Lincoln - Fact or Fiction Trivia Quiz

Answer: fact

Abraham was unconscious for a time after a horse kicked him. He recovered fully. He had another brush with death when at about age 7, he fell into Knob Creek. He was saved by a neighbor boy.

Answer: fiction

Thomas WAS Abraham's father. Some people have tried to prove that Abraham was fathered by some nameless Virginia planter, or one of the Lincoln's neighbors in Kentucky. There is absolutely NO reason to believe that anyone except Thomas fathered Abraham.

Answer: fiction

While the truth of the romance between Abraham and Ann may never be proven either way, the statement that he went crazy as a result of her death is unfounded. Records of the time and letters from New Salem residents show that Lincoln was fulfilling his duties as Postmaster just a few weeks after Ann's death - seemingly without any interruptions.

Answer: fact

He arrived in Springfield and stopped in a store run by Joshua Speed to purchase bedding. Speed quoted a price, and Lincoln said 'I suppose that is cheap enough, and yet I can not pay it.' Speed felt sorry for Lincoln and offered to share his room above the store. Lincoln accepted the offer and Speed became Lincoln's closest friend.

Answer: fiction

The recent claims about Lincoln's supposed sexual orientation are based on the fact that Lincoln and Speed shared a bed above Speed's store, and that Lincoln often slept with other men when he was traveling the circuit in Illinois. In the 1800s there was no central heating.

It is COLD in Illinois in the winter. Sleeping 2, 3 or more to a bed was common. Historians haven't been able to come up with a definitive judgement over whether or not Lincoln was bisexual or homosexual, but he certainly didn't have an open relationship with another man.

Answer: fiction

Lincoln did indeed break off an engagement to Mary Todd, but he did NOT leave her at the altar. No wedding was ever planned until their actual wedding in November 1842.

Answer: fact

Grace Bedell was the young lady who said the Lincoln would look better with a beard. She promised to get her brothers to vote for Lincoln if he followed her advice. When Lincoln traveled through her town in New York on the way to Washington, he asked if she was in the crowd, and was able to meet his pen-pal.

Answer: fact

Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, once saved Robert Lincoln. Robert was waiting for a train in Washington DC, and was accidentally pushed off the platform in front of the train. Edwin pulled him to safety.

Answer: fact

Elizabeth Keckly was Mary Lincoln's best friend. She had been a slave and had once worked as a free woman for Varina Davis, the wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.

Answer: fact

The last Lincoln descendant was Robert Lincoln's grandson. His name was Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith. He died December 24, 1985.