Lincoln, Thomas (Tad)

Born: 1853-04-04 Springfield, Illinois

Died: 1871-07-15 Chicago, Illinois

Fourth son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Lincoln, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln spent his early years in Springfield, Illinois. He moved into the Executive Mansion with his parents and older brother Willie after his father won the presidency. Tad received no formal schooling during his years in the Executive Mansion. Along with his brother Willie, Tad contracted typhoid fever in 1862, but he recovered. On the night of his father's assassination, Tad attended Grover's Theater to watch the play Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, learning about his father's shooting only when the manager of the theater made a general announcement to the audience.

Ruth Painter Randall, Lincoln's Sons (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 34, 271; David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 336-37; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 2:260-62, 298, 299, 301-2, 817-19.