Ann Rutledge
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- Ann Rutledge is also the name of a passenger train in Illinois and Missouri.
Ann Rutledge (January 7, 1813 - August 25, 1835) was allegedly Abraham Lincoln's first love.
Born near Henderson, Kentucky, she was the third of ten children born to Mary and James Rutledge. In 1829, her father, along with John M. Cameron, founded New Salem, Illinois. The exact nature of the Lincoln-Rutledge relationship has been fiercely debated by historians and non-historians for over a century. One story had Ann and Abraham secretly engaged while she was engaged to another man, who had been away for a few years trying to earn his fortune. No credible evidence exists today to prove this alleged event. It is fairly well established the two were at least good friends.
In 1835, a wave of typhoid hit the town of New Salem, leading to Ann's early death. This sad event left Lincoln severely depressed. An anonymous poem about suicide published locally exactly three years after her death is widely attributed to Lincoln.[1] After President Lincoln's assassination in 1865, his friend and law partner William Herndon first revealed the story of the supposed romance between Ann and Abraham, much to Mary Todd Lincoln's anger and dismay. Abraham Lincoln's surviving son Robert Todd Lincoln was also upset by this claim. Most of Herndon's sources came from interviews with Lincoln's early friends in New Salem and Anne's relatives. The story was later repeated by Herndon in several lectures and books.
