A new work on Emilie Todd Helm's visit to Lincoln's White House

[Donna McCreary]

Emilie used Robert's love and respect for family to her advantage. He more than assisted Emilie financially -- he basically "bank rolled" the Helms and many of the Todds at Emilie's request. She often wrote about how the Union had destroyed the financial wealth of the Todd family, and since he had so much, he should share with his less fortunate relations. Robert was very generous. I'm not sure why -- perhaps from guilt over the broken relationship with his mother and Emilie; perhaps he truly felt that the Confederate relations had suffered enough; perhaps it was purely out of love for Emile; perhaps it was his way of getting Emilie to shut up. We will never know the motivation behind Robert's generous gifts to the Helms. I find it interesting that Emilie's son, Ben Hardin Helm Jr, was listed in Mary Harlan Lincoln's will and received the same amount of money as her grandchildren.

[Gene C]

Perhaps Robert could understand and empathize with Emilie regarding the friction in her relationship with Mary.

Emilie's daughter, Katherine, wrote a book, based upon her diary and letters. You can find used books on Amazon or read it on-line
https://archive.org/stream/truestoryofma...5/mode/2up

[RJNorton]

(01-28-2015 10:29 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Emilie's daughter, Katherine, wrote a book, based upon her diary and letters. You can find used books on Amazon or read it on-line
https://archive.org/stream/truestoryofma...5/mode/2up

Gene, I no longer have the email, but I received a very stern message from someone c.1997 that told me in no uncertain terms that Katherine's book was the only accurate biography of Mary ever written. The person was upset that I would dare to use any other books as resources for my website.

[LincolnToddFan]

(01-28-2015 07:24 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  Emilie used Robert's love and respect for family to her advantage. He more than assisted Emilie financially -- he basically "bank rolled" the Helms and many of the Todds at Emilie's request. She often wrote about how the Union had destroyed the financial wealth of the Todd family, and since he had so much, he should share with his less fortunate relations. Robert was very generous. I'm not sure why -- perhaps from guilt over the broken relationship with his mother and Emilie; perhaps he truly felt that the Confederate relations had suffered enough; perhaps it was purely out of love for Emile; perhaps it was his way of getting Emilie to shut up. We will never know the motivation behind Robert's generous gifts to the Helms. I find it interesting that Emilie's son, Ben Hardin Helm Jr, was listed in Mary Harlan Lincoln's will and received the same amount of money as her grandchildren.

This is indeed interesting Donna, thank you. You are right, I had no idea the extent to which RTL had bankrolled Emilie and her family; I always assumed that Emilie was too proud to accept "charity" even from family. Perhaps RTL felt guilty. He had always felt partial to his Todd kin, he seemed to relate to them and maybe even consider himself one of them. And he and Emilie had played together as children during his visits to Kentucky, and their friendship deepened when Emilie visited Springfield as a houseguest of the Lincolns.

In fact it's even more revealing when one considers that there is no record of him ever extending the same type of financial generosity to his paternal relations, the Hanks's.

[Donna McCreary]

(01-29-2015 08:37 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 10:29 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Emilie's daughter, Katherine, wrote a book, based upon her diary and letters. You can find used books on Amazon or read it on-line
https://archive.org/stream/truestoryofma...5/mode/2up

Gene, I no longer have the email, but I received a very stern message from someone c.1997 that told me in no uncertain terms that Katherine's book was the only accurate biography of Mary ever written. The person was upset that I would dare to use any other books as resources for my website.

I love Katherine's book, but it is sugar coated with Robert's spin on top of it. I do enjoy the Lexington years stories that are in the book.

---

(01-29-2015 02:37 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 07:24 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  Emilie used Robert's love and respect for family to her advantage. He more than assisted Emilie financially -- he basically "bank rolled" the Helms and many of the Todds at Emilie's request. She often wrote about how the Union had destroyed the financial wealth of the Todd family, and since he had so much, he should share with his less fortunate relations. Robert was very generous. I'm not sure why -- perhaps from guilt over the broken relationship with his mother and Emilie; perhaps he truly felt that the Confederate relations had suffered enough; perhaps it was purely out of love for Emile; perhaps it was his way of getting Emilie to shut up. We will never know the motivation behind Robert's generous gifts to the Helms. I find it interesting that Emilie's son, Ben Hardin Helm Jr, was listed in Mary Harlan Lincoln's will and received the same amount of money as her grandchildren.

This is indeed interesting Donna, thank you. You are right, I had no idea the extent to which RTL had bankrolled Emilie and her family; I always assumed that Emilie was too proud to accept "charity" even from family. Perhaps RTL felt guilty. He had always felt partial to his Todd kin, he seemed to relate to them and maybe even consider himself one of them. And he and Emilie had played together as children during his visits to Kentucky, and their friendship deepened when Emilie visited Springfield as a houseguest of the Lincolns.

In fact it's even more revealing when one considers that there is no record of him ever extending the same type of financial generosity to his paternal relations, the Hanks's.

Of course, Lincoln was reluctant to help the Hanks families as well.
There is only one known incident where Robert refused to help a member of the Todd family. Mary's half-brother Samuel died during the war and left behind four small children. As an adult, one of the boys wrote to Robert several times explaining that he had no money - his children had no shoes - they were starving - and he needed help. Because Robert had never met Samuel's son, he wrote to someone who lived in the same city and inquired as to whether or not there was truly a need. The response was that there was a need, but that the young man did not provide for his family because he was a drunkard. Robert refused to help.