Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/374

302 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS uncle, John Todd, was one of the associates of Gen. George Rogers Clark, in his campaign of 1778, and took part in the capture of Kaskaskia and Vin- cennes. Being appointed county lieutenant by Patrick Henry, at that time governor of Virginia, he organized the civil government of what became afterward the state of Illinois. He was killed in the battle of Blue Licks, August 18, 1782, of which his brother Levi, Mrs. Lincoln s grandfather, who also accompanied Clark s expedition as a lieutenant, was one of the few survivors. Mary Todd was carefully educated in Lexington. When twenty- one years of age she went to Springfield to visit her sister, who had married Ninian W. Edwards, a son of Ninian Edwards, governor of the state. While there she became engaged to Mr. Lincoln, whom she married, November 4, 1842. Her family was divided by the civil war; several of them were killed in battle; and, devoted as Mrs. Lincoln was to her husband and the National cause, this division among her nearest kindred caused her much suffer ing. The death of her son, William Wallace, in 1862, was an enduring sorrow to her. One of her principal occupations was visiting the hospitals and camps of the soldiers about Washington. She never recovered from the shock of seeing her hus band shot down before her eyes ; her youngest son, Thomas, died a few years later, and her reason suffered from these repeated blows. She lived in