Looking for Lincoln

[RJNorton]

(07-12-2015 08:41 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  my focus is on which book has the most or most unique/interesting information, form which could I learn the most that I would perhaps also not find elsewhere.

Hi Eva. I would give the nod to Lincoln's Springfield Neighborhood. Rather than looking at Springfield as a whole (as the other does) this book concentrates on the Lincolns' immediate neighbors. It has lots of photos and information that I have not seen in other books I have (such as a photo of Robert's teacher, Abel Estabrook).

It even has a section on Germans who were living in the neighborhood. In 1860 19 families with a German head-of-household lived within a 3 block radius of the Lincolns.

There is also an account of the one German servant who lived briefly in the Lincoln home. His name was John G. Weilein who was born in Bavaria, Germany, on September 27, 1841. He worked for the Lincolns in 1859. He did odd jobs around the house, fed the stock, milked the cows, chopped wood, and looked after the garden. I should add that this is Weilein's story, and the author of the book notes that "some have doubted his story of service to the Lincolns."