Lincoln, Mary Todd definition of Lincoln, Mary Todd in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818–82, wife of Abraham Lincoln Lincoln, Abraham (lĭng`kən), 1809–65, 16th President of the United States (1861–65).
..... Click the link for more information. , b. Lexington, Ky. Of a good Kentucky family, she was living with her sister, daughter-in-law of Gov. Ninian Edwards Edwards, Ninian, 1775–1833, governor of Illinois, b. Maryland. A Kentucky lawyer and jurist, he was appointed (1809) governor of Illinois Territory and served in the formative years until 1818. He served (1818–24) as one of the first U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. of Illinois, in Springfield, Ill., when she met and married (1842) Lincoln. Although they were very different in temperament and upbringing, their marriage was an affectionate one. The harsh portrayal of Mary Lincoln by William H. Herndon Herndon, William Henry, 1818–91, friend, law partner, and biographer of Abraham Lincoln , b. Greensburg, Ky. In 1844 he became the junior member of the Springfield, Ill., law firm of Lincoln and Herndon, a partnership that was never dissolved.
..... Click the link for more information. is certainly exaggerated. Of the four sons she bore (Robert Todd, Edward Baker, William Wallace, and Thomas or "Tad"), only Robert Todd lived to manhood. The death of Willie in 1862 was a great sorrow to both Abraham and Mary Lincoln, and Tad's death in 1871 seems to have unsettled her mind (already affected by seeing her husband murdered at her side). She was adjudged insane (1875), but the decision was reversed a year later.

Bibliography

See her letters, ed. by J. G. Turner and L. L. Turner (1972); biographies by R. P. Randall (1953), C. Sandburg (new ed. 1972), and I. Ross (1973).