On March 1 I visited Springfield Illinois while working on an ongoing book project. My wife Rhonda wanted me out of the house for a couple of days for heavy spring cleaning. So I took advantage of an opportunity to visit some of the places I had long wished to visit but never seemed to get to. As you might imagine, Illinois is full of interesting Lincoln sites off the beaten path.
In , her father moved to Illinois and became one of the founders of New Salem, a community located 21 miles northwest of Springfield. James Rutledge built a dam, sawmill, and gristmill in New Salem and is credited with laying out the town and selling the first lots of land there. In time, he converted his home into a tavern and inn where Ann worked β eventually, she took over the family business. Allegedly, Ann was the first some say the only girl to attend New Salem School.
She was described as physically beautiful, 5 feet, 3 inches tall, pounds with auburn hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. Her attitude was always positive, described as sweet and angelic, beloved by all who knew her.
Her schoolteacher, Mentor Graham, described her as beautiful, amiable, kind, and an exceptionally good scholar. In , young Abraham Lincoln boarded at the Rutledge Inn, where he got to know her. While historians may disagree on the depth of her relationship with the rail splitter, there is no doubt that Ann Rutledge knew Abraham Lincoln. Ann died before the invention of photography, so no photos of her exist and no contemporary drawings of her have ever been found.
Little in the way of verifiable data survives about Ann. Billy was among the first to research those early years of Lincoln. Billy Herndon did not care for Mary Lincoln and the feeling was mutual. So it comes as no surprise that Herndon was the first to push the relationship between Abraham and Ann. I seldom saw her when she was not engaged in some occupation β knitting, sewing, waiting on tables, etcβ¦I think she did the sewing for the entire family.
