{"id":43413,"date":"2015-09-28T00:10:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T07:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=43413"},"modified":"2015-09-28T01:48:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T08:48:07","slug":"the-story-of-honest-abes-family-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/the-story-of-honest-abes-family-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Honest Abe’s Family Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

\"lincoln\"<\/a>The Abraham Lincoln bloodline shed its last drop in 1985. Or did it?<\/em><\/p>\n

ROOTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

A year after Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith\u2019s death in 1985, a 17-year-old boy appeared in court to accept a million-dollar settlement from the Lincoln estate. Beckwith was the last of the 16th president\u2019s three great-grandchildren to pass away. None of the three were believed to have produced any kids. So who was this kid, and why did Lincoln\u2019s estate pay him?<\/p>\n

At the time of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s assassination, his family tree had a single living shoot: Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of the president\u2019s four children (all sons) to survive to adulthood. Robert Lincoln not only survived, he thrived, perhaps driven by a compulsion to prove he was more than just Abe Lincoln\u2019s son. \u201cNo one wanted me,\u201d he once said. \u201cThey wanted Abraham Lincoln\u2019s son.\u201d What they got was a Harvard-educated lawyer, banker, and corporate executive who also served as U.S. Secretary of War under President James Garfield. But he was not \u201ca man of the people\u201d like his father. In fact, he was said to have an almost \u201cmorbid repugnance\u201d for public life.<\/p>\n

BRANCHING OUT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Robert Todd Lincoln did become president\u2026of the Pullman Railroad Company. (Ironically, he\u2019d been dubbed \u201cthe Prince of Rails\u201d during the 1860 presidential campaign because of his presidential father\u2019s reputation as a \u201crail-splitter.\u201d)<\/p>\n

As a railroad tycoon, Robert made enough money to leave his father\u2019s humble beginnings behind. In 1902, he acquired a 412-acre property in Vermont, where he built a luxurious 24-room mansion. He called the estate \u201cHildene.\u201d Inside the mansion was an impressive library decorated in the style of a first-class Pullman coach and an entry hall that boasted a thousand-pipe electromagnetic organ. The organ was installed in 1908 at a cost of $11,000\u2014about $282,000 in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n

By 1909, the family had moved so far from Abe Lincoln\u2019s log-cabin roots that when President Theodore Roosevelt presided over a ceremony designating Lincoln\u2019s birthplace in Kentucky a \u201cnational historic site,\u201d not a single Lincoln descendent showed up. Historians say that the president\u2019s son was ashamed of the modest cabin in which his father grew up and had already started referring to Hildene as his \u201cancestral home.\u201d<\/p>\n

A TENDER OFFSHOOT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert and his wife, Mary Harlan Lincoln, had three children. Their only son\u2014Abraham Lincoln II, called \u201cJack\u201d\u2014was a brilliant young man and was ready to follow in his father\u2019s footsteps at Harvard. But first he was sent off to Versailles, France, to prepare for his entrance exams. There, the 16-year-old heir to one of the most revered names in American history discovered a carbuncle\u2014a boil-like abscess\u2014in his armpit. A French surgeon decided to lance it. Bad idea: Carbuncles are typically infected with staphylococcus, a particularly nasty strain of bacteria. Lancing the carbuncle sent the staph infection into Jack\u2019s lymph and vascular systems, and within a few months Honest Abe\u2019s namesake was dead.<\/p>\n

That left Jack\u2019s two younger sisters\u2014Jessie and Mary\u2014to carry on the line. Mary was nicknamed \u201cMamie\u201d to distinguish her from her mother (Mary Harlan) and her grandmother (Mary Todd). In 1891, the year after her brother\u2019s death, 22-year-old Mamie married Charles Bradford Isham, her father\u2019s secretary. The following year, her only child, Lincoln Isham, was born.<\/p>\n

ANOTHER BRANCH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mamie\u2019s sister, Jessie, got to keep her name, but she rebelled anyway. Against her parents\u2019 wishes, she married a college football star named Warren Wallace Beckwith in 1897. Beckwith claimed that his mother-in-law meddled in his marriage from the start. She\u2019d never stopped mourning Jack and could not bear to be parted from her daughter.<\/p>\n

Despite her mother\u2019s meddling, the couple managed to produce two children\u2014yet another Mary and another Robert. Mary Lincoln Beckwith was born in 1898 and called \u201cPeggy\u201d to set her apart from the other Marys. Her brother, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, was born in 1904. After the children were born, Mary Harlan Lincoln tried to control them, too. In 1905, she moved Jessie and both children to Europe, leaving Warren behind. Fed up, Warren Beckwith filed for a divorce, which was eventually granted. He never saw his children again.<\/p>\n

THE RECLUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Todd Lincoln died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Hildene on June 26, 1926. He\u2019d lived to the ripe age of 82. Instead of burying him in the Lincoln family plot back in Illinois, his wife, Mary Harlan, had him buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. \u201cHe made his own history, independently of his great father,\u201d Mary later wrote, \u201cand should have his own place in the sun.\u201d (She felt so strongly about keeping Robert separate from his father in people\u2019s memories that she underlined the word \u201cindependently\u201d five times.)<\/p>\n

When Mary Harlan Lincoln died in 1937, she left a trust worth more than $3 million (about $48 million today). Its beneficiaries were Peggy Beckwith, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, and Lincoln Isham. According to historian Harold Holzer, Robert Todd Lincoln\u2019s heirs lived \u201cin the luxurious grandeur of Gilded Age nobility.\u201d Apparently, none of Abe Lincoln\u2019s surviving grandchildren held a job after receiving their inheritance (or before the inheritance, for that matter).<\/p>\n

Peggy Beckwith moved to Hildene after her mother\u2019s death and stayed there for the rest of her life. She spent her days golfing, dabbling in oil painting, sculpting, and photography, and chain-smoking cigars. Because she tended to dress in knickers and men\u2019s shirts, rumors spread about Peggy\u2019s sexual orientation. No one knows for certain whether the rumors were true, but it is certain that growing the Lincoln family tree was not in her plans. She never married and never had children.<\/p>\n

Housekeeping wasn\u2019t in her plans, either. When she died in 1975, the mansion was in disrepair and was overrun with animals, including raccoons. \u201cShe\u2019s an odd one,\u201d said Lincoln scholar Ralph G. Newman at the time. \u201cI would call her an eccentric recluse. She doesn\u2019t give a damn about Abraham Lincoln, and she\u2019s rebuffed any attempts by historians to interview her or look for family papers on the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE PLAYER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peggy\u2019s cousin Lincoln Isham lived the high life in a \u201cswank\u201d apartment in Manhattan\u2019s Carlyle Hotel. He spent his time playing guitar and mandolin and writing songs. Despite catchy titles such as \u201cBaghdad Billy,\u201d \u201cCongo Las Vegas,\u201d and \u201cMadam Bombay,\u201d no one came forward to publish Linc Isham\u2019s music. During the Roaring Twenties, he bought a tavern near Hildene, played a lot of golf, and became a fixture at a speakeasy called the Stork Club on New York\u2019s 51st Street, known at the time as the \u201cwettest\u201d street in the country. He boozed it up with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, J. Edgar Hoover, and Al Jolson.<\/p>\n

Isham was married to a New York society girl named Leahalma Correa, but the marriage produced no children. As for his devotion to the Lincoln legacy, he once phoned a judge about paying a visit to discuss an estate matter. \u201cBetter come Wednesday,\u201d the judge told him. \u201cWe\u2019re closed for the holiday on Thursday.\u201d \u201cWhat holiday?\u201d Isham asked. The judge paused, and then responded: \u201cLincoln\u2019s birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE BRAT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The third heir, Peggy\u2019s brother, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, lived the life of the idle rich on another inherited property in Virginia. He described himself as \u201ca gentleman farmer of independent means.\u201d He was a short, bald stutterer, but viewed himself as a playboy, boasting that he loved sailing, fast cars, and beautiful women. \u201cI\u2019m a spoiled brat,\u201d he once told a reporter.<\/p>\n

Beckwith\u2019s personal lawyer, Elizabeth Young, said that in the 50 years she knew him, he never discussed his ancestry and seemed to have little interest in it. \u201cHe lived off his wealth,\u201d Young said after Beckwith\u2019s death. \u201cAs far as I know, all the money came from the Lincoln family.\u201d<\/p>\n

IMMACULATE DECEPTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beckwith married three times. He married the second of the three at age 63\u2014a 27-year-old German native named Annemarie Hoffman. Six months later, she became pregnant. According to one of his lawyers, Beckwith seemed quite impressed with himself for being able to father a child at such an advanced age. The feat was even more impressive given the fact that Beckwith had undergone a vasectomy six years earlier. Can vasectomies fail? Sure. But tests confirmed that Beckwith was \u201ccompletely sterile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckwith\u2019s attorney prepared an agreement whereby Annemarie would list the child\u2019s father as \u201cJohn Doe\u201d or \u201cFather Unknown\u201d on the birth certificate and would make no claims against the Lincoln\/Beckwith estate. In exchange, Beckwith agreed to pay her hospitalization costs plus $7,500. But Annemarie had the last word: She listed Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith as the father anyway, and named her son Timothy Lincoln Beckwith.<\/p>\n

THE LINCOLN LAWYERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the terms of the Mary Harlan Lincoln Testamentary Trust, if the three surviving grandchildren of Mary Harlan Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln had no heirs, the trust\u2019s holdings would eventually be divided by three nonprofit institutions chosen by Mary Harlan Lincoln\u2014the American Red Cross, Iowa Wesleyan College, and the First Church of Christ, Scientist. But if they did? Those institutions could have a fight on their hands.<\/p>\n

After Timothy\u2019s birth in 1968, attorneys at the Washington law firm Frost & Towers, which had handled the Lincoln family\u2019s affairs since the 1920s, took immediate steps to protect the trust. The firm filed a lawsuit seeking a blood test to establish that Timothy Lincoln Beckwith was not Beckwith\u2019s son. But before the tests could be done, Annemarie fled with the baby to West Germany.<\/p>\n

Beckwith filed for divorce on grounds of adultery; Annemarie countersued on similar grounds. It took seven years before the proceedings reached court. The doctor who had done Beckwith\u2019s vasectomy testified that recent tests showed Beckwith was \u201csterilized in 1962 and has been sterile since that time.\u201d The judge ordered blood tests for Annemarie and her seven-year-old son. Again, no tests were performed.<\/p>\n

The judge granted Beckwith\u2019s divorce petition, noting in his ruling that Timothy Lincoln Beckwith had been fathered during an \u201cadulterous relationship.\u201d Annemarie\u2019s law team appealed, but lost. The appeals court did rule, however, that the divorce decree didn\u2019t prohibit the boy from making a claim to the inheritance in a separate action.<\/p>\n

THE BENEFICIARY<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve, 1985, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the \u201cgnarled, scraggly bearded, 81-year-old great-grandson of America\u2019s most revered president,\u201d died in a nursing home in Virginia. The Red Cross, Iowa Wesleyan, and the Christian Science Church were poised to inherit the proceeds of the Lincoln trust, which was worth about $6 million (about $13 million today). Enter: Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, age 17, living in the United States with his mother, Annemarie, who had remarried.<\/p>\n

The three charities were so sure Timothy would come after the trust that they opened negotiations with the 17-year-old. After several months of haggling, Timothy\u2019s lawyers and the three nonprofit institutions reached an agreement. In return for about $1 million, Timothy renounced all future claims to the trust. The settlement, according to Attorney John Beck, was in the best interests of the trust, particularly since Beckwith and Annemarie had been married at the time she became pregnant and no blood tests had ever been performed. So the answer to the question, \u201cDid Abraham Lincoln\u2019s family tree wither and die?\u201d is a resounding \u201cWho knows?\u201d What we do know: Timothy Lincoln Beckwith grew up to become a prosecutor with the Florida state attorney\u2019s office. Seems lawyering is in his blood after all.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>This article is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em>. Open up to any page and you may find an interesting origin (like the origin of the snowglobe) or a piece of obscure history (like the true story of the man who tried to repeal the law of gravity). You\u2019ll also find weird news, urban legends, brain teasers, classic riddles, bizarre headlines, and of course, the incredible factoids<\/a> at the bottom of each page.<\/p>\n

Since 1987, the Bathroom Readers\u2019 Institute<\/a> has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and everywhere else for that matter). With more than 15 million books in print, the Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader series is the longest-running, most popular series of its kind in the world.<\/p>\n

If you like Today I Found Out<\/a>, I guarantee you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books, so check them out<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader The Abraham Lincoln bloodline shed its last drop in 1985. Or did it? ROOTS A year after Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith\u2019s death in 1985, a 17-year-old boy appeared in court to accept a million-dollar settlement from the Lincoln estate. Beckwith was the last of the 16th president\u2019s three great-grandchildren to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":43417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-i-found-out","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43418,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43413\/revisions\/43418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}