Editing Abraham Lincoln (section)

==Family and childhood==
===Early life===
{{Main|Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln}}
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin on [[Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park|Sinking Spring Farm]] near [[Hodgenville, Kentucky]].{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=20–22}}<ref name=anb/> The second child of [[Thomas Lincoln]] and [[Nancy Lincoln|Nancy Hanks Lincoln]], he was a descendant of [[Samuel Lincoln]], an Englishman who migrated from England to [[Massachusetts]] in 1638,{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 pp. 1&ndash;4}} and of the [[Harrison family of Virginia]].{{efn|Lincoln's grandmother, though uncertain, is believed to have been Bathsheba Herring, the daughter of Alexander and Abigail Herring (née Harrison).<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=40189910|last=Coleman|first=Charles|title=Lincoln's Lincoln grandmother|journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society|date=1959 |volume=52|issue=1|pages=59&ndash;90}}</ref>}} His paternal grandfather and namesake, [[Abraham Lincoln (captain)|Captain Abraham Lincoln]], moved the family from Virginia to [[Kentucky]]. The captain was killed in a [[Northwest Indian War|Native American raid]] in 1786.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 pp. 1&ndash;4}} Thomas, Abraham's father, then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and [[Tennessee]] before the family settled in [[Hardin County, Kentucky]], in the early 1800s.{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=21&ndash;22}} Lincoln's mother Nancy is widely assumed to have been the daughter of Lucy Hanks.{{sfn|Bartelt|2008|p=79}} Thomas and Nancy married on June 12, 1806, and moved to [[Elizabethtown, Kentucky]].{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 p. 4}} They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who died as an infant.{{sfn|White|2009|p=18}}

Thomas Lincoln bought multiple farms in [[Kentucky]] but could not get clear [[Recording (real estate)|property titles]] to any, losing hundreds of acres in legal disputes.{{sfnm|Donald|1996|1pp=22–24|Burlingame|2008|2loc=v. 1 pp. 6&ndash;8}} In 1816, the family moved to [[Indiana]], where land titles were more reliable.{{sfn|Winkle|2011|pp=6&ndash;7}} They settled in an "unbroken forest" in [[Little Pigeon Creek Community]], Indiana.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 pp. 22&ndash;23}} In Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter.{{sfn|Bartelt|2008|pp=34, 156}} At various times he owned farms, livestock, and town lots, appraised estates, and served on county patrols. Thomas and Nancy were members of a [[Separate Baptists|Separate Baptist Church]], which "condemned profanity, intoxication, gossip, horse racing, and dancing." Most of its members opposed slavery.{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=24}} Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas in 1827 obtained [[clear title]] to {{convert|80|acre|ha}} in Little Pigeon Creek Community.{{sfn|Bartelt|2008|pp=24, 104}}

On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died from [[milk sickness]], leaving 11-year-old Sarah in charge of a household including her father, nine-year-old Abraham, and Nancy's 19-year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks.{{sfn|Bartelt|2008|pp=22–23, 77}} Ten years later, on January 20, 1828, Sarah died in childbirth, devastating Lincoln.{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=34, 116}} On December 2, 1819, Thomas married [[Sarah Bush Lincoln|Sarah Bush Johnston]], a widow with three children of her own.<ref name=anb/> Abraham became close to his stepmother and called her "Mama".{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=26–28}}

===Education and move to Illinois===
Lincoln was largely self-educated.{{sfn|Bartelt|2008|pp=10, 33}} His formal schooling was from [[itinerant teacher]]s. It included two short stints in Kentucky, where he learned to read, but probably not to write. After moving to Indiana at age seven, he attended school only sporadically, for a total of less than 12 months by age 15.{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp= 23, 29}} Nonetheless, he was an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning.{{sfn|Madison|2014|p=110}}

When Lincoln was a teen, his "father grew more and more to depend on him for the 'farming, grubbing, hoeing, making fences' necessary to keep the family afloat. He also regularly hired his son out to work ... and by law, he was entitled to everything the boy earned until he came of age".{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=32, quoting [[Albert J. Beveridge|Beveridge, Albert J.]] ''Abraham Lincoln: 1809–1858'' (1928), vol. 1, p. 67}} Lincoln was tall and strong, and became adept at using an ax.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 pp. 30, 41}} He and some friends took goods by [[flatboat]] to [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, where he first witnessed slave markets.<ref name=anb/>

In March 1830, fearing another milk sickness outbreak, several members of the extended Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to Illinois and settled in [[Macon County, Illinois|Macon County]].{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=36}} Abraham became increasingly distant from Thomas, in part due to his father's lack of interest in education;{{sfn|Bartelt|2008|p=71}} he would later refuse to attend his father's deathbed or funeral.<ref name=anb/>

===Marriage and children===
{{Further|Lincoln family|Health of Abraham Lincoln|Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln}}
[[File:Mary, Willie, and Tad Lincoln, c1860.jpg|thumb|alt=Black-and-white photo of a woman with two young boys|Mary Todd Lincoln with Willie and Tad]]

Some historians, such as [[Michael Burlingame]], identify Lincoln's first romantic interest as [[Ann Rutledge]], whom he met when he moved to New Salem.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 p. 98}} [[Lewis Gannett]], however, disputes that the evidence supports a romantic relationship between the two.<ref>{{Cite journal | last=Gannett | first=Lewis | date=Winter 2005 | title='Overwhelming evidence' of a Lincoln-Ann Rutledge romance?: reexamining Rutledge family reminiscences | url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0026.104/--overwhelming-evidence-of-a-lincoln-ann-rutledge-romance?rgn=main;view=fulltext | journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association| pages=28–41 | volume=26|issue=1| doi=10.5406/19457987.26.1.04 }}</ref> [[David Herbert Donald]] states that "How that friendship [between Lincoln and Rutledge] developed into a romance cannot be reconstructed from the record".{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=56–57}} Rutledge died on August 25, 1835. Lincoln took her death very hard, sinking into a serious depression and contemplating suicide.{{sfnm|Donald|1996|1pp=55–58|Burlingame|2008|2loc=v. 1 p. 100}}<ref name="Atlanticoct2005" />

In the early 1830s, he met [[Mary Owens (Abraham Lincoln fiancée)|Mary Owens]] from Kentucky.{{sfn|Thomas|2008|pp=56–57, 69–70}} Late in 1836, Lincoln agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived that November and he courted her, but they both had second thoughts. On August 16, 1837, he wrote Owens a letter saying he would not blame her if she ended the relationship, and she declined to marry him.{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=67&ndash;69}} In 1839, Lincoln met [[Mary Todd Lincoln|Mary Todd]] in [[Springfield, Illinois]], and the following year they became engaged.{{sfnm|Donald|1996|1pp=80–86|Burlingame|2008|2loc=v. 1 pp. 174&ndash;176}} She was the daughter of [[Robert Smith Todd]], a wealthy lawyer and businessman in [[Lexington, Kentucky]].{{sfn|Lamb|Swain|2008|p=3}} Lincoln initially broke off the engagement in early 1841, but the two were reconciled and married on November 4, 1842.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 pp. 182, 194–195}} In 1844, the couple bought [[Lincoln Home National Historic Site|a house]] in Springfield near his law office.{{sfn|Baker|1989|p=142}}

The marriage was turbulent; Mary was verbally abusive and at times physically violent towards her husband.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 p. 202}} They had four sons. The eldest, [[Robert Todd Lincoln]], was born in 1843, and was the only child to live to maturity. [[Edward Baker Lincoln]] (Eddie), born in 1846, died February 1, 1850, probably of [[tuberculosis]]. Lincoln's third son, [[William Wallace Lincoln|"Willie" Lincoln]], was born on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever at the [[White House]] on February 20, 1862. The youngest, [[Tad Lincoln|Thomas "Tad" Lincoln]], was born on April 4, 1853, and died of edema at age 18 on July 16, 1871.{{sfnm|White|2009|1pp=179–181, 476|Manning|2016|2pp=24, 34, 58, 73, 75, 139, 181}} Lincoln "was remarkably fond of children",{{sfn|White|2009|p=126}} and the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own.{{sfnm|Baker|1989|1p=120|Manning|2016|2pp=39, 42}} The deaths of Eddie and Willie had profound effects on both parents. Lincoln suffered from "[[history of depression|melancholy]]", a condition now thought to be [[major depressive disorder|clinical depression]].<ref name="Atlanticoct2005">{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200510/lincolns-clinical-depression |title=Lincoln's great depression |first=Joshua Wolf |last=Shenk |date=October 2005 |work=The Atlantic |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009044732/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/10/lincoln-apos-s-great-depression/4247/ |archivedate=October 9, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Early vocations and militia service ===
{{Further|Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hawk War}}
In 1831, Thomas moved the family to a [[Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site|new homestead]] in [[Coles County, Illinois]], after which Abraham struck out on his own.{{sfn|Manning|2016|p=12}} He made his home in [[Lincoln's New Salem|New Salem, Illinois]], for six years.{{sfn|Thomas|2008|pp=23–53}} During 1831 and 1832, Lincoln worked at a general store in New Salem.{{sfn|Winkle|2001|pp=86–95}} He gained a reputation for strength and courage after winning a [[Scholastic wrestling|wrestling]] match with the leader of ruffians known as the Clary's Grove boys.{{sfn|Donald|1996|pp=40&ndash;41}} In 1832, he declared his candidacy for the [[Illinois House of Representatives]], though he interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the [[Illinois Militia]] during the [[Black Hawk War]].{{sfn|Winkle|2001|pp=86–95}} He was elected the captain of his militia company but did not see combat.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 p. 67}} In his political campaigning, Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the [[Sangamon River]].{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 p. 72}} He drew crowds as a [[raconteur]], but lacked name recognition, powerful friends, and money, and lost the election.{{sfnm|Winkle|2001|1pp=114–116|Burlingame|2008|2loc=v. 1 pp. 71–75}}

When Lincoln returned home from the war, he planned to become a [[blacksmith]], but instead purchased a New Salem general store in partnership with William Berry. Because a license was required to sell customers beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for Lincoln and himself, and in 1833 the [[Lincoln-Berry General Store]] became a [[tavern]] as well.{{sfn|Meacham|2022|p=38}} But Berry was "an undisciplined, hard-drinking fellow", and Lincoln "was too soft-hearted to deny anyone credit";{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 p. 76}} although the economy was booming, the business struggled and went into debt, prompting Lincoln to sell his share.{{sfn|Meacham|2022|p=38}} 

Lincoln served as New Salem's [[postmaster]] and later as [[county surveyor]], but he continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer.{{sfn|Burlingame|2008|loc=v. 1 pp. 77–81, 87}} Rather than studying in the office of an established attorney, as was customary, Lincoln [[reading law|read law]] on his own, borrowing legal texts, including [[William Blackstone|Blackstone]]'s ''[[Commentaries on the Laws of England|Commentaries]]'' and [[Joseph Chitty|Chitty]]'s ''Pleadings'', from attorney [[John Todd Stuart]].{{sfn|Kent|2022|pp=121&ndash;122}} He later said of his legal education that he "studied with nobody."{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=55}}