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.
July 8th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
In this day and age, why should there be any question. DNA could settle this issue once and for all. There are plenty of Enloe descendants willing to take the challenge.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am
The Bostic Center is an example of bad history no matter how you look at it. Just because there is a record of a “Nancy Hanks” does not mean she was the same person as Lincoln’s mother. Just because Lincoln does not resemble Thomas Lincoln in photos, what does that mean? I look nothing like my father. Does that mean he wasn’t my father?
There is not a single shred of evidence for the claims made by Enloe descendants. For more on this, see the book “Lincoln Legends, Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated With Our Greatest President” by esteemed Lincoln scholar Edward Steers, Jr. He devotes an entire chapter to the Enloe myth and completely shatters it.
I would trust his research and Lincoln’s own words more than I would this Bostic “museum”.
Geoff Elliott
http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.com
August 30th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Men and even great men lie, BUT science never lies… (DNA)
We live in a time that DNA will 99.9999% close the argument of this matter. I beleive that someone is scared of the truth, but either way we know he was a great president and it would be nice to put this to rest but it would also open up a can of worms and much more. Who is stopping the DNA testing? There lies your problem. I can present hundreds of pictures of Enloe and Dowdle decendents that look just like President Lincoln and you would want a DNA test just to satisfy the mind’s eye.
I know nothing of the museum but I know genetics. DNA testing will provide the truth.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Thomas Lincoln was in fact married to Nancy Hanks on June 12, 1806 in Washington Co., Kentucky. Some savvy historian managed to track down the actual marriage license which shows that the couple was married by the Rev. Jesse Head, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The ceremony took place at the home of one Richard Berry, who lived near Beechland, in Washington County. Nancy Hanks may have already been pregnant with her first child, Sarah, at the time the marriage took place. Sarah Lincoln was born eight months afterwards on February 10, 1807. A copy of the Washington Co., Kentucky, marriage bond can be seen at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hlglkg/incolnhanksbond.jpg
September 12th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Yes, kentucky is his birth place.I have read his biography.I also have found so many books that states he was born in Kentucky.You can also confirm it from wikipedia.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Just because a biographer states (and believes) something to be true doesn’t always make it so. Accurate facts are not easy to track down when dealing with the often non-existent records of what were essentially wilderness areas 200 years ago.
As for wikipedia, it’s a great resource but I wouldn’t take it as the ultimate word. I can go change it right now to say Abraham Lincoln was born on the moon…
Like others have said, DNA will easily settle this question. It’s an interesting story. Might as well follow up on it, even if it upsets some long-held popular traditions.