Lincoln

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	Highlights from The Kentucky Historical Society about Abraham Lincoln

As the nation prepares to celebrate the Lincoln Bicentennial - read some lesser known facts about Kentucky’s Lincoln connections.

Dennis Hanks

Dennis Hanks, the cousin of Abraham Lincoln's mother, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. He was the illegitimate son of Nancy Hanks, an aunt of Lincoln's mother, also named Nancy Hanks.

Dennis moved to southern Indiana in 1817 and lived with the Sparrow family, relatives of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Abraham and Dennis became close friends. In 1818, when both the Sparrows' mother and Lincoln's mother died, Dennis moved in with the Lincolns. He and Abraham Lincoln shared the loft space in their cabin. In 1821, he married Sarah Elizabeth Johnston, the daughter of Thomas Lincoln's second wife, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. They moved with the Lincoln family to Illinois in 1830.

Photo of an elderly Dennis Hanks

Photo by Hannah Cornett

Though Dennis and Abraham parted ways after moving to Illinois, they still stayed connected to some degree. From 1844 to 1846, Harriet, his daughter, boarded with Abraham and Mary Lincoln in Springfield while she was at school. In 1851, Lincoln represented Dennis in a lawsuit against William B. White. During Lincoln's presidency, Dennis assisted in the care of Lincoln's aging and ill stepmother.

After Lincoln's assassination, Hanks was a key player in purchasing and displaying to the public a cabin Lincoln lived in briefly in Decatur, Illinois.


		Peter Cartwright (1785-1872)

	Peter Cartwright was a Methodist minister born in Amherst County, Virginia, in 1785. His family moved to Logan County, Kentucky, when he was five years old. Cartwright joined the Methodists after a Great Revival camp meeting near his family's home in 1801. Licensed to preach in 1802, he became known as "Kentucky Boy" because of his powerful speaking voice and skills in oratory. In 1824, Cartwright moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, because of his strong feelings against slavery. He entered politics and was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1828 and 1832. The election of 1832 brought Cartwright and Abraham Lincoln into direct competition since they were both running for the Sangamon County seat in the Illinois House. The election results ended with Lincoln's defeat.


		Mary Todd Lincoln House

	Postcard showing childhood home of Mary Todd Lincoln, ca. 1940s Kentucky Historical Society Collections

"No other house in Kentucky has as many associations with President Lincoln and his family as does this red brick house on West Main Street." - J. Winston Coleman Jr.

The Mary Todd Lincoln house, at present-day 578 West Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky, was built ca. 1803-6 as an inn called "The Sign of the Green Tree," operated by William P. Monteer who sold the property to Robert S. Todd, Mary Todd's father, in May 1832. Mary Todd was thirteen years old when the Todds moved there, and this was her home until she left Kentucky to live with her sister Elizabeth Edwards in Springfield, Illinois, in 1839.

The home was a spacious, fourteen-room, two-story brick Georgian house with double parlors, a wide central hall, and a long ell. The grounds were large enough to accommodate a kitchen, servants' quarters, a washhouse, a springhouse, a smokehouse, and stables with a carriage house. The side lawn was a flower garden with a gravel walk close to the Town Fork of Elkhorn Creek.

Abraham Lincoln visited the home several times and spent nearly a month there in 1847 on his way to Washington, D.C. After Robert Todd's death in 1849, the house was sold at auction.

After being in private hands for many years, it was acquired by the Kentucky State Parks Department in 1967. It was opened to the public by the Kentucky Mansions Preservation Foundation Inc. in 1977. An inventory of the auction was used as a guide for furnishing the house. The Lincoln and Todd families have donated family pieces to the home over the years. The Mary Todd Lincoln House has the distinction of being the first historic site restored in honor of a First Lady.


		Joshua Fry Speed (1814-1882) "Well, Speed, I'm moved!" - Abraham Lincoln, 1837 Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Fry Speed became friends on April 15, 1837. The story is a familiar one. Young, lanky Lincoln rode into Springfield, Illinois, with nothing more than his saddlebags. Inquiring at the general store about lodging, Speed, a coproprietor (who knew him by reputation), offered to share his bed with Lincoln-on credit. In the few minutes it took to climb the stairs and drop his bags, Lincoln had made a new home and a lifelong friend. Both of these Illinois Whigs hailed from Kentucky-but from very different circumstances. Joshua Speed, the younger of the two, was the son of Judge James and Lucy (Fry) Speed. Raised at Farmington, the family's plantation estate near Louisville, Joshua received a superb private education and a year at St. Joseph's Academy before moving to Springfield in 1835. During 1837-41, Lincoln's friendship with Joshua Speed flourished. Speed introduced his socially awkward friend to Ninian and Elizabeth (Todd) Edwards-in whose home he met his future wife, Mary Todd of Lexington. Their most intense period of friendship culminated in the few weeks they spent together at Farmington in 1841. Soon after, Joshua returned to Louisville, marrying Fannie Henning in 1842, and quickly becoming an active member of the community. Both friends settled into careers, and correspondence lessened. After a term in the state legislature during 1848-49, Speed and brother-in-law William Henning soon formed a successful real estate partnership. A successful businessman from 1853 to 1855, Speed also served as president of the Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington Railroad. By 1860, Speed was a Democrat. He disagreed with Lincoln over slavery, stringently protested John C. Fremont's proclamation of military emancipation, and advised Lincoln against issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet, during the Civil War he remained one of Lincoln's most loyal friends and an important Kentucky Unionist. Early on, he assisted in the distribution of "Lincoln guns." Throughout the war, he kept Lincoln abreast of the situation in Kentucky and made numerous confidential trips to Washington. Two weeks before Lincoln's assassination, Joshua Speed saw his friend one last time.