Centennial Annoyances, Golf, and a Book for His Granddaughter
As the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth approached, organizations and individuals across the country, especially in the northern states, began to plan memorial events and celebrations to mark the centennial on February 12, 1909. Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s only surviving son, found himself inundated with requests for his involvement in centennial activities. Letters in the collection of Robert Todd Lincoln Correspondence held by the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection document his willingness to assist when he can comfortably do so while at the same time politely declining requests for official appearances and speeches.
In March 1908, about the time planning for centennial events was beginning in earnest, Robert wrote a letter to William Stoddard, who had been one of his father’s White House secretaries, and explains himself very clearly.
In his letter, Robert asserts that he doesn’t know very much about the “movement…in regard to the celebration of my father’s centennial birthday anniversary” because he does not “expect to be named or take part in any such matter.” He then goes on, “For myself, I frankly confess that I am rather dreading the year.”
Although he doesn’t refer to the fact in this letter, after Abraham Lincoln’s death, Robert had retained possession and complete control of his father’s papers. He was, therefore, the major source of information for centennial planners. And by early 1908, Robert was receiving many requests for information about his father and the Lincoln presidency. He writes to Stoddard that such requests are giving him “a good deal of trouble” because “a good many [are] requests with which it is very difficult to comply.”
What Robert would rather do as a 65-year-old semi-retired grandfather, he tells Stoddard, is “play golf,” as in this 1910 photograph (Robert is on the far right), and “make the acquaintance of my grand-children.”
And with that assertion, Robert ends his comments on the annoyances of the Lincoln centennial and makes a personal request: He would like Stoddard, who had established himself as a writer of historical fiction for children, to send him two books because “I have a little grand-daughter that I am sure would be very much interested in them.”
Robert does not include the titles of the books, but it seems almost certain that one of them—the one Robert had not yet seen—was The Boy Lincoln, published in 1905.
The granddaughter was Peggy Beckwith, age 10.