Christmas with the Conklings

[Susan Higginbotham]

In keeping with the festive spirit here, I thought you might enjoy this excerpt from a letter written on December 28, 1862, by Mercy Levering Conkling (Mary Lincoln's friend in Springfield) to her son Clinton, then a student at Yale:

"And when Christmas night came our tree was in full bloom with hues of all colors, not fruit or flowers, but very many beautiful articles, and gifts that gladdened the hearts of the little ones. Yes! And old ones too. . . . On the top of the tree I placed a large doll nicely dressed as the Goddess of Liberty, holding in her hand that beautiful flag you got at Baltimore, around her were scattered various devises, in the form of book marks etc." (Source: Conkling papers in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library).