Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Todd Lincoln’s wife, Mary Eunice Harlan, was the daughter of the US Senator James Harlan and his wife Ann Eliza Peck. After Lincoln had returned from his military service, he met Mary sometime in 1864 and began courting her soon after. Both of his parents approved of the match and helped him with the courtship. They would have married early but his father’s death postponed it until 1868.

Robert and Mary Harlan had three children together: Mary "Mamie" Lincoln (October 15, 1869 – November 21, 1938), Abraham Lincoln II (nicknamed "Jack") (August 14, 1873 – March 5, 1890), and Jessie Harlan Lincoln (November 6, 1875 – January 4, 1948).

In an age when air conditioners did not exist, the Lincoln family spent their summers in the lovely and cool climate of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. In the 1880s, the family started to stay at the Harlan home, which was later renamed as The Harlan-Lincoln home. Mrs Lincoln donated the house to Iowa Wesleyan College in 1907, and since then, it has been turned into a museum.

Born on August 1, 1843, in Springfield, Illinois, Robert Lincoln was the first of the four sons of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. His three younger brothers were Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln.

As he was growing up, his father was becoming an important figure in the national politics. In 1859, he took the Harvard University entrance examination but did not get passing marks in 15 out of the 16 subjects. He then started attending Phillips Exeter Academy which helped him prepare for college. He eventually did get into Harvard and graduated in 1864.

Between September 1864 to January 1865, Lincoln attended Harvard Law School but quit to join the Union Army. However, his mother was vehemently against the notion of her son fighting in the war and stopped him from enlisting to fight in the Civil War until shortly before the war’s end, much to the embarrassment of the president.

After his father’s death, Lincoln relocated to Chicago with his mother and younger brother Tad Lincoln. He attended Old University of Chicago law school, his father’s alma mater, and graduated from there with a degree in law. On February 22, 1867, he received his license as an attorney in Chicago. Four days later, he was granted admission to the bar. The certification to practice law arrived shortly after.

On February 11, 1865, Robert Todd Lincoln received his commission as an assistant adjutant with the rank of captain and was active during the last few weeks of the war. He served under General Ulysses S. Grant as a member of his immediate stuff.

He did not see any combat but witnessed the surrender of Confederate States Army General-in-Chief, Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. On June 12, 1865, he submitted his resignation from the army, subsequently returning to civilian life.

Robert’s relationship with his father was distant at best. It was partly due to the fact that when Robert was growing up, Abraham Lincoln spent much of his time in the judicial circuit. However, the relationship was of mutual respect. Abraham Lincoln was proud of his oldest son and found him to be bright and quite competitive.

On April 14, 1865, the night of his father’s assassination, Robert too was invited to attend the production of Tom Taylor’s three-act play ‘Our American Cousin’ at Ford’s Theatre, but he declined. President Lincoln was shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at 10:13 pm and he died at 7:22 am on 15 April. When Robert saw his father on his deathbed, he broke down and cried.

Besides the night of his father’s assassination, Lincoln coincidentally attended or was supposed to attend two events where a US president was shot at. During the tenure of President James A. Garfield, he was serving as the Secretary of War and was present, at the president’s invitation, at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C, where Garfield was shot at by American writer and lawyer Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881.

He was also present at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, at the invitation of President William McKinley. An anarchist named Leon Czolgosz shot the president at point-blank range at 4:07 P.M. However, Lincoln was not with the president when the incident occurred.

He was well aware of these bizarre and morbid coincidences. According to various sources, when he was asked to attend a presidential event in his later years, he declined with the following statement, “No, I'm not going, and they'd better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.”