The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-02-12
GREAT LOVE
STORIES
of HISTORY
ABRAHA AN LINCOLN
and MARY TODD
by the Author.)
BY Albert Poyson Terhune

lanky young giant. homely. poor
and ill-clad. fell in love with little.
red-haired village beauty. Anne Rut-
ledge. She lived in a frontier town
in what is now the middle west and
was daughter OF the local tavern
keeper.
Though only II. she was engaged to
New Yorker who had spent a few
weeks at the tavern. Then young
Abraham Lincoln came to town and
proceeded to lose his heart to her. He
was ugly, uncouth and gaunt in ap-
pearance and had to work hard for a
bare living. The gentleness and brill
llancy that were masked behind his
homely exterior were not of the sort
TO appeal at once to Miss Rutledge.
But this did not prevent Lincoln from
counting her. 1t was the first and
greatest love of all his life
At length persistent wooing had its
effect The New Yorker had stopped
writing to Anne. She realized he had
deserted her. In her unhappiness she
turned to Lincoln for comfort. AS ten
DERBY as woman the young giant
soothed her sorrow and sought to
time she consented to be his wife
But mourning for the faithless New
Yorker had undermined her health
While arrangements for the wedding
were going on she sickened and died
Her death was the bitterest sorrow
Lincoln ever knew. His friends feared
he was going insane. His character
took on a melancholy that marked his
H., face and manner
60. as long as he
o>0'' lived. After her
funeral he burst into tears, sobbing:
II can never be reconciled to have
the snow and rain beat upon her
gravel"
Many years later he told friend in
confidence: My heart lies in that
girls grave" So entirely did grief
master him that when. long afterward.
he became engaged to Kentucky
girl, Mary Owen. he ia said to have
asked her to release him from the
match because he could not love her
her as he should, his mind still cling
ing to the memory of Anne Rutledge.
1t was in 1910 that another Ken
lucky girl. Mary Todd. came to Spring
field, Ill.,, where Lincoln was practic.
ing law. He became engaged to her
though from the first he showed per-
haps less loverlike ardor than tho
occasion called for The wedding day
arrived and the guests assembled. But
Lincoln did not appear. There was an
awkward pause. Then the wedding
party wondering. broke up. The
bridegroom's nerve had apparently
failed him at the last moment. He and
Miss Todd were reconciled by friends
and in 1912 the engagement was
patched up. One incident that may or
may not have had something to do with
bringing them together again was the
fact that Miss Todd wrote anonymous
ly set of satiric verses which Of
Tended James Shields. political en-
envy of Lincoln's. Shields demanded
to know the authors name. Lincoln
chivalrously came forward and took
upon himself the responsibility for the
entire affair. Shields challenged him
to duel Lincoln accepted the chal-
lenge and chose cavalry sabers as the
weapons. Wise men in the commu-
nifty reconciled the opponents and no
duel was fought.
Two months later Lincoln and Mary
Todd were married. One biographer
says that Lincoln went through his
share in the wedding ceremony "as
pale and trembling as If being driven
to slaughter" The young couple
started married life on the upper floor
of an inn, where board and lodging
cost them 81 a week. Even at that.
they were often hard pressed for
ready money. practicing every econ
omy. There can be little doubt that
Mrs. Lincoln had a lively. peppery
temper and that her husband suffered
from it's effects. 1t is said that their
one servant, in early days. could not
endure the wife's sharp tongue and
was only induced to remain in the
house because Lincoln secretly paid
her double wages. A man who had
been scolded so
o'o,'n, violently by Mrs.
o's Lincoln that he
rushed to her husband for satisfaction
was sadly asked by Lincoln:
Cant you endure for a few mo-
nents what l have had as my portion
for Is years."
The latent brain trouble which later
partially wrecked Mrs. Lincoln's mind
was possibly the real cause of her fits
Of rage. They had one good effect:
Lincolns interest was turned to pub
lie matters and he threw himself more
fully into politics than he might have
done had he had calmer home life
Yet whenever he was away from
home he kept his wife closely in
formed of every step he took This
fact not only tends to show his deyo-
ton to her. but also the keen inter
est she felt in his progress. When he
received news of his election to the
presidency his first words were:
There is a little woman at our
house who is probably more interest
ed in this dispatch than l am. I'll take
il up and let her see it,
Lincoln was seated at his wife's
side in Ford's theater, Washington.
in 1865. when Wilkes Booth assasinat-
ed him. The shock and grief CON-
bined to bring on a malady from
which the unhappy woman never
u.tolly rocoyored