New Light On Lincoln's Boyhood

[Joe Di Cola]

I was delighted that Gene came across information on Sophie Hanks. It has been a while since Lincoln's pre-presidentual years have had such a large discussion. That is understandable since this year has focused on the assassination and funeral with all of their attendant commemorations. Nevertheless, the materials about Sophie Hanks does, in fact, add to the information on Lincoln's earlier life and we all owe a lot to Gene for his initial and subsequent posts on this thread. I had noticed her presence in the Hanks geneology listed as an appendix to "Lincoln's Informants", but never gave her much thought. I guess few of us were alone in that regard.

I have followed, with much interest, the postings about her on the symposium. However, I am still vexed with the notion that much of the "hoopla" about Sophie is "sound and fury, signifying nothing." She may have spent time living in the Lincoln Indiana home, but she did not emigrate from Indiana into Illinois along with the Lincolns and the Hanks family members and spouses who accompanied them. She drops out of sight as far as Lincoln's story is concerned. She, therefore, had less "history" with Lincoln than did Dennis and John Hanks, for example. Sophie just doesn't seem to loom large in the Lincoln story compared to others who shared the Indiana and later experiences with Lincoln.

It would be great to find an extant photo of her since one purports to exist to see if there is a family resemblance to Lincoln. I am afraid we might end up with the ersatz comparisons that people tried to make between the photo of the older Mary Ann Rutledge and whether this is how Ann might have looked in later life--had she lived that long.

I still feel that one of the most fruitful paths in Lincoln's history is to gauge the effect on the shaping of him that came from those who befriended Lincoln during the New Salem years. He already had ambition and a remarkable inquiring mind, but these factors really coalesced under the friendship and guidance of Jack Kelso, Mentor Graham, Bowling and Nancy Green, and others at New Salem and from his associations with men like David Davis on the 8th Judicial Circuit.