Edward Baker Lincoln
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Edward Baker Lincoln (March 10, 1846 – February 1, 1850) was the second son of
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was named after Lincoln's close friend,
Edward Dickinson Baker Edward Dickinson Baker (February 24, 1811October 21, 1861) was an American politician, lawyer, and US army officer. In his political career, Baker served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois and later as a U.S. Senator from Oregon. ...
. Both Abraham and Mary spelled his name "Eddy"; however, the National Park Service uses "Eddie" as a nickname and the nickname also appears spelled this way on his crypt at the
Lincoln tomb The Lincoln Tomb is the final resting place of Abraham Lincoln, the List of Presidents of the United States, 16th President of the United States; his wife Mary Todd Lincoln; and three of their four sons: Edward Baker Lincoln, Edward, William Wa ...
.


Early life

Eddie Lincoln was born on March 10, 1846 at the Lincoln Home in
Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
. Little is known about his life, but a surviving story says that one day during a visit to her father Robert Todd's
home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...
in
Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
, Eddie's older brother,
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
found a kitten and brought it to the house. Mary Lincoln wrote to her husband about the incident: " ssoon as Eddy, spied
he kitten He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
his tenderness, broke forth, he made them bring it water, fed it with bread himself, with his own dear hands, he was a delighted little creature over it." Mary's stepmother, who did not like cats, ordered the cat thrown out, "Ed screaming & protesting loudly against the proceeding, she never appeared to mind his screams, which were long & loud, I assure you." Abraham Lincoln also referenced him in an 1848 letter to his wife, also during the aforementioned time period. He mimicks the way two-year-old Eddie would say his father had gone to the Capitol: "Dear Eddy thinks father is 'gone tapila.'" He also writes about searching for plaid stockings that would "fit Eddy's dear little feet," but says ultimately that he had been unsuccessful, and finally closes his letter with, "What did he and Eddy think of the little letters father sent them? Dont iclet the blessed fellows forget father…."


Death

Eddie died a month before his fourth birthday. Census records list "chronic consumption" (
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
) as the cause. An alternate theory is that he died of medullary thyroid cancer given that: (a) "consumption" was a term then applied to many wasting diseases, (b) cancer is a wasting disease, (c) Abraham and two of Eddie's brothers had several features compatible with the genetic cancer syndrome multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2b (MEN2B), and (d) his thick, asymmetric lower lip is a sign of MEN2B. The familial MEN2B theory regarding the Lincolns, however, is principally challenged by the fact that Abraham Lincoln himself lived to be fifty-six, the untreated disease usually resulting in death sometime in the victim's thirties; most researchers subscribe to the idea that Eddie's death was caused by tuberculosis. Abraham Lincoln referenced Eddie's death in a letter to his stepbrother John D. Johnston, noting that Eddie was "sick fifty-two days," and "We miss him very much." Eddie's funeral was held at the Lincoln's home by the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and his body was buried at the nearby Hutchinson's Cemetery in
Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
. Both parents were devastated. A week after his death, an unsigned poem entitled "Little Eddie" was printed in the '' Illinois Daily Journal''. Authorship of the poem was long a mystery with some supposing that Abraham and Mary wrote it. In 2012, the
Abraham Lincoln Association The Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA) is an American association advancing studies on Abraham Lincoln and disseminating scholarship about Lincoln. The ALA was founded in 1908 to lead a national celebration of Lincoln's 100th birthday and continues ...
published an article in their journal that concludes neither of them did so, and that it was instead an early draft by a young poet from St. Louis. The final line is on Eddie's original gravestone, which now resides in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. Abraham and Mary's next child,
Willie Lincoln William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln (December 21, 1850 – February 20, 1862) was the third son of President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was named after Mary's brother-in-law, Dr. William Smith Wallace. He died of typhoid fever at the White H ...
, was born ten months after Eddie's death. After Abraham's assassination, Eddie's remains were transferred to the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.


See also

* Lincoln family tree


References


Books

*


External links


Edward Baker Lincoln biography with photo
via Lincoln Family Home National Historic Site * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Edward Baker 1846 births 1850 deaths 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Illinois Lincoln family Children of presidents of the United States People from Springfield, Illinois Burials at Oak Ridge Cemetery Child deaths