I hope you all are finding some patriotic way to spend this fine day!! Here are a few little known facts about President Lincoln; the man whose life we celebrate today.
He is the only president to hold a patent – no. 6649 – for a device to lift boats over shoals.
Lincoln, six feet, four inches tall, weighed 180 pounds – much taller and slightly heavier wearing his stovepipe hat. His hat size was seven and one eighth - his shoe size, fourteen.
He did not like the names Abraham, Abe or Old Abe, preferring simply to be called “Lincoln.”
Lincoln is known to under-use his pockets and instead, put important items inside his top hat.
The first town named after him was the capital of Logan County in Illinois in 1853. He warned the townspeople that, “Nothing named Lincoln ever amounted to much.”
Lawyer Lincoln made 300 appearances before the Illinois Supreme Court.
He was once challenged to a duel but the challenger accepted his apology when the much taller and smarter Lincoln chose broad swords as the weapons for the duel.
Lincoln first spoke out against slavery in a speech to the Illinois State Legislature in Vandalia in 1837. In his second inaugural, he said that slavery was the cause of the war. He was right.
He was born in 1809 and she in 1818, marrying him November 4, 1842 – inside her wedding band were the words, “Love is eternal.”