Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[Susan Higginbotham]

(01-27-2018 01:27 PM)kerry Wrote:  Yeah, it's clear that Mathilda was a very attractive, fascinating woman. No doubt Lincoln and many others fantasized about her. From all the accounts, I have little doubt Lincoln expressed his interest to his friends and Mary. But I think it was likely in part self-sabotage; an excuse to get out of something he wasn't ready for and was confused about. It would not surprise me at all if Mary told him to go for it, knowing he either wouldn't have the nerve or Mathilda would reject him. It was a crush that wasn't going anywhere. Mathilda rejected them all for a rich old man -- it doesn't seem like she would have valued what Lincoln had to offer. Mary is often accused of being snobby, but I feel like that is the wrong word. Aristocratic, yes, but a snobby person doesn't marry Abraham Lincoln. She clearly didn't think he was actually beneath her, even if his habits grated on her. And for all the talk about proud Todd ancestry, she didn't seem to care all that much about antecedents. She was probably one of the only women around like that.

Strong was actually only 35 when he married Matilda in 1844. I think someone (Elizabeth Edwards?) referred to him as having a lot of horses and gold, but I haven't found anything confirming him as being rich. He was an attorney by profession.

I have transcripts of some of Matilda's family letters. Matilda makes several coy references to Strong (and at one point was mistaken for his newlywed wife when he was serving as her escort), so perhaps she was already considering him as a husband before she arrived in Springfield and simply wasn't interested in the Springfield admirers. (Annoyingly, she doesn't mention Lincoln in any of her letters.)