate.
Give Springfield home to Springfield and Not allow his mother
to have the things she had in the trunks that belonged to her.
When Abe was away ,Mary had others take off roof and make
2nd story to the home 8th / jackson Street Springfield il.
Mary took it upon herself to do whatever she wanted to do.
Abraham Lincoln had his handsful with a wife that always want more.
Footnote:.John D. Johnston was born 10 May 1810 in Elizabethtown, Hardin Co., KY, and died 1854 in Coles Co., IL. He married Mary Barker in 1834, Coles Co., IL. She was also born in KY.This John had two sisters: Sarah Elizabeth Johnston and Matilda Johnston.(Elizabeth married Dennis Hanks in 1821&Matilda wed Squire Hall)In 1841, Abraham gave him $200 for this forty acre tract and took a deed for it, stipulating in the deed that Thomas and his wife should have a life interest..
ReplyDeleteabe only gave money parents only .John son Tommy stole watch/gun in urbana il abe got jail.
Ms Elizabeth Beckley Said:Mary Todd Lincoln wore the finest prettiest clothes & liked her hair fixed she even liked have her picture taken. but Mary did not like Grant she called him butcher & Mary knew he was drinker like Wm Herndon of Springfield .Jan 1862 Herndon came D.C to ask Lincoln for a favor so that he could court young lady 17yrs his junior ,to give her relative govt job also Herndon ask Lincoln for money claim he broke he had no funds to return to Springfield.
Ms Elizabeth Beckley Said: That robert Todd Lincoln had a lofty soul. which means He had Feelings of Superiority,He thought he was too good to do what his parents ask of him ,to attend functions,etc.In example: Robert T Lincoln said "he would not attend function of Tom Thumb dwarf." So we can see Robert Todd Lincoln tell his parents "He would not attend the Ford Theatre ,He rather stay home , sleep ,whereas ,others say he visit Lucy,some say he went out on the town with a friend or two. If RTL was at Ford theatre would he of stopped JWB or would JWB would of turn on him as he did other man with the Lincolns?
Ms Elizabeth Beckley said when they were at city point Mr .Mrs Grant came aboard steamer several times. (richmond fall).Mrs Grant crosseyed she did not like her picture taken.Mrs Grant let her feelings cloud her opinions of others feelings inferiority. It was Mrs Grant that ask her Husband Ulysses to leave the city very day Abe ask Grant to attend the Ford theatre which Grant turn down invitation.
Footnote: The beautiful Lucy Lambert Hale from Dover, New Hampahire received an anonymous Valentine’s Day card in 1862 that sparked a notorious romance John Wilkes Booth.Lucy is second eldest daughter of U.S. Senator John Parker Hale and Lucy Hill Lambert,... were living at the National Hotel in Washington D.C.(where Booth stayed)National Hotel, formerly situated at 6th and Pennsylvania Ave in D.C. .Lucy's with suitors Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., John Hay, rumored Robert Todd Lincoln.(later married . William E. Chandler) Remenber Lucy picture among 5 other women pictures were in JWB wallet /Diary the allegedly missing pages of Booth’s diary..After John Wilkes Booth was shot at Garrett's farm on April 26, 1865, Colonel Everton Conger removed JWB items on him.
Rumor 18 pages were missing from diary but others say diary also appeared to be missing 54 pages from the front of the book and an additional 32 pages from the back,was missing in Jwb diary.
Booth's entries in the diary were probably written between April 17 and April 22, 1865. ... He took it to Washington and gave it to Lafayette C. Baker, chief of the War Department's National Detective Police. The little book was taken off Booth's body by Colonel Everton Conger. He took it to Washington and gave it to Lafayette C. Baker, chief of the War Department's National Detective Police. Baker in turn gave it to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.