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Archiver > HANKS > 1998-06 > 0898747561


From: <>
Subject: Re: HANKS-D Digest V98 #88
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 00:06:01 EDT


In a message dated 98-06-24 21:20:03 EDT, you write:

> X-Message: #1
> Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 00:06:43 -0700
> From: Sierra <>
> To:
> Message-id: <>
> Subject: Lucey Hanks Reputation
> Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
>
> Taken from:
>
> Oakland Tribune Monday November 15, 1976 page 17
>
> Some New Materials On Lincoln's Family by: Lee Hill
>
> Yorkville, Ill. James Peterson has spent recent years
> researching the background of Abraham Lincoln's family
> and has turned up some suprising new material.
>
> Peterson is a retired Chicago lawyer who lives in
> Yorkvill.
>
> He takes a different approach to research than most
> writers because he is a lawyer. He will go to sources
> not even considered by conventional researchers, such
> as lawsuits, old statutes and courthouse records.
>
> He has found at least three significant facts of
> interest to Lincoln scholars.
>
> He established that stories about Lucey HANKS, being a
> woman of ill repute were just rumors.
>
> He found new evidence that Thomas Lincoln, Abe's father
> was not a shiftless, undeucated backwoodsman as some
> myths have it. Peterson has established the location of
> plats where the Lincolns and neighbors has land near
> Perryville, KY.
>
> In his first book, " In Re Lucey Hanks," published in
> 1973, Peterson established how rumors of Lucey HANKS'
> reputation grew from a case of mistaken idenity and
> from an illegal court proceeding.
>
> In his second book, " Abraham Lincoln: Some Kentucky
> Background." published this year, Peterson
> painstakingly worked on clues from old plats and vague
> descriptions.
>
> He plotted where the old Lincoln homestead was and who
> owned the surrounding parcels near Perryville. It was
> the first time the parcels were pinpointed.
>
> Peterson also has published a monograph. " Thomas
> Lincoln, A Gentleman."
>
> " A great many stories have been written about the
> Lincoln family, many of them describing the family
> background as primitive, crude and without learning."
> Peterson wrote.
>
> Almost universally, Thomas Lincoln has been pictured as
> a poor, uneducated, shiftless backwoodsman.
>
> "Abraham Lincoln has been tied to the impression of
> Thomas Lincoln, completely ignoring the facts that
> Abraham Lincoln Sr., the grandfather of the President,
> was a successful farmer and landowner in Virginia and
> came from a highly respected early Colonial Family."
>
> Peterson said Thomas Lincoln's misfortune lay partly in
> an old statute which gave the eldest son the entire
> estate when a father died without a will.
>
> Peterson learned "nine months stood between ( Thomas)
> and a fortune" because of the effective date on the
> inheritance law.
>
> In Peterson's research, he has found the work of a
> noted Lincoln scholar, William H. Herndon, to be
> questionable.
>
> Herndon, the former law partner of the President,
> sought to establish himself as pre-eminent authority on
> the life of Abraham Lincoln. Peterson believes
> Herndon's work on Lincoln's history was done to secure
> much needed money for many debts.
>
> One outstanding feature of Peterson's research is the
> inclusion of copies of original documents to support
> the next. This makes his books good sources for other
> researchers and helps to clear away doubts about items,
> Peterson said.
>
> Peterson has more than just a scholarly interest in the
> Lincoln family. His mother's ancestors lived near
> Perryville.
>
> Also, his great uncel, James B. Bradwell, was a
> prominent Chicago lawyer who served as counsel for
> Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln.
>
> end of article.
>

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