Sarah Rickard

[RJNorton]

From Michael Burlingame's Abraham Lincoln: A Life:

The “very bright” Matilda Edwards was “something of a coquette” and “a most fascinating and handsome girl, tall, graceful, and rather reserved,” who “moved at ease among the social and refined classes at Alton.” Her “gentle temper, her conciliatory manners, and the sweetness of her heart made her dear to all who knew her.”

Lincoln was among the many young men who held her dear. In the winter of 1840-1841, she and Mary Todd “seemed to form the grand centre of attraction. Swarms of strangers who had little else to engage their attention hovered around them, to catch a passing smile.” (She received twenty-two offers of marriage before wedding Newton D. Strong in 1843.)

In January 1841, Jane D. Bell reported that Lincoln had declared “if he had it in his power he would not have one feature in her face altered, he thinks she is so perfect.” Mrs. Bell added that Lincoln and Joshua Speed “spent the most of their time at [the] Edwards [home] this winter” and that “Lincoln could never bear to leave Miss Edwards’ side in company” because “he fell desperately in love with her.” Yet he was too shy to approach the young beauty, who informed Elizabeth Edwards that Lincoln “never mentioned Such a Subject to me: he never even Stooped to pay me a Compliment.”