Nancy Hanks' lineage

[maharba]

Rev David Elkins sounds like a wild wooly character, and I believe that is likely closer to the truth of it, than most of this stuff. You would think that, merely by yelling out and reciting over and over long passages from the Bible, and then looking down at the page before him that eventually Elkins would learn to read. Maybe he just tuned that all out, didn't need to learn that stuff. It sounds a lot like the wild early life that Reverend Peter Cartwright documented for himself, in his writings. If I was a "heathen" in need of being converted, it would not at all be persuasive to me to hear some loudmouth 'gospel yelling' slogans at me.

I'll summarize an odd item from an old clipping on Elkins Lincoln,
One of the sons of Rev David Elkins joined the CSA and was wounded
and taken prisoner. He was, along with other prisoners, being marched
through the White House grounds and was being mistreated by a Union
soldier. The younger Elkins grabbed the rifle and "under the eyes of the
President" clubbed the Union guard to death. Elkins was sentenced to
be shot. The Reverend and his wife came to Washington and Lincoln heeded a mother's plea and pardoned young Elkins, because the Reverend had preached the funeral services of Nancy Hanks.