Grimsley, Elizabeth J.

Born: 1825-01-XX Edwardsville, Illinois

Died: 1895-09-23 Minnesota

Flourished: 1827 to 1865 Springfield, Illinois

Alternate name: Todd

Born Elizabeth J. Todd, Elizabeth J. Grimsley was the daughter of John Todd, Mary Lincoln’s uncle, and was known within her family as “Cousin Lizzie.” She settled in Springfield, Illinois, with her family as a child in 1827. Elizabeth was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln in 1842. Four years later, Elizabeth married Harrison J. Grimsley as her first husband and the pair had two children. Following their marriage, the Grimsleys lived in the Springfield household of her parents. Harrison Grimsley struggled to stay continuously employed in the 1850s and occasionally sought work outside Springfield, traveling to St. Louis and Kansas looking for employment while Elizabeth and their children remained with her parents. Harrison Grimsley left his family and ceased to support them in 1857 and Elizabeth successfully sued for divorce two years later. Due to Harrison’s intemperance with alcohol, Elizabeth was granted custody of their children. In February 1861, Elizabeth left her sons with her parents in Springfield and joined the Lincoln family in Washington, DC at their request. She attended Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration and lived with the Lincoln family in the White House for six months during which time she assisted with the care of the Lincoln children. Beginning in 1861, Elizabeth sought appointment by Lincoln as postmaster of Springfield but was unsuccessful in her attempts. Grimsley returned to Washington, DC in March 1865 to attend Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration but was home in Springfield at the time of his assassination and was unable to comply with Mary Lincoln’s request for her presence in Washington in the immediate aftermath of the president’s death. Elizabeth attended his funeral in Springfield with the family.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 716-17; Richard E. Hart, Lincoln’s Springfield: Elizabeth Jane Todd Grimsley Brown ‘Cousin Lizzie’ (1825-1895) (Springfield: Richard E. Hart, 2018), 36-37, 43, 46-47, 58-59, 62, 65, 68-71, 87-89, 149, 151-52, 153; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Sangamon County, 21 July 1846, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 100; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), District 16, Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 148; Elizabeth Todd Grimsley, “Six Months in the White House,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 19 (October 1926-January 1927), 43-73; Illinois State Register (Springfield), 24 September 1895, 5:3; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL.