The Shadows Rise

[maharba]

from the Virginia Illinois Enquirer March 1879
John McNamar was buried last sunday, near Petersburg, Menard county...was assessor and treasurer of the county...an early settler in that section...was in business at Old Salem...Abe Lincoln was then postmaster of the place and sold whiskey to its inhabitants. There are oldsters yet living in Menard who bought many a jug of corn juice from old Abe when he lived at Salem. It was here that Annie Rutledge dwelt...Lincoln went on to Springfield...Mr.McNamer was always an admirer of Mr. Lincoln...kept in his possession many letters written to him."

John McNamar was a fairly close-mouthed fellow, and I think he was surprised to hear from William Herndon, and to have him ask him close questions such as the locations of Ann Rutledge and other graves. I wonder where those letters from Lincoln went to, what was in them may be of historical interest?

[Susan Higginbotham]

I just finished this book. I really enjoyed it--the author did a very good job of discussing the evidence concerning Lincoln's relationship with Ann.

[Gene C]

Read this again, so many things I don't remember reading before.
Seems Herndon finds out some interesting things about Abraham and Ann, but is often weak on follow up questions.

Ann died in August of 1835, and Abraham made one of his rare visits to his parents home "in the fall of 1835, almost certainly October."

"That he was looking for solace in his heartbreak at his old home is a legitimate inference even under the most rigid historical constraints. Particularly from his stepmother would he have sought and expected sympathy, for her sensibilities, as she herself admitted, always 'seemed to run together' with his"

"William Herndon has been faulted for many things, most of them undeserved. But here is a truly grievous omission. In the fall of 1865, in the coarse of his researches he called on Lincoln's stepmother, then widowed but still living in a Coles County Cabin. Incredibly, not a single question did he ask the venerable old lady about Ann Rutledge, never even asked whether she heard the name." p. 129