Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-10

period for a marriage in existence.
Not only have we the bond and the, GER
| tificate. but the marriage is duly entered
4 in a list of marriage returns made by Jesse
Head. one of the best-known early Meth
| odist ministers of Kentucky. 1t is now to
! be seen In the records of Washington coun-
| ty, Ky. There Is even in existence a very
full and amusing account of the wedding
| and the fanfare which followed by guest
who was present and who for years after
was accustomed to visit Thomas and Nancy.
| This guest, Christopher Columbus Graham,
| a unique and perfectly trustworthy man.,
a prominent citizen of Louisville, died only
few years ago.
i But while these documents dispose eff
fectually of the question of the parentage
! of Lincoln, they do not, of course, clear
up the shadow which hangs over the par
entage of his mother. Is there anything to
| show that Nancy Hanks herself was of as
! clear and clean lineage her husband?
| There had been nothing whatever until, a
| few years ago, through the efforts of Mrs.
! Caroline Hanks Hitchcock of Cambridge,
| Mass, who had in preparation the gene
alogy of the Hanks family in America, a
| little volume was published. showing what
| she had established in regard to Nancy
| Hanks. Mrs. Hitchcock had begun at the
| far end of the line-the arrival of one
Benjamin Hanks in Massachusetts in 1889
She discovered that one of his sons, Will
| liam, moved to Virginia, and that in the
latter part of the eighteenth century his
children formed in Amelia county of that
state large settlement. All the records
of these families she found in the Hall of
Records in Richmond. When the migration
into Kentucky began, late In the century,
it was Joined by many members of the
Hanks settlement in Amelia county Among
others to go Joseph Hanks with his
wife, Nancy Shpley Hanks, and their chill
dren. Mrs. Hitchcock traced this Joseph
Hanks, by means of land records, to Nelson
county, KY, where she found that he
died in 1893, leaving behind a will, which
she dlscoyered in the records of Bards-
town, Ky. This will show that at the
time of his death Joseph Hanks had eight
living children, to whom he bequeathed
property The youngest of these was My
daughter Nancy" as the will puts it.
Mrs Hitchcocks first query, on reading
this will, was: Can it be that this little
girl-she was but nine years old when her
teen years later became the mother of
Abraham Lincoln?" She determined to find
out She learned from relations and friends
of the family of Joseph Hanks still living
that soon after her fathers death, Nancy
went to live with an uncle, Richard Berry,
who the records showed, had come from
Virginia to Kentucky at the same time
| that Joseph Hanks came A little further
! research and Mrs. Hitchcock found that
| there had been brought to light through
| the efforts of friends of Abraham Lincoln
! all the documents to show that in 1906
. Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln were
| maj ried at Beechland, Ky. Now, one of
these documents was marriage bond. 1t
| was signed b. Richard Berry, the uncle
I
| Joseph Hanks. Here. then. was the chain
| complete. The marriage bond and marriage
returns not only showed that Nancy Hanks
| and Thomas Lincoln were married regu-
| larly three years before the birth of Abra-
| ham Lincoln. thus setting forever at rest
| the story of Linooln's illegitimacy, but they
! showed that this Nancy Hanks was the
| one named in the will. The suspicion in
| regard to the origin of Lincolns mother
| was removed by this discovery of the will,
for the recognition of any one as his child
! by man In his will is considered by the
| law as sufficient proof of paternity.
| Now, what sort of people were Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks? 1t has been
| inferred by those who have made no in
| vestigation of Thomas Lincolns life that
| Nancy Hanks made very poor choice of
| a husband. The facts do not entirely war
rant this theory. Thomas Lincoln had
! been forced from his boyhood to Shift for
himself in young and undeveloped coun-
try He is known to have been a man
, who, in spite of this wandering life con-
| tracted no bad habits He was temperate
| and honest, and his name Is recorded in
more than one place In the records of Ken
lucky. He was churchgoer, and IL tradi-
ton may be believed. a stout defender of
his peculiar religious views. He held ad-
| vanced ideas of what was already an i'm
| portant public PRESTON in Kentucky, the
| right to hold negroes as slaves. One of
his old friends has said of him and his
| wife, Nancy Hanks, that they We're lust
| stepped full of notions about the wrongs
LET slavery and the rights of men, as ex-
planned by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas
Paine" These facts show that he must
have been a man of some natural intelli-
gence. He had trade and owned a farm
| That the two people who endured its
hardships and made in spite of them a
home where boy could conceive and nour-
ish such ideals and enthusiasms as inspired