Note 20 — Chapter V

I have been at much trouble to get the exact name and dates of this little boy. He was called Eddie, and the name is sometimes given Edwin and sometimes Edward, and I did not find it easy to learn, even at the monument at Springfield, the exact date of his death. He was named for his father's friend, and associate in the Legislature, Edward Baker. He was born March 10, 1846, and died February 1, 1850. Lincoln's children were: Robert Todd, born August 1, 1843, still living; Edward Baker, born March 10, 1846, died in Springfield February 1, 1850; William Wallace, born December 21, 1850, died in the White House February 20, 1862; Thomas or "Tad," born April 4, 1853; died in Chicago, July 15, 1871. Mary Todd Lincoln, their mother, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818; married Abraham Lincoln, November 4, 1842, and died in Springfield July 16, 1882.

The date of the death of Eddie is important, because it gives us a terminus a quem for Lincoln's acquaintance with Rev. James Smith. Dr. Smith gives the date as "in the latter part of 1849." I sought in vain not only in published Lives of Lincoln but in the material on file with the State Historical Society for the precise date. What is more surprising, Colonel Johnson, custodian of the Lincoln tomb, has made diligent search for me and cannot find the date. In an article, prepared for the Lincoln Centenary in 1909, Rev. Thomas D. Logan, D.D., then pastor of the church in Springfield which Lincoln attended and successor of Dr. Smith, said it was "about 1848 or 1849"; but in working over the material, as he manifestly did, after furnishing it to The Interior, in which it was printed, and delivering the substance of it as a centenary address, he gives the date as February 1, 1850. This I judge to be correct, and it is upon his authority I have given that date above. The other dates of the Lincoln family's relation to this church support this statement.