Lincoln’s Hardin County Connections

Lincoln’s Hardin County Connections. . Shortly after Thomas and Nancy Lincoln's wedding in Washington County on June 12, 1806, the couple set up housekeeping in Hardin County where Thomas owned a farm near Elizabethtown on Mill Creek. Nancy gave birth to Lincoln's first child, a daughter named Sarah, on February 10, 1807 in Elizabethtown. The Lincolns later moved to Sinking Spring farm in present-day Larue County in the fall of 1808. Here the couple's second child and the future president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was born on February 12, 1809. , , After the death of Nancy in October 1818. Thomas Lincoln returned to Elizabethtown in the fall of 1819. He arrived with one objective: to find a matriarch for the Lincoln family, then residing in Indiana. On December 2, 1819, Thomas Lincoln married Elizabethtown widow Sarah Bush Johnston, and shortly thereafter returned to present-day Spencer County, Indiana. The marriage brought much-needed stability to the Lincoln household as well as three additional children, Elizabeth, John, and Matilda, from Sarah Bush Johnston's previous marriage. Thomas and Sarah would never have any children together. , , Abraham Lincoln last visited his stepmother January 31 - February 1, 1861, on his way to the White House. She lived to see her famous stepson's presidency and wept following his assassination. Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln died in 1869 and is buried next to Thomas Lincoln at Shiloh Cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. , , Several of Mary Todd Lincoln's siblings supported the Confederacy. Perhaps the most controversial Confederate Todd was Mary's sister, Emilie Todd Helm, who had married Elizabethtown resident Ben Hardin Helm. Abraham Lincoln offered Helm, his brother-in-law, a commission as Union army paymaster. Instead, he joined the Confederate army and became brigadier general in Kentucky's famous Orphan Brigade. Lincoln reputedly wept when Ben Hardin Helm was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. When the widowed Emilie tried to return to Kentucky through Union lines, she refused to take a Union loyalty oath. When Lincoln learned of Emilie's situation, he replied, "Send her to me." Blocked from traveling to Kentucky, she went to Washington, D.C., and Union officers and newspapers berated the Lincolns for having a "rebel in the White House." , , Sidebar , Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail , 1809 Abraham Lincoln born at Sinking Spring farm, in present-day Larue County, Kentucky. , , 1816 Lincoln family moved from Kentucky. , , 1841 Abraham Lincoln visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington, the Speed family plantation, in Louisville, Kentucky. , , 1842 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. , , 1847 The Lincoln family visited Lexington, Kentucky enroute to Abraham's only term in Congress. , , 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States in November. , , 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. , (captions) , Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, beloved stepmother of Abraham Lincoln. Photograph courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Museum of Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee , , Ben Hardin Helm Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society , , Emilie Todd Helm Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society