211 years ago today (February 12) Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. To celebrate his birthday, let's look at 10 little known facts about our 16th President.
(1) Even though Illinois claims to be the "Land of Lincoln" he did not move to the state until he was 21, having lived in Kentucky and Indiana before that.
(2) Lincoln is the only US President to hold a patent. His patent #6469 was for a device to lift boats over a shoal. However, it was never manufactured.
(3) Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary had 4 children, all boys. One died before they moved to Washington DC, one died while they were living in the White House, one died when he was 18, leaving only one to survive to adult hood.
(4) Most people know Lincoln as a lawyer and US President, but besides those positions he held many other jobs such as railsplitter, boatman, manual laborer, store clerk, soldier, store owner, election clerk, postmaster, surveyor, state legislator, & Congressman,
(5) Today Lincoln is touted as the "Great Emancipator" however, he originally favored gradual emancipation including the government reimbursing slave holders for the loss of their property. He also favored sending freed slaves to colonies in Africa instead of allowing them to stay in the United States.
(6) Lincoln had brother-in-laws who fought and died for the Confederacy, as his wife was from a prominent Kentucky family.
(7) Lincoln did not have a good relationship with his father, so when he had boys of his own, he was an extremely indulgent father. His law partner complained about how Lincoln would bring the boys with him to the office and they would spill ink, throw papers, and generally run amok in the office while Lincoln just sat and did work.
(8) Lincoln served during the Blackhawk Wars. After he was mustered out, his horse was stolen and he had to walk home from southern Wisconsin back to Illinois.
(9) During his days in Springfield, Lincoln went too far in his verbal attacks of a political opponent causing him to be challenged to a duel. However, when he was allowed to select the weapon, Lincoln choose broad swords knowing that his arm length would give him an advantage over his opponent. This encouraged his opponent to drop the duel, but Lincoln was much more careful with his words in the future.
(10) Lincoln did not grow a beard until he ran for President. A young girl named Grace Bedell wrote him a letter encouraging him to grow "whiskers" as she thought that women liked whiskers and would encourage their husbands to vote for him. Lincoln started to grow a beard, and would then have a beard until his assassination. Any picture of Lincoln without a beard, was taken before he was President, and if he has a beard, the picture was taken after he became President.
I hope you took a minute to think about Lincoln and his impact on our country today, and that you perhaps learned a new fact about Lincoln!
Comments