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Descendants of Abraham Lincoln

Generation No. 3

3. MARY TODD "MAMIE"¹³ LINCOLN (ROBERT TODD "BOB"¹², ABRAHAM¹¹, THOMAS¹⁰, ABRAHAM⁹, JOHN⁸, MORDECAI⁷, MORDECAI⁶, SAMUEL⁵, EDWARD⁴, RICHARD³, ROBERT², ROBERT¹) was born October 15, 1869 in Chicago, Cook Co., IL probably at Robert Lincoln home, Wabash Ave.¹⁶, and died November 21, 1938 in Presbyterian Hospital, 622 West 168 St., Manhattan, NY at 10:05 a.m.¹⁷. She married CHARLES BRADFORD ISHAM September 02, 1891 in Holy Trinity Church, Brompton Parish, near London, England¹⁸, son of WILLIAM ISHAM and JULIA BURHANS.

Notes for MARY TODD "MAMIE" LINCOLN:
From WFT Vol. 7, #2548:
!IGI says born in Lexington, Fayette Co., KY.
SOURCE: (1) Jerry Sanders, Indiana Historical Society Meeting,
Indianapolis, Indiana November 2, 1991
(2) IGI CD ROM examined at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne.

As a child she was called "Little Mamie". ("Lincoln's Sons", p. 164)

"That he [Robert Todd Lincoln] dutifully visited his mother once a week at Batavia is attested by a newspaper correspondent who called upon Mrs. Lincoln at the sanitarium. Frequently he would bring 'her favorite grandchild' with him, doubtless Mrs. Lincoln's own little namesake. The correspondent noted on the visit that the patient had two 'very expensive doll-babies' which she said were for her little granddaughter." (Lincoln's Sons, p. 290)

"Mary (Mamie), Jack, and Jessie Lincoln were bright, natural, unpretentious children well liked by the people of the town." (Lincoln's Sons, p. 305)

"Mary and Jessie Lincoln were piano students in the summer session of Iowa Wesleyan in 1886, and Mary became a member of the Mount Pleasant Chapter A of the P.E.O. Sisterhood on Sept. 17, 1884 (one month before her 15th birthday); Jessie was initiated into the same organization on Dec. 31, 1895 (almost two months after her 20th birthday). ["History of P.E.O. in Iowa (State P.E.O. Chapter, 1952), 194; Mary Lincoln was Roll No. 225; Jessie Lincoln was Roll No. 361.] (p. 416, "Jessie Harlan Lincoln in Iowa," by Dr. Louis A. Haselmayer, Annals of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, Fall 1968)

He [RTL] wrote Nicolay in December [1894] of that year: "I wonder if you are getting to feel so miserably old as I do. My daughter & her baby live a thousand miles away & the whole future seems merely so many days to be passed." (Lincoln's Sons, p. 332)

They became engaged in London.

She and her husband, "at the time her parents had Hildene built," bought a residence in Manchester which is now known as the '1811 House'.

From N.Y. Tribune article, 10/23/38, "Mrs. Charles Isham Dies; Lincoln's Granddaughter / Was Choir Mother of Grace Church for Many Years": Mrs. Mary Lincoln Isham, granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln, died yesterday after a long illness. Mrs. Isham was the wife of the late Charles Isham, a member of an old New York family, who died about twenty years ago.
       "Mrs. Isham passed her early life in Washington and Chicago. The greater part of her married life was passed in New York. She lived at 19 East Seventy-second Street. During the summer she made her home at Manchester, Vt. She was interested in church work and was for many years choir mother of Grace Church, 802 Broadway.
       "Mrs. Isham was the daughter of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's eldest son, who was Secretary of War, Ambassador to the Court of St. James's and president of the Pullman Company.
       "Surviving is a sister, Mrs. Robert Randolph, of Washington, the last surviving granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln, and a son, Lincoln Isham, of New York."

According to a short article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2/17/1935, she lived at 122 E. 38th St. at that time.

Notes for CHARLES BRADFORD ISHAM:
Banking heir, married at the Gothic, ivy-covered Church of the Holy Trinity, in Brompton Parish, near London.

He was Robert Todd Lincoln's secretary and a distant cousin of Robert Lincoln's law partner, Edward S. Isham. (Lincoln's Sons, p. 307)

Described as "a ripe scholar," at the time of their marriage he was "librarian of the New-York Historical Society." (p. 141, Lincoln Family Album)

After marrying, he "returned to New York City where he established a law practice." (footnote: Randall, "Lincoln's Sons") (p. 417, "Jessie Harlan Lincoln in Iowa," by Dr. Louis A. Haselmayer, Annals of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, Fall 1968)

N.Y. Tribune, 10/23/38: "the late Charles Isham, a member of an old New York family, who died about twenty years ago."

       Child of MARY LINCOLN and CHARLES ISHAM is:

LINCOLN "LINC"¹⁴ ISHAM, b. June 08, 1892, New York, NY¹⁹; d. September 01, 1971, Putnam Memorial Hospital, Bennington, Bennington Co., VT at 12:30 a.m.²⁰; m. LEAHALMA "LEA" CORREA, August 30, 1919²¹.

Notes for LINCOLN "LINC" ISHAM:
Apparently his parents originally gave him the name of "Abraham Lincoln Isham" and he later dropped the Abraham. Told this by Albert C. Jerman, historian at Hildene Estate. No verification.

"[H]e dropped out of Harvard, a newspaper reported, because 'his frail body was unequal to the strain.' Later, he is said to have performed secret work forthe government during World War II. He married a New York 'society girl' named Leahalma Correa, and helped raise her daughter, Frances Mantley. The Ishams had no children of their own. Little else is known about LI, except that he died on Sep 1, 1971, in Dorset, VT, where he had lived on a 22 acre farm. Isham left the bulk of his estate to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and American Cancer Society, plus a $440K trust fund to his stepdaughter. He sent his great-grandmother Mary Todd Lincoln's 'chicken leg coffee set' and a few other pieces of White House china to the Smithsonian, and the rest of his family artifacts were sold at auction." (p. 36, The Lincoln Family Album)

He "was often a visitor at Hildene and was one day allowed to drive his grandfather's 1905 Thomas automobile which he upset near the carriage barn and the chauffeur had a great deal of explaining to do."

He and his wife "eventually settled in Dorset, Vermont. He was a talented amateur musician and his wife wrote children's stories."

"Unfortunately after the death of Lincoln Isham many of his possessions had been auctioned and Lincoln family momentos [sic] were lost to the public view." (p. 289, RTL: A Man In His Own Right")

From The New Yorker (2/28/1994): He "was cross-eyed; matriculated at Harvard but dropped out from exhaustion; married a New York socialite; and died in 1971, childless, in Dorset, Vermont."

Last residence: Dorset, Bennington, VT 05251.

Notes for LEAHALMA "LEA" CORREA:
"society girl of Spanish descent" - Docent Handbook, Hildene Estate

She "wrote children's stories. She died in 1960." (from Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man In His Own Right, p. 288)

An article titled "Week by Week: Descendants of Abraham Lincoln", compiled by Herbert Wells Fay, Custodian Lincoln's Tomb, has her name as "Telhoma." However, the article contains several errors of fact (e.g., "Tod" for Tad, "James M. Huston" for James A. Harlan, "Lincoln's sons Eddie, Willie and Tod all died young" even though Tad was a young man when he died).

4. JESSIE HARLAN¹³ LINCOLN (ROBERT TODD "BOB"¹², ABRAHAM¹¹, THOMAS¹⁰, ABRAHAM⁹, JOHN⁸, MORDECAI⁷, MORDECAI⁶, SAMUEL⁵, EDWARD⁴, RICHARD³, ROBERT², ROBERT¹) was born November 06, 1875 in Chicago, IL²², and died January 04, 1948 in Rutland Hospital, 46 Nichols St., Rutland Co., VT at 9 a.m.²³. She married (1) WARREN WALLACE BECKWITH November 10, 1897 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 2:30 p.m., 581 Twelfth St.²⁴, son of WARREN BECKWITH and LUZINIA PORTER. She married (2) FRANK EDWARD JOHNSON June 22, 1915 in Manchester, Vermont²⁵, son of EDWARD JOHNSON and ALICE THOMAS. She met (3) ROBERT JOHN RANDOLPH December 28, 1926 in Washington, D.C..

Notes for JESSIE HARLAN LINCOLN:
Divorced 1907.

After Jack Lincoln's death in England in 1890, the Lincolns decided three years later to return to America. "...at all events, they, with at least one of the daughters [namely, Jessie], returned to this country at the end of the year [1893?] and went to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where Mrs. Robert Lincoln's father was still living. (Lincoln's Sons, p. 309)

"Mary (Mamie), Jack, and Jessie Lincoln were bright, natural, unpretentious children well liked by the people of the town." (Lincoln's Sons, p. 305)

"Mary and Jessie Lincoln were piano students in the summer session of Iowa Wesleyan in 1886, and Mary became a member of the Mount Pleasant Chapter A of the P.E.O. Sisterhood on Sept. 17, 1884 (one month before her 15th birthday); Jessie was initiated into the same organization on Dec. 31, 1895 (almost two months after her 20th birthday). ["History of P.E.O. in Iowa (State P.E.O. Chapter, 1952), 194; Mary Lincoln was Roll No. 225; Jessie Lincoln was Roll No. 361.] (p. 416, "Jessie Harlan Lincoln in Iowa," by Dr. Louis A. Haselmayer, Annals of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, Fall 1968)

"The 'Chicago Tribune', on the same page where it had a long article on his election to this presidency, carried an account of his daughter Jessie's elopement with an attractive young athlete, Warren Beckwith, a member of the football team at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. It was a marriage which Robert and his wife had bitterly opposed, and they had thought the attachment broken off. On November 10, 1897 (this was the day before his election), word of the elopement had come to them at their home, and dumbfounded they had hurried to Jessie's room, only to find her gone. She had been married several hours before." (Lincoln's Sons, p. 333)

Letters that Robert Lincoln wrote to his Aunt Emilie Todd Helm and her daughter Katherine "reveal Robert the father anxious about 'our girl Jessie,' who was approaching her second confinement [during pregnancy]: 'She had such a bad time before. . . .' (Lincoln's Sons, p. 330)

"a society belle" in college

In an article titled "Grid Player, Sweetheart Elope":
       Jason Randall was born & raised in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. A boyhood friend of his, F. M. Lafforge, wrote a letter on March 12, 1957 which is quoted by the unnamed author of this article: "In 1940 and many years thereafter I made a trip to the West Coast. I found Warren living in La Jolla, and I often stopped to visit him. On one visit (1948) Warren explained that he and Jessie had separated in 1907, or 10 years after their marriage. This subject was brought up by the news that Jessie had just died in Manchester, Vt., on the old Robert Lincoln summer homestead. In the conversation, it developed that, due to ill-health, Jessie Lincoln in her later years had grown to a weight of 400 pounds before her death."

In an undated article (circa 1940 - between Nov 6, 1939 & June 8, 1940) titled "Finds Traits of Lincoln in Scions," published in a Cleveland (state ?) newspaper, her address is given as 2908 North Street, Washington.

Notes for WARREN WALLACE BECKWITH:
He was a member of the football team at Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

From "Lincoln's Granddaughter Eloped To Milwaukee" by Lester W. Olson:
"The Milwaukee Journal reporter said of Warren: 'Young Beckwith was a harum-scarum young fellow devoted to athletics, belonging to the local college football and basketball teams, a good horseman, bicyclist, boxer and shot, but with a decided aversion to educational matters and the confining requirements of a business career.' He added, however, that Beckwith had no particularly bad habits and was just such a fellow as would attract the attention of a romantically inclined girl."

He was "one of her schoolmates at Iowa Wesleyan College."

"star right half-back on football team."

Great nephew of General Lew Wallace.

Inherited a large fortune from his father when he died in 1905. He moved to La Jolla, CA in 1938. In an interview with the "Chicago Tribune" on March 20, 1953 he is described as a slim, gray haired man living in a delightful, flower-girded home above the Pacific surf. He had been an active hunter and golfer until a heart ailment curtailed his activity.

In an article titled "Grid Player, Sweetheart Elope":
       Jason Randall was born & raised in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. A boyhood friend of his, F. M. Lafforge, wrote a letter on March 12, 1957 which is quoted by the unnamed author of this article: "In 1940 and many years thereafter I made a trip to the West Coast. I found Warren living in La Jolla, and I often stopped to visit him. On one visit (1948) Warren explained that he and Jessie had separated in 1907, or 10 years after their marriage. This subject was brought up by the news that Jessie had just died in Manchester, Vt., on the old Robert Lincoln summer homestead. In the conversation, it developed that, due to ill-health, Jessie Lincoln in her later years had grown to a weight of 400 pounds before her death."

Notes for FRANK EDWARD JOHNSON:
p. 32, "Her Middle Name was Lincoln": "Later, Jessie married an explorer named Frank Johnson..."

Divorced from Peggy in 1925.

"The Harlan-Lincoln Connection": "an explorer and well-known geographer, connected for atime with the National Geographic Society of Washington. Later he served in the diplomatic service."

"a geographer named Johnson" (p. 34, The Lincoln Family Album)

In an article containing many gross errors of fact, his name is given as "Frank Howard Johnson an English army officer".

Notes for ROBERT JOHN RANDOLPH:
member of a prominent family of Middlesex Co., VA (according to Albert C. Jerman, historian, Hildene Estate, in conversation face-to-face on 8/28/1997).

From The Harlan-Lincoln Tradition: "Robert J. Randolph, an engineer, is a member of a distinguished Virginia family of Randolphs, whose family tree goes back to John Rolfe and Pocahontas of early colonial history."

"an electrical engineer named Randolph" (p. 34, The Lincoln Family Album)

"Kin of Lincoln Weds", Associated Press, Washington, DC, Dec. 30 (1926): "The granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln and a scion of the noted Randolph family of Virginia were united in matrimony here by the wedding of Mrs. Jessie Lincoln Johnson, daughter of Robert T. Lincoln, and Robert J. Randolph of New York City. It was the third marriage venture for Mrs. Johnson, relatives said. She had two children by her first marriage, they said. Randolph's family live in Middlesex county, Virginia. The widow of Robert T. Lincoln is residing here for the winter."

       Children of JESSIE LINCOLN and WARREN BECKWITH are:

MARY LINCOLN "PEGGY"¹⁴ BECKWITH, b. August 22, 1898, Mt Pleasant, IA (death certificate says "Nebraska"!)²⁶; d. July 10, 1975, Rutland Hospital, 160 Allen St., Rutland, Rutland Co., VT 05701 at 2:15 a.m.²⁷.

Notes for MARY LINCOLN "PEGGY" BECKWITH:
"Mr. Mearns says in his introduction to 'The Lincoln Papers': '. . . it seems certain that Robert Lincoln did actually destroy some Lincoln letters, for the family tells how his granddaughter, Mary Lincoln Beckwith, once watched him as he threw some on the grate.' (Lincoln's Sons, p. 322)

She and her brother were "practically raised at Hildene." (p. 287, Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man In His Own Right)

He [Robert Todd Lincoln] wrote [to his Aunt Emilie Todd Helm & her daughter Katherine] appealingly of his granddaughter Mary with her hair 'flying in the sun,' calling her by her nickname 'Peggy' and adding fondly, 'she is a great pet whatever she does.' (Lincoln's Sons, p. 330-331)

From The New Yorker, "Last of the Lincolns," by Michael R. Beschloss, Feb. 28, 1994: "Peggy Beckwith grew up in Washington, D.C., and became a squat, fair-haired, blue-eyed chain smoker who golfed and dabbled in oil painting and sculpture."

Dallas Morning News obituary, 7/12/1975 gives her name as "Miss Mary Todd Lincoln Beckwith". She requested in her will that her ashes be spread over her estate. At her request, there will be no funeral or memorial service.

ii.

"STILLBORN CHILD" BECKWITH, b. 1901^28,²⁹; d. Abt. 1901.

iii.

ROBERT TODD LINCOLN "BUD" BECKWITH, b. July 19, 1904, Riverside, Illinois³⁰; d. December 24, 1985, Saluda Home, Rte 17, Saluda, Middlesex Co., VA at 6:05 p.m., Christmas eve³¹; m. (1) HAZEL HOLLAND, March 14, 1927³²; m. (2) ANNEMARIE HOFFMAN, November 06, 1967, Methodist Church, Hartfield, Middlesex Co., VA³³; m. (3) MARGARET "MAGGIE" FRISTOE, 1976³⁴.

Notes for ROBERT TODD LINCOLN "BUD" BECKWITH:
Nickname "Bud" or "Buddy".

Sterile since 1962 according to his doctor.

Lived most of his life in Vermont and in & around Washington, D.C.
Homes in suburbs of D.C. and in Middlesex Co., VA

Toledo Blade article, 2/12/1954: "Beckwith has several step-children."

Last address: Woodstock Farm (on Piankatank), Route 708, Hartfield, Middlesex Co., VA 23071 (not far from Williamsburg -- his mother had originally purchased it in 1920).

"A friend said of him that he appreciated most in life good food, fast automobiles, boats, and beautiful women.

Survived by his widow, Margaret Fristoe Beckwith.

He "admitted years later to an interviewer, 'I'm a spoiled brat.' ["Lincoln's Last Descendant Dies," Madison (Wisconsin) Courier, December 26, 1985, clipping in Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum) Born on July 19, 1904, near Chicago, Bob was an indifferent student, passing through two unremarkable years at his grandfather Robert's alma mater, Phillips Exeter, before drifting in and out of a prep school in Washington, D.C., and a military academy somewhere in New York. He did not attend college but is said to have received a degree from the National University Law School, although he would later list his profession not as attorney but as 'gentleman farmer of independent means.' During WW II he served in the coast guard, a stint that gave him a lasting interest in boating.
"Bob managed to avoid publicity most of his life; when he failed, the results occasionally proved embarrassing. Newspapers of 1925, for example, were filled with smiling pictures of the young man after his arrest for speeding in Omaha. He said little to the press, save that his hobby was boats. Later he added fast cars and women to his list of interests.
"Judging from his love life, he did not exaggerate. His first marriage, which lasted 30 years, was to an older widow whose son was only ten years younger than his new stepfather.

Notes for HAZEL HOLLAND:
She apparently had "several" children by her first marriage, as the Toledo Blade stated in an article dated 2/12/1957 that "Robert Beckwith has several step-children." This would tend to confirm the 1937 marriage date, as opposed to the 1927 date given by Connie Jo King.

They were on the verge of getting a divorce when she died, according to Albert C. Jerman, historian at Hildene Estate (conversation, 8/28/1997, at the carriage house of Hildene).

Notes for ANNEMARIE HOFFMAN:
She has no middle name.

p. 89, "Her Middle Name was Lincoln": "Annemarie was a student at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. During the week, she stayed at a hotel there and attended classes, and on weekends, she stayed with Bob at Woodstock, the Virginia estate he'd inherited from his mother Jessie.
"Several years before his marriage to Annemarie, Bob Beckwith had a vasectomy. But six months into the marriage, in May 1968, he opened a letter sent to his wife by her doctor indicating that she was pregnant. bob had his urologist conduct tests to see if he could possibly be the father. The doctor concluded that Bob was 'completely sterile.' Just before the baby was born, Bob insisted that his wife sign an agreement that, on the birth certificate, she would list the baby's father as unknown. In return, he would pay the hospital costs and give her an additional $7,500. He also asked her to leave the farm.
"She signed the agreement. But when the time came, Annemarie named her son Timothy Lincoln Beckwith and listed Robert Beckwith as the father. Then she moved to Europe with her son.
"Bob Beckwith instituted divorce proceedings, but these were delayed by Annemarie's countersuits. In 1976, the District of Columbia Superior Court ordered Annemarie to return to the U.S. with her son so blood tests could be conducted to determine the paternity question. Annemarie took the $1,100 the court awarded her for the trip and flew back to the States, but then she refused to submit herself and her son to the tests. A few months later, the court ruled that Timothy was the product of an 'adulterous relationship.'
"But the court did not rule out the boy's right to present his own future claim against the Lincoln estate. If he did so and was successful, he stood to inherit the Mary Harlan Lincoln Trust Fund, which by the time Robert Beckwith died was worth well over ten million dollars.
"Originally, Mary Harlan Lincoln had established the trust fund to support her three grandchildren. The provision in her will that established the fund also stated that if at any time the Lincoln bloodline should die out, the residuary of the fund was to be divided equally between the First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, the American Red Cross (her husband had helped to organize it), and Iowa Wesleyan College (her father was one of its founders). These three organizations stood to lose a great deal of money if Timothy Beckwith chose to make a claim against the Lincoln estate.
"'Although the institutions knew that the move might leave some question about the boy's paternity, they settled a considerable sum on Timothy . . . so that their legacy would be free and clear,' historian Michael Beschloss wrote in his New Yorker article about the Lincoln descendants."

On November 6, 1967 (date of marriage to Beckwith) she was 27. Her address at the time of her marriage was 1601 18th Street N.W., Washington, D.C.

Address on October 14, 1968 (when son was born) was Heritage Apartments - 3-B, Williamsburg, VA 23185. Her age was given as 27 at the time of her son's birth.

On July 20, 1976 the Washington Post (as reported in the Prov. Journal) reported her as age 35. In April 1976 she was in West Berlin (she was a West German national). In July she was "somewhere in the United States". She married in 1967 several years after she came to the U.S.

The New Yorker article (2/28/1994) says that she has remarried and is living somewhere in the United States.

Article, "Lincoln's Great-Great Grandchild Involved in Paternity Suit Here" (VA Gazette, 7/25/1969) says "at the time of Timothy's birth last October, the mother was living in the Heritage Inn Apartments in Williamsburg". . . . "In his deposition, the plaintiff [Norman B.] Frost [of Washington, Beckwith's attorney & trustee] alleged that Mrs. Beckwith conceded that Robert Beckwith was not the father of the child, but she declined to name the actual father."

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