Oldham, Edward

Born: 1795-03-25 Maryland

Died: 1871-12-13 Fayette County, Kentucky

Edward Oldham was a cotton manufacturer, railroad director, and landowner. By 1830, he was living in Lexington, Kentucky. By 1832, he was a partner in Oldham, Todd & Company, along with Thomas Hemingway and Robert S. Todd, Abraham Lincoln's father-in-law. Oldham married twice, and owned an estate of several hundred acres in Sandersville, Fayette County, Kentucky, where he lived until his death. In 1850, he owned $16,000 in real estate, but as his business grew so did his personal wealth. He was one of nine directors of the Kentucky Central Railroad at least as early as 1858, and, by 1860, had accumulated nearly $45,000 in real and personal property.

Betty Boles Ellison, The True Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), 46; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Lexington, Fayette County, KY, 268; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Fayette County, KY, 155; James W. Low, Jr., comp., Low's Railway Directory for 1858 (New York: Wynkoop, Hallenbeck & Thomas, 1858), 63; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Fayette County, KY, 40; William Elsey Connelley, History of Kentucky (Chicago: American Historical Society, 1922), 4:14; Gravestone, The Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, KY.