12 Facts About Nancy Hanks Lincoln

Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness or consumption in 1818 at the Little Pigeon Creek Community in Spencer County when Abraham was nine years old.

Nancy Hanks was born to Lucy Hanks in what was at that time part of Hampshire County, Virginia.

At that time, Nancy went to live with her mother, now Lucy Hanks Sparrow, having married Henry Sparrow in Harrodsburg, Kentucky two or three years earlier.

At the home of Elizabeth and Thomas Sparrow, Nancy Hanks Lincoln would have learned the skills and crafts a woman needed on the frontier to cultivate crops and clothe and feed her family.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln's learned to read the Bible and became an excellent seamstress, working at the Richard Berry home before her marriage.

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Nancy Hanks Lincoln was brought to the home to work as a seamstress by her friend Polly Ewing Berry, the wife of Richard Berry Jr.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln proposed to her in his childhood home at what is Nancy Hanks Lincoln Homestead State Park or in the Francis Berry house in front of the fireplace.

Neighbors reported that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was "superior" to her husband, a mild yet strong personality who taught young Abraham his letters as well as the extraordinary sweetness and forbearance for which he was known.

In 1816, the year that Indiana became the 19th state, the Nancy Hanks Lincoln family moved to Spencer County in southern Indiana and proceeded to homestead at Little Pigeon Creek Settlement .

Elizabeth and Thomas Sparrow and Dennis Hanks settled at Little Pigeon Creek the following fall, having lived in a shelter in which the Lincolns had lived until they built their cabin.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln's was above the ordinary height in stature, weighed about 130 pounds, was slenderly built, and had much the appearance of one inclined to consumption.

At least 20 unmarked and eight marked graves are at the site; Nancy Lincoln is buried next to Nancy Rusher Brooner, a neighbor who died a week before Nancy from milk sickness.