Mary Lincoln Extra Credit Questions

[RJNorton]

(02-04-2023 05:54 PM)Anita Wrote:  I know it's in Jean Baker's book and I could look it up. Is that the same as Googling?

Nope, that is fine!

[Anita]

Baker's book states she stayed in Racine, Wisconsin the summer of 1867 while visiting the spas but doesn't mention the Congress Hall Hotel. But I will guess it's in Racine.

[RJNorton]

Excellent, Anita. Mary did stay at Congress Hall in Racine during her 50-day stay there in the summer of 1867. Tad was with her for only about 3 weeks of the time due to his being in Washington for the John Surratt trial.

Congress Hall was a premier hotel in Racine, but sadly it was lost to an 1882 fire in the city.

Over the years there have been some rumors that Tad attended classes at Racine College, but Steven Rogstad's article in the Fall/Winter 2021 Lincoln Herald clearly refutes that idea.

[RJNorton]

No googling please.

Fill in the blank:

When Mary Lincoln was traveling in Europe she wrote a friend:

"It does appear to me, that ____________ has spoiled me for seeing any other place in Europe."

[Rob Wick]

Let's be cliche and say Paris.

Best
Rob

[Anita]

(03-16-2023 08:16 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  No googling please.

Fill in the blank:

When Mary Lincoln was traveling in Europe she wrote a friend:

"It does appear to me, that ____________ has spoiled me for seeing any other place in Europe."

In my volume of "Mary Todd Lincoln, Her Life and Letters", Mary wrote to Eliza Slataper
August 21, 1869. " Beautiful glorious Scotland, has spoilt me for every other country!

[RJNorton]

Logical guess, Rob, but Anita got it. Kudos, Anita! Yes, indeed, Scotland it is!

[RJNorton]

In the twilight of her life Mary occasionally had visitors to her room at the Edwards' home in Springfield. Sometimes she asked these visitors if they could hear something when they were in her room. What was it that she asked?

[RJNorton]

I cannot think of any clues on this that would not give the answer away. The correct answer is Abraham's voice.

[RJNorton]

In the years prior to her marriage to Abraham Lincoln Mary Todd was once courted by the grandson of one of the Founding Fathers. Which Founding Father was this?

[Rob Wick]

Roger,

I didn't see any restrictions on Googling, so I did, but I will hold off on the answer and let others have a chance.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

My bad...I forgot to add that. Thanks, Rob.

[Anita]

Patrick Henry. There are two references to this in Catherine Clinton's Mrs. Lincoln, A Life - pages 46, 58. Harper Collins 2009 hardback.

[RJNorton]

Yes, Anita. It was Patrick Henry.

Mary visited her uncle in Columbia, Missouri, in the summer of 1840. She wrote a letter to her friend, Merce Levering, and included the following:

"If you conclude to settle in Missouri, I will do so too, [there] is one being here, who cannot brook the mention of my return, an agreeable lawyer & grandson of Patrick Henry—what an honor! Shall never survive it—I wish you could see him, the most perfect original I had ever met, my beaux have always been hard bargains at any rate, Uncle and others think, he surpasses his noble ancestor in talents, yet Merce I love him not, & my hand will never be given when my heart is not—"

[Donna McCreary]

(10-02-2023 02:32 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  In the years prior to her marriage to Abraham Lincoln Mary Todd was once courted by the grandson of one of the Founding Fathers. Which Founding Father was this?

James Winston was the grandson of Patrick Henry. The two met when Mary was visiting her uncle David Todd who lived in Missouri. James was deeply in love with Mary. She wrote to her friend, Mercy Levering, "one being here, who cannot brook the mention of my return, an agreeable lawyer & grandson of Patrick Henry - what an honor!"
James was Henry's grandson through his daughter Dorothea Spotswood Henry and her husband George Dabney Winston.

Mary, and others, had believed that James had a future as bright as his grandfathers. He did run for public office, but was defeated. James never married, and died in 1853 at the age of 38. Perhaps he truly could not "brook the mention" of Mary's return to Springfield.