The fraudulent Wilma Frances Minor letters between Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln have been mentioned in a couple of threads. I decided to do a search for examples of these letters and came upon a few.

Here is a sample of Abraham writing to Ann:

My Beloved Ann:
...I am borrowing Jacks horse to ride over to see you this coming Saturday. cutting my foot prevents my walking. I will be at your pleasure to accompany you to the Sand Ridge taffy-pull. I will be glad to hear your Father's sermon on the Sabbath. I feel unusually lifted with hope of relieving your present worry at an early date and likewise doing myself the best turn of my life. with you my beloved all things are possible. now James kindly promises to deliver into your dear little hands this letter. may the good Lord speed Saturday afternoon.
affectionately A. Lincoln


Here is a sample of Ann writing to Abraham:

my hart runs over with hapynes when I think yore name. I do not beleave I can find time to rite you a leter every day. stil I no as you say it wood surely improve my spelling and all that... I dreem of yore ... words every nite and long for you by day. I mus git super now. all my hart is ever thine.

When practicing law, Lincoln had three law partners, John Todd Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, and William Herndon.

However, from time to time, I see it mentioned that Lincoln and Ward Hill Lamon were also law partners. Did they ever have a formal agreement of a partnership, or was the arrangement (if it existed) just in effect when Lincoln was trying a case in Danville? It seems that calling them partners was more an invention of either Lamon or Clint Clay Tilton to puff up Lamon's biography, but if that isn't the case, then why not say Lincoln had four law partners?

Best
Rob

As we all know, Lincoln only sported a beard the last four or so years of his life (as it turned out). Did you ever wonder why he chose the style he did? In particular, why did he not have a mustache to go along with it? As I look at photographs and prints of men from that era I don't see those like the one Lincoln had. it was a matter of personal taste I'm sure-or was it?

Truly a horrible time for the Lincoln family. I've often wondered why others in the family didn't get the sickness? If it was contracted from drinking the milk, then why Nancy-but not Thomas, Abraham, and Sarah? You say they didn't drink the milk? But even that seems odd. Why did Nancy drink the milk in the household but not the others? Do others ponder these things?

We all know the story of Abraham Lincoln being born and growing up in poverty. Is that actually the case? Certainly compared to others back East the Lincoln's were poor. But was Thomas Lincoln poor? I read he owned land, had farms, etc. By the standards of the West in his day-was he considered poor? Or have writers imposed their standards on the story? I wonder if Thomas would have considered himself poor?

I do not know how reliable this is, but Lincoln may have inherited his wrestling abilities from his mother. In a book titled "Reminiscences of the early bench and bar of Illinois" (published in 1879) Usher F. Linder wrote:

"Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin county (now La' Rue), within ten miles of the place where I first saw the light, and a little over a month ahead of me. His mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Hanks, was said to be a very strong-minded woman, and one of the most athletic women in Kentucky. In a fair wrestle, she could throw most of the men who ever put her powers to the test. A reliable gentleman told me he heard the late Jack Thomas, clerk of the Grayson Court, say he had frequently wrestled with her, and she invariably laid him on his back. Lincoln himself was a man of great physical powers a perfect type of sinews and muscles wrapped around enormous bones."

What was the cause of the bad feelings between Abraham Lincoln and his father?

I have always been interested in Lincoln's views on slavery both before and during the war. Some people have often been critical about his views claiming that he took a conciliatory stance and was not firm enough in his abolitionist convictions. What these people fail to realize is that Lincoln was a politictian. He attempted to apease the herd mentality and take a middle line. I believe that Lincoln was always an abolitionist, and hated the evil of slavery since his early days in Kentucky when he saw slave gangs walking through town.

The following is from a speech Lincoln made in 1858. I believe that it was during the Lincoln-Douglas debates but I could be mistaken. He says:

Suppose it is true, that the negro is inferior to the white, in the gifts of nature; is it not the exact reverse justice that the white should , for that reason, take from the negro, any part of the little which has been given him? "give to him that is needy" is the christian rule of charity; but "take from him that is needy" is the rule of slavery."

Lincoln lived in many places.Which homestead had the most impact on creating the Lincoln that we know Today?

I don't remember seeing any weapons-guns, rifles, blades- in any museum that belonged to him. I also don't recall in any written work that he did. We know as a young lad he did some hunting-small game and what not. Lincoln lived at a time when folks carried guns; apparently he didn't?