While visiting my family in Louisville, Kentucky, I got to visit Abraham Lincoln's hometown in Hodgenville, Kentucky, where we got to see his boyhood home and visit a museum about his life. Most people know facts about him, like his height, what he did during the Civil War, and how he was assassinated, but while reading through History.com, I learned some new things about Abraham Lincoln that I did not know before:
1. Abraham Lincoln was actually a very religious man and read the Bible every day, but never belonged to an organized church.
Abraham Lincoln is quoted saying, "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
2. Abraham Lincoln participated in seances after his son died in the White House.
3. Abraham Lincoln kept all of his important documents in his hat.
4. Abraham Lincoln's shoe size was between a size 12 and a size 14.
Not only was Abraham Lincoln really tall, and metaphorically had big shoes to fill because he was the president, but he actually literally had big shoes to fill too!
5. Abraham Lincoln signed legislation creating the Secret Service the same day he was assassinated.
Earlier in the day, on April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to create the Secret Service. Unfortunately, he was assassinated that same evening. However, the Secret Service wasn't assigned to protect the Commander-in-Chief until 1902.
6. Surprisingly, Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Abraham Lincoln used the Lincoln Bedroom as his personal office and signed many important documents, such as the Emancipation Proclamation, there.
7. Lincoln is the only president to have his own patent.
8. The life of Lincoln's oldest son was saved by John Wilkes Booth's brother.
Abraham Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, fell between a platform and a moving train at a train station in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Edwin Booth pulled him back onto the platform before the train was able to hit him. This happened a few months before his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
9. Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to be Abraham Lincoln's guest at Ford's Theatre, but he canceled at the last minute.
10. At his second inauguration, Lincoln was photographed with John Wilkes Booth.
Abraham Lincoln in my book is an American hero. He is one of my favorite American presidents. Instead of violence, he believed that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and he always "destroyed his enemies" when he made them his friends. Abraham Lincoln believed that everyone deserved freedom and was a major advocate for freeing the slaves. Without him, we would not be the "land of the free and the home of the brave."
