Genetic Lincoln

[Steve]

Maybe Lincoln was thinking of Abraham Bale, but he morphed from a Baptist to a Presbyterian in Field's retelling of the speech when he wrote about it about a decade later:

https://books.google.com/books?id=ahhCAA...tt&f=false


Articles on the 1833 Leonids:

https://www.pigeonroost.net/the-great-me...m-of-1833/

and

https://www.richmond-dailynews.com/2012/...e-went-on/

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Scratch the Abraham Bale suggestion. This description of Onstott as a devout Presbyterian seems to match and also describes him as the co-founder of a Sunday school in Salem, which seems like something a deacon would do:

https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?...&id=I22215

Also see this description of Osnott as a devout Presbyterian:

https://archive.org/stream/recordofresto...li#page/52