* Abraham Lincoln, regarded as one of the greatest of all the American presidents, spent his first days in a small log cabin on the frontier in the state of Kentucky. He was raised by his two parents, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, who relocated their family to Indiana in 1816. In 1818, when Abraham Lincoln was just nine years of age, his mother passed away, having drank the milk of a cow that had consumed a poisonous plant. Thomas Lincoln took himself another wife, Sarah Bush Johnston, the following year. Young Abraham loved his stepmother, and she encouraged him to further his education. He chose to listen to her, and would borrow books any time had the chance. In the evening, Lincoln could frequently be found practicing his writing. Still, he had to do physical labor in order to help support his family and sustain their farm. Eventually, the Lincolns moved to Illinois, where Abraham would then leave home and make a name for himself.

* From 1847 until 1849, Lincoln was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving with politicians such as former President John Quincy Adams and Alexander Stephens, who would later serve as the vice president of the Confederacy. After one term in Congress, Lincoln returned to Illinois to continue his practice. However, during the 1850's Lincoln would continue to voice his ideas about politics and current events in speeches. In 1858, "Honest Abe" participated in a series of debates against Stephen A. Douglas, a politician seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate. It was Douglas that had introduced the bill that became the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the text of which declared that states should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. Lincoln, who did not support the extension of slavery, thus did not agree with Douglas' stance on the practice, and decided to try to prevent him from winning another term in Congress. The two agreed to debate each other seven times at different locations throughout Illinois, and Lincoln's skill as a public speaker proved to be great, but was not enough to help him return to Congress. Though Lincoln would lose the election and be denied a seat in the Senate, his fame grew because of the debates, which helped him defeat Senator Douglas in the 1860 presidential election. A month after Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president, Fort Sumter in South Carolina was fired upon, marking the beginning of the conflict that would consume nearly Lincoln's entire stay at the White House.

* Not long before his untimely death, President Lincoln had a peculiar dream which he went on to share with some of his friends. In this dream Lincoln was inside the White House and he heard people sobbing, so he ventured downstairs. There was no one in sight, yet he still heard grieving. He wandered the hallways until he entered the East Room. Inside there was a casket resting on a catafalque, guarded by soldiers and surrounded by weeping mourners. Lincoln demanded, “Who is dead in the White House?” One of the men replied, “The president. He was killed by an assassin.”

* On election night in 1876, a group of four men made their way into Oak Ridge Cemetery in an attempt to steal Lincoln’s body, hide it in the Indiana dunes, and hold it for ransom. At this time in history, there were no guards at the cemetery, and the only obstacle they had to deal with was a padlock. It took half an hour to cut through the lock, and then a while to break into the sarcophagus. They did not realize that one of their gang members was a double agent, even as he left to alert the other members of the Secret Service. While the Secret Service dealt with protecting currency at this time, and not presidents, they felt that someone had to stop the thieves. Through a bunch of bumbling and mistakes on the Secret Service’s part, the criminals got away, but not with the president’s body. The thieves were apprehended within the week.

First Lady: Mary Ann Todd Lincoln

  - Spouse: Mary Ann Todd Lincoln (m. 1842-1865)

Political Party: Whig Party
                         Republican Party

Vice President: Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865)

                         Andrew Johnson (1865)

Last Words: "She won't think anything about it."