Sarah Rickard

[RJNorton]

Gene, I do not know how accurate this is, but here's what I have in my files on Sarah Rickard:

Abraham Lincoln first met Sarah Rickard (1824-1911) when she was a young teen. He grew fond of her, and the couple was often seen in public. In 1840, when Sarah was 16, they went to the theater together in Springfield. Sarah liked Abraham but not in a romantic way. To her he was more of an older brother or just a good friend, not a suitor. Eventually he teasingly proposed marriage citing the Biblical Sarah who became Abraham's wife. Sarah was too young to take him seriously and wasn't in love with him and wasn't ready for marriage anyway. Later, she ended up marrying Richard F. Barrett, son of a well-known Springfield family.

There is a picture of her here.