Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[Anita]

Roger, Here are some first hand accounts of your Lincoln pig tale from
http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=27

Kentuckian Mary Owens, to whom Mr. Lincoln once proposed marriage, wrote: "In many things he was sensitive almost to a fault. He told me of an incident; that he was crossing a prairie one day, and saw before him a hog mired down, to use his own language; he was rather fixed up, and resolved that he would pass on without looking towards the shoat, after he had gone by, he said, the feeling was eresistable [sic] and he had to look back, and the poor thing seemed to say so wistfully - There now! My last hope is gone; that he deliberately got down and relieved it from its difficulty". Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, editor, Herndon’s Informants, p. 262 (Letter from Mary S. Vineyard to William H. Herndon, July 22, 1866).

Lawyer Charles Zane said Mr. Lincoln had related the same incident, quoting Mr. Lincoln that "thinking of the loss to the owner and the cruelty to the animal, I did not feel satisfied and thought it would be wrong to leave the hog there to perish, and turned back and got out and pulled the animal from the mire to solid ground, then found some water nearby and washed my hands and drove one. My action seemed disinterested, but on further reflection I found that the act was done to regain my peace of mind, my own happiness, and was not entirely disinterested on my part." Rufus Rockwell Wilson, editor, Lincoln Among His Friends: A Sheaf of Intimate Memories, p. 135 (Charles S. Zane, Sunset Magazine, October 1912

[RJNorton]

Anita, THANK YOU so much! Over the years I have had students write me about this story, and I have always said that the story was definitely in circulation, but I never knew about the sources you found. This is wonderful that I can now tell students that there ARE sources. Plus, it's one of my favorite Lincoln stories. Your research is MUCH appreciated, Anita!

[Anita]

My pleasure Roger. Thanks to you we we have the opportunity to work as a team and learn together. It is a great story.

Lincoln had a kind heart and would have helped any animal in trouble if he could, but after the emotional trauma suffered by the fate of his pet pig, this rescue must have made him feel especially good.

[Eva Elisabeth]

One version of the story was already published in 1866 by Gordon Bill in: "Life of A.L." by Josiah Gilbert Holland (member of the Massachusetts Historical Society), pp.78-79:

"An amusing incident occurred in connection with one of these journeys, which gives a pleasant glimpse into the good lawyer's heart. He was riding by a deep slough, in which, to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with such faint efforts that it was evident that he could not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln looked at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, and then looked at some new clothes with which he had but a short time before enveloped himself. Deciding against the claims of the pig, he rode on, but he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, determined to rescue the animal at the expense of his new clothes. Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, and coolly went to work to build of old rails a passage to the bottom of the hole. Descending on these rails, he seized the pig and dragged him out, but not without serious damage to the clothes he wore. Washing his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He then fell to examining the motive that sent him back to the release of the pig. At the first thought, it seemed to be pure benevolence, but, at length, he came to the conclusion that it was selfishness, for he certainly went to the pig's relief in order (as he said to the friend to whom he related the incident,) to "take a pain out of his own mind." This is certainly a new view of the nature of sympathy, and one which it will be well for the casuist to examine."

Regarding the quote "take a pain out of his own mind" there seems to be another witness.
http://books.google.de/books?id=XG0FAAAA...&q&f=false

I just read that as a boy A. L. had also saved a ground hog (that had been stuck in a crevice beween two rocks) with a hook fastened to a long pole he fetched from a blacksmith about a quater of a mile away. It's in "Lincoln's animal friends", unfortunatelly without a source given. Does anyone know more? BTW, just to let you know what wonderful forum members there are - last Friday I found this book in a package in my mailbox. It was a gift from three forum members and one of the greatest gifts and surprises I could think of. Thank you so much again this way!!

One of my favorite stories, very similar, also from Herndon's Informants (Letter from Joshua F. Speed to William H. Herndon, 1883) is the following incident Joshua F. Speed recalled on the way back to Springfield in 1839:
"We were riding along a country road, two and two together, some distance apart, Lincoln and Jon. J. Hardin being behind. (Hardin was afterward made Colonel and was killed at Buena Vista). We were passing through a thicket of wild plum, and crab-apple trees, where we stopped to water our horses. After waiting some time Hardin came up and we asked him where Lincoln was. 'Oh,' said he, 'when I saw him last' (there had been a severe wind storm), 'he had caught two little birds in his hand, which the wind had blown from their nest, and he was hunting for the nest'. Hardin left him before he found it. He finally found the nest, and placed the birds, to use his own words, 'in the home provided for them by their mother'. When he came up with the party they laughed at him. Said he, earnestly, 'I could not have slept tonight if I had not given those two little birds to their mother'."

[RJNorton]

Thank you, Eva! Here's one more I like. It's from p. 159 of Francis Marion Van Natter's Lincoln's Boyhood: A Chronicle of His Indiana Years. The event happened on March 8, 1830, as the Lincolns moved from Indiana to Illinois.

"The Lincoln-Hall-Hanks caravan drove down onto the ferry and crossed the Wabash from Indiana into Illinois. The river was so high that water covered the road and the low prairie. Abe picked up his little dog, Honey, and climbed into one of the wagons, but Honey jumped out, fell on a thin sheet of ice, broke through and was drowning. Abe leaped into the waist-deep water and seized the feist. "I saved him," he said. The oxen, breasting the icy flood waters, leaned hard against their yokes, and resumed pulling the Lincolns towards John Hanks and the Promised Land."

[irshgrl500]

Roger, Here are some first hand accounts of your Lincoln pig tale from
http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=27

Kentuckian Mary Owens, to whom Mr. Lincoln once proposed marriage, wrote: "In many things he was sensitive almost to a fault. He told me of an incident; that he was crossing a prairie one day, and saw before him a hog mired down, to use his own language; he was rather fixed up, and resolved that he would pass on without looking towards the shoat, after he had gone by, he said, the feeling was eresistable [sic] and he had to look back, and the poor thing seemed to say so wistfully - There now! My last hope is gone; that he deliberately got down and relieved it from its difficulty". Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, editor, Herndon’s Informants, p. 262 (Letter from Mary S. Vineyard to William H. Herndon, July 22, 1866).

Lawyer Charles Zane said Mr. Lincoln had related the same incident, quoting Mr. Lincoln that "thinking of the loss to the owner and the cruelty to the animal, I did not feel satisfied and thought it would be wrong to leave the hog there to perish, and turned back and got out and pulled the animal from the mire to solid ground, then found some water nearby and washed my hands and drove one. My action seemed disinterested, but on further reflection I found that the act was done to regain my peace of mind, my own happiness, and was not entirely disinterested on my part." Rufus Rockwell Wilson, editor, Lincoln Among His Friends: A Sheaf of Intimate Memories, p. 135 (Charles S. Zane, Sunset Magazine, October 1912

What a charming story, Anita. It not only shows AL's inevitable drive by his conscience but an insight into the manner of his thoughts. " on further reflection I found that the act was done to regain my peace of mind, my own happiness, and was not entirely disinterested on my part."

[Eva Elisabeth]

Who was the first woman ever to run for US presidency and when was it?
Since I don't know how to give helpful hints on who it was it's also fine if you just guess the year.

[Rob Wick]

That would be Victoria Woodhull and it happened in 1872, I think.

Best
Rob

[Eva Elisabeth]

Rob, you are right. She was nominated by the Equal Rights Party with Frederick Douglass as vice. AFAIK her name finally didn't appear on the ballots because of a legal issue, she was too young. Actually I thought of Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood, who ran for president in 1884 and 1888 for the same party (and was electable). But regarding how I worded the question your answer is correct, Rob!

[Linda Anderson]

Fill in the blank:

"By all accounts, no woman has ever enjoyed being First Lady more than ..."

[Joe Di Cola]

Fill in the blank:

"By all accounts, no woman has ever enjoyed being First Lady more than ..."

Julia Dent Grant

[Eva Elisabeth]

My guess is Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge because she and her husband had so many pets at the White House.

[Linda Anderson]

Good guess, Eva, but Joe got it right. I guess Mary Lincoln knew what she was talking about when she accused Julia Grant of wanting to be First Lady.

My source is "The Two Julias" from the New York Times, 2/14/2013. It's a fascinating article. I had no idea that Julia Grant owned a slave during the war.

"She couldn’t have managed without her slave. Though the slave’s real name was Julia, she was often called Jule or Black Julia. In Julia Grant’s memoirs, she described Jule as “my nurse and maid, a slave born in my old Missouri home.” Home was a plantation near St. Louis, called White Haven, where her father, Frederick Dent, and more than a dozen slaves lived a life more commonly associated with the Deep South. Jule was a small, 'ginger colored”'woman, according to one recollection."

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/201...lias/?_r=0

[Eva Elisabeth]

Linda, it's indeed a fascinating article, also because of the story with the false teeth!

[RJNorton]

This dog belonged to which First Family?