Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-07-12

1 SNNh OcSSs sisilett bt 1uQu1aS IJlIlc0lO and Richard Berry. These things at once disposed of the long accepted the ory that the couple "took up' with each other and that the only evidence of marriage was cohabitation They also, had he survived till then. would have relieved Robert Dale Owen, whose bio l graphical attempts ceased, as we are told. only when he failed to find documen- ] taTy proof of marriage. In addition to i the Enloe story devoted my attention and some of my time to the George ] BrOwnfield legend and to another which sought to a1fix the paternity of Lincoln i on one ef the Hardins. l was even pre- i yided with q number of pictures of va l rlo1s members Of the BroWnhold and l Young families, all Of them tall, mus cUlar men, with unusually long arms, to impress me with the belief that as Lin coln himself Nas | man of such propor- tions he must have descended from the same fasaily source. I listened to a long and carefully worded argument written l ky 8 prominent citizen Of Mount Ster- line, whe had been q judge of the eourt l and editar ef | newsBaper, who was de- scended from the nillWrigft Abe Enloe at Paris, Ky, and who sought to prove tlH'snsll this source his alleged kinship to Nh Lil3euln.
 If these stories had come through de- vioUs channels from unauthentic sources, from unknown and obscure persons CT from Mr Linc0ln's political enemies, 1 there would have been little need of ] needing them, but unfortunately such was not always their origin. While in- i yestigatlrg f!2a representations of Rev. i J. q. Nenf0rt, S Presbyterian clergy man and editor of a religions newspaper iii Cincinnati, who claimed to have taught Abraham Lincoln in his school at Camden Preble county, O., ill 1899. ] Mr Herndon ran acrcss another and l different stc}y of Lincoln, s alleged ille- gitimacy. Following 1t up to it's source he Was amazed to learn that it erigi- natea with CT was traceable to man Of decided Union sympathies and profes- sions-no less 9 person, in fact, than the l Rev Robert ]. Breckinridge. a Presby- terin divine prominent in the church and living il Lexington, Ky. This gen. tleman, returning in the summer of 1861 fro1a visit in Baltimore to his home, had stopped in Cincinnati and while there had repeated to several per sons, enc of them q newspaper man, q story asserting Lineeln's illegitimate birth, the nasty marriage of his parents, etc, which supposed facts. he contend l ed, occasioned So much unfayorable
 
 l fly lived that they were at last forced to move to Indiana to avoid the social os- tracis1n which attended them
 These are not all the stories investi- 1 gated or traditions 1 listened to, but i do deem it unnecessary to prolong the list. It suffices to say that they and all other such fall to pieces when certain tests are applied. Every one is construct ed on the theory that Abraham Lincoln was born at Elizabethtown, Ky, within the year after the marriage of his parents and all in total disregard of the well es- tablished fact that he was the ~econd child ill the family, 6 sister older than 1 himself having been born in Elizabeth town in 1907, while he never saw the l light of day till almost three years after the marriage and then near Hodgens- vile, place some distance from Eliza 1 bethtolgn. There is. therefore, no es- cape from the conclusion that he was the lcg.timately begotten son of Thom- as and Nancy Lincoln.
 Continuing my investigations into the carly history of the family, found 1 that all of the Hankses and their de- scendaats insisted on calling Lincoln S mother Nancy Sparrow This surprised me not little, for 1 remembered that when Thomas Lincoln gave the bond to marry his intended bride he called her 1 Nancy Hanks and by that name she was known to her distinguished son. Like wise the Rev. Jesse Head, who solem- 1 nized the marriage, so named her in his 1 memorable certificate. When these facts were presented to one of her kinsmen, l he answered, in writing, and I have the l MS. in my possession: Yes, she k deep l ill Hanks stock, but sine is a Sparrow. l Calling her Hanks makes baseborn child of her" Finally, by dint CT close l inquiry and Cn lines indicated ly Mr. Herndnn, learned that Nancy. whose surname had occasioned this difference of opinion, was born in Virginia; that she WAS the first daughter of Lucy Hanks. who, after her birth, was mar ried to Henry Sparrow; that sine was not brought up with the children born afterward to her mother and Henry Sparrow, but was consigned to the fos- tering care of Thomas and Betsy Spar TOW. q childless couple who reared her as the!r own child, who lived with and near her even after her marriage to Thomas Lincoln, and who, when the milk sick invaded their neighborhood in the fall of ISIS, preceded her but few days across the dark river. This, there fore, must have been the enc fact which Abraham Lincoln kept to hinlsef so long and which he with such reluctance