Lucien Hanks

[Steve]

I came across these two articles about Lincoln's trip to Janesville, Wisconsin in 1859, staying with the Tallman family and meeting a young man named Lucien Hanks; who's accounts I thought were humorous, interesting and worth sharing.

1918 article from the Madison Democrat:

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records...er/BA15682

and 1926 article from the Dearborn Independent:

https://archive.org/stream/lincolncenten...3/mode/2up

[RJNorton]

Apparently C.A. Tripp didn't know about this...

[Gene C]

Great second link.
There is lots of other interesting articles there too.

Thanks for posting.

[kerry]

(05-30-2018 03:12 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Apparently C.A. Tripp didn't know about this...

That was my first thought.

But given he was prone to night terrors, I'll take it as a funny story.

Because I'm so into eyewitness testimony inconsistencies, I can't help but notice how the story changed, though most was consistent. Lincoln overheard it going up to bed and his uncle nodded at him? Lincoln overheard it before dinner and approached his aunt? They went to bed together? Lincoln came home at midnight and got into the bed?

Not to derail the thread totally, but it made me think of a few things I found in my research:

On July 18, 1863, it was reported in the Plain Dealer that “The latest bit of scandal is that Halleck sleeps with Father Abraham at the White House.” Mary would have been absent, recovering from her carriage accident injuries at the Soldiers' Home.

On May 27, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that “The telegraph says that Lieutenant-General Grant slept with Mr. Lincoln last night, Mrs. Presidentess sleeping in another apartment overlooking the Potomac.”[1]


[1] This may have been republished from March 9.

Maybe the entire military worked a bit different than we've thought!

In fairness, it seems they were very casual about this:

On July 10, 1864, Hay wrote in his diary “A little after midnight R. T. L. Came into my room & got into bed: Saying Stanton had sent out for them all to come in.”

I would almost always rather sleep on the floor than in a bed with someone I don't know well.

[Steve Whitlock]

Lucien Hanks
I came across these two articles about Lincoln's trip to Janesville, Wisconsin in 1859, staying with the Tallman family and meeting a young man named Lucien Hanks; who's accounts I thought were humorous, interesting and worth sharing.
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In case anyone is wondering, Lucien Stanley Hanks b: 1838 in CT is not related to the Hanks family of Lucy Hanks, mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, as Lucien acknowledges in the Dearborn article.

Lucien S. Hanks is the son of Lucien Bonaparte Hanks and 1st wife, Mary Dexter 1810-1845, the sister of Emeline (Dexter) Tallman. Their parents are Norman Dexter and Ruth Stanley.

The Hanks Line for Lucien S. Hanks, as far as I looked, appears to be
Lucien Stanley Hanks >Lucien Bonaparte >Truman >Benjamin >Uriah Hanks 1736-1809.

We also have a relative's comments from 1966:

Madison Wisconsin State Journal Newspaper Archives
Thursday, December 08, 1966 - Page 10

More Facts on the Lucien Hanks Family Sirs—You recently published a letter of mine discussing the Lucien Hanks family, and the story of his visit to the Tallman House at the same time as Abraham Lincoln, in 1859. I have heard from Mrs. Marshall W. Hanks, of California, who has kindly supplied me with the missing link in the relationship between Lucien Hanks and Mrs. William Morrison Tallman. The mother of Lucien Hanks was Mary Dexter Hanks, and she was the sister of Emeline Dexter Tallman, the wife of William Morrison Tallman. In my previous letter I said that "we have no record that ... Mrs. Tallman was his aunt or related to him in any but a distant way”. Mrs. Hanks has supplied this record, and we now know that not only was Mrs. Tallman Lucien Hanks’ aunt, but that he was courting his first cousin, a common nineteenth century practice! Nonetheless, what I meant to say in my letter, namely that there were no Tallmans in the Hanks family, and no Hanks in the Tallman family, as implied in the Journal’s story, is still true. I ain, however, somewhat chagrined that it never occurred to me to look for Dexters in both families.—Richard P. Haring, Director-Curator, Lineoln-Tallman House, Janesville, Wis,
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In closing Lucien did not marry his first cousin and married Sybil Perkins ca 1863.