Lincoln's Hardin County Connections - Elizabethtown KY - Abraham Lincoln on Waymarking.com

The Hardin County Museum occupies the old post office about a block west of the Hardin County Courthouse in downtown Elizabethtown Kentucky. This is one of several artifacts and historical signs at the Hardin County Museum grounds that are available 24/7 without needing to go inside or pay an admission fee.

The interpretive sign reads as follows:

LINCOLN’S HARDIN COUNTY CONNECTIONS

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KENTUCKY LINCOLN HERITAGE TRAIL

1809 Abraham Lincoln born at sinking Spring Farm, and present day Larue County, Kentucky

1816 Lincoln family moved from Kentucky.

1841 Abraham Lincoln visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington, the Speed family plantation, in Louisville, Kentucky

1842 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, of Lexington Kentucky.

1847 the Lincoln family visited Lexington, Kentucky, en route to Abraham’s only term in Congress.

1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States in November

1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated at Ford’s theater in Washington, D. C.

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Shortly after Thomas and Nancy Lincolns wedding in Washington County on June 12, 1806, the couple set up housekeeping in Hardin County where Thomas owned a farm near Elizabethtown on Mill Creek. Nancy gave birth to Lincoln’s first child, a daughter named Sarah, on February 10, 1807 in Elizabethtown. The Lincolns later moved to Sinking Spring Farm in present-day Larue County in the fall of 1808. Here the couple’s second child in the future president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was born on February 12, 1809.

After the death of Nancy in October 1818, Thomas Lincoln returned to Elizabethtown in the fall of 1819. He arrived with one objective: to find a matriarch for the Lincoln family, then residing in Indiana. On December 2, 1819, Thomas Lincoln married Elizabethtown widow Sarah Bush Johnston, and shortly thereafter returned to present day Spencer County, Indiana. The marriage brought much needed stability to Lincoln household as well as three additional children, Elizabeth, John, and Matilda, from Sarah Bush Johnston’s previous marriage. Thomas and Sarah would never have any children together

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[Photo]

Sarah Bush Johnston, beloved stepmother of Abraham Lincoln
Photograph courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Museum of Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee

[photo]

Ben Hardin Helm
Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society

[photo]
Emilie Todd Helm
Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society

Several of Mary Todd Lincoln siblings supported the Confederacy. Perhaps the most controversial Confederate Todd was Mary’s sister, Emily Todd Helm, who had married Elizabethtown resident Ben Hardin Helm. Abraham Lincoln offered helm, his brother-in-law, a commission as union Army paymaster. Instead he joined the Confederate Army became a Brigadier General in Kentucky’s famous Orphan Brigade Lincoln reputedly wept when Ben Hardin Helm was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga. When the widowed Emilie tried to return to Kentucky through Union lines she refused to take a Union loyalty oath. When Lincoln learned of Emilie’s situation, he replied, “Bring her to me.” Blocked from traveling to Kentucky, she went to Washington, D. C., and Union loyalists and newspapers berated the Lincolns for having a “rebel in the White House.”

Location Type: Historic Marker Property Type: Public Date of Event: Sep/Oct 1863 Location Notes: The Hardin County Museum occupies the old post office about a block west of the Hardin County Courthouse in downtown Elizabethtown Kentucky. This is one of several artifacts and historical signs at the Hardin County Museum grounds that are available 24/7 without needing to go inside or pay an admission fee. URL for Additional Information: [Web Link]

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