Sarah Rickard

[kerry]

Thanks for posting this, Kerry. Here is what caught my eye:

"It might have been the belief that he did not love her, or the fear of the responsibilities of marriage, but at any rate for lack of a better word, I must say that Lincoln jilted her. The wedding day was set and all was ready, but Mr. Lincoln failed to appear. Mr. Lincoln went to the home of Joshua Speed, and almost immediately became violently ill. My brother-in-law, Mr. Butler, and my sister . . . went over and got him and brought him over to their home, where my sister nursed him through a long illness.."

Over the years William Herndon has been criticized by historians for "creating" the story of Lincoln being a "no-show" at his own wedding. Because Sarah Rickard's interview took place as late as 1907, was she going by what Herndon had already said? Or was she going by what she knew and saw herself? If the latter, then there is more support for Herndon's disputed version of the story IMO.

She definitely seems familiar with Herndon's work, so that's what I was trying to figure out as well. That's why I said I don't know how close she was to the situation - it seems like the Butlers would have known what was going on. But most of the involved parties never mentioned such a thing, so it's always seemed to me like Herndon made it up, and Sarah was kind of merging his statements with her own experience. It is interesting that Speed never cleared that up.

Another article has the younger brother of Julia Jayne saying that there was no jilting, and that he did not understand how that story came about, and no one can explain it, but that Herndon had told him that he had it straight from Mary. Perhaps William Jayne misremembered him saying that he had heard it straight from Elizabeth Edwards, who said there was a prior wedding attempt. How could Elizabeth make a mistake like that? Either she for some reason wanted that version out there, or it happened. When Weik went back to interview the Edwards Elizabeth said it again and Ninian reminded her she was speaking to a reporter and she stopped.

Sometimes I wonder if for some reason a very low-key wedding was scheduled, and so few people were involved that gossip didn't get around when Lincoln backed out. If it was family only, they could have kept it quiet out of embarrassment. I don't know - this debate has gone on for so long with so little clarification resulting. My general feeling is that there was only one wedding, but the fact that Elizabeth Edwards, who would know, said otherwise is odd. It was like she was trying to preemptively cover something that apparently no one else brought up. Meanwhile Mary worked hard to plant the story that she was torn between Lincoln and Douglass and Lincoln fell apart as a result - a story that isn't really supported by any witnesses, but would be a nicer story from Mary's perspective. But Elizabeth wasn't helping her sell that story - she jumps in with the he said he hated her etc. It is an odd narrative to invent with no apparent benefit to Elizabeth's sense of propriety.