Robert Todd Lincoln

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<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="2">Image:Robert Todd Lincoln, Brady-Handy bw photo portrait, ca1870-1880.jpg
</td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><th colspan="2">36th United States Secretary of War</th></tr><tr><th style="border-bottom: none; text-align: center;" colspan="2">In office</th></tr><tr><td style="border-top: none; text-align: center;" colspan="2">March 5, 1881 – March 4, 1885</td></tr><tr><th>Preceded by</th><td>Alexander Ramsey</td></tr><tr><th>Succeeded by</th><td>William C. Endicott</td></tr><tr><th>Born</th><td>August 1, 1843
Springfield, Illinois, USA</td></tr><tr><th>Died</th><td>July 26, 1926
Manchester, Vermont, USA</td></tr><tr><th>Political party</th><td>Republican</td></tr><tr><th>Spouse</th><td>Mary Eunice Harlan Lincoln</td></tr><tr><th>Profession</th><td>Lawyer, Politician</td></tr>

Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843 – July 26, 1926) was the first son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Ann Todd. Born in Springfield, Illinois, United States, he was the only one of President Lincoln's four sons to reach adulthood.

Robert Lincoln graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, then studied at Harvard University from 1861 to 1864 where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. (Later in life, Lincoln also joined the Delta Chi fraternity.) He then enrolled in Harvard Law School. However, he did not graduate and in 1865 joined the Union Army. He held the rank of Captain, serving in the American Civil War as part of General Ulysses S. Grant's immediate staff, in a position which sharply minimized the likelihood that he would be involved in actual combat.

Following his father's assassination, in May of 1865 he, his brother Thomas (Tad) Lincoln (1853–1871), and their mother moved to Chicago where Robert completed his law studies at the University of Chicago (a school different from the university presently known by that name). He was admitted to the bar on February 25, 1867. On September 24, 1868, he married Mary Eunice Harlan (September 25,1846 – March 31, 1937), the daughter of Senator James Harlan and Ann Eliza Peck of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. They had two daughters and one son:

Mary "Mamie" Lincoln: October 15, 1869 - November 21, 1938
Abraham Lincoln II (nicknamed "Jack") - August 14, 1873 – March 5, 1890
Jessie Harlan Lincoln - November 6, 1875 – January 4, 1948

The last direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln died in 1985.

Lincoln began legal proceedings against his mother Mary in 1875, which resulted in her committal to an insane asylum in Batavia, Illinois. She was released after a three-month stay. The committal proceedings led to a profound estrangement between Lincoln and his mother; they were never reconciled.

In 1877 he turned down President Rutherford B. Hayes' offer to appoint him Assistant Secretary of State, but did accept an appointment to become the US Secretary of War from 1881 to 1885, serving under Presidents James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur.

Following his service as Secretary of War, Lincoln helped Oscar Dudley in establishing the Illinois Industrial Training School for Boys in Norwood Park in 1887 after Dudley discovered "more neglected and abandoned children on the streets than stray animals." The school relocated to Glenwood, Illinois in 1889, beginning to enroll girls in 1998. Under the name Glenwood School for Boys & Girls, the school continues to operate as a haven for boys and girls whose parents are unable to care for them.

In addition, he served as the US ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1889 to 1893 under President Benjamin Harrison after which he returned to private business as a lawyer. He became General Counsel and subsequently the President and Chairman of the Board of the Pullman Palace Car Company where he worked until his retirement in 1922. He made his last public appearance at the dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C. for his father's memorial on May 30th of that year.

Image:Hildene manchester vermont 2006.jpg

A serious amateur astronomer, Lincoln constructed an observatory at his home in Manchester, Vermont, and equipped it with a refracting telescope with a six-inch objective lens. Lincoln's telescope still exists; it has been restored and is used by a local astronomy club.

There is an odd coincidence in regard to Robert Todd Lincoln and presidential assassinations. The night his father was shot, Lincoln was invited to accompany his parents to the theater, but declined. When President Garfield was shot in a Washington, D.C. train station in 1881, he was present at Garfield's invitation. When President William McKinley was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901, Lincoln was present at McKinley's invitation. However, he was not an actual eyewitness to any of these assassinations. After McKinley's death, Lincoln let it be known that he wanted no further invitations from any US president, as three of them had invited him to be present at their assassinations.

In another odd coincidence, Robert Lincoln was once saved by Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, from possible serious injury or death. The incident happened at a railroad station in Jersey City in 1863 or 1864, when Robert was traveling from New York City to Washington, and was recounted by Lincoln in 1909.

Robert Lincoln died at his Vermont home on July 26, 1926, and was later interred in Arlington National Cemetery [1] next to his wife Mary and their son Jack, who died of blood poisoning at the age of 16 in London, England.

Prior to his death, Lincoln had been the last surviving member of the Garfield and Arthur Cabinets.