Could 'Honest Abe' be a Tar Heel?

Raleigh News and Observer ^ | Apr 20, 2008 | Matt Ehlers

[BitBucket]

Lincoln’s father was mildly retarded. Lincoln himself speculated that he was really the son of some southern gentleman. Saying such things was considered very bad form at the time since that effectively makes his mother a whore. After Lincoln left home he never had anything further to do with his family.

[wideawake]

Lincoln was most certainly a bastard..traitor to the US Constitution.

I certainly hope your parentage is more circumspect that your Constitutional scholarship - otherwise we have some serious projection going on here.

[Dazed_Catt]

“Lincoln was most certainly a bastard..traitor to the US Constitution.”

Yeah. There’s that little thing about slavery though, you know, treating an entire race of people as sub-human chattle?

Confederate States’ cessation speeches all referred to it too by the way. The “constitutional right” to own “property”.

[PurpleMan]

Great. I can see them coming out of the woodwork now to a former-Southerner who led the beat-down of the South.

Pretty soon we’ll find out he was directly related to Lee, Jackson, Davis, Beauregard, Longstreet, Stuart, Pickett, hood and Bragg.

[CommerceComet]

When I first saw the photograph of Wesley Enloe, I thought he really did resemble Lincoln. After seeing the side-by-side photographs, I'm much less convinced about the resemblance.

[Retired Greyhound]

seems to me much-ado about not much

[wideawake]

My guess is that it began as an urban legend, since western North Carolina in general and Rutherford County in particular were strongly Unionist during the Civil War.

Few areas of the Confederacy were more reluctant to secede than this almost slaveless region.

[Between the Lines]

My guess is that it began as an urban legend

More like a rural legend.

[fetal heart beats by 21st day]

Does anyone have a picture of Tom Lincoln?

[wideawake]

Lincoln’s father was mildly retarded.

Link, please.

Again, link please.

After Lincoln left home he never had anything further to do with his family.

Demonstrably false. In fact, before he left Springfield to be sworn in, he held up his travel by a couple of days to pay a visit to his stepmother, whom he called his "angel mother."

He visited her often and loved her dearly.

[doodad]

My Mom is from this area and I heard this story all my life. We even went to the cabin site when I was a kid.

[carton253]

But here's the thing about your "straight story." People will believe it... for a variety of reason. Sad, but true.

How are you Bubba Ho-Tep?

[kcm.org]

ping

[Old North State]

It is an Urban legend, I know for a fact he is a Duke supporter and hates the Tar Heels.

[Sax]

Lincoln on Class Envy:

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

-- March 21, 1864 - Reply to New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association".

[southernnorthcarolina]

Lots of my fellow North Carolinians are obsessed with claiming historic events or the birth of notables, with scant regard to the facts.

We claim Andrew Jackson as a native son, despite the preponderance of evidence that he was born in South Carolina (or, as we refer to that state, Baja Carolina).

The Lincoln thing surfaces periodically, but the evidence just isn't there.

We claim to be the birthplace of aviation based on Wilbur and Orville Wright's 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, so there is at least some truth there -- but the brothers were from Dayton, Ohio, and built their gliders and later their powered aircraft there.

But my favorite is the date proudly emblazoned on our state flag: May 20, 1775. What's that, you ask? Why, it's the date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, when that backwoods NC county (the locale of Charlotte, which later grew to significant size) declared themselves free and independent of England. Or not. There's not a scintilla of evidence that such an event took place.

Maybe we're just insecure. I dunno.

[vetvetdoug]

Boyt Henderson Cathey was a meticulous researcher and genealogist. IMO he would have stumbled upon this information while researching genealogy of the Cathey's of North Carolina. Any information showing the truth about Lincoln that could be construed as a negative are suppressed as is the information about MLK is now.

The book by B.H. Cathey, Cathey Family History and Genealogy published in 1993 is a valuable resource for anyone researching genealogy from individuals from Rowan County, NC (ie Elizabeth Dole).

[vetvetdoug]

Ok, all one has to do today is get a hair from any relative of either one and compare the DNA....that will put the story to rest....

[vetvetdoug]

Andrew Jackson learned law early in his life in Salisbury,N.C., and worked in the Henderson Law firm there.

[Kirkwood]

He doesn’t look a thing like Lincoln.