New Light On Lincoln's Boyhood

[Gene C]

An article from February 1920 Atlantic Monthly

I found this in the second paragraph interesting,
"The family of Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham Lincoln, while in their Indiana home, consisted of his two children, Abraham and Sarah, and a flock of orphaned or partly orphaned , children from four different families. Among these was a niece, Sophie Hanks, just a month younger than Abraham, who lived in the family of Thomas Lincoln until she was married."

This was new to me. It also seems the author did not think highly of Dennis Hanks.
After that first page, I found sections 3 and 4 of the article the most interesting.

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics...orglin.htm

Based on this article, seems many historians and writers have not been fair to Thomas Lincoln.

[Joe Di Cola]

(05-26-2015 12:40 PM)Gene C Wrote:  An article from February 1920 Atlantic Monthly

I found this in the second paragraph interesting,
"The family of Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham Lincoln, while in their Indiana home, consisted of his two children, Abraham and Sarah, and a flock of orphaned or partly orphaned , children from four different families. Among these was a niece, Sophie Hanks, just a month younger than Abraham, who lived in the family of Thomas Lincoln until she was married."

This was new to me. It also seems the author did not think highly of Dennis Hanks.
After that first page, I found sections 3 and 4 of the article the most interesting.

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics...orglin.htm

Based on this article, seems many historians and writers have not been fair to Thomas Lincoln.

As far as I could ever tell, this article was perhaps the first ever to mention Sophie Hanks. Warren, who extensively researched Lincoln's Indiana years, never mentioned her. Neither did William Barton, Sandburg, or Thomas. She is cited in Wilson and Davis "Herndon's Informants" in an appendix; however, there is no Herndon interview or letter-exchange with her in the Herndon materials, per se. In Tarbell's "The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln, there is no mention of her. She is included in Burlingame's two volume biography of Lincoln.

One more thought...I would have to check this by looking at the Burlingame end-notes at Knox College (and I do not have the time to do this right now), because it would be interesting to see if Burlingame's inclusion of the Sophie Hanks story is based solely on the Atlantic Monthly article. If this is so, I might think about taking her story with a grain of salt since her son's recollections of his mother's recollections could be self-promotional rather than based on fact. What do all of you think about this?

Joe

[RJNorton]

In the article it says:

"The usual opinions to the effect that Abraham Lincoln was a sickly child do not find support in the stories handed down by the doctor's mother, who grew up with him. 'He was very firm and straight,' both physically and morally. He 'grew up very early,' and was large for his years. Sophie Hanks evidently was much impressed with Abe's physical ability. 'If they was anyone that was an expert at any kind of athletics,' related the doctor, 'Abe could do it better. I've heerd mother say many time that Abe would stand flat on his feet and lean back till his head would touch the floor. I got so I could stand on a trundle bed and lean back till my head touched the bed, but I was always afraid to try it on the floor for fear I would fall and hurt myself. It was mother telling me about Abe Linkhorn that started me at it. One of my playmates got so he could stand on the flat of his feet and reach backwards and touch the ground."

With regard to his years at New Salem Daniel Green Burner reminisced:

"I have seen Lincoln place a cup of water between his heels, and then folding his arms, bend his tall form backward until he could grip the edge of the cup between his teeth and then straighten himself up, without spilling the water."

I always thought Burner was embellishing - now I am not so sure!

[HerbS]

Great research Gene!Your post was very eye-opening.

[loetar44]

A colorful article! Sophie Hanks was new for me too! The article says: "John Lynch, the doctor's half-brother, also voted against Lincoln in 1869. He gave as his reason that his father was a Whig, 'and you know a boy is usually what his father is.'" Typo, must be 1860...

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks for posting this, Gene - and thanks Joe for the interesting info on the article!

[RJNorton]

Hi Joe. Sophie Hanks is mentioned several times in The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln. Each time Burlingame's endnote cites "New Light on Lincoln's Boyhood" as the source of the information.

[Joe Di Cola]

(05-27-2015 04:50 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Hi Joe. Sophie Hanks is mentioned several times in The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln. Each time Burlingame's endnote cites "New Light on Lincoln's Boyhood" as the source of the information.

Thanks, Roger, for checking into the Burlingame endnotes. And, also, for the reference into the "Inner World...". I wonder what that source was since it is not in the best-known bios--not even in the Herndon-Weik works. Nevertheless, the Atlantic article was interesting. Thanks, Gene, for posting it!

[loetar44]

Below is some info re. Sophie (Sophia) Hanks. I hope that I do not bore anyone with all of this. The article is from February 1997 and written by Lincoln researcher Paul H. Verduin and entitled: LINCOLN'S LONG FORGOTTEN FOSTER SISTER REDISCOVERD: SOPHIA HANKS, WHOSE CHILDREN FOUGHT FOR NORTH AND SOUTH.

"Four years ago, I presented to a stunned audience at the first International Lincoln Conference, sponsored by the prestigious Abraham Lincoln Association and the Louisiana State University at Shreveport, my discoveries in archival documents concerning a mysterious, long forgotton, illegitimate foster sister of President Lincoln.

The Civil War president's foster sister's name was Sophia Hanks. She was just a month younger than Abraham Lincoln, and when she and Abe were both nine year old children, she moved into the Lincoln's southern Indiana log cabin for several years, after the same wave of mild sickness struck down Abe's mother and both of Sophia's previous foster parents. Sophia Hanks Lynch Legrand is her full name, when one strings together her maiden name with the last names of her successive husbands, Indiana Hoosier Dillings Lynch and John Legrand of Indiana and Missouri.

Sophia outlived both her husbands, saw her children fight on both sides during the Civil War, and died in 1893 in an Arkansas Ozarks mountain cabin at the ripe old age of 84. Sophia told her children all about her childhood and teenage years with her tall, strong cousin Abe, and eventually, in 1909 and in 1910, her children talked.

For reasons that become obvious, Lincoln biographers of that era didn't want to listen. But scholars and family tradition now agree Sophia Hanks was biologically Abe's cousin, her mother and his being half-sisters. Astonishingly, she was one of six illegitimate children of a Kentucky aunt of Lincoln's named Sarah Hanks. What's more, the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt that both Aunt Sarah Hanks and Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks were also illegitimate! Needless to say, President Lincoln never said anything about Sophia or her mother Sarah, in public or at any other time. But Dennis Hanks, Lincoln's step brother-in-law and a cousin of both Abe and Sarah, wrote President Lincoln in 1864 that he had got a letter from her, and she was finding it hard to believe that "her cousin" from the Indiana days was the same man who had become the president of the United States!

In the same letter, Dennis wrote to Lincoln that Sophia's sons were "all in the army, Vicksburg." But, Dennis didn't tell Lincoln that Sophia's oldest son Dennis who had moved south, had been in the 22nd Mississippi Infantry until his capture at Vicksburg by Union Troops on May 17, 1863, and subsequent imprisonment. He also didn't say that Sophia's brother had died while serving with the 2nd Mississippi Partisans. But two of Sophia's sons did join the Union's 33rd Missouri Infantry, though James LeGrand deserted after three months. After the war he became an Ozark county doctor, when noted American Civil engineer and educator, Arthur E. Morgan, interviewed him and two of Sophia's other children in 1909 and 1910. Many of their stories about Abe Lincoln and their relationships to him were published by Dr. Morgan in the Atlantic Monthly in 1920, but essential veracity of their neglected accounts was untested until my research of seventy years later. No wonder Lincoln avoided the subject of his mother's family."

Ancestry.com gives 6 children of Sophie’s marriage (June 13, 1827) with Dillings Lynch: Dennis (1829), James, Sara = Sally (1833), John (1835 - 1927), Nancy (1837 - 1922) and Elizabeth (1840). And 2 children of Sophie’s marriage (October 4, 1842) with Legrand : James = “The Doctor” (1844) and Rebecca (1853). “The Doctor” was Mr. Morgan's chief source of information for his article in the Atlantic Monthly, published in 1920. Stated is that “The Doctor” had one “full sister”.

When Sophie died (in November1893 or 1895) three children were living in different parts of the Ozarks. These three children are:
1. John Lynch, who lived in 1909 east of Iron Mountain, Mo. Very old, memory failing. He was a voter in 1861, and voted against Lincoln, and is thus older than “The Doctor”
2. Nancy Davidson, maiden name not given, living in 1909 with her husband at Limestone Valley, Ark.
3. "The Doctor" = James Legrand, born in Dubois County, Indiana. In the spring of 1847 he moved from Indiana to St. Francis County, Mo. Taught school, served in Civil War, and "practiced physic" living in Jasper, Ark., 1874-1909 since when he has lived in Harrison, Ark., having given up his practice. In January 1920 he was very sick with pneumonia.

                   

[Joe Di Cola]

(05-27-2015 09:34 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  Below is some info re. Sophie (Sophia) Hanks. I hope that I do not bore anyone with all of this. The article is from February 1997 and written by Lincoln researcher Paul H. Verduin and entitled: LINCOLN'S LONG FORGOTTEN FOSTER SISTER REDISCOVERD: SOPHIA HANKS, WHOSE CHILDREN FOUGHT FOR NORTH AND SOUTH.

"Four years ago, I presented to a stunned audience at the first International Lincoln Conference, sponsored by the prestigious Abraham Lincoln Association and the Louisiana State University at Shreveport, my discoveries in archival documents concerning a mysterious, long forgotton, illegitimate foster sister of President Lincoln.

The Civil War president's foster sister's name was Sophia Hanks. She was just a month younger than Abraham Lincoln, and when she and Abe were both nine year old children, she moved into the Lincoln's southern Indiana log cabin for several years, after the same wave of mild sickness struck down Abe's mother and both of Sophia's previous foster parents. Sophia Hanks Lynch Legrand is her full name, when one strings together her maiden name with the last names of her successive husbands, Indiana Hoosier Dillings Lynch and John Legrand of Indiana and Missouri.

Sophia outlived both her husbands, saw her children fight on both sides during the Civil War, and died in 1893 in an Arkansas Ozarks mountain cabin at the ripe old age of 84. Sophia told her children all about her childhood and teenage years with her tall, strong cousin Abe, and eventually, in 1909 and in 1910, her children talked.

For reasons that become obvious, Lincoln biographers of that era didn't want to listen. But scholars and family tradition now agree Sophia Hanks was biologically Abe's cousin, her mother and his being half-sisters. Astonishingly, she was one of six illegitimate children of a Kentucky aunt of Lincoln's named Sarah Hanks. What's more, the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt that both Aunt Sarah Hanks and Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks were also illegitimate! Needless to say, President Lincoln never said anything about Sophia or her mother Sarah, in public or at any other time. But Dennis Hanks, Lincoln's step brother-in-law and a cousin of both Abe and Sarah, wrote President Lincoln in 1864 that he had got a letter from her, and she was finding it hard to believe that "her cousin" from the Indiana days was the same man who had become the president of the United States!

In the same letter, Dennis wrote to Lincoln that Sophia's sons were "all in the army, Vicksburg." But, Dennis didn't tell Lincoln that Sophia's oldest son Dennis who had moved south, had been in the 22nd Mississippi Infantry until his capture at Vicksburg by Union Troops on May 17, 1863, and subsequent imprisonment. He also didn't say that Sophia's brother had died while serving with the 2nd Mississippi Partisans. But two of Sophia's sons did join the Union's 33rd Missouri Infantry, though James LeGrand deserted after three months. After the war he became an Ozark county doctor, when noted American Civil engineer and educator, Arthur E. Morgan, interviewed him and two of Sophia's other children in 1909 and 1910. Many of their stories about Abe Lincoln and their relationships to him were published by Dr. Morgan in the Atlantic Monthly in 1920, but essential veracity of their neglected accounts was untested until my research of seventy years later. No wonder Lincoln avoided the subject of his mother's family."

Ancestry.com gives 6 children of Sophie’s marriage (June 13, 1827) with Dillings Lynch: Dennis (1829), James, Sara = Sally (1833), John (1835 - 1927), Nancy (1837 - 1922) and Elizabeth (1840). And 2 children of Sophie’s marriage (October 4, 1842) with Legrand : James = “The Doctor” (1844) and Rebecca (1853). “The Doctor” was Mr. Morgan's chief source of information for his article in the Atlantic Monthly, published in 1920. Stated is that “The Doctor” had one “full sister”.

When Sophie died (in November1893 or 1895) three children were living in different parts of the Ozarks. These three children are:
1. John Lynch, who lived in 1909 east of Iron Mountain, Mo. Very old, memory failing. He was a voter in 1861, and voted against Lincoln, and is thus older than “The Doctor”
2. Nancy Davidson, maiden name not given, living in 1909 with her husband at Limestone Valley, Ark.
3. "The Doctor" = James Legrand, born in Dubois County, Indiana. In the spring of 1847 he moved from Indiana to St. Francis County, Mo. Taught school, served in Civil War, and "practiced physic" living in Jasper, Ark., 1874-1909 since when he has lived in Harrison, Ark., having given up his practice. In January 1920 he was very sick with pneumonia.

I cannot thank you enough! This clears up a lot. Wiulson and Davis include the Hanks geneology in the back of "Herndon's Informants" and include Sophie (it appears similar to the geneology you attached), but to have the "gaps" filled in is great. Thanks again! And thanks, too, to Gene for starting this thread. It is Lincoln's pre-presidential years in which I am most interested, so this has been fun.

[Gene C]

Yes, thanks for posting this.
That must have been one crowded log cabin Abe grew up in with Sophie and possibly another cousin or two on occassion. No wonder Dennis Hanks and Abe's step sister (Sarah Elizabeth Johnson) married when she was only 14. They wanted to get out of that cabin and have their own space.

[loetar44]

Thanks Joe and Gene. BTW, I understand that well-known Lincoln biographies don’t mention Sophie. Illegitimacy and bastardy was generally frowned upon, and if the fact of Lincoln’s illegitimate relatives (I count nine or so, including his mother Nancy and foster sister Sophie) had come to full light during the 1860 campaigns, his chances for (re-)election would have vanished completely I suppose.

---

Casey Cemetery in Limestone, Newton County, Arkansas

   

[Eva Elisabeth]

Amazing information, Kees, thanks! Joe, I checked Burlingame's "A Life", and he refers to the James LeGrand interview.

[Joe Di Cola]

(05-27-2015 01:39 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Amazing information, Kees, thanks! Joe, I checked Burlingame's "A Life", and he refers to the James LeGrand interview.

Thanks, Since she was not listed in the index, your reference to the interview helped me to see that Sophie is in fact mentioned on page 11 of volume 1 (Burlingame).

[loetar44]

(05-27-2015 01:39 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Amazing information, Kees, thanks! Joe, I checked Burlingame's "A Life", and he refers to the James LeGrand interview.

Thanks Eva. Here is some more info...

LINCOLN'S COUSIN RECALLS STORIES OF EMANCIPATOR
BY MARTHA MURPHY.

Abe Lincoln's third cousin — and his spittin' image — never even bothers to tell folks who he really is. The cousin, Charles G. Le Grand, has been in the Oak Forest, intirmary for two months, but it took a letter from Ohio yesterday to let even Frank Venecek, uperintendent, and Dr. Eugene Chesrow, head physician, know his identity.

" There never seemed much point in telling anybody about it," Le Grand said yesterday. " Nobody ever believed it anyway. My mother used to spread it around, but when she always talked more than my father."

Le Grand's grandmother, SOPHIE HANKS LE GRAND, lived with Lincoln and the Hanks family UNTIL SHE WAS 19 and the stories she told her grandchildren about Abe are just the kind that helped him get elected president.

Arthur E. Morgan, former president of Antioch college, Yellow Springs, O., and former chairman of the Tennessee valley authority, who wrote the letter to the infirmary urging that every effort be made to enable Le Grand to return home, visited the Le Grands once and heard them all.

" One of grandmother's funniest stories about Lincoln was the one about the corn husking party," Le Grand yesterday. " She made Abe a little corn husk cap to wear and he got to having so much fun at the party that it fell off into the fire. He was pretty mad, but grandmother made him another one.

"Abe and grandmother looked just alike. We laid their pictures side by
side once and grandmother was the spittin' image — even to the mole b his nose and the junny way his lowe lip stuck out."

Le Grand himself looks just like Lincoin — minus the mole. He has the
same jutting chin, long nose and heavy eyebrows and long, rangy build~ The boys back in Jasper, Ark.— the ones that knew about us — used to tease me because they said I ever, walked like him," Le Grand said.

That's where I grew up and where Mr. Morgan came to see us. Father settled there because he liked the hills, the hunting, and the fine spring water. Grandmother lived with us when we had our house in Limestone vallev.

She told us that story about Abe and the Hanks boys all lying in front
of the fireplace nights and studying. Grandmother was quite a figure herself — a mighty deep woman — but they all helped each other. Why she could even work the old Studebaker wagon problem that went around.

"Another of her stories was about the time she and Abe were out hoeing corn and a sluggard walked by all dressed up in a new pair of pants. They were working hard and the sluggard never did anything. Abe made some remark about him and got slapped right off the rail fence they were resting on."

Le Grand reads every book about Lincoln he can lay hands on, but has never visited any of the Lincoln shrines. He's 61 years old now and recovering from hip fractures and figures he probably won't get a chance to make the trips.

All he wants is a chance to go back to his kin folks in Doe Run, Mo.

Source: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection.
URL: https://archive.org/details/hanksfamilylinc_9