1818
On December 13 Mary Ann Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky. She was often
called Molly. Her
parents, Eliza and Robert Smith Todd, were members of a socially and economically
prominent
Kentucky family. Robert Smith Todd had 16 children. There were 7 with his
first wife, Eliza Parker,
and 9 with his second wife, Elizabeth Humphreys.
1825
Mary's mother, Eliza, passed away on July 5.
1826
On November 1 Robert Todd married Betsy Humphreys. Mary Todd entered Shelby
Female
Academy (John Ward's) located in Lexington. During 9 of the next 10 years,
Mary attended school,
first at Shelby and later at Madame Mentelle's. There she lived at school
during the week and at
home on weekends. The curriculum stressed the French language and the art
of dancing. Mary
excelled in school and was considered one of the very best students in
the class.
1832
On February 29 Mary's older sister Elizabeth married Ninian Wirt Edwards,
the son of the man who
had been Illinois' territorial governor, United States Senator, and later
Governor of Illinois. At the
time Ninian was a student at Transylvania University in Lexington. Mary
entered Madame
Mentelle's boarding school for girls.
1833
Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards moved to Springfield, Illinois.
1836
Mary's sister, Frances, moved to Springfield.
1837
Mary spent 3 months in the summer visiting her sister Elizabeth in Springfield.
Most likely she did
not meet Abraham Lincoln during this visit. In the fall Mary returned to
Ward's, not as a student but
as an apprentice teacher helping Sarah Ward with the younger children.
1839
Mary went to Springfield, Illinois, to live with the Edwards' family. Mary
was clever and intelligent
and soon became prominent in society. She met a rising lawyer/politician
named Abraham Lincoln
(most likely at a ball).
1840
In the summer Mary traveled to Columbia, Missouri, visiting her uncle,
Judge David Todd. She
became a good friend of the judge's daughter, Ann. Mary became engaged
to Abraham Lincoln.
1841
Mary and Abraham broke up on January 1st. Mary started dating others including
a rising political
star named Stephen A. Douglas. Rumors that she became engaged to Douglas
were false, however.
1842
Mary and Abraham got back together again. On the rainy evening of November
4th Reverend
Charles Dresser married them in the Edwards' home. Abraham placed a gold
wedding ring on her
finger. The words "Love is Eternal" were engraved inside the ring. She
wore this wedding band until
the day she died. At first, the Lincolns boarded at the Globe Tavern in
Springfield for $4.00 a week.
1843
Robert Todd Lincoln, the couple's first child, was born August 1 at the
Globe Tavern. He was named
after Mary's father. After Robert's birth, the future President sometimes
called Mary "Mother." At
times he called her "Molly." On occasion, he endearingly referred to her
as his "child-wife." She
often called him "Mr. Lincoln." Sometimes it was just "Father." (Rarely
did she call him Abraham
and never just "Abe"). Late in the year the family moved and rented a 3
room frame cottage at 214
South Fourth Street in Springfield.
1844
The Lincolns purchased (from Dr. Charles Dresser) a home in Springfield
for $1500. It was located at
the corner of Eighth and Jackson Streets. This would prove to be the only
home the Lincolns ever
purchased.
1846
On March 10 the Lincolns' second child, Edward ("Eddie"), was born. The
Lincolns had their first
picture (a daguerreotype) taken by a photographer in Springfield.
1847
Mary and the children went to Washington, D.C. with Abraham who had been
elected to the House of
Representatives. In the fall, they stopped to visit the Todds in Lexington
on the way (a 3 week stay).
In Washington the Lincolns lived at Mrs. Ann G. Sprigg's boardinghouse
(nowadays the Library of
Congress occupies this site).
1848
During the summer Mary, Abraham, Robert, and Eddie traveled through New
York State, visited
Niagara Falls, and took a steamer from Buffalo across the Great Lakes.
Mary did not return with
Abraham to Washington for the 2nd session of the Thirtieth Congress. She
and the boys stayed in
Springfield.
1849
Abraham's term in the House ended, and his political career stalled. The
Lincolns once again were
together in Springfield. Mary's father, Robert Smith Todd, died July 16
apparently of cholera.
1850
In January, Mrs. Eliza Parker, Mary's grandmother, passed away. The Lincolns'
son, Eddie, died on
February 1. The Lincolns' third child, William Wallace ("Willie"), was
born December 21.
1851
Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's father, a man Mary never met, passed away.
1853
The Lincolns' last child, Thomas ("Tad"), was born April 3..
1857
In September the Lincolns traveled to New York. They toured New York City
and revisited Niagara
Falls. Other points in the East were also visited.
1860
Abraham was elected President in the fall election. On Election Day when
the outcome was certain
(which he heard at the Springfield telegraph office), Abraham immediately
decided to go to his home.
He said, "I guess there's a little lady at home who would like to hear
this news." As he neared the
Lincoln residence on 8th Street, he yelled out, "Mary, Mary, we are elected."
1861
The Lincoln family traveled to Washington, D.C. and took up residence in
the White House. Mary
refurbished the White House but overspent the money Congress had appropriated
for this task.
1862
Willie died in the White House on February 20. Mary was never quite the
same again. She ceased
social activities until the next year. She never again entered the room
in which Willie died. Mary's
half brother, Sam Todd, was killed fighting for the Confederacy in the
Battle of Shiloh. Oftentimes
with Tad at her side, Mary visited wounded soldiers in hospitals. She took
them fruit and flowers and
stopped at each bed for conversation. She helped in fund raising efforts
for the wounded. Helping
comfort the soldiers helped comfort her broken heart over Willie's death.
1863
On July 2, 1863, Mary was involved in a carriage accident in which she
was thrown to the ground and
hit her head hard on a rock. The wound became infected, and she required
nursing care for 3 weeks.
Mary's half brother, Aleck Todd, was killed fighting for the Confederates
at Baton Rouge. Another
Confederate half brother, David, was wounded at Vicksburg and died in 1867.
The husband of one of
Mary's younger half sisters (Emilie), General Benjamin Hardin Helm. was
killed at age 32 in the
Battle of Chickamauga. Mary assisted in raising funds for the Contraband
Relief Association.
1864
Mary began showing increasing signs of irrationality, especially in matters
concerning money. She
worried that if Abraham lost the Election of 1864, her wild spending would
be discovered. More time
was spent in seances with mediums and clairvoyants. At least 8 seances
were held in the White House
(during Mary's time as First Lady). Abraham was curious about the spiritualists
but not a believer.
1865
Mary and Abraham attended the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre
on April 14, and
Abraham was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Mary entered a period of extreme
grief.
1866
In January the Congressional Committee on House Appropriations began investigating
whether
Mary had taken White House property such as bedding, utensils, china, table
linen, etc. The
investigation was terminated when no wrongdoing was discovered. Mary was
depressed by a
statement made by William Herndon, Abraham's former law partner. Herndon
claimed Ann Rutledge
was the true love of Lincoln's life. Mary bought a home at 375 W. Washington
St. in Chicago for
$17,000. She moved out and rented it the next year.
1868
Mary and Tad traveled to Europe and spent much of the next 3 years in Frankfurt,
Germany. Tad
was a student at Dr. D. Hohagen's Institute near Frankfurt from October,
1868, to April of 1870. On
September 24, 1868, Robert Lincoln married Mary Eunice Harlan.
1870
On July 14 Congress passed a bill granting Mary a $3,000 annual lifetime
pension.
1871
The Lincolns returned to the United States. In Chicago, on July 15, Tad
died of complications
resulting from fluid in the lungs. Tad was at the Clifton House when he
passed away. Services were
held at his older brother's home on Wabash Avenue. Tad's remains were carried
by train to
Springfield for burial in the Lincoln Tomb.
1875
Mary's only surviving son, Robert, instigated a hearing in which Mary was
declared insane by a jury
of 12 men. The court admitted that "the disease was of unknown duration;
the cause is unknown."
(The night after the verdict Mary may have tried to commit suicide). Mary,
now 56, spent several
months in a private asylum in Batavia, Illinois, but she was released with
the help of Myra Bradwell.
1876
After her release from Bellevue, Mary had gone to Springfield to live with
her sister (Elizabeth
Edwards). On June 15th, a second court hearing reversed the insanity ruling
of the first one. Mary
was now a free woman again, free to make her own decisions. On June 19th
she wrote a letter to
Robert in which she unleashed all the resentment she had been harboring
against him for the past
many months. Worried that her friends would still regard her as a lunatic,
Mary once again traveled
to Europe and spent much of the next 4 years living in Pau, France.
1879
At the age of 60, in Pau, Mary took a fall from a stepladder. She injured
her spinal cord. In pain she
traveled to Nice, France.
1880
On October 16 Mary boarded a ship (l'Amerique) bound for New York City.
On board the ship she
was about to take yet another fall down a steep stairway, but she was saved
by actress Sarah
Bernhardt, another passenger on the ship. When Sarah told her she might
have been killed, Mary
replied, "Yes, but it was not God's will." Mary returned to Springfield
and began living in the home of
her older sister, Elizabeth. Physically, she had a cataract in her right
eye, her weight had declined to
approximately 100 pounds, and her arthritis was getting worse.
1881
A variety of physical ailments caused Mary's health to decline rapidly.
She was nearly blind. On a
Sunday in May Robert and his daughter visited her. Mary traveled to the
mineral baths at St.
Catherines and then to New York. A doctor diagnosed her with kidney problems,
eye problems, and
spinal sclerosis. Some researchers feel she had been diabetic for years.
1882
In January Congress raised Mary's annual pension from $3000 to $5000. Also,
it voted her a
donation of $15,000. Mary lived in a darkened room in Elizabeth's home
with the shades always
pulled. On July 15, the anniversary of Tad's death, she collapsed in her
bedroom. She may have had a
stroke. Other possibilities include apoplexy and complications from diabetes.
The next day, Sunday,
Mary passed away at 8:15 P.M. Thus, she died in the same home she was married
in. She was still
wearing the wedding ring with "Love is Eternal" engraved on the inside
when she passed away. Her
estate was worth $84,035 (mostly in bonds). She died without leaving a
will (like Abraham). Mary was
buried in a white silk dress that the Edwards family quickly ordered from
Chicago. She was 63 years
old at the time of her passing. The funeral was delayed until Robert, then
Secretary of War, could
reach Springfield from Washington. Services were held at the First Presbyterian
Church with
Reverend James A. Reed presiding. The pallbearers included the Governor
of Illinois. Mary was
buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield; all members of the family
except Robert are buried
there. (Robert, who died in 1926, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery).