To mark Presidents Day, here are some bits of information about our favorite president, Abe Lincoln, as culled from the internet, with thanks to Jeff Crilley at The Rundown daily email newsletter:
• First, our 16th president hated to be called Abe. He preferred being called by his last name.
• Lincoln practiced law without a degree.
• He had only 18 months of formal schooling.
• He wanted women to have the vote in 1836.
• Lincoln read the Bible every day but never belonged to an organized church.
• He was an enthusiastic wrestler and took part in bouts.
• He defended the son of his most famous wrestling opponent against murder charge.
• Lincoln was known to battle depression most of his life.
• He was the first president:
— born outside the original 13 states, on Feb. 12, 1809;
— to use the telegraph and
communicated with his generals as if it were the internet;
— to have a beard;
— to be assassinated.
• Lincoln was the only president to have a patent. It was for a device that freed steamboats run aground.
• He had no middle name.
• He loved eating oysters.
• He didn’t drink, smoke or chew tobacco.
• Lincoln was a big animal lover. He wouldn’t hunt or fish.
• His favorite food was fruit. He was also fond of chicken casserole.
• His cat, named Tabby, supposedly ate with him at the White House dinner table.
• His dog was named Fido.
• Lincoln didn’t play any musical instrument.
• He almost fought a duel that was canceled at the last second.
• Lincoln was a circuit court judge in Illinois.
• He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He ran for the U.S. Senate and lost both times, although once he won the popular vote but lost the election to Sen. Stephen Douglas.
• Lincoln lost his bid for vice president at the GOP convention in 1856.
• He argued a case before the Supreme Court in 1849 and lost.
• His first business failed.
• His shoe size was 12-14.
• His coffin was opened five times, although grave robbers failed in 1876.
• Lincoln’s life was saved twice when he was young.
• Lincoln has no direct living descendants.
• Lincoln was estranged from his father and didn’t attend his father’s funeral.
• His animals died in a White House stable fire.
• Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.
• Lincoln was photographed with his assassin John Wilkes Booth at his second inauguration.
• Booth’s brother saved the life of Lincoln’s son on a New Jersey train platform.
• Lincoln was shot at in 1864, and the bullet put a hole in his stovepipe hat.
• Lincoln kept his important papers inside his hat.
• Lincoln’s guest at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who canceled at the last moment.
• Fido was killed by a drunken assailant a year after Lincoln died.
So Groundhog Day has become part of American culture. The official groundhog that gets yanked out of its burrow is Punxsutawney Phil, named for the town where the German immigrants settled. Thousands of people and the national media cover poor Phil’s treatment. And let us not forget there is the film, “Goundhog Day,” which is enjoyed by many people year after year after year.
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