The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-05-30

Young families, all of them tall, mus
cular men, with unusually long arms, t,
impress me with the belief that as Lin
coin himself was sanan of such proper
tions he must have descended from thu
same family source. I listened to a lone
carefully worded argument writer
ty a prominent citizen of Mount Ster
ing, who had been a judge of the cour,
and editor OF a newspaper, who was de.
scended from the millwright Abe Enlof
at Paris, KY, and who sought to prove
through this source his alleged kinshir
to Mr.. Lincoln.
If these stories had come through de-
v1ous channels from unauthentic sources,
from unknown and obscure persons OF
from Mr.. Lincoln's political enemies,
there would have been little need Of
needing them, but unfortunately such
was not always their origin. While in.
vestigating the representations CT Rev,
J. G.. Monfort, a Presbyterian clergy
man and editor CT a religious newspaper
in Cincinnati, who claimed to have
taught Abraham Lincoln in his school
at Camden, Preble county, O.. in 1929,
Mr. Herndon ran across another and
different story Of Lincoln's alleged ille-
gltimacy. Following it up to its source
he was amazed to learn that it origi-
mated with or was traceable to q man of
decided Union sympathies and profes.
slons-nol less person, in fact, than the
Rev. Robert j. Breckenridge, a Presby-
terrain divine prominent in the church
and living in Lexington, KY. This gem
tieman, returning in the summer Of
1861 from a visit in Baltimore to his
home, had stepped in Cincinnati and
while there had repeated to several DER.
sons. one Of them a newspaper man, a
story asserting Lincoln's Legitimate
birth, the hasty marriage of his parents.
ETC., which supposed facts, he contend
ed, Cccasioned so much u%nfavorable
comment in the region where the fam
lly lived that they were at last forced to
move to Indiana to avoid the social os-
tracism which attended them.
These are not all the stories / inyesti.
gated or traditions l listened to. but I
DO deem it unnecessary to prolcng the
list. 1t 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 we'll es-
tabllshed fact that he was the second
child in the family, a sister older than
himself having been born in Elizabeth.
town in 1907, while he never saw the
light Of day till almost three years after
the marriage and then near Hodgens-
VILE, a place some distance from Eliza.
BEETHOVEN. There is, therefore, no es-
cape from the conclusion that he was
the l~cgitimately begotten son of Thorn
as and Nancy Lincoln.
Continuing my investigations into
the early history Of the family, l found
that all CT the Hankses and their de-
scendants insisted on calling Lincoln's
mother Nancy Sparrow. This surprised
me not a little, for l remembered that
when Thomas Lincoln gave the bond to
marry his intended bride he called her
Nancy Hanks and by that name she was
known to her distinguished son. Like
wise the Rev. Jesse Head, who solem-
nlzed the marriage, so named her in his
memorable certificate. When these facts
Were presented to one Of her kinsmen,
he answered, in writing, and I have the
MS. i'll my possession: eyes, she is deep
Ill Hanks stock, but she is a Sparrow.
Calling her Hanks makes a baseborn
child CT her." Finally. by dint of close
inquiry and on lines indicated by MI.
Herndon, / 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 she was
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
row. a childless couple who reared her
as their own child, who lived with and
near her even after her marriage to
Lincoln, and who, when the
milk sick invaded their neighborhood in
the fall Of 1918, preceded her but a few
days across the dark river. This, there
fore, must have been the one fact which
Lincoln kept to himself 80
long and which he with such reluctance
himself to disclose to Scripps,
the bicgrapher, and it, too, will explain
the eager determination Of the hitherto
obscure Hankses and their numerous de.
scendants, while giving the mother Of
their most illustrious kinsman shelter
under the family roof tree, to deprive
her OF the privilege CT their patronymic.