Born: 13 December 1818, United States
Died: 16 July 1882
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Mary Ann Todd
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Mary Todd was born in Kentucky of well-to-do and influential parents, both of whom could point with pride to a long line of Colonial and Revolutionary ancestors. She was given the best education possible at that time, and her life, until the death of her mother, was sheltered from all privations and hardships.
When her father introduced a step-mother into the family, she went to live with her older sister, Mrs. Ninian Edwards, in Springfield, Illinois. In Mary Todd the social graces were highly developed, and she was the reigning belle of Springfield with many suitors, among them Stephen A. Douglas, who was young Lincoln’s most serious rival. In 1842, at the age of twenty-one, she was married to Abraham Lincoln. In 1860, he was nominated as president of the United States and her faith and loyalty were rewarded; she had always said that she would be the wife of a president. During the Civil War, her position was not an easy one; the fact of her southern birth and up-bringing was not one conducive to popularity. She, nevertheless, governed her life with kindness and good deeds and remained the staunch support of her husband.
Practically all her life in the White House was tinged with tragedy, — the loss of her son, the war, and the last terrific blow, the assassination of her husband. She travelled in Europe after the death of her husband hoping to dispel her sorrow, but to no avail. Without Mary Todd for his wife, Abraham Lincoln would never have been President. From the day of their marriage they supplemented each other in many unusual times, and always through those remarkable years.
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