Lucetta Chandler, Cousin of Abraham Lincoln Visits Linn County, Iowa ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with the USGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Prepared for IaGenWeb Archives by Barb Chandler ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Cousin of Martyred Lincoln Visiting Here, Tells New Story on Abe" (Printed in Cedar Rapids paper June 25, 1923) Mrs. Lucetta Chandler of Danville, Iowa 87 years old and a cousin of the martyred President Abraham Lincoln, is a guest in Cedar Rapids. Mrs. Chandler is one of that little band, growing smaller each year, who can boast relationship to, or even an intimate personal knowledge of Lincoln She is the mother of Mrs. L.R. Kelly, 1040 Fifth Avenue, and Everett Chandler, 824 South Twenty-first Street, and is visiting in their homes. Mrs. Chandler's mother, Mrs. Miller, was a cousin of Abraham Lincoln's mother, and both bore the immortal name "Nancy Hanks," which history has taught all admirers of Lincoln to reverence. It was with Mrs. Chandler's parents that Lincoln made his home in Kentucky for a time. The local visitor never met Lincoln, for she was born after the family came north. She was the youngest of a family of twelve children, and is the last one alive. But of "Abe" as a lad she has often heard her mother and brothers speak. "I remember mother saying he was "lazy," she says. "Probably he wasn't lazy, but like all boys, he loved to follow his own pursuits. She used to tell of how he would sit on the fence and read, when there was work to be done. He wasn't lazy when it came to studying. She tells of one incident recounted by her brother, Charles, which has perhaps never been told to any Lincoln biography, and which is of value as it shows something of his character. "Brother Charlie went to school with Abe Lincoln, and he used to tell how the children decided one day, to play a joke on their teacher and locked him out of the schoolroom." But Lincoln wouldn't let a group of rascals like that get ahead of him. He crawled down the chimney. They had planned to use this method of cajolery to get a treat from him-quite a popular trick in country schools in those days. When he got in through the chimney, they expected an outburst of anger, but they were mistaken. Lincoln merely laughed, and furnished them the treat, just the same." The qualities then shown by Lincoln the country school teacher of gentleness combined with the stubborn determination, Mrs. Chandler believes were later demonstrated by him as President. Lincoln's rank as one of the greatest figures of American history has been exalted with the passage of years Mrs. Chandler believes. For she says; "We didn't think much about it when I was a girl." But this remarkable woman's relationship to the great President is not her only claim to distinction. She was the first white child to be born in Pleasant Grove township, Des Moines County. The youngest of twelve she in turn gave the world eleven children, eight of whom are living. Mr. Chandler and Mrs. Kelly of this city are the youngest. And she is now a great grandmother, having twenty grandchildren, twenty-five great grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. ----##--- > Barb Chandler mailto:barb@gvn.net > > Resume and writing samples: http://www.gvn.net/~barb/barb.htm > > >