Abe Lincoln’s Carolina Roots
Sunday’s News & Observer offered an article discussing the recent opening of the Bostic Lincoln Center Museum. What is the Bostic Lincoln Center, you ask? A Rutherford County group whose mission is “to preserve, study, prepare and make visitor-friendly the traditional birthplace of Abraham Lincoln,” which, by the way, is in Bostic, North Carolina.
Ok, most people would agree that the traditional birthplace was actually in Kentucky, but the Bostic Lincoln Center claims evidence to the contrary. For instance, records of Bostic’s Concord Baptist Church showed that Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was listed as a member at the time of his birth, suggesting that little Abe was born out of wedlock. With a little searching, I found a number of books here in the North Carolina Collection that support Lincoln’s Carolina roots, such as James H. Cathey’s 1899 work, The Genesis of Lincoln, pictured below.
Each of these sources disagrees on one detail: who’s the father? Among the seven sires of Abraham Lincoln, as listed by William Barton, are Abraham Enloe, Andrew Marshall, and John C. Calhoun. Even Napoleon Bonaparte has been accused, fictionally speaking. Perhaps playing on this Western North Carolina lore, the accusation was made by a character in Thomas Wolfe’s short story “Gentlemen of the Press.”
To settle the matter, the Bostic Lincoln Center is calling for a DNA test. Will they ever find Honest Abe’s illegitimate father? Stay tuned.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
You are missing the obvious choice for father. Peter Stuart Ney, school teacher of Salisbury, NC, who was, in reality, Michel Ney, Marshall of France under Napoleon. Vive la France!
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 am
Alright, Harry. Let’s take a closer look. Thomas Lincoln, Abe’s textbook-legitimate-Kentucky father, is pictured at left, and Michel Ney is pictured at right.
Personally, I can imagine a more slender Thomas having Abe’s hollow cheeks. Unfortunately, I have been unable to track down a portrait of Abraham Enloe of Bostic, N.C.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Jessica, if you give Honest Abe a shave and put him in one of those fancy, high-collared coats, he and Ney would look like brothers.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:19 am
To put an end to this heresy, I will quote a 6 March 1848 letter from Abraham Lincoln to Solomon Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts: “I was born Feb. 12th. 1809 in Hardin county, Kentucky. My father’s name is Thomas; my grandfather’s was Abraham, — the same of [sic] my own. My grandfather went from Rockingham county in Virginia, to Kentucky, about the year 1782; and, two years afterwards, was killed by the indians.”
As for me, I’ll take Honest Abe’s word.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 am
I say, this is heretical blasphemy. The great Lincoln was born in Kentucky. North Carolina’s appropriation of Honest Abe is an affront to historical accuracy and all that is holy in the field of Lincolnia. I condemn this miscarriage of history with every ounce of my being.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:17 am
They tell me I was born at Duke Hospital in Durham, and I’m bound to take their word for it, since I have no memory of the event. Could be that Honest Abe’s eye-witness account of his own birth was similarly based more on hearsay than recollection.