Footnotes to my comments are designated like this: [1]
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).
The Indianapolis News. Saturday, December 7, 1895, Page 9
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.
Text last updated 05 August 2024. Formatting and xternal links fixed on 23 Feb 2026.