Extra Credit Questions

[AussieMick]

(02-25-2023 04:42 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  James Garfield.

https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/1...y-lincoln/

Yes, well done Roger. And that's where I found it too.

[RJNorton]

It has been mentioned on this forum that John Hay gave a ring containing Abraham Lincoln's hair to Teddy Roosevelt.

But he also gave rings containing George Washington's hair to two other Presidents. Who were these two Presidents?

[Rob Wick]

Just a wild guess, but William McKinley and Benjamin Harrison?

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Yes, McKinley is correct. Harrison is not, however.

One to go - who is it?

[Anita]

By process of elimination I'll guess Rutherford B. Hayes. Hay served under a number of Presidents including Hayes.

[RJNorton]

Yes! Good job, Rob and Anita! I did not know this until I came upon this article:

"U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sat down at his desk on March 3, 1905, and penned a letter. The next day, Teddy Roosevelt would become U.S. president after a landslide victory at the polls. He'd been the nation's leader since September 1901 when an assassin shot and killed William McKinley in Buffalo, New York. This inauguration signified Roosevelt's position as commander-in-chief not by happenstance but by his country's overwhelming choice.

On Hay's desk sat a special gold ring he planned to give Roosevelt. The ring had ties to Hay's former boss, Abraham Lincoln, who Hays had been with at his death in 1865. "Please wear it tomorrow; you are one of the men who most thoroughly understand and appreciate [sic.] Lincoln," Hay wrote to Roosevelt, according to "All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt." Hay had the ring sent to Roosevelt that day, and the president was absolutely delighted with the gift.

President Teddy Roosevelt immediately sent a letter to John Hay. "Surely no other President, on the eve of his inauguration, has ever received such a gift from such a friend," Roosevelt wrote, per "All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt." "I am wearing the ring now; I shall think of it and you as I take the oath tomorrow." Hay had both Abraham Lincoln's and Roosevelt's monograms engraved on the ring, along with a quote in Latin from the ancient Roman poet Horace. Inside the ring, under glass, were several strands of Lincoln's hair cut from his head just after he died. Hay had paid $100 for six of the strands, the equivalent of several thousand dollars today. During the Victorian era, taking hair from the dead as a memento was commonplace.

Hay, born in 1838 in Indiana, met Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, where he studied law. He would serve as President Lincoln's private secretary up to the time of Lincoln's assassination in 1865 and was by his side when he died. Hay would later serve various presidents in various roles, including McKinley and Roosevelt as secretary of state, until his death in July 1905.

This wasn't the first ring with presidential hair in it John Hay had given out to a U.S. president. Hay had given a similar gold ring containing hairs from George Washington's head to Teddy Roosevelt's predecessor, William McKinley. Hay also gave a Washington hair ring to President Rutherford B. Hayes, who served as the nation's leader from 1877 to 1881. Lincoln's hair also ended up elsewhere."

https://www.grunge.com/1209929/why-presi...is-finger/

[RJNorton]

After Abraham Lincoln was born one person who saw him said, "he'll never come to much,' fur I'll tell you he wuz the puniest, cryin'est little youngster I ever saw."

Who said this?

[Wild Bill]

his father, Thomas Lincoln

[Gene C]

Dennis Hanks

[RJNorton]

Good guess, Bill, but Gene got it. Kudos, Gene!

In an 1886 interview with Jesse W. Weik, Dennis Hanks, a cousin of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, said:

"They told me the Lincolns had a baby at thur house, and so I jest run all the way down that. I guess I was on hand purty early, fur I rickolect when I held the little feller in my arms his mother said, 'Be keerful with him, Dennis, fur you air the fust boy he's ever seen.' I sort o' swung him back and forth; a little to peart, I reckon, fur with the talkin' and the shakin' he soon begun to cry and then I handed him over to my Aunt Polly (apparently Mary Hanks, who married Jesse Friend) who was standin' close by. 'Aunt,' sez I, 'take him; he'll never come to much,' fur I'll tell you he wuz the puniest, cryin'est little youngster I ever saw."

[RJNorton]

In his youth, someone once warned Abraham Lincoln to stop bothering the girls. Abe was told by this person that he should be ashamed of himself.

Who was this person?

[Rob Wick]

I'm sure this is wrong, but Thomas Lincoln?

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

It is wrong, Rob, but on the other hand, you are quite close.

[David Lockmiller]

(03-14-2023 09:04 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  It is wrong, Rob, but on the other hand, you are quite close.

Lincoln's sister? She would be "quite close," as a guess.

[RJNorton]

Excellent, David! Yes, it was his sister, Sarah. I was a little surprised when I read this as I often think of a young Abraham Lincoln who is shy around the girls.