Lincoln Stories

Footnotes to my comments are designated like this: [1]

Lincoln Lore #600, "Sixteen Traditional Lincoln Sweethearts", Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation. Edited by Dr. Louis A. Warren. Published by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, December 1, 1941.

Elizabeth Tulley (sic) was born in Mercer County, Kentucky and came to Spenser County in 1824. She met Lincoln at church and from then on the courtship continued for several months. She claims she was Lincoln's "first regular company." Elizabeth was asked Lincoln ever proposed to her and she replied, "No, he never proposed, but I could tell from his chat that he wanted to marry me."[1] Miss Tulley (sic) later became Mrs. Hession (sic).

"LINCOLN'S INDIANA LIFE." The Indianapolis News. Saturday, December 7, 1895, Page 9 Click her for Newspaper page

This has an interviews with Elizabeth Tuley Hesson, her brother John and a couple of neighbors.
In this interview, Elizabeth denies that she and Abraham Lincoln were ever engaged.

T. Hardy Masterson recollections, "The Pocket Periscope", The Evansville Courier & Journal. Sunday, February 12, 1928.

Quoting from George H. Honig who quoted T. Hardy Masterson in a letter dated October 21, 1927:
"I have lost my notes on the interviews with the boyhood friends of Lincoln, and the stories printed at the time. So much has passed that my memory as to these interviews has grown dim, and I hesitate to give now my recollections. But friends appeared in the Chicago Times-Herald or the Indianapolis Journal about 1896 or 1897.[2]
Unfortunately, I have lost my original notes and the copies of the stories, and thirty years have erased much of the matter from my mind. I hesitate to give my incomplete recollections of what those people told me, but as you think they may have some worth, I will do the best I can.
"I called on my Aunt Elizabeth Hesson first,(I think I have her name correct.) John O. Chewning was with me, if I am not mistaken. My recollection is that she lived some distance south and west of Lincoln City. I have heard that she was Lincoln's first sweetheart, at least his first regular 'company.' She was about 85 years old when I saw her, well preserved, with an active mind and not at all impressed with the fact that Lincoln had been her 'beau.' She talked freely of him as she would have done about any country boy she had known in her youth.
"My recollection is that she first met Lincoln at 'Pigeon' or 'Little Pigeon' Baptist church. At least that was the beginning of their keeping company. She was sitting on a split log, or puncheon, bench and Lincoln came in and sat down by her. She shared her song-book with him and in a way young people had a hundred years ago and still have, they got acquainted. After the long sermon was over, Abe asked to see her home, and she agreed. They walked out of the little clearing, along the woods-path a hundred yards or so, and sat on a log and took off their shoes and Abe carried both pairs. Since leather had to last a long time in those days. They trudged along barefooted the three or four miles to her home. The old lady smiled at the recollection, for Abe lived two or three miles the other side of the church and he had not known where she lived when he asked to see her home. He stayed to dinner, and no doubt made ample justice to it.
"He must have felt the long walk was worth while, for he asked her to let him call again and he kept company with her for several months. I wanted to know what broke off the affair and Aunt Elizabeth said her father objected. She was reluctant to tell me why, but finally said Abe had got too much cider or apple-jack one day, and fell in a branch on his face and was almost drowned. She said Abe was not a regular drinking fellow and never heard of his doing it again, but her father was very strict about drinking and would never forgive that one lapse.

The same article also includes a reference to Elizabeth's younger brother John:

"John Tulley (sic) was over 85 years old, I think, when I saw him and lived south of Gentryville some distance. He said Abe Lincoln was a little older than he, but they were playmates. He said Lincoln was at the Tuley (sic) house once in the very early winter. It was cold and the ground was covered with deep snow. He said he and Abe had set some traps in the woods two or three hundred yards from the house. They wanted to go out to the traps, but they were barefooted and they were afraid they would freeze their feet. He said they figured out a plan. Each got two thick clapboards and stood them up before the roaring fire in the fireplace and let them get hot clear through. They wrapped them in a cloth and raced through the snow to the traps and stood on the board while they robbed and baited the traps. He said that they had to stop, once or twice, going back, to warm up their feet, but they did not get frost-bitten.[4]

My comments:

[1] This differs from other family traditions that they were engaged.
[2] I remember seeing a copy of a newspaper article dated about this time posted at the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial about 1969 or 1970. It is no longer there. That article referred to an engagement.
[3] Since Abe was about two and a half years older than her and they attended the same church, this version is quite believable.
[4] Playmates that lived 6 or 7 miles away? John would have been only 8 when Abe was 15 and John would have been 15 and Abe 22 the year Elizabeth got married. I am skeptical about this story, although there could be some truth to it, if Abe walked Elizabeth home from church and a snow storm prevented him from walking home.

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