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Donna McCreary · 09-12-2017, 10:38 PM

I am working on a list of the hired help at the Lincoln Home in Springfield. Their staff gave me a list of hired girls, but I am having some difficulty documenting the legitimacy of some of the girls. Does anyone know anything about the following:
Mary Hogan, Irish
Margaret Browne, Irish
Marty DeFrates, Portuguese
Biddy Patterson, African American
Margaret Fagan, Irish

I have checked HERNDON'S INFORMANTS and MARY LINCOLN: HER LIFE AND LETTERS.

I have sent a request for information to the historian at the Lincoln Home, but thought someone here may have information as well.

Thanks!

Eva Elisabeth · (This post was last modified: 09-13-2017 01:49 AM by Eva Elisabeth.)

Donna, it's awhile ago that I read it, and I don't remember exactly how much there was about the Lincolns' hired girls, but I think there was something:
https://books.google.de/books?id=ZoB0CQA...IQ6AEIDTAB

Gene C · (This post was last modified: 02-12-2021 06:48 AM by Gene C.)

Was one of Dennis Hank's daughters living with the Lincoln's for a while? I don't know if we could consider her a hired girl or not, but I believe she did help out around the house and may have left because she felt Mary treated her poorly?

Susan Higginbotham · 09-13-2017, 08:28 AM

Mary Fagan is mentioned here.

https://www.nps.gov/liho/planyourvisit/u...lletin.pdf

Donna McCreary · (This post was last modified: 09-14-2017 11:08 PM by Donna McCreary.)

(09-13-2017 06:29 AM)Gene C Wrote: Was one of Dennis Hank's daughters living with the Lincoln's for a while? I don't know if we could consider her a hired girl or not, but I believe she did help out around the house and may have left because she felt Mary treated poorly?

Yes, Harriet Hanks lived with the Lincoln family while she attended school in Springfield. Her interview is in Herndon's Informants under the name Harriet Chapman.
She did not say anything about doing chores around the house, but I think it is generally assumed that she did.

(09-13-2017 01:48 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote: Donna, it's awhile ago that I read it, and I don't remember exactly how much there was about the Lincolns' hired girls, but I think there was something:
https://books.google.de/books?id=ZoB0CQA...IQ6AEIDTAB

Thanks, I have read this book, and it mentions some of the hired girls, but not all of them.

Thanks everyone.
I was able to contact the curator of the Lincoln Home who sent me a pamphlet that they published a few years ago. It only mentions the girls who were African American, Irish, and Portuguese, so if there were others, we do not know.