Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE EARLIEST PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a carbon enlargement, by Sherman and McHugh, New York, of a daguerreotype in the possession of the Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, and first published in the McClure’s Life of Lincoln. It is generally believed that Lincoln was not over thirty-five years old when this daguerreotype was taken, and it is certainly true that it shows the face of Lincoln as a young man. It is probably earlier by six or seven years, at least, than any other existing portrait of Lincoln.
THE EARLY LIFE
OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
CONTAINING MANY UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS AND UNPUBLISHED REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN’S EARLY FRIENDS
INTRODUCTION.
It has been only within the last ten years that the descent ofAbraham Lincoln from the Lincolns of Hingham, Massachusetts,has been established with any degree of certainty. The satisfactoryproof of his lineage is a matter of great importance. Ina way it explains Lincoln. It shows that he came of a familyendowed with the spirit of adventure, of daring, of patriotism, andof thrift; that his ancestors were men who for nearly two hundredyears before he was born were active and well-to-docitizens of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Virginia,men who everywhere played their parts well. Abraham Lincolnwas but the flowering of generations of upright, honorable men.
The first we learn of the Lincolns in this country is betweenthe years 1635 and 1645, when there came to the town of Hingham,Massachusetts, from the west of England, eight men of thatname. Three of these, Samuel, Daniel, and Thomas, were brothers.Their relationship, if any, to the other Lincolns who came overfrom the same part of the country at about the same time is notclear. Two of these men, Daniel and Thomas, died without heirs;but Samuel left a large family, including four sons. Amongthe descendants of Samuel Lincoln’s sons were many goodcitizens and prominent public officers. One was a member of theBoston Tea Party, and served as a captain of artillery in theWar of the Revolution. Others were privates in that war. Threeserved on the brig