The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1872-06-29

hair, blue eyes, fair complexion; was a
slim, pretty, kind, tender, good-heaFted
woman; in height about five feet three
inches, and weighed about one hundred
and twenty pounds. She was beloved
by all who knew her. McNamaF, Hill
and Lincoln all courted her near the
same time. She died as it wereOf grief.
Miss Rutledge was beautiful" Such
was Ann Rutledge, the girl in whose
buried.n Her father, James Rutledge,
was born in South Carolina, and was of
the illustrious Rutledge family of that
State. From South Carolina he emigra-
ted to Kentucky, and thence to Illinois.
In 1928 he settled at New Salem, built
the mill and laid out the village in con-
junction with Mr.. Cameron, a retired
minister of the Cumberland Presbyte-
rians. Mr.. Rutledge's character seems
to have been pure and high; for wherever
his name occurs it is almost invariably
coupled with some expression of genuine
esteem and respect. AT one time, and
along with his other ness--Which
appears to. have been quite extensive
and yari0us-Mr. Rutledge kept the taV
ern, the small house with four rooms on
the main street of New Salem, just op-
p0site Lincoln's grocery. There Mr..
14LICOIH sCstIIlS IU UU6lA0 1GS1C All 1000 VI
early. in 1888. The family consisted of
the father, mother and nine children.
Ann was the third child. She was born
ON the 7th of January, 1918, and was
about nineteen years of age when Nh.
Lincoln came to live in the house.
Mr.. Lincoln was always welcome at
the little tavern, at Shorts, on the Sand
ridge, or at the farm, half mile from
| Shorts, where the Rutledge7s finally
abode. AIMS father was his devoted
friend, and the mother he called affec-
| tiOnately "Aunt POlly.n All her adult
relatives encouraged the suit which Lin
coin early began to press; and, as time,
| absence and apparent neglect gradually
told against MeNamap, she listened to
| him with augmenting interest, until, in
1885, we find them formally and sOlemnly
betrothed. Ann now waited only for
the return of McNamar to marry Lincoln.
At length, hOWeverS as McNamar's ap-
| pearance became more and more hope
| less, she took different view of it, and
then thought she would become Abe's
wife as soon as he found the means of a
decent livelihood. Ann told me once,
| says James M. in letter to R. B. Rut-
ledge, in coming from camp meeting on
Rock creek, " that engagements made
| too far ahead sometimes failed tmeaning
her engagement with McNamar), and
given ME to understand that, as soon as
| certain studies were completed, she and
Lincoln would be married. Inthe sum-
mer of 1885, Ann showed unlnistakable
| symptoms of failing health, attributable,
as most OF the neighb0fs believed, to the
distressing attitude she felt bound to
maintain between her two lovers. On
the 25th OF August, in thatyear, she died
of what the doctors chose to call brain
fever.n A few days before her death,
Lincoln was summoned to her bedside.
What happened in that solemn confer
ing girl, But when he left her, and
stopped at the house of John Jones, on
| his way home, Jones saw signs of the
most terrible distress in his face and his
conduct. When Ann actually died, and
was buried, his grief became frantic; he
lost all self-cOntrol, even the conscious
ness of identity, and every friend he had
in New Salem pronounced him insane,
mad, crazy. He was watched with es-
peeial vigilance as William Green tells
us, during storms, f0gs, damp, gloomy
/ weather, for fear of an accident Al
i such times he raved piteonsly, declaring
among other wild expression his woe
1 can never be reconeiled TO have the
/ snow, rains, and storms to beat upon hel
grave About three-qu quarters of amile
below New Salem, at the foot of the
main bluff, and in a hollow between tWt
lateral bluffs, stood the house of Bowlir
Greene, built of logs and weatheRb0 board
ed. Thither the friends of Lincoln, Wit
apppehended a total abdicatIon of reason
determined to transport him, partly fol
/ the benefit OF a mere change of scene
Il av1xJ 1anrfHvy 1xaoS0 hs7sa
reach of his near and noble friend, Bow
lin Greene. During this period of hi
darkened and Wavering intellect, Whel
accidents were momentarily expect
ed, it was discovered that BoWlm Greene
possessed a power to persuade and guide
him pr0p0rtioned to the affection tina
subsisted between them in former anG
better times. B0Wlin Greene came fOl
him, but Lincoln was cunning and oh
stinate; it required the most aItfuf prac
/ tiees of general conspiracy of all hi
friends to !" tlisarm his suspicious AM
induce him to go and stay with his mos
anxious and devoted friend. But at las
they succeeded, and Lincoln remained
down under the bluff for two or tlFet
weeks, the object of undisguised solici
tllde and OF the st1ictest surveillance
At the end of that time his mind seemed
to- be restored, and It was thought saf,
4 to let him go back to his old haunts--t.
the study of law, to the writing of l0ca
papers for his neigh b0Fs, in pettifOggins
before the Justice of the Peace, and per
haps to a little surveying. But Mr.. Lin
coin was never precisely the same maj
again. At the time of his release he wa
thin, haggard and eaFeWOEn--like on,
risen from the verge of the grave. Fl
had always been subject to fits of grea
mental depression, but after this the,
were more frequent and alarming.
was then that he began to repeat, witt
Il feeling which seemed to inspire ever.
listener with awe, and to carry him &
, the fresh grave of Ann at every one o
his solemn periods, the lines entitled
! Immortality; or, Oh Why Should th
Spirit of Mortal be Proud 9y None heart
him but knew that he selected these en-
ri0usly empty, yet wonderfully sad, i'm
pressiYe lines, to celebrate q grief Whiel
lay with continual heaViness on hi
heart, but to which he could not wit
becoming delieacy directly allude. III
mutteEed them as he ranbled througl
the woods, or walked By the Toarini
, SanganlOn, He was heard to murine
them TO himself as lie slipped into TIN
u village at nightfall, after d lone walk o
] six miles, and an evening visit to th
Concord graveyard: and he would sud
denly break ont with them ID little sOcia
assemblies after noticeable periods D
/ silent gloom. They came unhidden i
his lips, while the air of afflieti0n in fac
4 and gesture, the moving tones and touch
I ing modulations OF his voice, made
evident that every syllable of the reel
tatien was meant to commemorate tll
Iaourllful fate of Ann. The poem
now his; the name Of the obscure authu
is forgotten, and his work is inDegisIla