Lincoln's beard

[Gencor]

I am sure that many of you may already know this story but I happened to stumble upon this today and it was something I didn't know about Lincoln before he became President. It seems that as Lincoln was running for president during his campaign he attracted a young girl by the name of Grace Bedell who was from Westfield, New York. She wrote Lincoln to express her excitement about his campaign and that she felt that he would gain much more support if he grew facial hair. In her letter to Mr. Lincoln she wrote, "I hope you won't think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are," she goes on, "I have 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you anyway and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President."

In a letter dated October 19, 1960, Mr. Lincoln wrote back to Grace. "Having never worn any, do you not think that people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?" he asked. Yet, by the following January, the recently elected present was seen to have a beard growing in. The next month, in February 1861 a bearded President Lincoln made a stop in Westfield and met Grace Bedell in person.

As he continued to make his way by train to Washington, D.C., his facial hair filled in, and by the time of his March 1861 inauguration, he was the first United States President with a full beard.

I read this in History Facts and it was such an adorable story I just had to bring it here. For those of you who already know this story, I hope you will forgive me. I had never heard the story and thought that I would share it.