12 Odd, Random Facts About Abraham Lincoln

While extensively researching the politics of antebellum America for my award-winning screenplay, NORTH STAR: THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, I learned many things about Abraham Lincoln that were never taught in school. These are some of the most interesting.

1. Abraham Lincoln is enshrined in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. In Illinois during the early half of the 19^th century, wrestling was a popular pasttime. The bouts were often brutal, and many a man lost a testicle, or two, in these battles. Abe was defeated just once in 300 matches as a wrestler and did not engage in trying to mutilate his opponents. He won because he was freakishly tall for the day and had tremendous upper body strength from railsplitting. He wasn’t afraid to talk trash, and once, after dispatching an opponent, bragged, “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.” Nobody took him up on the offer.
2. Abe retired from politics before running for president.
3. Lincoln is the only president to have obtained a patent. Confounded by a steamboat running aground, and having to unload its entire cargo, he invented a device that allowed boats to traverse shallow waters, and was granted patent #6469 in 1849.
4. After his election to the office of President of the United States, he hired a personal secretary, John Nicolay. Nicolay was disturbed by the number of letters threatening violence and death. Lincoln needed to sneak into Washington in disguise the night before his inauguration because of a death threat in Baltimore. The plot to kill the president-elect was uncovered by Lincoln’s friend, Allan Pinkerton.
5. Lincoln was elected in 1860 with just 39 percent of the vote. Finishing second was Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, followed by Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas and the Constitutional Union candidate, John Bell.
6. Godfrey Hyams was offered $60,000 by the Confederate Secret Service to deliver an overcoat to Lincoln as a gift that was infected with yellow fever. Dr. Luke Blackburn was the originator of the plot. Hyams refused.
7. Lincoln often spent time away from the White House, just outside Washington at the Old Soldiers Home, considered a summer vacation spot for presidents at that time. As president Lincoln rode on horseback, alone, to the Old Soldiers Home in August 1864, a musket fired in the immediate vicinity.
   Lincoln’s account of the incident: “I was jogging along at a slow gait, immersed in deep thought, when suddenly I was aroused–I may say the arousement lifted me out of my saddle as well as out of my wits–by the report of a rifle. [He heard a bullet whistle past his ear.] Old Abe, with one reckless bound, unceremoniously separated me from my eight-dollar plug-hat, with which I parted company without any assent, expressed or implied, upon my part. At a break-neck speed we soon arrived in a haven of safety. I can truthfully say that one of the Abes was frightened on this occasion, but modesty forbids my mentioning which of us is entitled to that distinguished honor.”
   Union soldier, Private John Nichols, was sent to retrieve President Lincoln’s trademark stovepipe hat, only to find that a musket ball had created a hole in the top, knocking it off Lincoln’s head.
8. Lincoln established the Thanksgiving holiday, passing legislation Oct. 3, 1863 that the last Thursday of November would be set aside as a day of thanks. He also issued a presidential pardon to “Tom” Turkey, a ritual that has been carried on by every president since.
9. When asked if her husband had a hobby, Mary Todd Lincoln replied, “Cats.” Lincoln was a cat-lover. He also brought his dog, Fido, to the White House, and two goats, Nanny and Nanko.
   Lincoln was an avowed Animal Rights advocate, who sometimes spoke and wrote against cruelty to animals, contending that “an ant’s life was as sweet to it as ours to us.”
10. Lincoln was almost universally hated as a president until Union generals Sherman and Grant turned the tide of the war against the confederacy. It was only after his death that Abraham Lincoln became revered as a wise, just leader.
11. Though no actual proof verifies this fact, it is believed Lincoln’s last meal consisted of mock turtle soup, roast Virginia fowl with chestnut stuffing, baked yams and cauliflower with cheese sauce.
12. Grave robbers tried to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln in 1876. Chicago gang members planned to ransom Lincoln’s remains for $200,000 and the release of a convicted counterfeiter from prison.

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