Nancy Lincoln

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Nancy Hanks Lincoln (February 5, 1784 – October 5, 1818) was the mother of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. She was born in what is now West Virginia and grew up with her family in Kentucky, learning to read the Bible, sew, and farm.

In 1806, Nancy married Thomas Lincoln. The couple lived in Kentucky and later moved to Indiana in 1816, settling at Little Pigeon Creek. They had three children: Abraham, Sarah, and Thomas Lincoln Jr. Nancy was known as intelligent, religious, kind, and a strong influence on Abraham, helping him learn to read and shaping his gentle character.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln died on October 5, 1818, at the age of 34, at Little Pigeon Creek in Spencer County, Indiana. Milk sickness—caused by toxins in milk from cows that ate white snakeroot—is the most common explanation for her death, though some historians have suggested other possibilities. Her son Abraham helped make her coffin, and his sister Sarah cared for him after their father remarried.

Nancy is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery near the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in present-day Lincoln City, Indiana. Details about her early life are debated by historians, but she is remembered as a loving mother who influenced Abraham Lincoln.