Abraham Lincoln and His Ancestors

by Ida Tarbell, Kenneth J. Winkle (Introduction)

"I found it an inspiring thing to trace the roads these seven successive generations of Lincoln pioneers traveled, to look upon the remains of their homes, reconstruct from documents and legends their activities, judge what manner of men and women they were, the place they held among their fellows. In these wanderings the whole history of the United States seemed to unroll before me. In this Lincoln migration we have the family history of millions of our contemporaries."—Ida M. Tarbell, in her preface. Young Samuel Lincoln, who had been apprenticed as a weaver in England, arrived in the Puritan colony of Boston Bay in 1637. Ida M. Tarbell traces the generations from Samuel to Abraham Lincoln, offering rich details of character and circumstance and showing that the president’s ancestors were not precisely as his detractors painted them. She takes Abraham Lincoln from the cabin of his birth to the White House, where he is introduced to a nation in crisis.

Genres: History

418 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1997

About the author

Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism". She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies. She is best-known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company, which was listed as No. 5 in a 1999 list by the New York Times of the top 100 works of 20th-century American journalism.[1] She became the first person to take on Standard Oil. She began her work on The Standard after her editors at McClure's Magazine called for a story on one of the trusts.

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Reviews

[Peggy Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarbell’s very readable history of the Lincoln family in the New World is charming, even if a bit antique in its approach (it was, after all, written in 1922). The charm lies in Tarbell’s voice, which is distinct throughout. Her admiration for Lincoln and his ancestors is evident, for she sees them as avatars of the sturdy pioneering spirit that she calls the bedrock of American character. I think our modern view is a bit more nuanced and skeptical, but she nevertheless brought some very valuable new scholarship when the book was written. She traveled to all of the states where the Lincolns settled, and her portrait of Lincoln himself is very much grounded in the stories of the people who knew him in Kentucky and Indiana and of course in Illinois. Well worth reading for all interested in the extraordinary life of Abraham Lincoln.

[Lyn Jensen]

I read this book as part of my genealogical research, chasing a rumor that my family has a Lincoln connection. I didn't find any direct connection, but I found some possibilities for an indirect one.