McCord-Shipley-Park
Family Lineage
Our
Distinguished Cousin
President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Through
His Mother
Nancy
Hanks (1784-1818)
William McCord
I (Born 1716 in Ireland) (7th Great Grandparents)
David McCord, Sr. (1746-1818) & Anne Shipley (1748-1828) (6th Great Grandparents)
William McCord
II (1766-1824) & Jane Moore (b. 1769) (5th Great
Grandparents)
David McCord, Jr. (1806-1888) & Elveree Mitchell (1813-1887) (4th
Great Grandparents)
Angeline McCord (1829-1895)& Peter Taylor Phelps(1824-1909)(3rd
Great Grandparents)
Tabitha Taylor Phelps (1862-1938) & Richard Cobb (1860-1931) (2nd
Great Grandparents)
Milton J. Durham (1883-1966) m. Minerva Cobb (1886-1974) (Great
Grandparents)
William Holton Park (1900-1980) & Elveree Durham (1911-1989) (Grandparents)
William Henry Park II (1930- )& Frances T. Bell (1932- ) (Parents)
William Douglas Park (1959- )m. Pamela Rae Long (1959- ) (Myself and
Wife)
SUMMARY:
President Abraham Lincoln's MATERNAL
Grandmother, Mary (Lucy) Shipley is my 6th Great Aunt. Lucy is
the mother of Nancy Hanks, birth mother of President Abraham Lincoln.
Lucy’s SISTER, Anne Shipley is my 6th Great Grandmother, wife of David
McCord, Sr.!
Mary (Lucy) Shipley was the daughter of
Robert Shipley, Jr. (b. 1713) who migrated from Anne Arundel Co. Md. to
Charlotte Co. VA., and then to Mecklenburg Co N.C., She married James
Hanks and her daughter, Nancy Hanks (married Thomas Lincoln) was the
mother of Abraham Lincoln. Tradition says James was killed by
Indians and Lucy married Henry Sparrow
and remained in North Carolina. As a small child, Nancy Hanks went to Kentucky
with her Aunt Naomi Shipley Mitchell (wife of Robert Mitchell). The party was
attacked by Indians resulting in the death of the Mitchells. Two children
survived, Nancy Hanks and Sarah Mitchell, and were raised by their aunt, Rachel
Shipley Berry, who settled in Washington County Ky., where they claim that
Nancy married Thomas Lincoln.
NANCY HANKS LINCOLN, birth mother of
Abraham Lincoln, was born on February 5, 1784, in Hampshire County, (West)
Virginia. The birth occurred in a cabin along Mike's Run at the foot of New
Creek Mountain in what is now Mineral County, West Virginia. I have seen
this cabin in the distance....Mineral County is where Pam's (my wife) parents
live!
Little is known of Nancy's early life.
As a child, Nancy was taken by her mother, Mary (Lucy) Shipley-Hanks, along the
Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. In Kentucky, Lucy
married Henry Sparrow. Young Nancy went to live with Henry's brother, Thomas
Sparrow, and Elizabeth Hanks Sparrow, a sister of Lucy. Soon Nancy began being
called Nancy Sparrow. Elizabeth Hanks Sparrow became almost a mother to Nancy.
As Nancy grew up, she became skilled in the art of needlework, and she became
an excellent seamstress. She was hired to sew anything from wedding gowns to
funeral attire.
Nancy became known for her work ethic,
neatness, cheerfulness, and intelligence. She was deeply religious. Her cousin,
John Hanks, described Nancy as having dark hair, hazel eyes, 5-7 in height, a
delicate frame, weighing 120 pounds, and "was loved and revered by all who
knew her." No photographs of Nancy exist.
Nancy sometimes lived briefly with
families she was sewing for; her services were in demand in Hardin, Mercer, and
Washington Counties. During the time Nancy was working as a seamstress she met
Thomas Lincoln, a carpenter from Elizabethtown. A romance developed, and the
two decided to be married.
On June 12, 1806, Nancy Hanks and
Thomas Lincoln were married; presiding over the ceremony was the Reverend Jesse
Head. The couple moved to a cabin in Elizabethtown where Thomas worked as a
carpenter making cabinets, doorframes, even coffins. The Lincolns joined the
Little Mount Separate Baptist Church. A daughter, Sarah, was born to the couple
on February 10, 1807.
Later the Lincolns moved to a small, log cabin
on Nolin
Creek about 3 miles from Hodgenville. There, on the stormy morning
of Sunday, February 12, 1809, Nancy gave birth to a boy. He was born on a bed
of poles covered with corn husks. Peggy
Walters, a neighbor who was only 20 years old, assisted with the birth and said
"Nancy had about as hard a time as most women, I reckon, easier than some
and maybe harder than a few. It came
along kind of slow, but everything was regular and all right. The baby was born
just about sunup on Sunday morning."
The boy was named Abraham after his paternal
grandfather who had been killed by a Native American in 1786.
Lincoln's parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, were both of modest
backgrounds and meager education. In later life, Lincoln would
characterize both of his parents as having emerged, like him, "from the
short and simple annals of the poor."
In 1811, the Lincolns moved to another
cabin on
Knob Creek.
Soon, Nancy had another boy, Thomas, who died in infancy. Nancy cried as Dr.
Potter, an Elizabethtown physician, tried in vain to save little Tommy. In the
Autumn of 1816 the Lincolns moved to southern Indiana.
They settled in the wilderness on Little Pigeon Creek in Perry (later Spencer)
County. Not long thereafter, Nancy's aunt and uncle, Thomas and Elizabeth
Sparrow, moved and (after living in the Lincolns' cabin for awhile) built their
own cabin on a nearby lot. Nancy was a good and loving mother to her children.
She was very ambitious for them and hoped they could have the opportunities in
life that she and Thomas had missed. She read to Sarah and Abraham from the
Lincoln Family Bible.
In 1818, an attack of milk sickness
struck the Little Pigeon Creek community. This is a disease contracted by
drinking milk from cows, which have grazed on poisonous white snakeroot. Both
of the Sparrows died, and Thomas Lincoln made the coffins for them. Nancy took
ill also. For a week she struggled, but she knew she was failing. Dennis Hanks,
Nancy's cousin, recalled that she called the children to her bedside and asked
them to be good and kind to their father, to each other, and to the world. On
October 5, 1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln passed away at the age of 34. In later
years, Abraham would recall helping to carve pegs for his mother's coffin.
Thomas Lincoln hauled the coffin, which was made of green pine, on a sled to
the top of a thickly wooded hill and buried Nancy without a formal funeral
service. Several months later, the Reverend David Elkin preached a funeral
sermon above Nancy's grave.
The Lincoln side of the family has been traced
with a fair degree of confidence to one Samuel Lincoln, a weaver who emigrated
from England to Hingham, Massachusetts in 1637. Over time, the Lincolns
scattered into various portions of the colonies. After settling for a time in
Berks County, Pennsylvania, Abraham's Lincolns moved on to Rockingham County,
Virginia, where his grandfather, also Abraham, and father Thomas were both
born.
Notes:
Thus, my McCord Line, which includes Lincoln's Grandmother's (Mary "Lucy") Sister, Ann Shipley is as follows:
David
McCord, Sr. and Anne Shipley's Children:
1. Sarah MCCORD born in NC
2. William McCORD II b: 5 OCT 1766,
Mecklenburg Co., NC
(Father of our David, Jr. born 1806)
3. Robert McCORD b: 3 AUG 1770 in
Mecklenburg Co., NC
4. John McCORD b: 3 SEP 1773 in
Mecklenburg Co., NC
5. David McCORD b: 24 JAN 1781 in
Mecklenburg Co., NC
6. Anna McCORD b: 18 NOV 1782 in
Mecklenburg Co., NC
7. James McCORD b: 5 MAY 1785 in
Mecklenburg Co.,NC
8. Rosa Shipley MCCORD b: 1788 in
Lincoln Co., NC
9. Mary McCORD b: 1790 in Madison Co.,
KY
Notes on DAVID McCORD, Sr. (1746-1818):
During the Revolution, David McCord, Sr., was a
"minute man" in Mecklenburg Co., NC. David, Sr. was engaged in a
battle within sound of his home. In 1790, he moved to Madison Co., KY., near
Boone's Fort, and lived there until is death. "Ann Shipley, his wife, had
a sister Mary (Lucy) married to James Hanks, who was the mother of Nancy
Hanks and grandmother of President Abraham Lincoln."
Ann Shipley's parents were:
Robert SHIPLEY, Jr. - Born 19 OCT 1713
in Howard Co., MD
Sarah DORSEY
Ann Shipley's Grandparents were:
Robert SHIPLEY , Sr. (1678-1763)-Born
in Anne Arundel Co., MD
Elizabeth STEVENS
*Great Link with pictures of Nancy
Hanks (Daughter of Mary "Lucy" Shipley, my 6th Great Aunt) &
Thomas Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's parents. Also, Lincoln's Step-mother,
Sarah Bush Johnston-Lincoln:
http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln81.html
If Nancy Hanks
Came back as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of what she loved most,
She'd ask first
"Where's my son?
What's happened to Abe?
What's he done?"
"Poor little Abe,
Left all alone
Except for Tom,
Who's a rolling stone;
He was only nine
The year I died.
I remember still
How hard he cried."
"Scraping along
In a little shack,
With hardly a shirt
To cover his back,
And a prairie wind
To blow him down,
Or pinching times
If he went to town."
"You wouldn't know
About my son?
Did he grow tall?
Did he have fun?
Did he learn to read?
Did he get to town?
Do you know his name?
Did he get on?"
- Rosemary Benet
Yes,
Nancy Hanks,
The news we will tell
Of your Abe
Whom you loved so well.
You asked first,
"Where's my son?"
He lives in the heart
Of everyone
- Julius Silberger