Thursday, November 3, 2011

Mrs. Lincoln Commitment Papers Preserved at Lincoln Library

From the Nov. 2nd Chicago Sun Times.

Original Cook County (Chicago) documents concerning the commitment of the wife of Abraham Lincoln will be preserved at the Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield. The papers are from 1875 and 1876.

One is the petition of her son, Robert Lincoln, the only surviving son, to have his mother declared insane. Others are a subpoena and summons to have her appear in court and the jury verdict decreeing her insanity.

After her husband's assassination in 1865, she moved to Chicago and lived for awhile in Hyde Park. Some observers considered her insane over the years, but by 1975, Robert Todd Lincoln, a Chicago lawyer became increasingly worried about her erratic behavior.

She would walk around with more than $57,000 sewn into her petticoat, visit clairvoyants to communicate with the dead and though people were trying to poison her.

In May 1875, he initiated court proceedings for insanity. After a three hour trial, a Cook County court found her guilty and she was taken to an upscale asylum at Bellevue Place in Batavia, Illinois (a suburb). The place still stands on the Lincoln Highway.

She was furious at her son and worked with friends to make a case for her sanity which led to her release a few months later.

I Wonder If She Was Ever Friendly with Robert After That. --Cooter

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