June 2006
Goosenest Prairie Gazette
Volunteer Pioneers——Lincoln/Sargent Farm Foundation
Lincoln Log Cabin
State Historic Site
THOMAS AND NANCY LINCOLN CELEBRATE THEIR
200TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY THIS MONTH
whom she lived, Polly Hanks
(her aunt and mother of Dennis
Hanks), Nancy (her aunt and
mother of Squire Hall) and Levi
Hall, and Richard and Polly
Berry (Richard signed the mar-riage
bond as Nancy’s legal
guardian.)
Thomas’ side of the fam-ily
would have been represented
by Bathsheba Lincoln, Thomas’
mother; Mordechi and Mary
Lincoln and Josiah and Caty
Lincoln, Thomas’ brothers and
their wives; Mary and Ralph
Crume and Ann and William
Brumfield, Thomas’ sisters and
their husbands.
Another wedding guest was
Dr. Christopher C. Graham who is
quoted in ‘The Early Life of Lin-coln”
by Ida Tarbell. “I saw Nancy
Hanks Lincoln at her wed-ding,
a fresh looking girl, I
should say over twenty.
Tom was a respectable me-chanic
and could choose...I
was at the infare, too...We
had bear meat...venison;
wild turkey and ducks;
eggs, wild and tame...maple
sugar, swung on a string, to
bite off for coffee or whiskey;
syrup in big gourds; peach
and honey; a sheep that the
two families barbecued
whole over coals of wood
burned in a pit, and covered with
green boughs to keep the juices in.”
So, we wish Thomas and
Nancy a happy anniversary, and we
look forward to the upcoming bicen-tennial
of Abraham Lincoln’s birth!
What kind of gift would
you give to a couple celebrating
their 200th wedding anniversary
this month? I’m sure many who
attended the recent reenactment
of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln’s
wedding in Kentucky may have
been wondering the same thing.
In honor of the occasion, I
thought it would be of interest to
look at the surviving accounts of
Thomas and Nancy’s wedding
day, June 12th, 1806.
Louis A. Warren in his
book ‘Romance of Thomas and
Nancy” lists likely attendants at
the wedding as being: The Rever-end
Jesse Head who officiated for
the bride and groom, the brides
mother and step-father Lucy and
Henry Sparrow, Elizabeth (her
aunt) and Thomas Sparrow with
Seasonal Interpreter Lisa McDaniel
working on the noon day meal on the
Lincoln Farm.
Some of the participants from the 2006 Effingham
County Sheriff's Ride at Lincoln Log Cabin on
June 3, 2006
435 motorcyclists arrived at Lincoln Log
Cabin on the afternoon of June 3rd. The site
was one of many stops on the 2006 Effing-ham
County Sheriff's Ride which also in-cluded
a stop at Greenup's covered bridge on
the old national road.
