Abraham Lincoln – Timelines

1806 – Lincoln’s parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks marry in Kentucky.

1807 – Lincoln’s sister Sarah is born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

1809 – Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, 1809, Hardin County, Kentucky. “Lincoln Day.”

1812 – Lincoln’s brother Thomas dies in infancy.

1817 – Settled in Perry County, Indiana; father, mother, sister, and self.

1818 – October 5, Mrs. Thomas Lincoln (Nancy Hanks) died; buried Spencer County, Indiana. In 1901, a monument erected to her memory, the base being the former Abraham Lincoln vault. Schooling, a few months, 1819, ’20 and ’28, about six months’ school.

1819 – Thomas (father of A. L.) marries again: Mrs. Johnson (Sarah Bush Johnson) of Kentucky.

1826 – Lincoln’s sister Sarah marries Aaron Grigsby in Indiana.

1828 – Lincoln’s sister Sarah dies in childbirth at age 20.

1830 – March, Lincoln family move into Illinois, near Decatur.

1831 – Works for himself: boatbuilding and sailing, carpentering, hog-sticking, sawmilling, blacksmithing, river-pilot, logger, etc., in Menard County, Indiana.

1831 – Election clerk at New Salem. Captain and private (re-enlisted) in Black Hawk War. Store clerk and merchant, New Salem. Studies for the law.

1832 – First political speech. Henry Clay, Whig platform. Defeated through strong local vote. Deputy surveyor, at three dollars a day, Sangamon County.

1834 – Elected to State legislature as Whig. (Resides in Springfield till 1861. Law partner with John L. Stuart till 1840.)

1835 – Postmaster, New Salem; appointed by President Jackson.

1838 to 1840 – Reelected to State legislature.

1840 – Partner in law with S. T. Logan.

1842 – Married Miss Mary Todd, of Kentucky. Of the four sons, Edward died in infancy; William (“Willie”) at twelve at Washington; Thomas (“Tad”) at Springfield, aged twenty; Robert M. T., minister to Great Britain, presidential candidate, secretary of war to President Garfield. His only grandson, Abraham, died in London, March, 1890.

1844 – Proposed for Congress.

1845 – Law partner with W. H. Herndon, for life.

1846 – Elected to Congress, the single Whig Illinois member; voted antislavery; sought abolition in the D. C.; voted Wilmot Proviso. Declined reelection.

1848 – Electioneered for General Taylor.

1849 – Defeated by Shields for United States senator.

1851 – Lincoln’s father Thomas dies in Illinois at age of 73.

1852 – Electioneered for General Scott.

1854 – Won the State over to the Republicans, but by arrangement transferred his claim to the senatorship to Trumbull. October, debated with Douglas. Declined the governorship in favor of Bissell.

1856 – Organized the Republican Party and became its chief; nominated vice-president, but was not chosen by its first convention; worked for the Fremont-Dayton presidential ticket.

1858 – Lost in the legislature the senatorship to Douglas.

1859 – Placed for the presidential candidacy. Made Eastern tour “to get acquainted.”

1860 – May 9, nominated for President, “shutting out” Seward, Chase, Cameron, Dayton, Wade, Bates, and McLean.

1861 – March 4, inaugurated sixteenth President; succeeds Buchanan, and precedes his vice – Andrew Johnson, whom General Grant succeeded. Civil War began by firing on Fort Sumter, April 12.

1862 – September 22, emancipation announced.

1863 – January 1, emancipation proclaimed. November 19, Gettysburg Cemetery address. December 9, pardon to rebels proclaimed.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

1864 – Unanimous nomination as Republican presidential candidate for re-election, June 7. Reelected November 8.

1865 – March 4, inaugurated for the second term. April 14, assassinated in Ford’s Theater, Washington, by a mad actor, Wilkes Booth. April 19, body lay in state at Washington. April 26, Booth slain in resisting arrest, by Sergeant Boston Corbett, near Port Royal. April 21 to May 4, funeral-train through principal cities North, to Springfield, Illinois.

1869 – Lincoln’s stepmother Sarah dies in Illinois.

1871 – Temporarily deposited in catacomb.

1874 – In catacomb, in sarcophagus. The completed monument dedicated.

1876 – To frustrate repetition of body-snatchers’ attempt, reinterred deeper.

1882 – Lincoln’s widow Mary dies in Sprngfield, Illinois at age 63.