The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-12
TILTED, LINCOLN CONSOlED Her
Great Martyr WOoed and Won,
but Death Claimed Her.
The Memorial Today Should
Include LincOIn's First Love.
BY WALT MARKLEY.


sleeping beneath the swirling snow
in the dark shadows of the woods
Loud howled the storm outside the old
log cabin and merrily in the huge fire.
place leaped the curling flames. but
into Lincoln's life had come sorrow
from which he never recovered. All
that fall his friends had feared for his
reason; they were in constant terror
that he would take his own life.
His First Love.
Ann Rutledge was the first woman
to awaken the fires of love in young
Lincoln's breast. The daughter of
James Rutledge, who came of a fine
old southern family. she was the most
beautiful girl in New Salem, ILL.,, ac-
cording to the memoirs of those who
knew her. She was l 8 years old Lin
coin was then 26-tan, lean, gaunt
and awkward, but radiating strength,
wisdom and kindness and even then
the people of lis community had Ions
been looking to him for guidance and
advice
For two years preceding his election
to the Illinois state legislature in 1884
Lincoln studied grammar with Ann in
the log tavern operated by her father.
She was at that time engaged to marry
John MCNEIL, proprietor of the best
store in town and the owner of rich
farming lands and she loved him with
all the strength of a pure young girl.
AT that time no thought to win her
| for his own had entered Lincoln's
mind, but they were staunch and in
separable friends.
McNciIrs Trip.
Then came the day when John Nc
Neill sold his property and left for his
home back East"-to bring his mar
entS 1ai
pie wondered why man of his wealth
did not have his parents sent to him.
| for trip to New York and return in
those days consumed about a year.
But If Ann was hurt she said nothing
only packed his saddIe-bags with
such little dainties as a woman will,
kissed him goodbye and watched him
silently as he rode away. Months
then she learned the bitter truth. His
| real name was McNamar-a fugitive
| from justice.
| Lincoln, the Consider
| Cruel was the gossip then circulated
| IN that sternly moral community and
! bitter was the sorrow in the heart of
/ Ann Rutledge. But Lincoln stepped
| INTO the breach and began to pay her
! open court; to the admiration of all
| he made it known that he would be
| proud to win what McNamar had cast
! away. His ehivalrous love was the
| talk of the countryside and altho Ann
! gave MIN no encouragement at first
! she came to lean more and more upon
| MS devotion as she Shrank from a
curious world. When he went to the
| legislature that winter he wrote to her
| of many things that must have broad
/ ened her outlook upon life, but I'M
! fortunately none of the letters have
| been preserved.
And when he came back one bright
spring day from Vandalia, the capital,
and they two strolled alone under the
honey-locust and the sycamore, Lin
coin told her of his love and found his
affections reciprocated. Happy then
! were the summer days that followed:
| sweet to Lincoln was life and rosy was
| the future.
But Fear Had Come.
But into AIMS life had come some
| thing elsa torturing fear. AS the
days passed she grew more fragile.
| when Lincoln was away on his long
surveying trips she would sit all day
In broodinS silence. Idle now were
her once busy hands and her merry
| laughter no longer spread its conta-
gion among those about her.
| Nainly endeavoring to fight her bat
Tie out alone, she was ultima tely van
quished and turning to her father,
confessed to him her fears. What if
| McNamar should come back? What
II he should prove his innocence re-
veal this mystery, assert his manhood
ana come back, happy and confident,
| to win her? She no longer loved him !;
the very fear that he might return
| seems to have borne upon her with a
weight that literally crushed the
| flower of her life
Was a Happy Summer
She had been happy that summer
with Llncoln-eXtremely happy-and
the thought that she might have pur-
chased that happiness at the cost of
n
her mind. In her adorable innocence
she pictured herself as the faithless
one-McNamar as the one she had
| WfonGed She could not be comforted.
She could not escape from the web of
her narrowing thoughts. She relapsed
into brain fever
Perceiving that the end was near,
Lincoln $ friends sent for him and he
returned home in time to spend at
her beside her last hour of conscious
ness. Two days later Ann Rutledge
| died
Like Man In Trance.
That autumn Abraham Lincoln lived
IKE man in a trance. Aunt Nancy"
Green, with whom he boarded, kept
| him as busy as possible carving water.
chopping wood, digging potatoes and
picking apples. The men took him
with them to the fields to husk corn.
| every one co-operated in a mighty
| eI1ort TO distract his mind from the
| terrible blow he had suffered In
every idle moment he walked alone
IN the woods, nuttering strangely to
| himself, or sat apart from the others
| IN brooding melancholy. In spite of
the Watchfulness of his friends he
often stole away to the little cemetery
seven miles distant, where he would
lie with one arm over Anr's grave,
reading his little pocket testament.
yearly a century has rolled by
Eighty years ago New Salem was
i abandoned. The remains of Ann Rut-
| ledge were long ago removed to the
beautiful cemetery at Petersburg, ILL.,.