Time line of
Abraham Lincoln’s Life
 


Born:  February 12, 1809, Hardin County, Kentucky.  “Lincoln Day.”

1817 – Settled in Perry County, Indiana; father, mother, sister and self

1818 – October 5, Mrs.  Thomas Lincoln (Nancy Hanks) died; buried Spencer County, Indiana. 
            In 1901, a monument erected to her memory, the base being the former Abraham Lincoln
            vault.  Schooling, a few months, 1819, 1820 and 1828 about six months school.

1819 – Thomas (father of A.L.) marries again; Mrs. Johnson (Sally Bush) of Kentucky

1830 – March, Lincoln family move to Illinois, near Decatur

1831 – Works for himself; boatbuilding and sailing, carpentering, hog-sticking, sawmilling,
            blacksmithing, river-pilot, logger, etc. in Menard County, Indiana

1831 – Election clerk  at New Salem.  Captain and private (re-enlisted) in Black Hawk War. 
            Store clerk and merchant, New Salem.  Studies for the law.

1832 – First political speech.  Henry Clay, Whig platform.  Defeated through strong local vote. 
            Deputy surveyor, at three dollars a day, Sangamon County

1834 – Elected to State legislature as Whig.  (Resides in Springfield until 1861.  Law partner
            with John L. Stuart till 1840)

1835 – Postmaster, New Salem; appointed by President Jackson

1838 to 1840 – Reelected to State Legislature

1840 – Partner in law with S.T. Logan

1842 – Married Miss Mary Todd, of Kentucky.  Of the four sons, Edward died in infancy;
            William (“Willie”) at twelve in Washington; Thomas (“Tad”) at Springfield, aged
            twenty; Robert M.T., minister to Great Britain, presidential candidate, secretary of war to
            President Garfield.  His only grandson, Abraham died in London, March 1890

1844 – Proposed for Congress

1845 – Law partner with W.H. Herndon, for life

1846 – Elected to Congress, the single Whig Illinois member; voted antislavery ; sought
            abolition in the D.C.;  voted Wilmot Proviso.  Declined reelection

1848 – Electioneered for General Taylor

1849 – Defeated by Shields for United States senator

1852 – Electioneered for General Scott

1854 – Won the State over to the Republicans, but by arrangement transferred his claim to the
            senatorship to Trumbull.  October, debated with Douglas.  Declined the govornorship in
            favor of Bissell.

1856 – Organized the Republican Party and became its chief; nominated vice-president, but was
            not chose by its first convention; worked for the Fremont-Dayton presidential ticket

1858 – Lost in the legislature the senatorship to Douglas.

1859 – Placed for the presidential candidacy.  Made Eastern tour “to get acquainted.”

1860 – May 9, nominated for President, “shutting out” Seward, Chase, Cameron, Dayton, Wade,
            Bates and McLean.

1861 – March 4, inaugurated sixteenth President; succeeds Buchanan, and precedes his vice –
            Andrew Johnson, whom General Grant succeeded.  Civil War began by firing on Fort
            Sumter, April 12.

1862 – September 22, emancipation announced

1863 – January 1, emancipation proclaimed.  November 19, Gettysburg Cemetery address. 
            December 9, pardon to rebels proclaimed

1864 – Unanimous nominated as Republican presidential candidate for re-election.  June 7. 
            Reelected November 8

1865 – March 4, inaugurated for the second term.  April 14, assassinated in Ford’s Theater,
            Washington, by a mad actor, Wilkes Booth.  April 19, body lay in state at Washington. 
            April 26, Booth slain in resisting arrest by Sergeant Boston Corbett, near Port Royal. 
            April 21 to May 4, funeral-train through principal cities North, to Springfield, Illinois.

1871 – Temporarily deposited in catacomb.

1874 – in catacomb, in sarcophagus.  The completed monument dedicated

1876 – to frustrate repetition of body-snatchers’ attempt, reinterred deeper

1900 – a fifth removal; the whole structure solidly rebuilt, containing the martyred President.
             His wife, and their three children, as well as the grandson bearing Abraham’s name.

                                                                                                                                         
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