Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[kerry]

(01-20-2018 09:18 PM)Anita Wrote:  Kerry, you said "It seems like all of Springfield read Herndon and Lamon's books, assimilated their actual memories to match, and repeated it to their grandkids. Almost no one is telling a firsthand story in the Springfield sources - those who knew kept their mouths shut. "

Reminds me of eyewitness accounts of the assassination story whose early recollection later changed after reading published accounts.

What about New Salem sources?

Does "The LIFE of ABRAHAM LINCOLN" Drawn from original sources and containing many speeches,letters and telegrams hitherto unpublished, by Ida Tarbell contain credible Springfield sources?

Agreed as to the assassination accounts. I've said before I don't believe anyone said "He belongs to the ages," but later people just decided to go along with it.

Because I am mostly focusing on Mary Lincoln in my research, I haven't done much New Salem research.

Ida Tarbell's work is mostly good. She worked to get to the bottom of things. But even her Springfield stuff is iffy, which is why she asked Graves to straighten out his story. The Graves story was in an article, not the book - the series of articles she did had a lot more about Mary, but she chose to leave it out of the book. She got some stuff from Mary's relatives which should be credible - she was the one who decided the two weddings thing didn't happen. That being said, the stories she got from those relatives conflicted with stuff said by other relatives (like the Edwards saying there were two weddings), so it's kind of hard to know if they were doing damage control or telling the truth. I just looked and it seems she barely mentioned Mary in Springfield - most of her comments come in the White House years. She dwells on the wedding thing at length, but not the marriage. She was the first to heavily interview Company K, which I think is one of the best sources about Lincoln family life.