History

    10 Abraham Lincoln Facts

    Elizabeth FickenscherBy Updated:59 Comments5 Mins Read
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    Sometimes we’re so excited to have President’s Day off work that we forget what it’s really about.  President’s Day honors  the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. You might be interested in these Abraham Lincoln facts and trivia.  What follows are some mind-blowing facts about Abraham Lincoln.  Hold on to your stovepipe hats…

    10. Lincoln Under-Utilized his Pockets

    File:Abraham Lincoln's Stovepipe Hat - Flickr - brewbooks.jpg
    Abraham Lincoln’s actual stovepipe hat

    Speaking of top hats, Lincoln’s stovepipe top hat served as more than fashionable headgear.  He used it to store and carry notes, letters, even bills.  Why do they call it a stovepipe hat?  Well, the rise is so tall and straight with no flair that it resembles a length of pipe.  They’re hard to come by nowadays, the traditional top hat being much more current, but still pretty “retro”.  Best you go to a custom haberdashery to get one made just for you.

    9. Lincoln was Really Tall

    Image result for abraham lincoln tall

    That stovepipe hat just made a tall guy a whole lot taller.  Lincoln was 6’4”, making him our country’s tallest president.  That of course raises the question, who was our shortest president?  That would be our 4th president, James Madison, who stood a stately 5’4”, making him an entire foot shorter than Honest Abe – even without his hat!

    8. Lincoln has No Living Heirs

    Image result for robert lincoln

    Despite the fact that the marriage between Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln yielded 4 sons, there are no living heirs.  Three of the four sons died before their 20th birthdays:  Edward died at 4 years of age, Willie at 12 years, at Tad at 18.  Robert was the only child who lived into adulthood and his last descendant died sometime in the 1980’s.

    7. Lincoln’s Son was a Death-Magnet

    Image result for robert lincoln

    Robert Lincoln was sort of a magnet for tragedy.  More specifically, presidential assassination tragedy. While he was not present when his dad was killed, he was an eyewitness to Garfield’s assassination, and at the same World’s Fair where McKinley was assassinated.  Another interesting fact about Robert, he was saved from a train accident by Edwin Booth, the brother of his father’s killer, John Wilkes Booth.

    6. Lincoln Like to Tinker

    Image result for abraham lincoln patent

    Lincoln really liked machines and gadgets.  He liked to take them apart to see how they worked and try to put them together again.  He even tried his hand at inventing, and in 1849 had a patent issued for “A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals”.  The machine never made it, but the patent was a new thing for a president, and no president has held a patent since.

    5. Lincoln & Kennedy

    Image result for john f kennedy

    You didn’t think we’d leave it out, did you?  There are some pretty bizarre coincidences between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.  Here are a couple:

    • Both were shot in the head with one bullet on a Friday.
    • Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, Kennedy in 1946.
    • Lincoln’s successor (named Johnson) was born in 1808. Kennedy’s successor (also named Johnson) was born in 1908.

    4. Lincoln was Kind of Psychic

    Image result for abraham lincoln psychic

    In the weeks before his death, Lincoln was extremely melancholy.  He had seen portents of his own death, and had been dreaming of death as well.  On one occasion looked in the mirror and saw a double reflection, one image much paler and blurrier than the other.  He told his wife that he thought it  meant that he had survived his first term, but wouldn’t survive his second.  The week prior to his death, Lincoln had a dream of hearing crying in a distant room of the White House.  He sought out the room and found that it had a coffin in it.  He asked the weeping person who had died and the person responded that it was the President.  In his dream, Lincoln looked into the coffin and saw himself. Read more in The Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln

    3. Lincoln Dabbled in the Occult

    Not only did he get premonitions, he also believed in the occult.  Well, if he didn’t believe then he was at least willing to go along with it.  Because he and Mary had lost little Edward and Willie at such young ages, they actually held seances in the White House trying to contact their dearly departed.  Mrs. Lincoln also attended seances at the homes of famous mediums of the day.  Whether or not they made contact is unknown.

    2. Lincoln was Spiritual, not Religious

    Despite the last two facts, Lincoln said he was still a Christian.  He didn’t, however, feel it necessary to subscribe to a particular brand of Christianity.  Though many different sects try to claim him, Lincoln was 100% non-denominational.  He never joined a church, didn’t say grace before meals, and spoke on a more spiritual level, rather than religious.  He did read the Bible quite often, and did have a highly developed spiritual governance.  When asked if he thought the Lord was on the side of the North in the Civil War, Lincoln responded, “I am not at all concerned about that…But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”

    1. Lincoln had a Way with Words

    Image result for abraham lincoln speech

    Not only was Lincoln spiritual and intelligent, he was also a heck of a speech writer.  He wrote his own speeches, and it is said that his famous Gettysburg Address wasn’t even the best one!  Rumor has it that the speech Lincoln made to the Illinois Republican Convention on May 29, 1856 was his best, but it was either so enthralling that nobody remembered to take notes, or it was so controversial that nobody was allowed to print them.  Either way, no record of it exists.

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    59 Comments

    1. tug on

      THE Lincoln READER Edited by Paul M. Angle, 179 selections by 65 authors , a great book ,with the help of Rutgers University Press,facts just the facts,what a time after his demise,took on a whole new storyline, gangsters tried to kidnap his dead body…..for ransom.

    2. poopaloop on

      4. Lincoln was Kind of Psychic

      In the weeks before his death, Lincoln was extremely melancholy. He had seen portents of his own death, and had been dreaming of death as well. On one occasion looked in the mirror and saw a double reflection, one image much paler and blurrier than the other. He told his wife that he thought it meant that he had survived his first term, but wouldn’t survive his second. The week prior to his death, Lincoln had a dream of hearing crying in a distant room of the White House. He sought out the room and found that it had a coffin in it. He asked the weeping person who had died and the person responded that it was the President. In his dream, Lincoln looked into the coffin and saw himself. Read more in The Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln

      was so awesome it is true thou

    3. toni on

      I heard that pres lincoln was a descendant of a ehtiopian man. he has the physical characteristics of a east african.i also heard he was dark complexioned and his hair was some what nappy.

    4. damianna rocha on

      this facts r the best facts iv ever seen im going to do a time line about him so im whent on here i started to read it ever nice stuff about abe lincoln 🙂 great facts i now love facts:}

    6. Peter Boucher on

      I saw a spectacular 3 hour documentary on Lincoln on the History Channel and it was speculated that he may have been bi-sexual. Back in his day, he lived in a very small house with only so much room to spare. He would sleep in the same bed with his brother which historians are still pondering about

    8. Bill on

      Kids, I hate to ruin your concepts of Lincoln but, he was not as nice as history makes him out to be. He and a Union General were the direct cause of the start of the Civil War and slavery had nothing to do with it. If your teachers are stating to you that Lincoln was the one to free the slaves, they are not telling you the truth. Research the real Abraham Lincoln and discover the true facts about this monster.

      • Joe on

        Very True, The only reason that Teachers said those things is because of his nickname ” Honest Abe”. Which was a childhood nickname given by his aunt.

    10. Grace:) on

      Read this! I typed it all

      Did he have any brothers and/or sisters?

      Yes. His sister, Sarah, was born on February 10, 1807 and died in childbirth on January 20, 1828, along with her child. His brother Thomas died in infancy in 1812.

      Abraham Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, married Sarah Bush Johnston on December 2, 1819, after the October 15, 1818 death of Abraham and Sarah’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln had three children from her previous marriage: John, Matilda and Elizabeth (Abraham’s step-brother and step-sisters.)

      When, where and to whom did he marry?

      November 4, 1842 in Springfield, Illinois to Mary Todd. Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky on December 13, 1818. For more about their marriage, see “The Day Miss Todd Became Mrs. Lincoln”.

      Did they have any children?

      Yes.
      1. Robert Todd Lincoln was born August 1, 1843 in Springfield, Illinois and he died July 25, 1926 at his home in Manchester, Vermont.
      2. Edward Baker Lincoln was born March 10, 1846 in Springfield, Illinois and died on February 1, 1850.
      3. William Wallace Lincoln, known as “Willie,” was born December 21, 1850 and died in the White House on February 20, 1862.
      4. Thomas Lincoln, nicknamed “Tad,” was born April 4, 1853 and died in Chicago of tuberculosis on July 15, 1871.

      Are there any direct descendants of Abraham Lincoln?

      No. Robert Todd Lincoln, the only son to reach adulthood and marry, had three children: Mary, Abraham and Jessie. Mary’s only child, Lincoln Isham, had no children. Abraham lived from 1873-1890 and had no children. Jessie had two children, Mary Beckwith and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, neither of which had any children.

      Did Abraham Lincoln have any military service?

      Lincoln’s military service began and ended in 1832:

      * Apr. 7. Lincoln is elected a captain in the 31st Regiment, Illinois Militia.
      * Apr. 21. New Salem neighborhood volunteers for the Black Hawk War form a company and elect Lincoln captain.
      * May 27. Captain Lincoln’s company is mustered out of service at Fort Johnson, Ottawa. He then enlists in Capt. Elijah Iles’ regiment for twenty days.
      * June 16. Lincoln re-enlists in Capt. Jacob M. Early’s independent spy company at Fort Wilbourn.
      * July 10. The mustering-out roll of Capt. Early’s company, written by Lincoln, is certified by lt. Robert Anderson ( who was to be command at Fort Sumter in 1861).

      Brief migration and residency history of Abraham Lincoln:

      1809 — Born in Hardin County, Kentucky
      1811 — Moved to a farm on Knob Creek, Kentucky, a few miles away from his birthplace.
      1816 — Moved to a farm in Indiana, in what is now Lincoln City, Indiana.
      1830 — Moved to an area west of Decatur, Illinois.
      1831 — After piloting a flatboat to New Orleans, Abraham settles in New Salem, Illinois.
      1837 — Moved to Springfield, Illinois.
      1842 — Abraham and Mary Todd moved into the Globe Tavern in Springfield.
      1844 — Abraham and Mary Todd moved into the only home they ever owned in 1844, located in Springfield, Illinois. To learn more about this home, please visit the Lincoln Home National Historic Site.
      1847 — Resided in Washington, D.C., while a U.S. Representative (until 1849).
      1861 — Moved to the White House

      Brief political history of Abraham Lincoln:

      1832 — Ran for the Illinois legislature; defeated.
      1834 — Ran for the Illinois legislature and was elected Representative for Sangamon County.
      1836 — Re-elected Representative to the Illinois legislature.
      1838 — Re-elected Representative to the Illinois legislature.
      1840 — Re-elected Representative to the Illinois legislature.
      1846 — Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
      1854 — Elected to the Illinois legislature; resigned to run for U.S. Senate; defeated.
      1858 — Ran for U.S. Senate; defeated.
      1860 — Ran for President of the United States and was elected.
      1864 — Re-elected President of the United States.

      Where, when and how did he die?

      On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Abraham and Mary Todd were attending the play Our American Cousin. He died at 7:22 a.m. the following day, April 15th, at the Peterson Boarding House across the street from Ford’s Theatre.

      • Tyler on

        Lincoln was shot once in the head and went through the back of the head and stoped right behind his left eye. He survived the shot and was then carried to a house across the street, and he ended up dieing there at the house across the street from Fords Theatre. His killer, John Wilkes Booth, jumped out of the little room Lincoln was in and sprain his ankle after he hit the ground on the stage. Booth had a man holding/watching his horse in the back of the Theatre in a alley. When Booth was riding away men ran out the back door, and the man watching Booth’s horse was questioned. Booth had also sent 2 other men to go kill the VP who was at his house, the men were disguised as doctors servants, they said that they had medicine to give to the VP, and that they had to deliver it to him theirselves.

    13. jordan on

      it is cool how he could have seen his death a week before. Could'nt he have prevented it if he new

      • Joe on

        Kids, I hate to ruin your concepts of Lincoln but, he was not as nice as history makes him out to be. He and a Union General were the direct cause of the start of the Civil War and slavery had nothing to do with it. If your teachers are stating to you that Lincoln was the one to free the slaves, they are not telling you the truth. Research the real Abraham Lincoln and discover the true facts about this monster.

    16. Robin on

      Wow! I hope you all get a little more respect when you're dead and unable to defend yourselves.

      As I teach History, I take great pains to never speak anything as fact that cannot be documented by official record, close friends, family or the actual person in question. Even then we must consider the motives and bias of the recorder. Just imagine the slander your neighbor, co-worker, or the pernicious relative you never got along with could with your name and reputation.

    17. Noel on

      What about the fact that Lincoln's race is disputed? There is evidence that suggests Lincoln had African ancestry. That's right, he was black!

      In Herndon's book entitled "The Hidden Lincoln" he says that Thomas Lincoln could not have been Abraham Lincoln's father because he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated. Lincoln's presidential opponents made cartoon drawings depicting him as a Negro and nicknamed him “Abraham Africanus the First."

      • Debbie on

        Hey….Obama isn’t black but they sure played the “first black president card”. He will be really dissappointed if they label the Abraham memorial as the “first black president”. The black/white is getting really old. Only those qualified and love this country should run this country. Doesn’t seem it happens very often and look where it got us.

    18. haven on

      OKAY here is a very interesting fact about one of lincolns son, im pretty sure it was the older one

      but after lincoln died his son was walking by a train station by the train tracks, there was a train coming and he saw a boy about his age fall onto the tracks lincolns son quickly helped him to his feet before the train ran him over, they started talking and come to find out, the boy who fell was actually the son of lincolns assassiner, can you say irony??

      and this is a true, yet unknown story, my dads college teacher told him this story

      • archworf on

        Read #7 again for the correct version of your mangled story. And what the hell is an assassiner? Can you say idiocy? No, probably not…

      • smarterthanmatt on

        Kennedy was shot with ONE bullet in the HEAD. Three shots rang out. One hit his head and two hit his neck. READ before commenting.

    23. msmi on

      hy

      lincolm was killed by central bank like jfk and father (and garfiled and mckinley) cause he removed from them the monetary sovereignty or rather it prevented them to send forth coin!!!

      So he soon wa killed!!

      Why top tenz doesn't remember the most important thing in common with Jfk?

      What it is afraid of?Afraid of bank?

      bye

    24. Kayley on

      I heard that he suffered from depression and so did his wife after he died. or they think now he had some mental illness or something.

    25. Joanna on

      What about the this supposed fact that Lincoln had a high pitched voice? That should be on the list! Its awesome!

    26. Gary on

      Indeed, I have done some reading, and one of the things I've learned about Lincoln is that doesn't deserve any of our adulation. That's hard for me to say, too, since he was my 4th cousin, 5 times removed.

      Lincoln "preserved" a growing monster, which has evolved, over time, into the fascistic regime it is today. This was made possible in 1787 by the Federalists, who were agents of the Rothschilds of London. They were the force behind the creation of our Constitution, which contained the seeds of a large central government, ever expanding its scope and power. The Constitution replaced our original constitution, the Articles of Confederation, which, among other superior features, did NOT provide for a President of the United States (no president, no possibility of a dictator arising). But, the most important feature of the Articles was that it provided that the several states should coin their own money – which was done to prevent the possibility of a central bank from arising and controlling our nation via debt to foreign interests, which is exactly what has happened since the Constitution was ratified. There were several attempts by agents of the Rothschilds to establish a central bank in America, but the one that finally succeeded was the Federal Reserve, which was created illegally in 1913. All the economic turmoil we are seeing today is the result of that event.

      To his credit, Lincoln tried to resist one of the earlier attempts at a central bank, by having the U.S. Treasury issue "Greenbacks," which were free of debt and competed with the currency of the central bank. This is believed to be the real reason for Lincoln's assassination. Incidentally, John F. Kennedy made a similar attempt, to circumvent the Federal Reserve in 1963, by issuing gold and silver backed currency and writing an executive order that would have abolished the Fed. He was assassinated six weeks later and Johnson had his new currency removed from circulation and squelched the executive order to terminate the Fed. Anyone doubting any of this need only Google it to find out the truth. We are living in a nation that has been hijacked by an international banking cartel 95 years ago. It controls our government, our media, our entire culture and society, via an interlocking web of pyramidal organizations in which only those ate the top of each organization know the full agenda. Google these terms: "New World Order," "CFR," "Trilateral Commission," "Operartion Northwoods," and visit the links on my website, The Free Zone with Gary Rea. Also, visit Infowars Dot Com. Everything you think you know is WRONG.

      • Rachel on

        Oh GET OVER YOURSELF, Gary. And if you hate America so much LEAVE. I for one would be happier.

        • bill on

          Get over yourself Rachel. Gary doesn’t hate America. I dont know him at all but I can tell by his views that he’s had enough of the deliberate injustices just as I have. The gutting of the constitution, the hi-jacking of our currency by the Federal Reserve which has economically enslaved us all, endless wars,and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 which allows the federal government to not only indefinitely detain, but even assassinate ANY American they see fit just to name a few. You should research Homeland Security’s reports in which they declare believers in free speech, proponents of the right to bear arms, citizens who believe we should go back to the gold standard, and even Ron Paul supporters as terrorists. Before you start attacking people based on your own foolish pride, maybe you should educate yourself on what is happening and become a part of the solution instead of being a part of the problem. “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” -George Orwell

      • bill on

        Great info Gary! However you are wrong about E.O. #11110. LBJ never repealed it. He merely ceased printing of the U.S. notes JFK authorized. Look it up, it’s still on the books. If only we had an honest president to begin printing the tax-free, congressionally issued currency once again. And as far as Alex Jones goes, I’m not sure if he can be trusted. Real Patriot truth speakers like William Cooper, John Todd, and Fritz Springmeier end up dead, publicly demonized, wrongfully imprisoned, or all of the above while Alex makes millions for GCN which is a subsidiary of ABC.

    27. XUSNLT on

      Here's one for you: Abe is THE favorite president. No other president is invoked more often! Clearly, Gary has done some actual reading, though, and realizes that our icon was still human. One thing is certain, though: Lincoln preserved the nation. He could have never succeeded in today's political environment and might have a unique perception of the "Frost/Nixon" line, "I'm saying that if the President does it, it isn't illegal." Lincoln: The Republican adopted by Obama to produce a Democrat presidency…

      • Josepi on

        You mean Lincoln the Repucle adopted by President Obama to produce a Democratic Presidency! Only Republicants would say something stupid like Democrat President.
        We do have to make room for stupids comments too. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any Republicants running for office in the Government they hate so much!

        Josepi

    28. Gary on

      Oh, you have no idea, Terry! Abe and his crazy wife Mary were also into the occult and held seances in the White House – to contact their two dead little boys.

    30. Gary on

      Lincoln also declared martial law, suspended habeus corpus and jailed dissenters without due process. Yeah, we really need more Lincolns around.

      • Bill Q on

        Fact 11: His own adult son, Robert, never saw combat during the war, despite the fact that he utilized conscription to force other familes to send their sons, husbands, and fathers into the Union army. He also lured young European immigrants into America with promises of guaranteed employment, not explaining that the job title waiting for them was Union army private.

        Fact 12: His administration endorsed a plan to deport the Southern black population overseas, including an experimental colony on an island off the coast of Haiti, which failed miserably. When the Ambassador representing Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua found out about a similar scheme for Central America, his government threatened to use force to repel the "invasion."

        Fact 13: Ironically, as the first U. S. President to fall from an assassin's bullet, he commanded an army that attempted to assassinate Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, and other Confederate officials in an 1864 incident known as the Dahlgren Raid. That debacle made John Wilkes Booth very angry.

        Fact 14: To placate the South during the secession crisis, he supported the establishment of a Constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed the preservation of slavery. Moreover, his Emancipation Proclamation explicitly preserved slavery in six slave-holding states and several other population centers under Union control. When he publicized this decree in September 1862, he gave the Confederates more than three months' time to return to the Union with slavery fully preserved. If the Confederates only cared about slavery, rather than political and economic independence from the North, they would have returned to the Union, satisfied that they had fought the Union army to a standstill.

    31. Elizabeth Able on

      I've got one! Not only was he very tall – 6'4" – but he was also thin for his height – about 180 lbs. I remember a grade school teacher using Lincoln's' height versus his own as an example of ratios. He weighed the same as Lincoln but was a lot shorter. My dad was the same height, but weighed more.

      • roderick on

        180 is a very healthy weight for a 6’4” man im 6’6” and weigh 210 only because i play football. my natural weight without weightlifting and what not would more than likely be about 180 maybe less

    32. CK on

      Cool list! #7 is just weird… and it's a shame he doesn't have any more heirs. We could do with more Lincolns around nowadays. =)