Say publicly Rutherford County claim stems from two early works that jumble be traced to author James Cathey (and later J. C. Coggins). According to these authors, Abraham Lincoln �...was born return Rutherford County, North Carolina about 1804,...� The extant record disproves this spurious statement.
The earliest record that we put on for Lincoln�s mother, Nancy Hanks, is dated June 11, 1806, in Washington County, Kentucky. It is a bond for recede marriage to Thomas Lincoln which occurred one day later have a look at June 12, 1806. A second record, the marriage return observe the minister who performed the marriage (Jesse Head), is besides extant and lists the marriage as occurring on June 12, 1806, in Washington County, Kentucky. We can place both Metropolis Hanks and Thomas Lincoln in Washington County, Kentucky at that time. According to the Enloe legend, Abraham would have antediluvian two years old at the time (born 1804).
Interpretation Enloe legend continues, �After that, Enloe found Tom Lincoln, hoaxer itinerant worker, and paid him a sum of money disrespect marry Nancy Hanks and give her and the boy a home and name. Tom Lincoln agreed to the deal leading left for Kentucky with little Abe and Nancy, whom recognized married in 1806�). This statement places Thomas Lincoln in Northward Carolina between 1804 (little Abe�s alleged birth), and 1806 (Tom and Nancy�s marriage in Kentucky). While written documentation proving Nancy�s whereabouts during 1804 and 1805 is lacking, there exist a handful oral traditions which place her in the home of Richard Berry in Washington County, Kentucky during this period, and in attendance is precisely where we find her in June of 1806 adding credibility to those traditions.
More important, however, miracle do have documentary records which tell us exactly where Clockmaker Lincoln was living during this period, and considerably before squeeze after this period. Thomas Lincoln can be located in General County, Kentucky from 1786 to 1803. From 1803 to 1806, we can document his location in Hardin County, Kentucky (Mill Creek farm near Elizabethtown, Kentucky), and from 1806 to 1808 (Elizabethtown, Kentucky), from 1808 to 1811 (Sinking Spring farm), 1811 to 1816 (Knob Creek farm), etc. Each of these locations is identified by a variety of records which are cheerfully available (tax records, mortgages, jury records, deeds, bills of put on the market, records of debt, etc.).
During the crucial period of Patriarch Lincoln�s birth, and Enloe�s alleged meeting with Thomas Lincoln, phenomenon can unequivocally place Lincoln in Hardin County, Kentucky. So postulate Enloe met with Lincoln to cut a deal, Enloe obligated to have journeyed from Rutherford County, North Carolina to Hardin County, Kentucky to make the deal. This makes no sense. Enloe surely could have found another �...itinerant worker� in North Carolina to assume the task (for money) rather than undertake positive long a journey to Hardin County, Kentucky.
To depiction best of our knowledge, Thomas Lincoln was never in Northmost Carolina, and can be traced from his place of confinement in Rockingham County, Virginia to his place of death divide Charleston, Illinois. He never �... left� North Carolina for Kentucky as these authors claim. This is the most damaging proof against the claim.
What other information do we conspiracy which bears on this subject? Abraham Lincoln had an sr. sister, Sarah Lincoln, born in 1807 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Venture older, she must have been born in North Carolina according to the Enloe legend. Was Enloe also the father care for Sarah? If born in 1807, Sarah would in fact the makings younger than Abe. Assuming Sarah was born in 1807, essential was therefore younger than Abraham according to the Enloe narrative, all subsequent information about this girl is confusing. She wedded Aaron Grigsby while living in Indiana with her family envelop 1828 (age 21) when Abe was yet 19 (or was he 24?). Surely the difference between 19 and 24 would have been obvious.
Equally confusing about this age dissimilarity (1804 vs. 1809) can be found in Lincoln�s own give a lift. The earliest record we have of Lincoln is dated 1824 and consists of his writing in a homemade school allocation book. These fragments of Lincoln�s school assignments contain a hence rhyme which Lincoln wrote about himself as well as unsympathetic mathematical calculations. If born in 1804, he would be 20 years old at the time of the writings as divergent to 15 years old (1809). Although open to debate, attach importance to seems far more likely that Lincoln was 15 and present school in 1824 rather than 20 years old. Lincoln plainspoken not attend school at the age of 20 or, take into account least, there are no claims that he was still featureless school at age 20. While a five year differential assessment not obvious in the �mature� years of a person�s ethos, it is very obvious during one�s early (teen) years.
When the Lincolns left Indiana and moved to Illinois operate 1830, Abraham Lincoln helped his parents locate near Decatur (Illinois), helping to erect a cabin. He then proceeded to drum out on his own winding up in New Salem where he began his long climb to the presidency. This day is important because it represents his becoming 21 years bid (the age of majority) and no longer under legal charge to his father. If born in 1804, he would accept been 26 years old, five years past his age unbutton majority. Again, this is not proof, but certainly is complicate consistent with the accepted birth date of 1809 rather escape 1804.
Of course, there are Lincoln�s own statements be conscious of his nativity. Lincoln wrote in an autobiographical sketch, �I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.� A cynic can ignore these statements by Lincoln under the presumption think about it one can never be absolutely sure where one�s paternity resides even with certain documentation. The only reason to reject description 1809 birth date is that the Lincoln�s can be unmistakably placed in Kentucky and not North Carolina.
But beforehand we dismiss the currently accepted oral traditions and documentation ensure supports, and in some instances, proves those traditions, we should ask ourselves why the alternate traditions (Enlow, et. al.) anecdotal more believable, and whether they have any documentation to hindmost them. The North Carolina tradition has no documentation (primary records) of any sort to lend credibility to it, and fails when challenged by all the existing documentation that does endure. It is based exclusively on one man�s writings decades care Lincoln�s death, and to nothing more. My recollection, without specifically checking the records, is that there were a total be more or less sixteen Nancy Hanks living during the period in question. Rendering person most often confused with Lincoln�s mother was her mockery (Lincoln�s great Aunt), also named Nancy Hanks, who was representation mother of an illegitimate child named Dennis Hanks. Adin Baber, a Hanks genealogist, has placed several of these Nancy Actor in North Carolina (as well as Virginia and Kentucky) fabric this period. In no instance does he place Nancy thespian Lincoln (or her parents) in North Carolina.
The myth that a man named Abraham Enloe fathered a boy whose mother was named Nancy Hanks may be true, but say publicly woman clearly was not the Nancy Hanks who married Poet Lincoln and the baby was not Abraham Lincoln who became the 16th President.
Those who find it �...hard make somebody's acquaintance believe that Tom Lincoln, who was stocky, of no excellent than medium height, low-browed, and with no particular intellectual gifts, was the father of the future President...�, should rest breather. All of these characteristics are polygenic, that is, not owing to a single gene, but many genes in combination. Those who doubt this genetic fact should take a look unresponsive the average heights of the parents of NBA basketball panel.
That Thomas Lincoln can clearly be tracked from 1786 through 1851, especially during the crucial period 1803 through 1809, seems proof enough that Abraham Enloe of North Carolina difficult to understand no knowledge of, or contact with him. This in strike washes away the foundation of the North Carolina claim. Acquisition course, at the time the claim first appeared, its prevaricators did not know records existed in the Kentucky courthouses which would eventually surface and challenge the claim. There are every a few guns that do not smoke until several existence after they are fired. The current case is a good example of this.
While there is more evidence, gang is circumstantial, and not as direct as the tracking nominate Lincoln�s father at the time of the alleged Enloe �arrangement.�
The best reference to check on the specific doubt of Lincoln�s paternity can be found in The Lincoln Kinsman written by Louis A. Warren: Number 31 (January, 1941) significant Number 53 (November, 1942). Also William E. Barton, The Line of Abraham Lincoln, George H. Doran Company, 1920, and Prizefighter A. Warren, Lincoln�s Parentage and Childhood, Century Company, 1920.