USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
316
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
judgment, and was cool and heroic" (p. 11). His school days he never alluded to; and Herndon says he slept in the loft of the Indiana cabin, which he reached by climbing on pegs driven in the wall, while Miss Tarbell says that "he slept on a heap of dry leaves in a corner of the loft" (p. 19), while his parents reclined on a bedstead made of poles rest- ing between the logs and on a crotched stick, with skins for the chief covering." Although in the highest office in the land for four years before his death, Mr. Lincoln left his mother's grave unmarked, and when his father was dying he allowed sickness in his own family to deter him from paying him a last visit, writing instead a letter advising him to put his trust in God.
HERNDON'S ESTIMATE OF THE HANKSES. "As a family the Hankses were peculiar to the civilization of early Ken- tucky. Illiterate and superstitious, they corresponded to that nomadic class still to be met with throughout the South, and known as 'poor whites.' They are happily and vividly depicted in the description of a camp-meeting held at Eliza- bethton, Ky., in 1806, which was furnished me in August, 1865, by an eye-witness (J. B. Helm). 'The Hanks girls', narrates the latter, 'were great at Camp-meetings,'" and the scene is then described of a young man and young woman with their clothing arranged for what was to follow, who approached and embraced each other in front of the congregation: "When the altar was reached the two closed, with their arms around each other, the man singing and shouting at the top of his voice, 'I have my Jesus in my arms, sweet as honey, strong as baconham.' . She was a Hanks, and the couple were to be married the next week; but whether she was Nancy Hanks or not my informant does not state; though, as she did marry that year, gives color to the belief that she was. But the performance described must have required a little more emo- tion and enthusiasm than the tardy and inert carpenter was in the habit of manifesting" (p. 12).
CONFIRMATION OF THE ENLOE TRADITION. One might suppose that the Enloe story has no other basis than that re- corded in Mr. Cathey's book. But this is far from being the fact, though most of the biographers of Lincoln make no reference to the Enloes whatever. But Mr. Herndon, on page 27, remarks of Thomas Lincoln's second wife, Sarah
1
317
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
Bush, that her social status is fixed by the comparison of a neighbor who contrasted the "life among the Hankses, the Lincolns, and the Enloes with that among the Bushes, Sarah having married Daniel Johnston, the jailer, as her first matri- monial venture. Dr. C. C. Graham, in his hundredth year, made a statement as to the Lincoln family, which is published in full by McClure's in magazine form and called "The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln," by Ida M. Tarbell. This is dated in 1896. Herndon and all the biographers agree that, although so old, Dr. Graham was a competent witness as to Lincoln's early life. Indeed, all of pages 227 to 232 of this little maga- zine book are devoted to testimonials establishing his credi- bility. But, although Tarbell's Life of Lincoln is an enlarge- ment of this magazine story, and contains four large volumes, very little of Dr. Graham's long statement, covering over five closely printed pages, is preserved. And among the things that have been suppressed is this: "Some said she (Nancy Hanks, Thomas Lincoln's first wife) died of heart trouble, from slanders about her and old Abe Enloe, called Inlow while her Abe, named for the pioneer Abraham Linkhorn, was still living." Neither Mrs. Hitchcock nor Miss Tarbell seems to have attached the slightest importance to this state- ment. But that is not all. Herndon records the fact (p. 29) that when he interviewed Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln, Thomas Lincoln's second wife, in September, 1865, "She de- clined to say much in answer to my questions about Nancy Hanks, her predecessor in the Lincoln household, but spoke feelingly of the latter's daughter and son."
Thus, it will be observed, that most of the testimony on which the stories concerning Nancy Hanks are based do not rest on the fabrications of his political enemies, but on the statements and significant silence of himself, his friends, rela- tives and biographers.
THE CALHOUN TRADITION. If anywhere in the world Lincoln had enemies, it was in South Carolina. If anywhere in the world a motive could exist to ruin his political fortunes, it was among the politicians of the Palmetto State. It is true that for years there has been an intangible rumor about John C. Calhoun and Nancy Hanks; but the world must perforce bear witness that such rumors have met with little or no encouragement from the people of that State. Yet, dur-
318
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
ing all the years that have flown since early in the last century, many men and women knew of a story which connected the name of the Great Nullifier with that of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. It has lain untold all these years; but in 1911, Mr. D. J. Knotts of Swansea, S. C., brought it to the light of day. The reason for this delay was due to the respect that the custodians of the secret entertained for the wishes of the Calhoun family. For, even now, some of those to whom the facts had been communicated by Judge Orr and Gen. Burt, will not permit their names to be used in con- nection with the story. But the main facts seem to be well established by other testimony, and although these articles have been before the public since 1910, no one has as yet attempted their refutation. Abbeville "District," as it was called, in South Carolina, was the home of John C. Calhoun and of Gen. Armistead Burt, who married Calhoun's niece. They were fast friends and political supporters of State Rights. Judge James L. Orr was born in Craytonville, S. C., May 12, 1822, and was in Congress from 1849 to 1859, having been speaker of the 35th Congress. He thus began his congressional career the year after Mr. Lincoln had com- pleted his single term; but John C. Calhoun was serving then as senator, dying March 31, 1850. Judge Orr was probably born in the very tavern which had previously been kept by Ann Hanks at Craytonville, as Orr's father certainly kept the same hostelry during his life.
THE STORY IS TOLD AT LAST. During 1911 the Columbia State published four articles on the "Parentage of Lincoln," by D. J. Knotts, of Swansea, S. C. Briefly stated, his story is to the effect that in 1807, John C. Calhoun began the prac- tice of law in Abbeville county, where he lived till his removal to Fort Hill in 1824. Anderson county was not established till 1828; but in 1789 Luke Hanks died and left a will, which was probated in Abbeville county in October of that year, by which his widow, Ann Hanks, a relative of Benjamin Harris of Buncombe county, N. C., and John Haynie were made execu- tors. No deed can be found to land of Luke or Ann Hanks, but there is a grant to 210 acres to her brother in 1797. How- ever, the appraisers of the property under Luke Hanks' will valued these 210 acres at one dollar per acre, and the personal property at $500. Just how long after Luke's death it was
ยท
319
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
that his widow, Ann Hanks, took charge of a tavern at the cross roads, called Craytonville and Claytonville, was not stated; but it is alleged that she kept this tavern in 1807, and for several years thereafter. This cross-roads place is between Anderson, Abbeville and Pendleton-all flourishing towns at this time. At this tavern John C. Calhoun stopped in going to and from the courts, and became involved in a love affair with Ann Hanks' youngest child, Nancy. At this tavern also stopped Abraham Enloe on his way South from Ocona Lufty with negroes and stock for sale. With him came as a hireling Thomas Lincoln, the putative father of the President. Nancy Hanks began to be troublesome and Mr. Calhoun is said to have induced Thomas Lincoln to take her with him on his return with Abraham Enloe-paying him $500 to do so. Lincoln is said to have conducted Nancy to the home of Abraham Enloe, where she became a member of the family. This is a confirmation of the Enloe tradition, except that Nancy is said to have gone there from Ruther- ford county.
THE PETITION FOR PARTITION. Ann Hanks, who seems to have had a life estate in the 210 acres of land, must have died about 1838 or 1839, for we find that Luke Hanks' heirs tried to divide the property without the aid of a lawyer, mak- ing two efforts to that end, but failing in both. In 1842, however, an Anderson attorney straightened things out by bringing in Nancy Hanks as the twelfth child of Luke and Ann Hanks, and the property was divided into twelve equal shares, it having been alleged that Nancy Hanks had left the State and that her whereabouts were unknown. Col. John Martin became the purchaser of this land, which is in a neigh- borhood called Ebenezer, and is within three or four miles of the tavern at Craytonville.
LINCOLN IS TOLD OF A REMARKABLE RESEMBLANCE. In 1849, while John C. Calhoun and Gen. Burt were attending Congress, young James L. Orr, not yet a member, but wishing to see the workings of that body over which he was one day to preside, made a visit to Washington, D. C., and as he had grown up with the Hanks family near Craytonville, he was at once impressed with the remarkable resemblance between those Anderson county Hankses and a raw-boned member from the State of Illinois, by name Abraham Lincoln. He
320
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
told Lincoln of the fact, and the latter replied that his mother's name was Nancy Hanks. Thereupon, it is stated, Orr wanted to go into particulars, but Lincoln at once became reticent and would not discuss the matter further. This aroused Orr's suspicions, and on his return to Anderson he mentioned it to the Hankses of Ebenezer, who having but recently heard the almost forgotten story of John C. Calhoun's connection with Nancy and her disappearance from the State early in the century (in the partition case) related it to Judge Orr in all its details. Gen. Burt also became possessed of the story, but guarded his secret jealously, his wife being Calhoun's niece. But, when Lincoln was assassinated Judge Orr, who was a brother in-law of Mrs. Fannie Marshall, a second cousin of John C. Calhoun, told her and her husband what he had learned from the Anderson Hankses; and in 1866 Gen. Armi- stead Burt, under the seal of an inviolable secrecy, told what he knew to a group of lawyers all of whom were his friends. So inviolably have they kept this secret that even to this day several of them refuse to allow their names to be mentioned in connection with it. But the Hankses also told their family physician, Dr. W. C. Brown, the story of their kinswoman and John C. Calhoun, and he mentioned it to others. John Hanks, also, is said to have told Dr. Harris that Nancy Hanks had gone to an uncle in Kentucky when her condition became known at the Enloe farm; for it seems that a Richard Berry has been located as buying land in Anderson county in 1803, and as disappearing entirely from the records of Anderson county thereafter.
Mr. Knotts introduced much other evidence, and has accu- mulated much additional testimony since, which he will soon publish in full, giving book and page of all records and full extracts from all documents.
MINOR MATTERS. Mr. Knotts also states that Dr. W. C. Brown was a brother of "Joe" Brown, the "War Governor" of Georgia; that Mr. Herndon's first life of Lincoln contained several statements which Lincoln had made as to his illegiti- macy; but that friends of Lincoln "had tried to recall the volumes and failed to get a few of them in for destruction"; but that Mr. Knotts had secured a copy, from which he made (pp. 5 and 6) the following statement: "Mr. Herndon, says Mr. Weik, his co-laborer in the work, spent a large amount of time
321
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
and trouble hunting down this tradition in Kentucky, and finally found a family in Bourbon county named Inlow, who stated to him that an older relative, Abraham Inlow, a man of wealth and influence, induced Thomas Lincoln to assume the paternity of Abraham Lincoln, whose mother was a nice looking woman of good family named Nancy Hanks, and that after marriage he removed to Hardin or Washington county, where this infant was born." Mr. Knotts also makes the point that there could have been no contemporaneous record of Lincoln's birth, and that he made the date himself in the family Bible, years after he became a man; that in that record he nowhere records the fact or the date of his father's marriage to Nancy Hanks, although he is careful to record his father's second marriage to Sarah Bush Johnston, and his own mar- riage to Mary Todd; also that he speaks of his sister Sarah, when she married Aaron Grigsby, as the daughter of Thomas Lincoln alone; and when she died, he again speaks of her as the daughter of Thomas Lincoln and wife of Aaron Grigsby, but never mentions her as the daughter of Nancy Lincoln. No one has ever accounted for the mutilation of the family record made by Abraham Lincoln himself in the family Bible. In every instance in which discredit might fall on Nancy Hanks, the dates have been carefully obliterated in some vital point. Surely Lincoln's political enemies did not do this thing, the doing of which has cast more suspicion on his legitimacy than all things else combined.
THE RUTHERFORD COUNTY HANKSES. When this last tradition was called to the writer's attention, it was apparent that the only way to discredit it was to follow the clue which stated that the Nancy Hanks of Abraham En- loe's household had gone there from Rutherford county. Accordingly, diligent enquiries were instituted in the counties of Rutherford, Lincoln and Gaston with the result that no trace could be found of Nancy Hanks in either of them, or elsewhere in the State. All persons who seemed to know anything of the Hanks family referred to Mr. L. M. Hoffman of Dallas, N. C., who wrote, June 2, 1913, to the effect that for several years he had been working on a genealogical history of all the families who first settled that section from whom he is descended. Among these were a Hanks family; and while he obtained 600 manuscript pages concerning all the
W. N. C .- 21
322
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
.
other families from which he has descended "the want of time and the difficulty of getting reliable information has caused me (him) to nearly close my (his) search.
Further correspondence resulted in discovering little more than that there once existed a Bible of the Hanks family in the possession of the Jenkins family; but Mr. Hoffman, who examined and made extracts from it, found nothing of record regarding Nancy Hanks. He then gave several discoveries that he made, and adds: "This only illustrates how I failed to get anything like a connected story of the Hanks family. There are several of the Hanks family here still, but they know almost nothing of their ancestors. " When it is remembered that there are several Hanks men in Anderson county, S. C., who are said to resemble Abraham Lincoln in a most striking way, it is evident that the probabilities are largely that Nancy Hanks went to Abraham Enloe's from South Carolina rather than from Rutherford county, N. C.
THE TENNESSEE TRADITION. On the farm of G. W. Wag- ner, formerly owned by Isaac Lincoln-a few miles from Elizabethton and opposite the little station called Hunter- is a tombstone on which is carved: "Sacred to the memory of Isaac Lincoln, who departed this life June 10, 1816, aged about 64 years." 19 In McClure's Early Life of Lincoln, Isaac Lincoln is mentioned as one of the brothers of Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the President (p. 223). Tradition says that to this farm came Thomas Lincoln after the death of his father in 1788 had, according to Miss Tarbell (p. 6), turned him "adrift to become a wandering laboring boy before he had learned to read." Tradition also says that a Nancy Hanks at one time lived in that neigh- borhood; but that Thomas was so shiftless that his Uncle Isaac drove him away, when Nancy disappeared also. The lady referred to on page 73 of J. H. Cathey's book by Col. Davidson was his sister, Miss Elvira Davidson, who was a vis- itor in the home of Felix Walker, one of whose sons she after- wards married; and it was while there, according to her state- ment to her niece, that she had seen Abraham Enloe call Felix Walker to the gate and talk earnestly with him, and that when Walker came back he told Mrs. Walker Abraham Enloe had arranged with him (Walker) to have Nancy Hanks taken to Tennessee, instead of Kentucky, when Mrs. Walker re-
323
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
marked that Mrs. Enloe would "be happy again." Mrs. Enloe and Mrs. Walker were great friends. Elvira David- son was a young girl at this time. She first married Joseph Walker and years afterwards was left a widow. Her second husband was Thomas Gaston, whose descendants are in Bun- combe today.
THE SOUTH CAROLINA RECORD. This record is in the office of the Ordinary, corresponding to that of probate judge in most States, its number is 964, and is entitled: " Valentine Davis and wife, applicant, v. Luke Hanie and others." The summons in relief was filed before William McGee, Ordinary of Anderson District, S. C., December 26, 1842; it relates to the real estate of Ann Hanks, and is recorded in real estate book, volume 1, p. 59. The summons is to the "legal heirs and representatives of Ann Hanks, who died intestate," and requires the parties named therein-among whom is Nancy Hanks-to appear on the 3d day of April, 1843, and "show cause why the real estate of Ann Hanks, deceased, situated in said district on waters of Rocky river, bounding Brig. R. Haney, John Martin and others, should not be divided or sold, allotting the same as it proceeds among you." Valentine Davis was appointed and consented to act as the guardian ad litem of the minor heirs named in the summons; a large number of heirs accepted legal service of the summons; while the Ordinary notes that he "cited" several others to appear in court, etc. A rule was also issued December 26, 1842, to twenty-seven of the defendants "who reside without the State," among whom is the name of Nancy Hanks, all of whom are required to "appear and object to the sale or division of the real estate of Hanks on or before the third day of April next, or their consent to the same will be entered of record." There is also in this record an assignment to Mary Hanks by her son James R. Hanks, of Crittenden county, Kentucky, of his interest "in the real estate of my grandmother Ann Hanks, which came to me by right of my father, George Hanks, which was sold by the Court of Ordinary in Anderson District, South Carolina, in June, 1843, which claim or claims I re- nounce to my said mother Mary during her natural life, from me, my executors or assigns, so long as the said Mary Hanks shall live, but at the said Mary's death to revert back me to and my heirs, " etc.
324
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
This assignment of interest is dated April 1, 1844, and was probated before James Cruce, justice of the peace of Crittenden county, Ky., by William Stinson and Reuben Bennett, subscribing witnesses, on the first of April, 1844.
The record fails to show any receipt from Nancy Hanks for her share in the proceeds of this real estate, which would seem to indicate that she was dead and that her heirs received no actual notice of this proceeding. The foregoing excerpts have been furnished by Thomas Allen, Esq., of the Anderson, S. C., bar.
REALITY OF ISAAC LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE. Of the resi- dence of Isaac Lincoln and Mary (nee Ward) his wife, in what is now Carter county, Tenn., there can be no doubt, the deed books of that county showing many conveyances to and from Isaac Lincoln, one of which (B, p. 14) is indexed as from Isaac "Linkhorn" to John Carter, which bears the early date of March 4, 1777, and conveys 303 acres on the north side of Doe river known by the name of the "Flag Pond," for one hundred pounds. The deed, however, is signed "Isaac Lincoln," not "Linkhorn"; but it was not regis- tered till July 22, 1806. Lincoln and Carter are both described as of "Watauga" simply. Other conveyances show that he owned several lots in what is now Eliza- bethton, the county seat of Carter county (B, 18). There is also a conveyance from Johnson Hampton, with whom Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks are said (according to a letter from D. J. Knotts to J. D. Jenkins, 1913) to have gone from Abraham Enloe's to Thomas Lincoln's brother's home on Lynn mountain, five miles above Elizabethton, on Watauga river. But this conveyance is dated March 13, 1834, and is to Mordeca (sic) Lincoln and John Berry of the "county of Green and Carter," Tenn. (Book D, p. 373). The site of the cabin in which Isaac and Mary lived is still pointed out at the base of Lynn mountain.
ISAAC AND MARY LINCOLN SLAVEOWNERS. The will of Isaac Lincoln, dated April 22, 1816, is filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of Carter county, Tenn., and, though yellow with age, is in a good state of preservation. By it he leaves all his property to his wife Mary; and when her will (filed in the same office) is examined, it is found to bequeath at least 28 negroes, naming each one separately,
325
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
and providing for the support of two of them during life. William Stover, who got the bulk of her estate, was the son of her sister and Daniel Stover; and Phoebe Crow, wife of Campbell Crow, to whom she left the "negro girl Margaret and her four children, to wit: Lucy, Mima, Martin and Mahala, was Phoebe Williams, a niece of Mary Lincoln. Campbell Crow was left "the lower plantation, it being the one on which he now lives, adjoining the land of Alfred M. Carter on the west and south and of John Carriger on the east." To Christian Carriger, Sr., she bequeathed seven negroes; to Mary Lincoln Carriger, wife of Christian Carriger Sr., she left two negro girls. Christian Carriger, Sr., had married a sister of Mary Lincoln. Daniel Stover-J. D. Jenkins' great-grandfather-married another sister of Mary Lincoln. Daniel Stover's son William had a son Daniel, who married Mary, a daughter of Andrew Johnson, the suc- cessor of Abraham Lincoln in the Presidency, and he (John- son) died in her house, a few miles above Elizabethton, July 31, 1875. P. T. Brummit lives there now. It was not a part of the Lincoln farm. The house is still visible from the rail- road, the log portion thereof having been torn away; but the room in which Andrew Johnson died, in the second story of the framed addition to the original house, still stands. W. Butler Stover, great-grandnephew of Mary Lincoln, of Jonesboro (R. F. D.), Tenn., still has Mary Lincoln's Bible; but he wrote (March 6, 1914) that "it gives no dates of births or deaths or marriages of any of the Lincolns." William Stover was Butler Stover's grandfather and inherited the farm on which Mary and Isaac Lincoln are buried, as their tombstones attest, Mary's stating that she died August 27, 1834, "aged about 76 years." It is said that Isaac and Mary Lincoln had but one child, a boy, who was drowned before reaching manhood. Mrs. H. M. Folsom of Elizabeth- ton is related to Mordecai Lincoln, while Mrs. W. M. Vought of the same place was a Carriger. Dr. Natt Hyder, who died twenty-odd years ago, and whose widow still lives at Gap Creek, in the Sixth District, told James D. Jenkins that old people had told him-"Old Man" Lewis particu- larly-that Abraham Lincoln was born on the side of Lynn mountain, and was taken in his mother's arms to Kentucky, going by way of Stony Fork creek and Bristol. An anony-
326
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
mous writer-supposed to be B. Clay Middleton-in an article which was published in the Carter County News, February 13, 1914, says: "Tradition says that it was here, in the beautiful Watauga Valley, so rich in history, that the young Thomas Lincoln first met and wooed the gentle Nancy Hanks, whose name was destined to become immortal through the achievements of her illustrious son. Tradition further says that for a while before Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks left for Kentucky they lived for a time together as common law husband and wife in a little cabin on Lynn mountain, which overlooks the Watauga valley. I have been informed that old people in that vicinity still recall the site of what was known as the Tom Lincoln cabin, and traces of the spot where the cabin stood still remain in the way of stone foundations, etc." He also cites as "a little singular that the life of Andrew Johnson in a way should be inter- woven with the name of Lincoln, whom he succeeded as President of the United States. When he married Miss Eliza McCardle, at Greenville, Tenn., it was 'Squire Mordecai Lincoln who performed the ceremony. His daughter Mary married Col. Dan Stover, the great nephew of Isaac Lincoln.'"
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.