Lincoln, Thomas (great uncle)

Born: 1761-XX-XX Pennsylvania

Thomas Lincoln was a great uncle of President Abraham Lincoln and brother of President Lincoln's grandfather, Abraham Lincoln. Early in life, he moved with his family to Rockingham County, Virginia. In September 1782, he married Elizabeth Casner. In 1792, he emigrated to Kentucky, purchasing 290 acres on the south fork of Elkhorn creek in Fayette County. He became a prosperous farmer, using the labor of enslaved people to cultivate corn, tobacco, and hemp and to raise hogs for market. In 1810, he owned three enslaved people; he owned up to six enslaved people at one point. He became the owner of a distillery, and in 1812, he was a tavern-keeper. Despite his prosperity, Thomas Lincoln suffered marital difficulty, and in January 1809, his wife left him over his cruelty. Thomas countered that his wife abused alcohol and often appeared intoxicated. The couple reconciled in August 1809, but separated again in March 1810. Litigation between the couple continued until June 1811, when Elizabeth Lincoln's counsel departed to join William Henry Harrison in his campaign against the Indians. Thomas appeared to have gotten the worst of the settlement, as he lost most of his property and spiraled down to insolvency shortly before his death.

Louis A. Warren, Lincoln's Parentage & Childhood (New York: Century, 1926), 3, 38, 169, 262, 283, 384; Abraham Lincoln to Solomon Lincoln; U.S. Census Office, Third Census of the United States (1810), Lexington, Fayette County, KY, 790; William H. Townsend, Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1955), 16-23.