Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
ca. 1858
Feb 1852
Thursday 12th Had a number of calls quite early
Augustus Edwin & August[a] came to look at
the engravings and I began to think I never
should get the room in order. This afternoon Oliver
hung the pictures. Augusta came in and we called
on Mrs J Wms about Olivers shirts that she is making
and at Augustus. Mrs Lake called. William returned home.
William Leonard Ames, brother of Oakes and Oliver Jr., “went home to day”*after a ten-day visit. William had most likely stayed with his sister Sarah Ames Witherell and father, Old Oliver, in the other part of the house. Yet today was the first day that Evelina mentioned his presence, suggesting, as before, that relations between Oakes and William were cool. The men had had a parting of the ways over the demise of William’s iron company, and William had migrated to Minnesota.
Another person considerably west of North Easton was former U.S. Representative Abraham Lincoln who turned 43 today. He was practicing law. He had recently declined the offer of the Governorship of Oregon, and was beginning to settle back into a life away from politics. Future events – most notably, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and his ongoing opposition to slavery – would reinvigorate his interest.
Evelina, meanwhile, concentrated on hanging her new engravings in the parlor, and showed them off to her nephews. She also checked on the status of some shirts she had ordered sewn for Oliver (3).
*Oliver Ames Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection
evelinaames 