Abraham Lincoln and the Herefords of Illinois

A Great and Good Man

Biographies of saints can sometimes minimize their humanity. This is a mistake, as the lives of the saints in heaven should be realistic models for those of us striving to live virtuously in a fallen world. In a similar way, secular biographies should celebrate the earthly accomplishments of historic figures while kindly and honestly owning his or her flaws.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865

I have read scores if not hundreds of secular biographies over the years, and am often disappointed that the subject isn’t quite as admirable as I had once thought or hoped. Not so Abraham Lincoln. Self-educated and self-made, Abe eschewed alcohol and tobacco. He was a gifted story-teller, ambitious and self-confident while remaining genuinely self-effacing and witty. He was a visionary and a realist, his intellect and instincts continually underestimated as he slowly built consensus toward the preservation of the Union and the end of slavery. He did not hold grudges, and was willing to work with bitter rivals for the common good, caring very little who got the credit. He was a great and good man, the right man for a particularly difficult time in human history. As the Civil War neared a decisive Union victory, the President’s words were a gentle salve. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive… to bind up the nation’s wounds.” He would be assassinated just over one month later.

Southern Forebears

Our mother Ann’s early American paternal Grayson forebears lived in Colonial Virginia, slowly spreading through Prince William, Fairfax, Fauquier, and Loudoun Counties. Ann’s branch settled in coastal Georgia, while other branches found root elsewhere, primarily in the South. Some were slaveholders, most were not, but the majority found themselves living in rebellion in 1861.

The Herefords of Illinois

One exception is the Hereford family of Illinois. Col. William Grayson (1736-1790, family reference #3) of Prince William County commanded a Virginia regiment of the Continental Line during the Revolutionary War. Leven Powell (1737-1810) of Loudoun County served as William’s Lt. Colonel and senior staff officer.

• William’s niece Elizabeth Orr (1779-c1860, Grayson ref. #46) married Leven’s namesake son (1772-1807) ca. 1797.
• Their oldest child Amelia Powell 461 married Virginia farmer and War of 1812 sailor Ammon Hereford ca. 1813. Like her Powell siblings, the Hereford family settled in Loudoun County. Ammon died in 1825, just before the birth of their fifth child.
• In the summer of 1836 Amelia’s two oldest sons, William T. Hereford 4611 and Levin P. Hereford 4612, both married.
• That autumn the 22 and 20-year old young married men led their widowed mother Amelia, their widowed grandmother Elizabeth Orr Powell, and their three younger siblings down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Peoria, Illinois.

A biography of Levin 4612’s son relates:

“L.P. Hereford came to Peoria in 1836. and thence to Tazewell County, to the part of it now embraced in Woodford County. He commenced life by working by the day or month, and after he’d saved enough money to buy an ox team, he went to Clark County where he rented land, and farmed a little, and chopped wood. During his residence there he made a few trips down the Mississippi to New Orleans, with flatboats loaded with produce. On his arrival at that city he would sell the flatboats.”¹ A youthful Abraham Lincoln, coincidentally, had made similar trips in 1828 and 1831.

• William Hereford and his wife, meanwhile, remained in Washington Township in Tazewell County. Sixteen-year old sister Sydney A. Powell 4614 married John B. Murphy there in 1837.
• Amelia and her youngest son accompanied Levin from Tazewell to Clark County, Illinois, near Terre Haute, Indiana. Grandmother Elizabeth may also have made the 175-mile long trip.
• Amelia remarried in Clark County in 1841, and died there around 1844.

The biography continues,

“In a few years [Levin 4612] returned from Clark County to Washington [Township], and buying a threshing machine, he operated it a part of each year, and the remainder of the time engaged in teaming. He used to take grain to Chicago, and on the return trip brought back merchandise from that city. About 1852 he came to Woodford County, and entered a tract of land in Palestine Township, a part of it lying near the village of Secor. He developed a good farm, and meeting with more than ordinary success, he bought more farms and became quite wealthy.”¹

• There, in neighboring Palestine, Greene, and El Paso Townships in Woodford County, four of Amelia’s five children eventually settled and farmed.
• Physician Thomas A. Hereford 4613 married in St. Louis in 1842, moving on to California in 1848. More about him and his family in a separate post.
• Elizabeth Orr Powell was listed as 85-years old and living with grandson Levin, his wife, and eight great-grandchildren in Palestine Township on August 20, 1860. There she likely died within a few years.

Abraham Lincoln of Illinois

Twenty-one year old Abraham Lincoln migrated to Illinois in 1830, settling first near Decatur before moving on to New Salem, Springfield, and destiny. In Following in Lincoln’s Footsteps (© 2001, Carroll and Graf), Ralph Gary documents hundreds of places visited by that great and good man. Lincoln traveled through his chosen home state extensively, first as a judicial circuit-riding lawyer (1844-1856), then later as a political campaigner, notably engaging in a series of nationally covered 1858 debates across Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas. Unsurprisingly, the “Illinois” section of Following in Lincoln’s Footsteps takes up 173 of its 398 pages, referencing historical sites and events in dozens of towns. A personal example:

My wife Jean’s German-Catholic ancestors also migrated to Illinois in 1836, clearing farmland in Richland County (neighboring Amelia’s Clark County) that remains in Jean’s family today. Abraham Lincoln, a leader in the nascent Illinois Republican party, stopped in the Richland County seat of Olney in 1856, presumably to campaign for Republican presidential candidate John C. Fremont. An entry on page 101 of Lincoln’s Footsteps reads:

“OLNEY: A Democratic [rival] newspaper reported that Lincoln’s speech on September 20, 1856, was to such a small crowd that Lincoln soon gave up. It was reported that he ‘tried his best to get up steam.’ About thirty were in the audience, but did not appear attentive. He said if twelve would sit and listen, he would continue. Twelve sat down, but after trying for a few minutes he quit and left in disgust.”

Lincoln Namesakes

According to Lincoln’s Footsteps, that great and good man never visited Palestine or Greene Townships, though he did spend an hour in nearby El Paso in August 1858 waiting for a train. From 1837 to 1860, however, Lincoln often went to Normal and Bloomington, both about 20 miles south of El Paso and Palestine, where his intimate friends Judge David Davis, Jesse Fell, Leonard Swett, and Ward Hill Lamon lived and practiced law. Did the Herefords and Murphys know some of these men, and had they ever met the future president? Did any of them travel to hear him speak?

Julia (Hutchison), wife of William T. Hereford 4611, gave birth to her ninth child in May 1860. One month later, her sister-in-law and near-neighbor Acenath (Campbell), wife of Burr P. Hereford 4615, gave birth to her sixth child. Both sons were named Abraham Lincoln Hereford. (Interestingly, Levin P. Hereford’s wife had a son in 1858 whom they also named A.L. Hereford – given name Arthur Lee.)

It is likely that thousands of American boys were named for Abraham Lincoln after his death in 1865, or perhaps even during his presidency. Could it be that these two boys, born just after his nomination but well before his election, were among the first to be be named for the future president?

¹ Biography of Arthur Lee Hereford (1858-1933), family reference 4612(10), from page 444-445 of an unnamed book, probably a history of Woodford County Illinois. Attached and retrieved from a family tree at Ancestry.com.