Saturday is the 166th birthday of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son and the only Lincoln child to survive into adulthood. While he didn’t make quite the mark on history that his father did, Robert Lincoln had a pretty interesting life himself. Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about him:
1. He Was on Ulysses S. Grant’s Personal Staff
Part of Abraham Lincoln’s mystique lies in his humble roots as a self-made man who found education where he could. His eldest son didn’t have to go through quite as many trials and tribulations to do some learning, though. Robert left Springfield, Illinois, to attend boarding school at New Hampshire’s elite Phillips Exeter Academy when he was a young man, and he later graduated from Harvard during his father’s presidency.
After completing his undergrad degree, Robert stuck around Cambridge to go to Harvard Law School, but that arrangement didn’t last very long. After studying law for just a few months, Lincoln received a commission as a captain in the army. Lincoln’s assignment put him on Ulysses S. Grant’s personal staff, so he didn’t see much fighting. He did get a nice view of history, though; Lincoln was present as part of Grant’s junior staff at Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
After the war ended, Lincoln moved to Chicago with his mother and brother and wrapped up his legal studies.
2. The Booth Family Did Him a Favor
In 1863 or 1864, young Robert Lincoln was traveling by train from New York to Washington during a break from his studies at Harvard. He hopped off the train during a stop at Jersey City, only to find himself on an extremely crowded platform. To be polite, Lincoln stepped back to wait his turn to walk across the platform, his back pressed to one of the train’s cars.
This situation probably seemed harmless enough until the train started moving, which whipped Lincoln around and dropped him into the space between the platform and train, an incredibly dangerous place to be.
Lincoln probably would have been dead meat if a stranger hadn’t yanked him out of the hole by his collar. That stranger? None other than Edwin Booth, one of the most celebrated actors of the 19th century and brother of eventual Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Lincoln immediately recognized the famous thespian – this was sort of like if George Clooney pulled you from a burning car today – and thanked him effusively. The actor had no idea whose life he had saved until he received a letter commending him for his bravery in saving the President’s son a few months later.
3. He Had a Strange Knack for Being Near Assassinations
Lee’s surrender wasn’t the only history Lincoln ended up witnessing, although things got a bit grislier for him after Appomattox. As he arrived back in Washington in April 1865 Lincoln’s parents invited him to go see Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater with them. The young officer was so exhausted after his journey that he begged off so he could get a good night’s sleep. That night, of course, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln’s father, and Robert Todd was with the celebrated president when he passed away the next morning.
By 1881, Lincoln’s political lineage and prominence as a lawyer qualified him for a national office, and he became Secretary of War under the newly inaugurated James A. Garfield. That July, Lincoln was scheduled to travel to Elberon, New Jersey, by train with the President, but the trip never took off. Before Lincoln and Garfield’s train could leave the station, Charles Guiteau shot the Garfield, who died of complications from the wound two months later.
Oddly, that wasn’t all for Lincoln, though. Two decades passed without a presidential assassination, but Lincoln’s strange luck reared its head again in 1901. Lincoln traveled to Buffalo at the invitation of President William McKinley to attend the Pan-American Exposition. Although he arrived a bit late to the even, Lincoln was on his way to meet McKinley when anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot the president twice at close range.
Following these three bits of bad luck Lincoln refused to attend any presidential functions. He dryly noted that there was “a certain fatality about the presidential function when I am present.”
4. He Realized His Mom Was a Little Nutty
Mary Todd Lincoln is fairly widely renowned today for being mentally ill, but it wasn’t quite such an open secret when she was still alive. Robert, however, realized that his mother needed psychiatric help so she didn’t become a danger to herself or an embarrassment to her family, so he had her involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in 1875 following a hearing that declared her insane.
Mary Todd was none too pleased about this plan. She not only snuck letters to her lawyer to help her escape from the institution, she also wrote newspaper editors in an effort to convince the public of her sanity. Mary Todd’s ploy worked; at a second sanity hearing in 1876 she was declared sane and released from the Batavia, Illinois, sanatorium to which she’d been confined. However, by this point she’d been publicly humiliated and never really patched up her relationship with Robert before her death in 1882.
5. He Made Some Serious Dough on the Railroads
Once he got his legal practice up and running, Lincoln found a particularly lucrative clientele in the booming railroad industry. He spent most of his career working as a corporate lawyer for various railroads and train-related companies; the only breaks were his four-year stint as Secretary of War under Garfield and successor Chester A. Arthur and a four-year hitch as a minister to Britain under President Benjamin Harrison.
One of Lincoln’s major clients was the Pullman Palace Car Company, for which he served as general counsel. When founder George Pullman died in 1897, Lincoln became president of the company, and in 1911 he became chairman of the Pullman Company’s board. His lofty position in one of the country’s most lucrative companies made him a millionaire and enabled Lincoln to build a sprawling estate, Hildene, in Manchester, Vermont.
’5 Things You Didn’t Know About…’ appears every Friday. Read the previous installments here..
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Good read for an historical figure who usually invokes yawns. I didn’t know these five,or anything else significant about him. How did he die?
Oh, and the George Clooney reference might’ve been better served with Alec Baldwin, right HDYKers? ;)
posted by Johnny Cat on 7-31-2009 at 10:32 pm
I first heard the a-Booth-saves-a-Lincoln’s-life story on the fantastic short podcast, the memory palace by Nate DiMeo. Just search for “the memory palace”on iTunes. I’d recommend it to any _flossers.
posted by Anna on 7-31-2009 at 10:56 pm
I find this post stupid and offensive. Mary Todd Lincoln was an intelligent, powerful female and their is a lot of controversy over her “renowned mental illness”. Robert seems like a rich, snotty, douchebag who was scared that his mom was an awesome woman.
posted by Manda on 7-31-2009 at 11:08 pm
Manda, if you’re going to stand up for intelligent, powerful females or have any interest in empowering women, I suggest not referring to the man as a ‘douche bag’.
posted by Lori on 8-1-2009 at 6:38 am
Well if Manda says it’s true, it must be true because she ALMOST spelled all of the words in per post correctly! What an awesome woman Mary Todd was! And how awesome is Manda! Everyone give her a polite round of applause.
Thanks again, Manda, for clearing up that misconception by presenting facts and well documented sources.
Or by calling a dead guy a douchebag.
Which is the approach an intelligent, powerful, awesome female would use again?
posted by InnocentBistander on 8-1-2009 at 9:19 am
One of my favorite stories from childhood was having my great-grandmother tell about going to hear Abraham Lincoln speak in Exeter (NH) when Robert was a student at the Academy (the family lived in Kensington, a couple of miles south of Exeter). She was about 4 or 5 years old at the time so it was probably 1860, which was the year Robert Todd Lincoln graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. Born in 1855, she died in 1948 at the age of 93 (wnen I was 9). She told us about how he seemed like a giant (of course, she was a tiny child, and he had on his tall silk hat). We loved that story and always asked her to tell it to us.
posted by Dolly on 8-1-2009 at 12:31 pm
Great post. Yes, the debate on Mary Todd Lincoln’s sanity will surely continue for years to come; for better or worse, she was a remarkable woman.
Dolly–what a fantastic story! I always find it fascinating to hear anecdotes where seemingly ordinary people “touch” history the way your great-grandmother did! Thank you!
posted by Marty on 8-1-2009 at 1:17 pm
Robert Todd gave my G-G-Grandfather, (Brigadier General Thomas F. Barr, one of the two life masks of his father, Abe.
This mask was donated by the Barr Family and resides in the Ford Museum in DC.
posted by Cindy on 8-1-2009 at 9:56 pm
my family is related to mary todd- it seems there’s atrait among a lot of the women in the family to be, shall we say, a touch neurotic?
it wouldn’t surprise me if she was always kind of flighty, and after the death of her husband became even more so. probably not a total nutbar, but probably irksome to a son trying to gain a good reputation and wealth.
posted by emmiline on 8-3-2009 at 1:14 am
“Charles Guiteau shot the Garfield, who died of complications from the wound two months later.”
Oh noez! He shot the Garfield! ahhh
posted by Dan on 12-11-2009 at 5:41 pm
I wonder how Robert would react to the “video” of his mother asking his father if the dress she’s wearing makes her backside look big, in the Geiko ad. lol!!!
posted by Sheldon on 9-17-2010 at 2:21 pm
I lived in Decatur Illinois for 15 years and soon discovered Lincoln had influence all over the state. I knew about Robert’s connection with assassinations because you can’t live in Illinois without being constantly reminded of being in “the land of Lincoln”. While working in Quincy, Illinois I discovered Abe had one of his debates with Stephen Douglas there. Amazingly, he actually outlived Douglas. Springfield is one of the best places to visit if you enjoy Lincoln. He and Mary are buried there of course and there is a fascinating museum dedicated to him near the Lincoln library. You can also tour his home and law office. There have been hundreds of books written about Abe. He was a very interesting character. New Salem also has a reproduction of the store where he once worked.It is worth visiting.
posted by John on 9-26-2010 at 12:21 am
“america” of course was named by the lucky fella who happened to draw the first map of same (an oversimplification, of course) and plunked his name down right there – still maybe a good name for the continents of the hemisphere; but i am in favor of re-branding of the nation.
the thought was prompted many years ago by “lord” buckley’s declamations on lincoln, and “lincoln” would be a great name for our country. and, from a purely marketing standpoint, “california” has a nice ring to it as well.
guessing this probably won’t happen.
posted by pinkie pinkerton on 10-10-2010 at 10:14 am
I’ve spent quite a bit of time diving into the life of Robert Todd Lincoln. Sad to say, he was unfortunately somewhat of a douchebag. Shortly after the Civil War, he moved to Chicago (had his mother and brother moved there, too). He was admitted to the bar, opened his law firm (Lincoln & Isham) and became the general counsel for the Pullman Railroad Car Company. In 1875, frightened that his mother was spending his inheritance, he went to the Cook County probate court and had her committed to an asylum in Batavia, Illinois (the building still stands, now divided into condos, about 50 miles straight west of Chicago). Mary Todd Lincoln used her influence to get out just a few months later. Her lawyer was a woman — one of the first to be admitted to the bar in Illinois. She was allowed to go live with her sister, and spent the rest of her life living in the same Springfield house where she and her husband were married in 1842. She was extremely eccentric and constantly worried about money. Her relationship with her only surviving son was never completely repaired.
Robert went on to public service as a cabinet member in the Garfield and McKinley administrations. When he was not in Washington, he was running his law firm in Chicago.
In 1897, upon George Pullman’s death, Robert Lincoln became president of the Pullman Co., and in 1911 became it’s board chairman. He was executor or George Pullman’s will. Pullman was one of the most reviled captains of industry in American history. As the man responsible for
his funeral, Lincoln had Pullman buried in the dead of night, in an unmarked grave, under a slab of ten-foot thick concrete, to avoid desecration or theft or Pullman’s body. Four years later, he had his father re-interred in Springfield in a similar fashion.
Lincoln’s last major public appearance was at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, at age 78. He was an avid golfer, a serious amateur astronomer and a very, very wealthy man.
Lincoln built a large estate called Hildene, in Vermont, in 1901, where he spent summers. He had three children, and two grandchildren. The last direct descendant to Abraham Lincoln was Robert Lincoln’s grandson, “Bud” Beckwith, who died childless in 1985.
posted by Chuck W on 10-18-2010 at 8:08 pm
While it may be left to future generations of professional historians to argue whether Robert Todd Lincoln was in fact a ‘douchebag,’ it is clear that he was one man who did not get along with his mother.
The mother, Mary Todd Lincoln, was clearly intelligent, and she was indeed female. The word ‘powerful,’ as used above is used in a nonstandard way. Usually a ‘powerful’ person is said to possess great physical strength (which she did not have) or political or organization power — the power to affect events. If anything, Mary Todd Lincoln was pitiable victim of events, actually quite powerless in her life after the murder of her husband.
But, in the quasi-political/psychological context, as above, ‘powerful’ by an objective observer can also appear to be behavior that is ‘dominating,’ ‘manipulative,’ and/or ‘ruthless and cunning.’
If that is the case, then mother and son were, in fact, both “powerful.”
It is a weird modern argument that Mary Todd Lincoln was some kind of misunderstood forerunning feminist, who had her modern ways misinterpreted as mental illness.
The answer is less pleasing — their grief made both of them a little mad. If there is any gender issue her, it was that Robert’s mental illness — seen in his mania to the state remove his mother from his life — was more socially acceptable, or, was easier to cloak in social acceptable motive.
During the last decades of their lives, they used the same sorts of tactics against each other in a mutually destructive effort to somehow cope with the tragedy that filled their lives.
Remember, not only was father and husband Abraham murdered. All of Mary Todd’s other children — Robert Todd’s siblings — had died before the family left the White House.
Theirs was a family tree draped in black crepe.
How did the two deal with this frustration, grief and anxiety?
Robert Todd focused on becoming rich. Mary Todd went mad.
She was indeed insane, or at least suffered from bouts of insanity. The record is clear on that point and cannot be denied.
Corroborated testimony shows, for example that she was “possessed with the idea that some Indian spirit was working in her head and taking wires out of her eyes.” She ordered eight sets of the same set of curtains. Is that overspending, or is that a reaction to a paranoid delusion.
In court, Robert Todd said he wanted the spending to stop. In the twisted repression of Victorian America, it seemed consistent to seek commital of a person but not insist that they were mentally ill. To do so would mean to admit there was mental illness in the family, a shameful thing. The best strategy was to make it all about some banal issue, like the money, when everyone knew the score — it was about mental sense, principally, not dollars and cents.
Meanwhile, Robert Todd pulled many legal tricks to get his mother committed as quickly as possible. He used his influence with the state legislature to have the commital law rewritten to suit his efforts. Interestingly, as pointed out, his wily mother’s own legal skills outwitted her lawyer son.
At the same time as the Lincoln Affair, there were millions of other American families, without the renown or money, acting exactly the same way. Those nameless women, abusers of their family, and abused by their family, are never called feminists, yet they acted as she did, even if they didn’t auction their old clothes in a tacky New York City event.
Mary Todd Lincoln was indeed crazy, at least some of the time. And Robert Tood, by a modest standard, was not a loving, caring son and was in fact quick cruel to his mother. Neither behavior pattern is new, nor did either of them break ground in low forms of intrafamilial combat.
And, as the records show, this fighting didn’t commence only after the assassination. The Lincoln homelife was not always or particularly tranquil. There is much suggestive evidence that Abraham Lincoln was physically abused — beaten — on more than occassion by his own wife.
So, the picture in of Robert Todd and his mother at the time of her commital is but a late chapter in a long and tragic family story.
Mary Todd cannot, no matter how hard we try from our vantage point, be recruited into the 20th or 21st century. She was not a proto-feminist.
She was a stern woman, so concerned about her social position that she often broke social convention in sometimes bewildering efforts to make sure she was not one-upped by her supposed social rivals.
Such thoroughly strict adherence to 19th century social and gender norms, even with unusual tactics, does not make her a feminist.
They make her a complex woman, worthy of study and biography, and, more than a little pity.
posted by Nacho Mama on 11-5-2010 at 12:54 pm
Robert Lincoln had good reason to be very concerned about his mother. Having her committed was the only thing he could do to protect her under the laws of the day. Her financial position improved dramatically, because of his management, by $4,000, during 3-4 months she was under his legal control. Compare to how she was treated by the US Gov’t to the way Jackie Kennedy was treated. For example, Mary Lincoln had to beg repeatedly for years for a widow’s pension; the White House she moved into had holes in the walls, worn out furniture, etc., people traisped in and out at all hours in all parts of the house, etc. Mary Lincoln didn’t have a P.R. person, personal secretary, etc. Yes, she was excitable, a bit shrewish, and so on, but she loved her husband, family and country above all else. She didn’t sell her soul for millions of dollars, either. And, no one seems to realize, the woman was probably going through menopause when Lincoln died, or soon thereafter. Cut her some slack. A southern raised woman, who had all the, education, graces and culture to be a fine 1st lady was never really given a chance.
posted by Louise on 1-30-2011 at 6:02 am
Robert Lincoln certainly was a Republican too. He used his daddy’s name to get into the inner circle of the White House and become stinking rich.
posted by Steve M on 4-2-2011 at 2:01 pm