The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-28
NAMED FOR HIS FATHER
WHO WAS ABRAM ENLOE, OF
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
THE MOTHER AND SON SENT TO KENTUCKY
Where Nancy Hanks Afterward Married Thoma
Lincoln and The Child Took the Name
Of his Step Father. Such
IS The Story,

Was Abraham Lincoln raj splitter,
lawyer, president, maker and victim Of
history, a North Carolinian! To answer
this question in the affirmative Mr.. j.
w. Cathey, Of Bryson City, n. c., has
written Il book, to-wit: 1.-The Genesis
of Il Wonderful Mana book that is
interesting as to matter, but a trifie
jerky as to style, and of imperfect order
and proportion.
The proposition Mr.. Cathey sets him
self to establish is by no means a new
one. That Abraham Lincoln was not
a Lincoln at all but an illegitimate son
of Nancy Hanks and father unknown
to history has been matter of more
or less widely current talk since Lin
coin became President. and has been
frequently discussed in the public prints.
Both in North Carolina and in Kentucky
the tradition that history has given lin
0cln name to which he WAS not by
blood entitled has obstinately persisted
for nigh on to a century and it is a
curious fact that his biographers have
been silent, in the main, upon the subject.
He also, SO far as has appeared, main
tanned uniform reticence as to his pa
rentage even with his most intimate
friends. 1t is perhaps not going too far to
say that many things are accepted facts
Of history which are much less strong
~ substantated than that Abraham
Lincoln was not a Lincoln at all. Ii he
was not IA Lincoln them who was he!
That is the. question Mr.. Cathey en-
deavors to answer His answer is that
he was Abraham Enioe.
MIR. Gathey's evidence may be said TO
consist of two sorts:
That ofstradition.
That of heredity.
Mr. Cathey finds that the tradition as
to Iincoln's patronage has persisted III
Swain and neighboring counties Of west
ern North Carolina since the early days
Of the century The tradition runs that
sometime between 1903 and 1905 there
lived in the family of Abraham Enloe,
Of Ocona Lufta, Swain county, a young
woman named Nancy Hanks; that while
living in his family, she became en-
ce:nte. that the wife Of Abraham Enloe
believing him to be the father OF the
child demanded the expulsion of the girl
from the household: that Enloe tore
store peace in the family sent Nancy
Hanks and her child to Kentucky, where
she afterwards married Thomas Lincoln,
and her illegitmate son, Abraham, took
Lincolns name.
rhc story Of Abraham Enloe and
Nancy Hanks may be said to have pass
cd through but two generations and it
would be strange indeed if it were
gro,lndless. For instance Mr.. Cathey
interviewed Mr.. Walker Battle, who
was born in 1912, and whose father
went to Ocona Lnfta with Enloe when
~ It,rfln nefnt
ty. Mr.. Battle said. Il knew Abraham
Enloe and his family almost as well as
nv own. The incident occurred, Of
course. before may day, but ! distinctly
remember hearing my own family tell of
the trouble between Ahraham Enlca
and Nancy Hanks when / was a boy. /
recall. as if it were but yesterday. hear
ing them speak Of Nancy's removal 10
kentucky, and that sha married nan
named Lincoln: that Abraham Enlon
had some kind of correspondence with
tbe woman after he sent her to Ken
tucky. There is no doubt as to Nancy
Hanks having once lived in the family of
Abraham Enloe. and there IS no doubt
that she was the mother of child 10y
him.
Such is an instance of the plain,
sIfalSHtIOFWaFu ana ueHiIl1S C'i's*.'N
which Mr.. Cathey has succeeded IL col
ecting He gives interviews with a
number of men, some of them born short.
ly after Lincoln, and living all their ilves
in the neighborhood, and all give substa.i-
TALLY the same version of the story. Ii
would add nothing to the story to multi
ply evidence here. though to the reader
of Mr.. Cathey's book is does much to
bring conviction.
BY no means the least striking proof
of this hypothesis OF Lincoln's birth is
the remarkable resemblance to him of
Wesley Enloe. "A man now SO years old,
a son of Abraham Enloe. and
still living at the old homestead
The likeness is said TO be so remarkable
that even the casual observer is at once
struck by it; a likeness not only in the
facial features. but of form and move
ment as well.
To compare the cuts of Wesley Eaioe
and Abraham Lincoln as given in this
volume is to admit that either Lincoln
and Enloe were of one blood or nature
played queer prank in fashionnS them
The pictures OF other members of the
Enoe family show that the Enioe TYP.
is very marked and persisteas. y
= In the course of his investigation Mr.
Cathey has accumulated a great deal 0!