GDG- Thomas Lincoln Remarries

[Dennis Lawrence]

Thursday, December 2, 1819.
Elizabethtown, KY.

Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Johnston are married in Elizabethtown. Rev. 
George L. Rogers, minister of Methodist Church, performs 
ceremony.ISLA—Photocopy, Lincoln Family Bible.

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Abraham Lincoln's stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, was born in 
Elizabethtown, Kentucky and came from a flourishing family. Her father, 
Christopher Bush, was "
a stirring, industrious man, and had a large family 
of sons and daughters." In March 1806, she married Daniel Johnston. 
Unfortunately, Johnston did not have the same kind of industriousness that 
his in-laws had and he was soon deeply in debt. When he died in 1816, Sarah 
was left with many of these obligations still outstanding. For the next 
several years she did her best to support herself and her three children.

In 1819, Thomas Lincoln returned to Elizabethtown, a widower himself by 
this time, with hopes of finding a new wife and mother for his children. 
Having known Sarah before he moved to Indiana, and knowing she was a widow, 
he paid her a visit and asked her to marry him. Sarah replied that she 
could not marry him until she had paid her debts. Upon hearing this, Thomas 
agreed to pay the debts himself. Once that was done, he and Sarah were 
married on December 2, 1819. Sarah and her three children, John, Matilda, 
and Elizabeth returned with Thomas to Indiana, where Sarah set about making 
the two families into one.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/libo/sarah_bush_johnston_lincoln3.htm