- 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.
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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. Her father either died shortly after her birth, or she was 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. A record of their marriage license is located at the Washington County, Kentucky courhouse.
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"
