Occupation Gentleman farmer Name Robert Lincoln | ||
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Died December 24, 1985, Saluda, Virginia, United States Spouse Margaret Fristoe (m. 1979) Parents Warren Wallace Beckwith, Jessie Harlan Lincoln Grandparents Robert Todd Lincoln, Mary Eunice Harlan Similar People Mary Lincoln Beckwith, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Wallace Beckwith, Robert Todd Lincoln, Timothy Lincoln Beckwith | ||
Children Timothy Lincoln Beckwith | ||
Robert todd lincoln beckwith
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith (July 19, 1904 – December 24, 1985) was an American gentleman farmer known as the great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln. In 1975, he became the last undisputed descendant of Lincoln when his sister, Mary Lincoln Beckwith, died without children. Though Timothy Lincoln Beckwith was born to second wife Annemarie Hoffman Beckwith in the midst of divorce proceedings in 1968, Robert Beckwith contended—and the court agreed—that his paternity was highly unlikely, as he had undergone a vasectomy in the early 1960s.
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Biography
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was born in Riverside, Illinois, to Jessie Harlan Lincoln and Warren Wallace Beckwith. Jessie was the daughter of Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert. Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife, Mary, had three children; their youngest, Jessie, eloped in 1897 with Warren Beckwith, a classmate and football star at Iowa Wesleyan College. They had two children: Mary Lincoln Beckwith, who died in 1975, and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith.
Beckwith attended a private school in Washington, D.C., and New York Military Academy in New York City, in addition to spending two years at his grandfather Robert Todd Lincoln's previous boarding school, Phillips Exeter Academy. Robert Beckwith completed an illustrated report on "The Bear." on January 15, 1913. In later life, he gave his profession as "gentleman farmer of independent means", his inheritance having included a working farm.
Beckwith enjoyed the hobby of boating and sailing and generally avoided the media and publicity. On one occasion, a newspaper published pictures of him as a young man when arrested for speeding in Omaha, Nebraska. Beckwith's first marriage, which lasted 30 years, was to an older widow with a son ten years his junior.
His second wife had a son in October 1968, named him Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, and listed Robert Beckwith as the boy's father. Robert Beckwith, however, was in the process of divorcing her, accusing her of adultery and denying paternity of the child, since he had a vasectomy years prior. During the divorce battle, the court ordered her to have her son undergo a blood test. She never complied with the order, and the divorce court ruled that Robert Beckwith was not the father.
Beckwith lived most of his life in Vermont and Washington, D.C. He died at the age of 81 on December 24, 1985, at around 6:05 pm in Saluda, Virginia.