Sarah Bush Lincoln

Early life

Sarah Bush was born December 13, 1788 in Hardin County, Kentucky, the third daughter to Hannah Davis (1745–1835) and Christopher Bush (1735–1813). Christopher Bush was a slave patrol captain who was somewhat well-off financially and was described as "…a stirring, industrious man, and had a large family sons and daughters." The Bushes moved with their nine children to Elizabethtown, Kentucky when Sarah was two years old. As a child Sarah prided herself on her appearance and keeping up with the latest fashion. She had blue-gray eyes and was light complexioned. Sarah has been described as proud, energetic, hard-working, neat and possessing good sense.

Her brother, Isaac (1779–1827), sold Thomas Lincoln the Sinking Stream Farm.

Daniel Johnston

Sarah Bush married Daniel Johnston (1782–1816) on March 13, 1806. The Johnstons were parents to three children: John, Elizabeth and Matilda.

The Johnstons struggled financially throughout their marriage, having little or no taxable property, and debts that Daniel's brothers would sometimes settle. In 1814 Daniel obtained the position of county jailer, which included living quarters for the family within the jailhouse. Sarah became the cook and cleaner for the jail. In addition, the couple performed cleaning services for the courthouse. In 1816 Daniel died of cholera during an epidemic. Thereafter, Sarah seems to have recovered financially somewhat; She purchased a cabin that had previously been owned by Samuel Haycraft, furnished it with luxurious furnishings and sent one of her daughters to a private school.

Indiana

Thomas Lincoln (1778–1851) met Sarah in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. After Nancy died in 1818, Thomas returned to Elizabethtown, as he had heard that Sarah Bush Johnston was then a widow. His proposal was apparently: "I have no wife and you no husband. I came a-purpose to marry you. I knowed you from a gal and you knowed me from a boy. I've no time to lose: and if you're willin' let it be done straight off." The two decided to marry and Lincoln paid her outstanding debts. Sarah and Thomas married on December 2, 1819, in an old log house on Main Street in Elizabethtown. He brought her and her three children, who ranged from 8 to 13 years of age, to his farm in Indiana, where she became stepmother to his two children. Sarah transformed the home with the addition of furniture and furnishings that would have seemed luxurious to the Lincolns, cleaned up the home and children, and insisted upon the placement of a wooden floor in the cabin, loft for the boys (John Johnston, Abraham Lincoln and Dennis Hanks), creation of a greased paper window and completion of the roof.

Dennis Hanks described Sarah:

She treated Sarah and Abraham the same as her own children, earning the lasting affection of Abraham. Age 10 when she arrived, he always addressed her as "Mama." She encouraged his appetite for reading and learning, including access to books she had brought from Kentucky, including the Bible, Aesop's Fables, The Pilgrim's Progress and Lessons in Elocution.

Sarah's daughter Elizabeth married Dennis Hanks in 1821 and the couple lived in their own home about a half a mile from Sarah and Thomas' home. In 1823 Sarah, Thomas and his daughter, joined the nearby Little Pigeon Creek Baptist Church. Although Abraham did not join the church, he would attend church and listen to sermons; He sometimes got in trouble for parodying the minister's sermons. In 1826, Abraham's sister Sarah married Aaron Grigsby and lived near the Lincoln home; She died within a year and a half during childbirth. Her grave is located at the Lincoln State Park. Matilda married shortly after Sarah was married and moved away with her husband, Squire Hall.

Illinois

Thomas sold his Indiana land early in 1830 and with Sarah moved first to Macon County, Illinois and eventually to Coles County in 1831. The homestead site on Goosenest Prairie, about 10 miles (16 km) south of Charleston, Illinois, is preserved as the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site.

Abraham sometimes visited Sarah and Thomas when he was in Coles County on the law circuit; Sarah said that she "saw him every year or two." After Thomas died in 1851, Lincoln maintained land for Sarah and supported her until his death. Their final visit was before Lincoln left Illinois for the White House. Sarah died in 1869.

Sarah is buried next to Thomas in nearby Shiloh Cemetery, just south of Lerna, Illinois.

Abraham and Sarah's relationship

The Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln biography by the National Park Service sums up the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his step-mother as follows:

Lincoln's legendary sense of humor was probably influenced by his stepmother. He recalled that she was a firm but kind-hearted woman who loved to laugh. When he was eighteen years old, Lincoln, at 6' 4", was so tall that his head nearly touched the ceiling of the family's farmhouse kitchen. His stepmother repeatedly joked that Lincoln was so tall that he needed to keep his hair washed or he'd leave prints on her ceiling. Lincoln decided to have some fun with this idea. One day, when his stepmother was not home, Lincoln got together a group of younger boys and had them dip their bare feet in the mud outside the farmhouse kitchen. Then Lincoln took each of the boys inside, held them upside-down, and had them walk their feet across the ceiling, leaving muddy footprints. When Sarah Lincoln saw the muddy footprints on her ceiling, Lincoln recalled, she chuckled as she threatened to spank him.

Honors

Additional reading