Lincoln's First Love

[Gene C]

With all the talk on the Lincoln/Rutledge thread, I found this book and though it might be interesting

by Carrie Douglas Wright. Written in 1901 and has about 52 pages.

I haven't read it yet, but you can here
https://archive.org/stream/lincolnsfirst...0/mode/1up

Let us know what you think

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A nice quick read. Based on this book, Lewis has it all wrong. Not too overly melodramatic, but be sure to have plenty of kleenex ready at the end.

[BettyO]

This looks like a charming little book, Gene. I'm going to have to download it - thanks!

I LOVE Internet Archive!

[RJNorton]

I agree, Betty. I enjoyed this account, Gene. The best book on the subject IMO is The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend by John Evangelist Walsh. I have a predisposition on the romance, and it may be due to my upbringing in Illinois. Both in grade and high school I had teachers who taught the romance as absolute fact. I started hearing how much Abraham Lincoln loved Ann Rutledge in about 3rd or 4th grade. I didn't realize the subject was controversial until many years into adulthood. I have trouble trying to shake off what was taught to me in Illinois and look at the evidence objectively.

[LincolnToddFan]

On page #45 is says that AR's birthday was the 15th of July, but that is not true. Her date of birth is/was Jan. 7th.

Roger, I spent the first ten years of my life in Ohio. Just like in Illinois, Lincoln was taught to us like catechism. I can still recite the Gettysburg Address from memory, and I even remember the lines of a poem that was forced upon us on one of his birthdays when I was about 6 or 7..."all the folks in Springfield/saw him everyday/walking down the road in his long, gaunt way......"

Just like you, I had Ann Rutledge presented to me as indisputable fact. For a brief while before I grew old enough to do my own reading, I knew more about her than Mary Todd. I was shocked to discover how very little there is on record about her and the relationship with AL. People seemed to have taken this obscure relationship from the fog of AL's youth and blown it up completely out of proportion. I confess that even though I accepted the story of the relationship, it didn't interest me or appeal to me then and it still doesn't. Frankly the young lady sounded sweet, but dull as all hell(what little we know about her). I simply cannot imagine AL going all the way to the WH with this mouse as his wife, or even very far in life at all.

Instead, he might have ended his days as a content, 80-something farmer/lawyer tilling the land by the Sangamon River, with a gaggle of children and grandchildren around him.

And neither the Republic(if it had survived the turbulent 19th century without him) or the world would have been any wiser.

[RJNorton]

Just like you, I had Ann Rutledge presented to me as indisputable fact.

And when my parents took me to see her grave it became an "open and shut" case in my mind. I am trying to be objective about it, but it's difficult. Toia, like you I also spent time in Ohio - I graduated from Denison University in Granville.

[LincolnToddFan]

Roger,

I had no idea you went to Denison! My dad was an Ohio State guy, so I always cheer for them even though I have lived in Southern Cali three times as long as Ohio.

In one of Ed Steer's amazing books he writes that people who visit AR's grave are visiting a gravesite that contains nothing but two bones and some dirt. When she was exhumed in the late 19th century, that's all there was other than a button and a buckle, a ribbon and some hair. Her family kept everything except the two bones.

I tend to believe that she and AL were in love and might have married. I do not need to be persuaded on that point. I do reject the idea that she influenced the rest of his life, based on a complete lack of evidence. I happen to think he also very much loved the difficult, complex woman he married, who shares his Tomb in Springfield.

[Gerald D. Swick]

About 15 years ago I was applying for a position with a historical-item auction company. I saw among its items a wooden placard supposedly given to Ann Rutledge by Abraham Lincoln, expressing his love. I decided after talking to the owner that I really didn't want the job, and I have no idea of whatever happened to that curious little placard. Can you say, "Hitler Diaries"?

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Gerald,

I don't know whether I think it's sad, funny, or just merely bizarre how many people have felt compelled to invent forgeries to "prove" that this relationship was real.