Mary todd lincoln civil war biography project
(16) mary ann todd lincoln!
Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Todd Lincoln was born December 13, 1818, in Lexington Kentucky, the fourth child of Robert Smith Todd and Elizabeth "Eliza" Parker.
Mary’s father was a successful merchant and co-owner of a cotton mill, and the Todds were considered amongst the state's influential and politically connected handful of elite families.
Mary todd lincoln civil war biography project
When she was only six years old Mary’s mother died in childbirth. Two years later, her father married Elizabeth "Betsy" Humphreys. Mary described her childhood as "desolate."
Considered rare for women in the early nineteenth century, Mary received nearly ten years of formal schooling: six years of study at Shelby Female Academy, with four years at Madame Charlotte Mentelle’s boarding school.
She gained a lifelong fluency in French, a love of reading and learning, and knowledge of the world beyond Lexington.
Mary’s eldest sister, Elizabeth, married Ninian Wirt Edwards, son of the former territorial