Lincoln & Herndon

[LincolnToddFan]

(07-11-2014 10:52 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Are there any records to indicate that Lincoln went to Mr. Todd and asked for Mary's hand in marriage? Any comments on what Todd thought of his son-in-law?

Hi Laurie-

Robert Smith Todd liked and approved of AL for Mary, in marked contrast to Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards:

"I only hope that Mary will make as good a wife as she has a husband" R.S. Todd/ original source is an interview with MTL's grandniece Mary Edwards Brown, Illinois State Register, Nov 4, 1920

When Mary was 7 mos pregnant with RTL in June 1843, Robert Todd hired AL to sue someone who owed him money. He not only knew his daughter and her new husband could use the $$, he respected Lincoln's skill as a lawyer. A few weeks after the birth of Robert, he visited the couple at the Globe Tavern and deeded 80 acres of land to Abraham and Mary, which provided a comfortable income to them until long after they needed it.(pgs 80-82, The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage by Daniel Mark Epstein

So as we can see, life as the husband of Mary Todd may not have always been a day at the beach, but I am sure that AL would have been the first to agree that it had it's rewards!