Mary Todd Lincoln
By Ellie in Williamsville
Mary Todd Lincoln was the wife of President Abraham Lincoln in 1861-1865. Most people believe that she was a big party girl but she was more than that.
Mary's childhood was easy and hard in many ways. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky on Sunday December 13, 1818. She had a large family. There were 14, No mother and 3 slave women. One of the slaves put a sign that their house was a safe house. Only the children knew about the sign. When Mary was 9 she went to the Shelby Female Academy for 10 years. Later her father remarried. In 1832, Mary was 14 she went to Mentelles Boarding School for Girls. While Mary was still going to Mentelles, her father moved the family to a new house. While Mary was visiting home one summer in 1833, Cholera broke out. Her stepmother, not wanting her to catch it, quarantined her. Also, because of people dying of Cholera, the town ran out of coffins. Therefore, her family had the attic cleared out so all the trunks and boxes could be donated to use as coffins. When Mary went back to school, many of her school friends were gone.
When Mary was a young woman she finished her fourth and final year at Mentelles and followed two of sisters to Springfield, Illinois. When she came to her sister's house, she began to study law. In Mary's teen years in Springfield, she met Abraham Lincoln through her cousin, John Todd Stuart and he taught Abraham in law. Soon Mary and Abraham started dating. Mary Todd had a very interesting childhood
Mary and Abraham loved each other so much that they were married in a friend's parlor in 1842. Soon when her husband was finished studying law, he was elected senator, then he ran for President. On November 6 they were elected into office.
Mary had many accomplishments as First Lady. She hosted parties, raised funds for freed slaves, consoled her husband during the Civil War, visited hospitals, reviewed troops redecorated the White House. She was one of the busiest first ladies in history.
Mary faced many challenges in her lifetime. The challenges and obstacles Mary faced were that when Abraham was senator, she did not get along with her husband's law partner William Herndon. Also, she lost 3 of her sons, Tad, Willie and Eddy. Lastly, near the end of her life, Robert, her only surviving son had 3 men escort her to the insane asylum. Mary had lots of hard challenges in her life.
Mary got very few awards as First Lady. The awards Mary got as First Lady was when her party guests would give her gifts such as jewels, clothing even a carriage and horses! Later they would submit a bill for the "gifts". That is all the awards that she got as First LadyPage created on 1/6/2012 12:00:00 AM
Last edited 1/6/2012 12:00:00 AM