Mary Ann Todd Lincoln (December 13, 1818 – July 16, 1882) was First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865.
Mary Todd was born into a large and wealthy slave-owning family in Kentucky, although Mary never owned slaves and in her adulthood came to oppose slavery. Well educated, after finishing-school in her late teens, she moved to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. She lived there with her married sister Elizabeth Todd Edwards, the wife of an Illinois congressman. Before she married Abraham Lincoln, Mary was courted by his long-time political opponent Stephen A. Douglas.
Mary Lincoln staunchly supported her husband's career and political ambitions, and throughout his presidency, she was active in keeping national morale high during the American Civil War. She acted as the White House social coordinator, throwing lavish balls and redecorating the White House at great expense; her spending was the source of much consternation. She was seated next to Abraham when he was assassinated in the President's Box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865.
The Lincolns had four sons, of whom only the eldest, Robert, survived both parents. The deaths of her husband and three of their sons weighed heavily on her. Young Thomas (Tad), who died suddenly in 1871, had just spent an extended time traveling with her after Robert married. Mary Lincoln suffered from physical and mental health issues. She had frequent headaches, which were exacerbated by a head injury in 1863.
She likely suffered from depression or possibly bipolar disorder. She was briefly institutionalized for psychiatric illness in 1875, and then spent several years traveling in Europe. She later retired to her sister's home in Springfield, where she died in 1882 at age 63. She is buried with her husband and three younger sons in the Lincoln Tomb, a National Historic Landmark.
Todd was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky, as the fourth of seven children of Robert Smith Todd, a banker, and Elizabeth "Eliza" (Parker) Todd. In 1825, when she was six, her mother died in childbirth. Her father then married Elizabeth "Betsy" Humphreys in 1826 and they had nine children together.
There is conflicting evidence about Todd's relationship with her stepmother. From 1832, Mary and her family lived in what is now known as the Mary Todd Lincoln House, an elegant 14-room residence at 578 West Main Street in Lexington.
Mary's paternal great-grandfather, David Levi Todd, was born in County Longford, Ireland, and immigrated through Pennsylvania to Kentucky. Another great-grandfather, Andrew Porter, was the son of an Irish immigrant to New Hampshire and later Pennsylvania. Her maternal great-great-grandfather Samuel McDowell was born in Scotland, and emigrated to Pennsylvania. Other Todd ancestors came from England.
At an early age, Mary was sent to Madame Mentelle's finishing school, where the curriculum concentrated on French and literature. She learned to speak French fluently and studied dance, drama, music, and social graces. By age 20, she was regarded as witty and gregarious with a grasp of politics. Like her family, she was a Whig.
Mary began living with her sister Elizabeth Porter Edwards in Springfield, Illinois, in October 1839. Elizabeth was married to Ninian W. Edwards, son of a former governor. He served as Mary's guardian. Mary was popular among the gentry of Springfield, and though she was courted by the rising young lawyer and Democratic Party politician Stephen A. Douglas and others, she chose Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Whig.
Todd met Lincoln, then a struggling lawyer, at the house of her older sister Elizabeth Edwards. The two formed a connection due to their mutual interest in politics and were soon engaged. However, Elizabeth and her husband, Ninian Edwards, disapproved of the relationship due to Lincoln's lower-class status, along with his indefinite future. Their engagement was broken off on New Year's Day of 1841, which the future president referred to as "that fatal first of January".
Lincoln fell in love with Matilda Edwards in the autumn of 1840, and this caused him to break his engagement to Mary. In the following weeks after their breakup, Lincoln went into a depression, and was described by his then business partner as "reduced and emaciated in his appearance".
After a year and a half, the couple secretly rekindled their relationship and married on November 4, 1842. Todd was 23 and Lincoln was 33. Lincoln allegedly met Ninian on the street the day of their wedding and confessed his plan to marry the latter's sister-in-law, to which Ninian, feeling responsible for Todd, demanded they wed at his own house. Likewise, the bride did not tell her sister about her marriage until the day of, to which Elizabeth acquiesced.
After their wedding, the couple moved into a one-room apartment in a tavern, where Todd gave birth to their first son, Robert Todd Lincoln. Around a year later, they moved to a more spacious, one-and-a-half-story cottage.
Their four sons, all born in Springfield, Illinois, were:
Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), lawyer, diplomat (U.S. Secretary of War), businessman
Edward Baker Lincoln, known as "Eddie" (1846–1850), died of tuberculosis
William Wallace Lincoln, known as "Willie" (1850–1862), died of typhoid fever while Lincoln was President