Existing comment:
A Tragic Family Legacy:
"Pa is dead. I can hardly believe that I shall never see him again."
-- Tad Lincoln
After Abraham Lincoln's death, misfortune seemed to follow his family. Mary, fearing poverty, returned to Chicago with her sons. When Robert married in 1868, Mary and Tad left for a two-and-a-half-year trip to Europe. Tad became ill on the voyage home and never recovered. He died at age 18. He was buried in Springfield beside his father and two brothers.
Tad's death left Mary bereft. Over time her behavior became increasingly erratic. In 1875 Mary spent 12 weeks in an insane asylum after a jury agreed with Robert Lincoln that his mother required institutionalization. Mary spent the last years of her life in Springfield, IL, with her sister. She died in 1882.
In the years following his father's death, Robert became a lawyer; served as Secretary of War; and became president of the Pullman Railcar Company. Robert had the eerie distinction of being present at the assassinations of Presidents Garfield and William McKinley.
Mary Lincoln in mourning clothes, circa 1867.
Tad Lincoln, circa 1866. Note the mourning band around the hat. Mary said that nothing reminded her of Abraham so much as Tad's "dark, loving eyes."
Robert's last public appearance in May 1922 at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial.
End of the Line:
Robert Todd Lincoln married and had three children. His son Abraham II (Jack) died at the age of 16. His daughter Mary had one son, who died childless in 1971. Robert's other daughter Jessie wed Warren Beckwith. They raised two children: Mary "Peggy" Beckwith, who died in 1975, and Robert Rodd Lincoln Beckwith, who died 10 years later. Neither had children.
Today there are no direct living descendents of Abraham Lincoln. |