Johnston, Nancy J.

Born: 1836-03-08

Alternate name: Williams

Nancy Jane Williams married John D. Johnston, Abraham Lincoln's step-brother, on March 5, 1851 in Clark County, Illinois, when he was forty and she was three days from her fifteenth birthday. She was his second wife, and, upon their marriage, became step-mother to he and Mary Johnston's six surviving children. She moved to Marion County, Arkansas with Johnston in February 1852, but they returned to Coles County, Illinois within a year. She and Johnston had one child together, John D. Johnston, Jr., born April 11, 1854—ten days after her husband died. His death made her a widow and single mother at age eighteen. His estate was worth less than $56.

Lincoln Family Record; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Clark County, 5 March 1851, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Kenneth J. Winkle, The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln (Dallas: Taylor Trade, 2001), 146-47.