Footprints of Abraham Lincoln: Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before published — John Shaqi
Footprints of Abraham Lincoln: Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before publishedHobson, J. T. (Jonathan Todd)
History
Footprints of Abraham Lincoln: Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before published
Hobson, J. T. (Jonathan Todd)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Anecdotes
"Aunt Betsy" died March 27, 1901, two years after the interview
mentioned, in her eighty-ninth year. Her picture, secured for this
book, through her daughter, Mrs. Enco, residing in Spencer County, is a
good one.
"The Chronicles of Reuben," mentioned by "Aunt Betsy," were written
in scripture style, but no copy has been preserved. Thomas Bunton,
an aged citizen of Gentryville, told me that he remembered hearing
the "Chronicles" read when he was a boy. Redmond D. Grigsby told me,
in my interview with him, that he was in possession of them for some
time, but they were lost or destroyed. He said the "Chronicles" were
no credit to Mr. Lincoln. Those purporting to be the "Chronicles"
in Herndon and Weiks' "Life of Lincoln," were written by Herndon as
remembered by Mrs. Crawford, the wife of Josiah Crawford. Dr. W. S.
Bryant, of Dale, told me, some years ago, that he accompanied Herndon,
in 1865, to the Crawford place, when the "Chronicles" were written
as before stated. It had then been thirty-six years since they were
written.
The Grigsbys were much irritated when the "Chronicles" were written,
and have protested against their becoming a matter of history. It is
alleged that they were written to humiliate the Grigsbys for slighting
Lincoln in the invitations to the infare. The account of the fight
between John Johnston and William Grigsby is mentioned in full in
Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," but whether all the details there mentioned
are true no one can say.
The day I visited Captain and Mrs. Lamar, already referred to, at
their request, I visited the captain's cousin, Mrs. Ruth Jennings
Huff, residing in Buffaloville. She was the only surviving child of
Josiah Crawford. She said she was the middle child of five children,
three brothers and one sister. She showed me a corner cupboard made
by Thomas Lincoln and his son Abraham for her father. Her father died
about thirty years before my visit. In the distribution of the property
among the children, among other things, she chose the cupboard. After
telling many things she had heard her parents say about Lincoln, I
ventured to ask if she ever heard of the "Chronicles of Reuben." Her
quick, characteristic reply was, "Lord, yes; I've heard mother tell it
a thousand times." Mrs. Huff died at the residence of her son, S. H.
Jennings, in Rockport, Indiana, December 26, 1906, in her eightieth
year. Mr. Jennings is the present owner of the cupboard referred to,
and he writes me that he would not part with it for any reasonable
price. I am indebted to him for a good photograph of his mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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