In Mary's personal letters....

[Susan Higginbotham]

Thanks Roger!

I read it there as well as the Epstein book. And I also remember thinking it odd that a new mother would trust her infant to a six-year old. I guess Mary was either super laid-back, or extremely desperate for some rest!

Elizabeth Keckley in her memoirs recalls being put to work looking after her mistress's infant when Elizabeth herself was only four. If having such little girls looking after infants was the norm, and Keckley doesn't speak of it as an unusual practice, perhaps Mary with her slaveholding background wouldn't have thought it inappropriate to entrust her baby to such a small child.

[RJNorton]

Donna, the quote you cited comes from a May 18, 1864, discussion between Lincoln and James R. Gilmore. Lincoln was talking about Grant's Spotsylvania campaign, and he told Gilmore:

"When my wife had her first baby, the doctor from time to time reported to me that everything was going on as well as could be expected under the circumstances. That satisfied me that he was doing his best, but still I felt anxious to hear the first squall. It came at last, and I felt mightily relieved. I feel very much so about our army operations at this moment."

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Roger!

I read it there as well as the Epstein book. And I also remember thinking it odd that a new mother would trust her infant to a six-year old. I guess Mary was either super laid-back, or extremely desperate for some rest!

Elizabeth Keckley in her memoirs recalls being put to work looking after her mistress's infant when Elizabeth herself was only four. If having such little girls looking after infants was the norm, and Keckley doesn't speak of it as an unusual practice, perhaps Mary with her slaveholding background wouldn't have thought it inappropriate to entrust her baby to such a small child.

EXCELLENT point Susan-thanks. The idea of a four year old-a toddler-being put in charge of an infant breaks my heart. I don't want to know what happened to the little four year old if she were to have dropped her mistress's child or made some other blunder.

[Donna McCreary]

Donna, the quote you cited comes from a May 18, 1864, discussion between Lincoln and James R. Gilmore. Lincoln was talking about Grant's Spotsylvania campaign, and he told Gilmore:

"When my wife had her first baby, the doctor from time to time reported to me that everything was going on as well as could be expected under the circumstances. That satisfied me that he was doing his best, but still I felt anxious to hear the first squall. It came at last, and I felt mightily relieved. I feel very much so about our army operations at this moment."

Thanks for the source Roger! I wish I could find the name of the doctor. I've often wondered if it were Dr. John Todd or Dr. William Wallace or someone else.

[Gene C]

Would the services of a midwife have been common back then?

[L Verge]

Very common, Gene, especially as you got farther away from the cities. Since doctors did not receive rigorous training in those days, I suspect that many midwives were better equipped at delivering babies than the MDs. I have also seen references to the strict manners of the day that forbade male doctors from truly examining pregnant women as well as visually assisting in the birth. The plan was to maintain eye contact with the patient and to perform the necessary procedures by touch and feel methods. I'm trying to envision a woman in the last throes of delivery even being able to keep her eyes open to see if the doctor was cheating!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Donna, the quote you cited comes from a May 18, 1864, discussion between Lincoln and James R. Gilmore. Lincoln was talking about Grant's Spotsylvania campaign, and he told Gilmore:

"When my wife had her first baby, the doctor from time to time reported to me that everything was going on as well as could be expected under the circumstances. That satisfied me that he was doing his best, but still I felt anxious to hear the first squall. It came at last, and I felt mightily relieved. I feel very much so about our army operations at this moment."

Thanks for the source Roger! I wish I could find the name of the doctor. I've often wondered if it were Dr. John Todd or Dr. William Wallace or someone else.

Thanks for posting this fascinating quote and its source, Donna and Roger!!! This was new to me! Also thanks to Toia, Susan, and Donna for sharing some interesting thoughts and good points!

[Donna McCreary]

Donna, the quote you cited comes from a May 18, 1864, discussion between Lincoln and James R. Gilmore. Lincoln was talking about Grant's Spotsylvania campaign, and he told Gilmore:

"When my wife had her first baby, the doctor from time to time reported to me that everything was going on as well as could be expected under the circumstances. That satisfied me that he was doing his best, but still I felt anxious to hear the first squall. It came at last, and I felt mightily relieved. I feel very much so about our army operations at this moment."

I found the quote in Richard Miller's book, LINCOLN AND HIS WORLD: VOLUME 3, THE RISE TO NATIONAL PROMINENCE, 1843-1853.

I am still not sure of the name of the doctor.

[RJNorton]

I am still not sure of the name of the doctor.

I sure wish I could help you on this, Donna, but I am pretty sure I have never seen a doctor's name specifically mentioned in any book I own. Possibly the answer is lost to history.

The Fehrenbachers give the Gilmore quote an "A."

[Eva Elisabeth]

One often reads William Wallace was the Springfield family physician but it seems just as for providing drugs?
http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/the-p...m-wallace/
Anyway delivery (gynecology) was possibly not a GP's field even in those days?

[Anita]

Jean Baker states on page 102 of "Mary Todd Lincoln- A Biography", that it could have been one of the Springfield doctors that attended Mary during Robert's birth since several advertised as specialists in obstetrics and women's diseases. She states that Mary's friend Dr. Anson Henry charged five dollars for an "accouchment" so he could have been present, or William Wallace but as her was her brother-in-law it would have been an embarrassment.

With both Mary's mother and Lincoln's sister dying from complications of childbirth I would think Mary and Lincoln would have wanted a doctor present. Lincoln blamed his sister's death on his brother-in-law for not sending for a doctor.

I agree with Roger that "Possibly the answer is lost to history."

[Eva Elisabeth]

Charging is a good idea - maybe there's some bill in Pratt's book on Lincoln's finances? (My copy is at home...)

[RJNorton]

Charging is a good idea - maybe there's some bill in Pratt's book on Lincoln's finances? (My copy is at home...)

I just checked Pratt's book and drew a blank. That was a good idea to try.