Lincoln, Davis and Booth: Family Secrets

[Liz Rosenthal]

I think Joe DiCola's point was that the stories of Nancy reading the Bible to her son Abraham could possibly have been due to her telling him rather than reading him Bible stories, or holding a Bible while she told him the stories. I don't think Joe was suggesting anything beyond this.

Regarding Thomas Lincoln, I don't remember reading anywhere that he was a drunk. Generally speaking, he comes across as an unambitious man who worked hard enough to keep his family going and no more. The problems between him and his son seem to have been due to Thomas's lack of appreciation for education and advancement in life, as well as his son's outgoing, humor-loving personality which I think Thomas, in his rustic way, viewed as rude. It seems that Thomas got along a lot better with his step-son John D. Johnston, who apparently shared Thomas's lack of interest in education and personal betterment.

Thomas was supposedly so ornery toward his son that he allegedly struck him when the latter was already 21 and the family was moving from Indiana to Illinois. This I have a hard time envisioning. We're talking about the now six-foot-four Lincoln, a young man at the apex of his prodigious physical strength, being abused by his smaller father.

But stormy relationships between father and son have been going on since time immemorial and should not be taken as evidence that they weren't biologically connected.

Abe Enlow was only one of a few men whom some old-timers in Kentucky pointed to as Abe Lincoln's real father. I got the impression from reading Herndon's Informants and The Hidden Lincoln that some of these Kentuckians enjoyed the attention, which may have been their primary motivation in stringing Herndon along with these stories. The idea that Jefferson Davis was at all related to Abe sounds like good fodder for what used to be called a "B" movie. "Abe Lincoln! We know him as the Great Emancipator! Jefferson Davis! We know him as Leader of the Southern Rebels! But did you know they were also BROTHERS? The Civil War was really a FAMILY FEUD! Get yer popcorn in the lobby!"

I think the closest Lincoln got to a family relationship with the Confederates (other than the fact that his wife had some brothers in the Confederate army) was in his love for Ann Rutledge. Apparently, the Rutledge family of New Salem were relatives of the Rutledges of South Carolina. But any potential Lincoln-Rutledge familial connection evaporated upon Ann's death.