MARY ANN RUTLEDGE/ABRAHAM LINCOLN

PLASKETT, HARRIS, JENKINS, PREWITT, BENNETT, SAUNDERS

Posted By: nancy dorwart (email)
Date: 3/5/2004 at 15:51:21

The Fairfield Daily Ledger, Feb. 12, 1962.

MARY ANN RUTLEDGE - PIONEER BETHEL WOMAN HAD CLOSE LINCOLN TIE

Little known facts about the Rutledge family,closely associated with the early life of Abraham Lincoln, came to light today on the 153rd anniversary of Lincoln's birth. Lincoln was a frequent visitor in the Rutledge home at New Salem IL before the family moved to Van Buren County. Many scholars discredit the story of Lincoln's romance with Ann Rutledge. Lincoln spent six years in New Salem, beginning in 1831. Ann, 22, and her father, James Rutledge, died in an epidemic in 1835. Ann's mother, Mrs.Mary Ann Rutledge and six children, settled in Iowa in 1837.

The Rutledge homestead was located in the Bethel community northwest of Birmingham. The farm remained in the Rutledge family for three generations. it is now owned by Mace Clarridge. Information about the family was supplied by Dr. Jennie McKee, retired Philadelphia school physician and a former Jefferson county resident.

The Rutledge farm was operated by the eldest son, John, who married Sarah Harris in 1857. Mrs. Rutledge lived to the age of 91. She died Dec. 26, 1878, after 12 years of blindness. John, who served in the Black Hawk War, died May 17, 1879. Both are buried in Bethel Methodist church cemetery.

Mrs. Rutledge was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church when it was located east of Steele cemetery. The church building is still standing at its original location on the Anthony Woodrow farm.

In addition to John Rutledge, other children who accompanied Mrs. Rutledge to Iowa were Robert B, Nancy C., Margaret A., William H., and Sarah F. Robert married Sarah Plaskett, and after her early death, Samantha Jenkins. Nancy married Anthony Prewitt. She later moved to Fairfield, dying here at the age of 80. William married Olive Bennett and Sarah married John Saunders. Robert and William moved west as young men. The Saunders lived on what later became the Greer McKee farm. Mrs. Saunders died in CA at the age of 92.