Extra Credit Questions

[Joe Di Cola]

Rob,

This IS a challenge...how about David Elkins who acceded to young Abraham's request to have a "service" preached over his mother Nancy's grave a number of months after she died.

Joe

I was thinking Indiana when I mentioned Dorsey since he taught Lincoln in that state. I have even looked into a Tarbell volume on Lincoln's early life. I love hard trivia items--keep them coming.

[L Verge]

You guys are amazing! I know these are not obscure people to you because you are so well-read on Lincoln, but I am in awe of how you pull these names out of thin air like they were your next-door-neighbors. Sometimes I feel like I'm registered on an online Lincoln history course. And it's more fun than a history course 'cause I don't have to write papers or take tests.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Zachariah Riney? His first teacher?

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Joe, it's not Elkins.

This person was born February 24, 1819, so he was 10 years younger than Lincoln. It's not Riney, either, Eva.

Best
Rob

[tblunk]

One of the Gentrys? James Jr. maybe?

[Rob Wick]

Wow, I didn't think anyone would get that for a while. You are correct tblunk that it is James Gentry Jr. It is taken from his obituary in 1905. The paper called him Lincoln's last living playmate. Good job!

Best
Rob

[tblunk]

Wow, I didn't think anyone would get that for a while. You are correct tblunk that it is James Gentry Jr. It is taken from his obituary in 1905. The paper called him Lincoln's last living playmate. Good job!

Best
Rob

Oddly enough, I've just been reading "Footprints of Abraham Lincoln" and it gives James Gentry Jr.'s birthdate. So that was a good hint for me. But I didn't have a picture.

[RJNorton]

Although the story may be apocryphal, it is in the literature. As a young man Abraham Lincoln went to Princeton, Indiana, to have some wool carded. While there he saw a girl and related:

"I passed on the street a very beautiful girl, the most bewildering creature it seems to me I had ever seen. My heart was in a flutter. The truth is I was so thoroughly captivated by the vision of maidenly beauty that I wanted to stop in Princeton forever."

The girl then allegedly bowed to him on the street. As it turns out Lincoln had just seen the "village belle" of Princeton.

Who was the "village belle" of Princeton?

[tblunk]

I knew I could find it if I looked hard enough. According to John Lockwood, it was Julia Evans.

[RJNorton]

Wow, I thought that was a hard one and might last awhile! Very good, Tom!! Indeed this story was about a girl named Julia Evans.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Once Lincoln made fun of a person whom he gave a green persimmon to convince that person of the deliciousness of these fruit. When the latter tried to eat it, he/she could hardly open his/her mouth and screamed: "I'm poisoned!"

Who was the victim?

[RJNorton]

Charles Forbes. I have to give 100% credit to Dave Taylor on this one. I first learned of this story from Dave. Eva, kindly send the prize, if there is one, to Dave.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Shall I send him a persimmon? (The original source is: Thomas Pendel:"Thirty-six years in the White House".)

[RJNorton]

Yes, send him the whole tree, if possible.

[Eva Elisabeth]

It might not survive shipping...perhaps it's better to send some seeds instead? He could grow a whole orchard then...