Hannah (Jones) Wilcox Armstrong (1890)

ARMSTRONG, JONES, WILCOX

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 12/15/2007 at 07:21:24

The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, August 21, 1890

Mrs. Armstrong, mother of Robert Armstrong of this city, died Tuesday. She was an old lady and was well known in this county, where she had hundreds of friends.

The body was taken to Ashland, Ill., her old home, for burial on the Wednesday morning train.
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Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, August 22, 1890
Page 4

County and City

Mrs. Armstrong, the old lady whose sickness was noted last week, died Tuesday of this week.
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Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, August 29, 1890
Page 4

Death of a Noted Woman, Mrs. Hannah Armstrong For Many Years a Friend and Associate of Abraham Lincoln, Died at her home in Winterset.

On Tuesday, August 19, there died in Winterset a woman, far advanced in years, whose name has been indissolubly connected with every account of the personal life of Abraham Lincoln. This woman was Mrs. Hannah Armstrong, the mother of our townsman, Mr. Robert Armstrong. In the days of the early settlement of the west, Mrs. Armstrong and her husband, Jack Armstrong, lived near New Salem, Menard county, Illinois, where Lincoln kept a small store and the post office, and where he began reading law. Lincoln boarded with the Armstrongs, he and Jack Armstrong having become sworn friends after Lincoln had defeated him in a wrestling match, Armstrong having been put up as the champion of the Clary’s Grove boys. Lincoln frequently rocked the cradle that contained the infant form of their son, William D. Armstrong, of whom more presently. When he went into the Black Hawk war, Mrs. Armstrong mended the clothes he wore in that campaign. When Lincoln was afterwards a noted lawyer at Springfield, he had and improved the opportunity of repaying the kindness he owed to the Armstrong family. From “The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln,” edited by Francis F. Browne, we take the following incident:

THE TRIAL OF BILL ARMSTRONG.

In the summer of 1857, at a camp meeting in Mason county, on Metzgar was most brutally murdered. The affray took place about half a mile from the place of worship, near some wagons loaded with liquors and provisions. Two men, James H. Norris and William D. Armstrong, were indicted for the crime. Norris was tried in Mason county, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of eight years. The popular feeling being very high against Armstrong in Mason county, he took a change of venue to Cass county, and was there tried (at Beardstown) in the spring of 1858. Hitherto Armstrong had had the services of two able counselors, but now their efforts were supplemented by those of a most determined and zealous volunteer. The case was so clear against the accused that defense seemed almost useless. The strongest evidence was that of a man who swore that at eleven o’clock at night he saw Armstrong strike the deceased on the head; that the moon was shining brightly and was nearly full, and that its position in the sky was just about that of the sun at ten o’clock in the morning, and by it he saw Armstrong give the mortal blow. This was fatal unless the effect could be broken by contradiction or impeachment. Lincoln quietly looked up an almanac and found that at the time this witness declared the moon to have been shining with full light, there was no moon at all. Mr. Lincoln made the closing argument. “At first, says Mr. Walker, one of the counsel associated with him, “he spoke very slowly and carefully, reviewed the testimony and pointed out its contradictions, discrepancies and impossibilities. When he had thus prepared the way, he called for the almanac and showed that at the hour at which the principal witness swore he had seen by the light of the full moon the mortal blow given, there was no moon.” Said one of the prosecutors: “He took the jury by storm.”

His mother, who sat near during Mr. Lincoln’s appeal, says: “He told the stories about our first acquaintance, and what I did for him and how I did it. Lincoln said to me, “Hannah, your son will be cleared before sun down.” He and the other lawyers addressed the jury, and closed the case. I went down to Thompson’s pasture. Stator came to me and told me that my son was cleared and a free man. I went up to the court house; the jury shook hands with me, so did the court, so did Lincoln. We were all affected, and tears streamed from Lincoln’s eyes. He then remarked to me: “Hannah, what did I tell you? I pray to God that William may be a good boy hereafter; that this lesson may prove in the end a good lesson to him and to all.” After the trial was over Lincoln came down to where I was in Beardstown. I asked him what he charged me; told him I was poor. He said, “Why, Hannah, I shan’t charge you a cent—never. Anything I can do for you I will do willingly and without charges.”

This incident is also mentioned in the Century life of Lincoln. E. Edward Eggleston, the famous author of the “Hoosier Schoolmaster,” has woven it into a story, and it is related by others. Mr. Steward Propst, a son-in-law of T. A. Stone, of this city, and brother-in-law of County Superintendent Stone, was a witness for the prosecution in the trial. We are informed, also, that Mr. Elijah Nichols, who lives near Truro, in this county, was a witness. It is related by several parties that the almanac used by Lincoln to prove the unreliability of the witnesses, was a bogus affair, got up for use at that particular trial, but this is not mentioned by either of the histories to which we have referred.

Mrs. Armstrong’s remains were taken by her son, Robert, for burial, to their old home at Ashland, in Menard county, Ill., where her husband Jack Armstrong has lain buried for many years.
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Coordinator's note: Per information from a family member, the last paragraph is not correct. She is not buried at Ashland, Illinois but that was as far as the train went with her body. She is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Petersburg, Illinois along with her second husband, Samuel Wilcox. Samuel died before she came to Madison County. Her first husband, Jack Armstrong, is buried in an old cemetery in the county, Old Concord. It was in disrepair and accessible through private property but recently has been taken care of and graves restored etc.

Gravesite
 

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