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Number 44

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA

February, 1942

James L* Nail

THE BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES OF A DESCENDANT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S GRANDFATHER

Early biographers of Abraham Lincoln looked with much favor upon the conclusions of James L. Nail which appeared to be dependable information about the Lincoln family tree. Mr. Nail was a grandson of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, the sister of Thomas Lincoln, and a great- grandson of the pioneer Abraham Lincoln, who was President Lincoln's grandfather.

It is not strange that with such a connection, Lincoln historians would rely explicitly on whatever Mr. Nail said about his Lincoln kinsfolk. However, he was not quite so closely related to the President and his family, as one implies from some of his notes. He was not a first cous- in of Abraham Lincoln as is stated, but his mother was. He calls Thomas Lincoln his uncle, but Thomas was his mother's uncle.

He should have been in a position to know much about the Lincoln family because the widow of the old

pioneer Abraham Lincoln lived in the home of his grandmother, Nancy Lincoln Brumfield. He was well qualified intellectually to attack the genealogical problem of the Lincoln family as the following biographical sketch of him from a Jasper County, Missouri newspaper clearly reveals.

"A well known citizen of Jasper county, at all times interested in the growth and prosperity of the county, is James L. Nail, born May 10, 1830, in Hardin county, Kentucky. He was educated in the public schools of that state and at the Elizabethtown Sem- inary, where he held for some time the position of assistant instructor in mathematics, a branch for which Mr. Nail, at an early age, showed special preference and in which he became very efficient. He taught a select school in Hardin county for ten years and after that for thirteen years was Deputy County Clerk and

The Lincoln Kinsman

County Surveyor, being elected al- most unanimously to the latter office and filling both at the same time. In the years 1871-72 and '72 to '73 Mr. Nail represented his district in the Kentucky legislature, which office he filled with honor and to the satisfac- tion of his constituents.

"Mr. Nail came to Missouri in 1879, farmed for one year, then en- gaged in the agricultural implement business for several years, then in the coal business, and is now in the grocery business.

"Mr. Nail was married in 1856. He is a near relative of Abraham Lin- coln, being a cousin and is the best acknowledged authority on the gen- ealogy of the Lincoln family. He has written hundreds of pages for historians and his correspondence concerning Lincoln is very volumi- nous. He is given credit for being the best authority on Lincoln's biography. Hay and Nicolay in their life of Lincoln as published in the Century, entered into long cor- respondence with Mr. Nail and se- cured facts that had never before been published correctly. He has, on this subject, contributed to Sweeney's history, Oldroyd's history and Whit- ney's Memoirs of Lincoln. Mr. Nail is considered one of the very best men of the county."

Stveeney Information

It would appear as if many of Mr. Nail's historical contributions were composed at Carthage, Mis- souri. One of his letters was written in 1881 to W. H. Sweeney, an at- torney at Louisville, who has already been mentioned as having received aid from Mr. Nail. An undated clip- ping in the files of the Lincoln Na-

tional Life Foundation contains the following information:

"W. H. Sweeney, a local attorney, has a letter from J. L. Nail, written in 1881, which throws considerable light upon the ancestors and early days of Abraham Lincoln, and, inci- dentally, tells how the future Presi- dent came by his praenomen of Abraham.

"The letter was written from Carthage, Jasper County, Mo., and in part follows:

"'My brother, John G. Nail, has written me that you were interesting yourself in getting up historical sketches of the Lincoln family while they lived in Kentucky. In the out- set I would say that I am the oldest grandson of Nancy Lincoln, who married William Brumfield. She was a sister of Thomas Lincoln, father of the President.

" 'In the spring of 1784, the Presi- dent's grandfather, who was my great-grandfather, was sowing hemp seed near the fort, somewhere near what is now the corner of Fourth and Main streets, Louisville — so I have often heard my grandfather say — and while thus engaged an Indian slipped up and shot him dead. Thomas, the President's father, then 6 years old, was with his father in the hemp patch, and, at the crack of the gun, broke for the fort.

" 'The Indian, anxious to capture the boy, gave chase, and caught him near the fort, and started to run with the boy in his arms, when Mordecai Lincoln, Thomas's oldest brother, shot the Indian from the fort, and killed him. When the Indian dropped, he fell foremost upon the little fellow. The boy made a ter-

The Lincoln Kinsman

rible struggle, and got from under the dead body of the savage, and ran into the fort. Thus it will be seen how near the father of the future President came to a tragic end in his childhood,

" 'Thomas learned the cabinet maker's trade in Washington County, and worked at his trade in Spring- field until he married Nancy Hanks, in the fall of 1806. He then went to farming, and farmed one year in Washington County. During that year a daughter, Mary Jane, was born, and I suppose it is the birth of this child which leads my vener- able relative. Squire Thompson, to the belief that Abraham was born in Washington County. Thomas Lincoln, soon after the birth of the first child, moved to Nolin, near Hodgenville, in what is now Larue County. Here, on the 12th of Feb- ruary, 1809, Abraham was born.

" 'I have this from my father and mother, who then lived in Hardin County and also from Abraham En- lows, who was living in the neigh- borhood at the time, and died after Lincoln became President. Enlows said he happened to be passing Thomas Lincoln's home just at the time his wife was confined, and he, seeing Enlows, rushed out and asked him to go after a midwife in a hurry, which he did, and always claimed that the President was named for him as a token of appreciation of his services on that memorable Feb- ruary day.

" 'J. L. Nair."

The correspondence with Mr. Sweeney of Louisville, reproduced above, was carried on in 1881, two years after Mr. Nail left Ken- tucky. In this letter he claimed that

the story about the massacre of the pioneer Lincoln had been told to him by his grandfather, William Brum- field. Mr. Nail does not at this time mention the name of the pioneer Lincoln or the name of his wife. He places the scene of the massacre near the corner of Main and Fourth streets in Louisville. The physical surroundings at this location in the month of May 1786, the actual time of the massacre, would not have al- lowed this incident to have occurred there. The story of the massacre had appeared in part in many different forms, previous to 1881.

Another statement by Mr. Nail in the Sweeney correspondence elabor- ates on the naming of the infant Abraham Lincoln after a certain Ab- raham Enlow who is said to have gone for a mid-wife at the time of the child's birth. Mr. Nail claims that both his own parents and Mr. Enlow himself had told him of this incident. Apparently Mr. Nail did not know, in 1881, that Abraham Lincoln was named for his grand- father. Mr. Nail was also confused about the date of the marriage of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln referr- ing to it as in the fall, when it was actually on June 12, 1806. He also was mistaken about the name of the President's sister which he called Mary Jane, when her name is known to have been Sarah.

Whitney*s Biographical Sketches Henry C. Whitney states that it was in 1892 when he secured his information about the Lincoln an- cestry from his informant Mr. Nail. The following excerpts which refer to the paternal side of the family are taken from Whitney's Lincoln the Citizen :

The Lincoln Kinsman

The Lincoln Kinsman

tublhhed Monthly by

LiNCOLNIANA PUBLISHERS

Box 1110 — ^Fort Wayne, Ind.

m

EDITOR Dr. Louis A. Warrbn,

Director, Lincoln National Life Foundation

BUSINESS MANAGER Maurice A. Cook

Annual Subscription $2.00

Single Copies — .25

"A more extended research than the great Emancipator was enabled to give, prosecuted by Hon. J. L. Nail, of Missouri, a grandson of Mr. Lincoln's aunt, Nancy Brumfield, re- veals the following facts of gene- alogy to a moral certainty, viz: — that one Samuel Lincoln came from England in the year 1637, also that he had a son named Mordecai, Sr., that he had a son whom he called Mordecai, Jr.; that he had a son John who emigrated to Virginia ; and that he had a son Abraham, who was the father of Thomas — who was the father of our hero. The original Samuel had a brother John who came to America a little earlier, per- haps about 1633.

"The son, Abraham, migrated to the northwest part of North Caro- lina, to the waters of the Catawba River, where he married Miss Mary Shipley, by whom he had three sons, named, respectively, Mordecai, Jo- siah, and Thomas; and, during or about the year 1780, emigrated with several families of the Berrys and Shipleys to Kentucky. . . . After settling in Kentucky, there were added to his family two daughters, Mary, who afterwards married Ralph Crume, and Nancy, who thereafter

married William Brumfield; and in 1784, while he was at work in the clearing, attended only by his young- est son, Thomas, the father of the President, he was fatally shot by an Indian. . . . Hon. J. L, Nail, a great- grandson of the pioneer, and a grandson of his daughter Nancy, who married William Brumfield, avers that his ancestor settled at the present site of Louisville, and ad- duces in support of his statement the concurrent evidence of his great- grandmother, the wife of the pioneer, and who lived to the great age of one hundred and ten years, and of his grandmother; also of his great- uncle, Mordecai Lincoln, all of whom he has heard talk of the subject fre- quently. . . . Mr. Nail writes 'My great-grandmother, Mary Shipley Lincoln, moved with my grandfather, William Brumfield, who married her daughter Nancy, to Hardin County, Kentucky, and lived the balance of her long life with them, and died, when I was a good big boy, at the age of one hundred and ten years.' "

Mr. Whitney also gives us Mr, Nail's theory about the maternal an- cestry of Lincoln as revealed by Mr, Nail, in these words:

"Equally conclusive is the testi- mony of Hon. J. L. Nail, a grand- son of Thomas Lincoln's sister Nancy, and by far the most intelli- gent archaeologist and genealogist of that branch of the Lincoln family which includes the President. He says absolutely, and with emphasis and circumstance, that Nancy Hanks was an orphan girl at a tender age, her father being a Hanks and her mother a Berry, daughter of old Richard Berry. The latter and Ab- raham Lincoln Sr. married sisters by

The Lincoln Kinsman

the name of Shipley, which made the President and his wife remote cou- sins, having the same great-grand- father and great-grandmother. Mr. Nail says specifically:

" 'Nancy Hank's mother was a Berry, and she married a Hanks, who was the father of Nancy; he died in Virginia, and his widow mar- ried Sparrow, and Richard Berry raised Nancy. I had an uncle John N. Hill who died in Hardin County in 1883 at the age of one hundred years. He was one of the most in- telligent and best posted men in Ken- tucky history I ever knew in my life, and this was his version of the rela- tionship, as well as that of my grand- father William Brumfield and grand- mother Nancy (Lincoln) Brumfield. Uncle Hill was not related to the Lincoln family, and, of course, had nothing to cover up or conceal. He lived in Washington County in his younger days, right by the side of the Lincoln and Berry family; and was at the wedding when Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married.' "

The more serious discrepancies in Mr. Nail's statements as to sources of information, appear in his remi- niscences prepared for Whitney in 1892, eleven years after the Sweeney correspondence. He mentions that the family history of the Lincoln's was revealed to him by his grand- mother Nancy Lincoln Brumfield. She died however, in 1845 when Mr. Nail was but fifteen years of age. Abra- ham Lincoln had not been elected to Congress by this time and it is not likely that there would be any oc- casion for Nail's grandmother to re- view the family connection with a certain Abraham, forty-five years be-

fore Mr. Nail related his reminis- cences to Mr. Whitney. He thought his grandmother was born in Ken- tucky, but she was born in Virginia. He also recalled her reminiscence about her own observations referring to the massacre, but she was only six years old at the time.

Mr. Nail also wrote to Mr. Whit- ney that he had heard his great- grandmother talk about the massacre of her husband, the pioneer Lincoln, and that she "lived to the great age of one hundred and ten years." Mr. Nail further aflQrmed that when she died, "I was a good big boy." Tra- dition places the date of her death as 1836.

Mr. Nail evidently was mistaken in some respects about this great- grandmother and I believe that he had her confused with his own grand- mother who died in 1845. li we consider him a "good big boy" at six years of age in 1836 (he was born in 1830), it would place the birth of his great-grandmother 110 years earlier in the year 1726. Her husband was not born until 1744 and it does not seem reasonable that he married a wife eighteen years his senior. She would have been fifty- four years old when Mr. Nail's grandmother, Nancy Lincoln was born. It does not seem Mr. Nail would have remembered very much his great-grandmother had said when he was but six years of age.

If we assume that the pioneer's wife was about twenty-one in 1770, when she married Lincoln, who was then twenty-six, and lived to be 110 years old, she would have been liv- ing when Abraham Lincoln, her grandson was nominated for the

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Presidency, but no one has made such a claim.

Nicolay and Hay

When Nicolay and Hay published the Lincoln History in the Century Magazine, they made no mention of Abraham Lincoln's maternal grand- mother, but before their ten volume work was ready for the press they had gotten in touch with Mr. Nail and made this notation:

"In giving to the wife of the pio- neer Lincoln the name of Mary Shipley we follow the tradition in his family. The Hon. J. L. Nail, of Missouri, grandson of Nancy (Lin- coln) Brumfield, Abraham Lincoln's youngest child, has given us so clear a statement of the case that we can- not hesitate to accept it, although it conflicts with equally positive statements from other sources."

Mrs. Hitchcock Correspondence

In the year 1895 Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was compiling material for a history of the Hanks family, wrote to Mr. Nail who an- swered her first inquiry as follows: "Carthage, Mo Feb. 11-95 "C. Hanks Hitchcock

"Dear Sir

"In reply to your favor of the 6th inst I beg leave to say I am not posted as to the geneology of the Hanks family.

"About all I know is that Nancy Hanks wife of my Uncle Thomas Lincoln and mother of the President came from North Carolina and lived with her Uncle Richard Berry in Washington Co Ky until She mar- ried my uncle Thomas Lincoln on the 23rd of Sept 1806. Richard Berrys wife was a Shipley. I sup-

pose Nancys mother was Mr. Berry's sister as he was her uncle. Thomas Lincolns mother and Richard Ber- ries mother were sisters. Both Ship- lies.

"Dennis Hanks, a Nephew of Nancy lives at Charleston Ills and Suppose can give you valuable in- formation, I also refere you to Charles Friend of Sonoro Hardin Co Ky who I think can aid you as I understand he has considerable cor- respondence in his hands from the family. I furnish you the above in- formation freely and gladly and only wish I could furnish more, but have never made any researches along that line.

"I have the honor of being quoted as the best living authority on the geneology of the Lincoln family. I have made this a life study because of the pride I take in my Maternal Ancestors.

"You ask me if Thomas Lincoln married Lucy Shipley or Lucy Bery; he married Nancy Hanks as before stated, his father Abraham married Mary Shipley and Richard Bery married Lucy Shipley.

"I have been greatly imposed upon by men who were writing the life of Lincoln; I have written hundreds of pages at their request and now have their letters in which they say I have furnished them with valuable infor- mation they could have gotten from no other source and yet so far as I know not one of them has ever even done me the honor to give me credit or mention my name in his book, nor have any of them ever extended me the curtesy to even send me a copy of their work. I had quite a lengthy correspondence with H. C. Whitney 3 years ago, whose letters.

The Lincoln Kinsman

I now have, acknowledge valuable information received from me. He promised to make honorable men- tion of me in his book as 'having furnished most valuable information that could have been gotten from no other source' and would send me a copy of his work, this was the last I ever heard of the matter. Will you please inform me if he published the book.

"Yours Truly, "J. L. Nail"

On September 24 Mrs. Hitchcock wrote to Mr. Nail again, this time about the Shipley family, his reply follows :

"Carthage Mo Sept 29-95 "Mrs Caroline Hanks Hitchcock "Cambridge Mass

"My Dear friend

"In reply to your favor of the 24th ult. allow me to say; I know but little of the Shipley family. They came from North Carolina to Ky in 1780, from the same section that Daniel Boone came from. I have heard my grand mother speak of Thomas Sparrow as a relative on her mothers side, but have no family records I can refere to for verifica- tion. My grand mother was a daugh- ter of Mary Shipley Lincoln and a sister to Thomas Lincoln, the father of the president.

"Yours Truly "J. L. Nail"

When Mr. Nail began correspond- ing with Mrs. Hitchcock in the year 1895, he had changed his opinions about Nancy's relationship to Rich- ard Berry and called him her uncle stating, "I suppose Nancy's mother was Berry's sister." Mr. Nail did

contend to the end however, that Richard Berry married Lucy Shipley and pioneer Abraham Lincoln mar- ried Mary Shipley, a sister of Lucy. That Mr. Nail became very much confused about the question of the Berry, Shipley, Lincoln, Hanks re- lationship, is quite evident, yet Nico- lay and Hay were so impressed with his testimonial that they accepted his theory of the Shipley maternal an- cestry of Thomas Lincoln and stated that they did not hesitate to accept the Nail tradition that Mary Shipley was the wife of the pioneer Abra- ham Lincoln.

Although Mr. Nail claims to have remembered conversing with his great-grandmother, widow of the pioneer Lincoln, he was mistaken about her given name, which was Bersheba instead of Mary, as he called her. There is no support thus far that he was correct in calling her surname Shipley. Although the pio- neer Richard Berry was his own great-grandfather, through the Brura- field ancestry, he did not know it, but he did think at one time that the pioneer Richard Berry was Nancy Hanks' grandfather, and he so advised Mr. Whitney.

Possibly the solution to Mr. Nail's confusion about these related fami- lies can be clarified by first showing how he was related to Richard Berry, who seems to be the key man in the picture. Richard Berry married Ra- chel Shipley (not Lucy Shipley). They had a daughter Johanna who married James Brumfield. James and Johanna had a son William, who mar- ried Nancy Lincoln, and one of their children was named Elizabeth. Eliza- beth Brumfield married William E.

8

The Lincoln Kinsman

Nail and they became the parents of James L. Nail, the historian. It will be seen that Berry was Mr. Nail's great-great-grandfather. Rich- ard Berry was the great-grandfather of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield's chil- dren. He was also an uncle to Nancy Hanks whose mother Lucy Shipley Hanks was a sister of Berry's wife, Rachel. There is no evidence that an- other sister, a Mary Shipley married pioneer Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. NalVs Sources of Information

We trust that this investigation of the reliability of Mr. Nail's sources of information may not imply that he at any time purposely made false statements. The discrepancy which appears in his sketches have resulted from relying too much on the testi- monies of others or confusing what he may have read with what he may have heard. Inasmuch as Mr. Nail moved to Missouri in 1879, after this date he would not be able to per- sonally interview any of the Ken- tuckians contemporary with the Lin- colns or engage in research in the Kentucky archives. Most of his his- torical documents were written after 1879.

It has been shown that Mr. Nail could not have been more than six years of age when his great-grand- mother, Bersheba Lincoln passed away, and it is safe to conclude he did not remember anything she ever told him. His grandmother, Nancy Lin- coln Brumfield, died when he was fif- teen and in his early writings he makes no claim she related any his- torical information to him as early as 1845 when she died. He may have

heard his grandfather William Brum- field make some statements about the Lincolns, as he lived until 1857, but this was three years before Abraham Lincoln's name came into prominence. Mr. Nail's own parents may have im- parted some information to him after 1860, but he places little emphasis on their reminisences.

There are two sources which Mr. Nail implies that he drew upon for information, especially about Lin- coln's maternal ancestry. One "my venerable relative Squire Thomp- son" and the other, "an Uncle John N. Hill," both of whom lived in Washington County when Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln were mar- ried. It will not be our purpose to investigate in this Kinsman their ability to speak authoritatively on the subject.

It is to be greatly regretted that Mr. Nail spoke with such assurance on the subject of Abraham Lincoln's ances- try, as the confusion which he caused has greatly delayed the attempt to dis- cover the surname of the pioneer Lin- coln's wife. Possibly a more serious obstacle to overcome is his reference to the Shipley family which does have a definite place in the history of Lincoln's lineage, but which has been discredited more or less by Mr. Nail's mistakes about the marriage affilia- tions of the Shipley daughters.

When a general survey of Mr. Nail's contributions are made it is difficult to find even one single fact which he contributed that had not already been mentioned by Lincoln himself or some biography written earlier than the date Mr. Nail released his informa- tion about the Lincoln family history.

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