:''For the passenger train, see
Nancy Hanks (passenger train). For the
National Endowment for the Arts chairman, see
Nancy Hanks (NEA).''
'Nancy Hanks Lincoln' (
January 20,
1784 -
December 9,
1818) was the mother of
Abraham Lincoln and
Sarah Lincoln and wife of
Thomas Lincoln
Early life
''Nancy Hanks' (
January 26,
1784 -
December 9,
1818), mother of
President Abraham Lincoln and
Sarah Lincoln, was born in
Hampshire County,
Virginia (now
Mineral County,
West Virginia.) She was born in a log cabin on the Doll farm near Mike's Run at the base of Knobly Mountain near
Antioch, West Virginia. and
baptized in the Broad Run Baptist Church there which still retains the baptismal record. She is thought to be born out of wedlock. Little is known about her early life, but she was admired as an excellent seamstress. On
June 12,
1806, she married
Thomas Lincoln.
Marriage and Family
On
June 12,
1806, she married
Thomas Lincoln.
They had three children:
★
Sarah Lincoln, born
February 10,
1807
★
Abraham Lincoln, born
February 12,
1809
★ Thomas Lincoln, born in 1812 who died in infancy
Last Years
In
1816 Nancy Hanks and her family moved to Southern Indiana.
Death
On
October 5,
1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of "
milk sickness", a disease contracted from drinking the milk of a cow that has eaten the
poisonous white snakeroot. In the same year, several other people also died of "milk sickness" in the small town of Little Pigeon Creek in
Spencer County,
Indiana, where the Lincolns lived. Nancy Hanks Lincoln was only thirty-four years old when she died, and her son Abraham was only nine.
Nancy Hanks Lincoln's grave is located in
Nancy Hanks Lincoln Cemetery, on the grounds of Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in
Lincoln City, Indiana.
External links
★
Abraham Lincoln's Parents
★
The Maternal Lineage of Abraham Lincoln
★ Paul H. Verduin (1988),
"New Evidence Suggests Lincoln's Mother Born in Richmond County, Virginia, Giving Credibility to Planter-Grandfather Legend"
★ Sturgill, David Andrew,
"Who Was Nancy Hanks Lincoln?"
★ David S. Keiser (1970),
"How I Found Nancy Hanks' Father, Thomas Hanks, Without Trying"
★ Raymond Martin Bell and
Christopher Challender Child (1997),
"Mother of the President: Nancy Hanks Lincoln, 1784-1818"