# The Two Mothers Who Molded Lincoln



## Meanderer (May 7, 2018)

The Two Mothers Who Molded Lincoln

"As Mother’s Day approaches, explore Abraham Lincoln's relationships with the mother and stepmother who both nurtured him as a child and set him on the pathway to the White House".

*"Nancy Hanks Lincoln*, who gave birth to the Great Emancipator on February 12, 1809, had instilled the virtues of honesty and compassion in her son and sowed the seeds of his intellectual curiosity. Although lacking a formal education of her own, Nancy Lincoln impressed the importance of learning and reading on her young boy as they moved about the Kentucky and Indiana frontier. When his mother suddenly died in 1818 after drinking milk tainted with poisonous white snakeroot, 9-year-old Abraham was devastated".







"As testimony to the nurturing of Nancy Lincoln, whom her son began to call his “angel mother,” *Sarah Lincoln* found her new stepson to be a model child. “Abe was the best boy I ever saw,” she said years later after his death. “I can say what scarcely one woman—a mother—can say in a thousand and it is this—Abe never gave me a cross word or look and never refused in fact, or even in appearance, to do anything I requested.” Sarah also vouched for Honest Abe’s long-standing reputation for integrity. “He never told me a lie in his life—never evaded, never equivocated, never dodged.”


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## Ken N Tx (May 7, 2018)

Nancy.
.


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## Meanderer (May 10, 2018)

"Nancy Hanks" by Rosemary Benet

If Nancy Hanks
Came back as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of what she loved most,
She'd ask first
"Where's my son?
What's happened to Abe?
What's he done?"

"Poor little Abe,
Left all alone
Except for Tom,
Who's a rolling stone;
He was only nine
The year I died.
I remember still
How hard he cried."

"Scraping along
In a little shack,
With hardly a shirt
To cover his back,
And a prairie wind
To blow him down,
Or pinching times
If he went to town."

"You wouldn't know
About my son?
Did he grow tall?
Did he have fun?
Did he learn to read?
Did he get to town?
Do you know his name?
Did he get on?"


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## Meanderer (May 8, 2020)




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## Meanderer (May 8, 2020)




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## Meanderer (May 8, 2020)

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my loving, angel Mother.  God bless her."  
- A. Lincoln


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## Meanderer (May 9, 2020)

Read about the plant that killed Lincoln's mother...









White Snakeroot plant

*The Plant that Killed Abraham Lincoln's Mother*
"The White Snakeroot is a shade-loving plant found throughout Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Western Ohio. It grows in the rich, moist soil of woods, thickets, and woodland borders. In late summer, when the plant is in full bloom, it reaches a height of 18 to 48 inches and is laden with fluffy, snow-white flowers".

"Milk Sickness," by definition, is poisoning by milk from cows that have eaten the White Snakeroot plant. "Milk Sickness" usually develops when a person drinks milk from an affected cow. However, it can also occur if the meat of an affected cow is eaten.
The illness has been called puking fever, sick stomach, slows, and the trembles. Symptoms include loss of appetite, listlessness, weakness, vague pains, muscle stiffness, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, severe constipation, bad breath, and finally, coma. Often the disease is fatal.

_ In the fall of 1818, nearly two years after Thomas Lincoln had moved his family to the Little Pigeon Creek settlement in Southern Indiana, Abraham's mother became desperately ill after caring for some neighbors who were sick. _

Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of "Milk Sickness" about two weeks later on October 5, 1818.  "Milk Sickness" was most common in dry years when cattle wandered from poor pasturelands to wooded areas in search of food. As the pioneers cleared the woodlands, cattle were provided adequate pasture. As a result, incidence of the illness diminished."

"The chances of contracting "Milk Sickness" today have been greatly reduced due to improved farming techniques and by techniques used in the modern dairy industry.  Nearly 200 articles pertaining to "Milk Sickness", most of them found in medical journals, can be found in the Library of the Surgeon General in Washington, D.C. Little was known about the mysterious illness until the 20the century."


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