Eddy Lincoln's funeral

[Donna McCreary]

We know that Eddy's funeral was the only one held from the Lincoln Home. Did Mary attend it? I can not find documentation that says she did or did not. I need proof - not speculation.
While many mothers did attend a child's funeral, it was common for mothers not to attend. They would stay in their bedrooms as a sign of deep mourning.

[LincolnToddFan]

Donna, she didn't attend the burial definitely. But if she held true to her later pattern she probably kept to her room during the service.

ETA: She attended Tad's service which was held at Robert's home...sitting dazed on a sofa.

[Donna McCreary]

(04-24-2015 01:14 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Donna, she didn't attend the burial definitely. But if she held true to her later pattern she probably kept to her room during the service.

ETA: She attended Tad's service which was held at Robert's home...sitting dazed on a sofa.

I wonder why Tad's funeral was not held at a church.

[LincolnToddFan]

I've wondered the same thing. Eddy's wasn't either.

But the services at RTL's home were in Chicago. Maybe when Tad was taken to Springfield for burial there was a church service first?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Maybe such was less common in those days? The Lincolns were also married in the Edwardses parlor, not in a church.

[L Verge]

Home viewings and home funerals were very much in favor during most of the 19th century. There were even some larger homes that had "funeral doors" in one outside wall of the parlor that allowed a hearse to be backed up to the high doors for ease in transferring the coffin to the hearse to begin the trip to the cemetery. Everything else from embalming to viewing took place in the home until the advent of funeral parlors late in the 1800s.

[LincolnToddFan]

Wow, interesting! Can anyone imagine having a new home built today and telling the contractor to "make sure it has FUNERAL DOORS built in"?!

[Eva Elisabeth]

(04-24-2015 05:44 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Wow, interesting! Can anyone imagine having a new home built today and telling the contractor to "make sure it has FUNERAL DOORS built in"?!

Toia, that was my first thought, too!

[L Verge]

(04-24-2015 05:46 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(04-24-2015 05:44 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Wow, interesting! Can anyone imagine having a new home built today and telling the contractor to "make sure it has FUNERAL DOORS built in"?!

Toia, that was my first thought, too!

There's a great, old, Victorian home about eight miles from Surratt House that has a set of these doors on the side wall of the house. They are raised up about 3-4 feet to allow the hearse to get right to the sill. You can see them from the road, but I bet no one knows what they are. Wish I had the nerve to knock on the front door and ask to take a photo.

The house's original name was Christmas House because a family named Christmas owned it. One of the daughters went on to marry into a gorgeous, ca. 1780, brick mansion a few miles away. She was a great equestrian and became a writer on such matters for the old Washington Times Herald newspaper back in the 1920s and 30s. She invited me to that home back in the 1960s, and it was absolutely magnificent. She died without immediate heirs, and greedy nieces and nephews immediately put it and the large farm around it up for sale.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Fascinating, Laurie. I've tried to find a funeral door photo online, but drew a blank. If someone is more successful, please post - I would love to see...

[LincolnToddFan]

Okay..here is an update. Tad's official funeral service was held at the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield where he had been baptized as a baby. His body was brought to Springfield by train after a brief service first at Robert's home in Chicago. He was then taken to Oak Ridge Cemetery and interred in the vault with his father and his two older brothers.

James Harlan and Judge David Davis accompanied Robert on the train from Chicago to Springfield for the formal service and the internment.

MTL, Her Life and Letters, pg#586

[STS Lincolnite]

(04-24-2015 07:50 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Okay..here is an update. Tad's official funeral service was held at the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield where he had been baptized as a baby. His body was brought to Springfield by train after a brief service first at Robert's home in Chicago. He was then taken to Oak Ridge Cemetery and interred in the vault with his father and his two older brothers.

James Harlan and Judge David Davis accompanied Robert on the train from Chicago to Springfield for the formal service and the internment.

MTL, Her Life and Letters, pg#586

Thanks Toia, for the update. It seems that practice of more personal/informal service followed by formal funeral services was not uncommon in the 19th century (at least for people of some prominence and in my very limited observation). In another thread, we discussed the funeral services of Judge Taney and that was the case with him as well.

[Donna McCreary]

Mary's funeral was also held at the First Presbyterian Church.
I checked with Dr. Cornelius at the ALPL, and he reminded me that there are no public records for Eddy's funeral -- no newspaper articles, no church records, nothing.

Perhaps the practice of having funerals in a church began after the Civil War. Having said that, I must add that my family ancestors were farmers and lived many miles away from a town. Funerals were held in the home until the 1940's.