Monday, May 28, 1860.Springfield, IL.
| Republican presidential nominee Lincoln writes to Elizabethtown,
Kentucky resident Samuel Haycraft, who seeks to verify Lincoln's biographical
information. Lincoln writes, "In the main you are right about my history. My
father was Thomas Lincoln, and Mrs. Sally Johnston, was his second wife. You
are mistaken about my mother—her maiden name was Nancy Hanks. I was not
born at Elizabethtown; but my mother's first child, a daughter, two years older
than myself, and now long since deceased, was. . . . My father has been dead near
ten years; but my step-mother . . . is still living. I am really very glad of your
letter, and shall be pleased to receive another at any time." Abraham
Lincoln to Samuel Haycraft, 28 May 1860, CW, 4:56-57. |