While in Winchester, Lincoln was a guest of Rosa Haggard’s father, hotel owner Robert E. Haggard. Her sister Linnie recollected that after her father entertained Lincoln and some prominent Republicans, Lincoln remained in the parlor with the Haggard family and upon seeing a guitar asked for some music. After Linnie played and sang for Lincoln, she and Rosa requested that he sign their autograph albums. Lincoln complied, swiftly writing original verses to each, with these lines being the inscription he produced for Rosa. Following Linnie Haggard’s death, this inscription by Lincoln was owned by the family of one of her former students. According to the memory of this former pupil, Linnie had told him a slightly variant story of the origin of these lines in which Linnie and her sisters were playing the guitar and singing in the parlor of their father’s hotel after their work was done. In this version of the story, several guests, including Lincoln, were on the porch as the Haggard sisters performed, and Lincoln came in from the porch where he had been listening to ask that they sing again. After receiving his thanks, the girls requested that he sign their autograph books. Lincoln penned an inscription to Linnie Haggard on September 30, 1858.