from the Lincoln Family Magazine
Isaac Lincoln, grand uncle of Abraham Lincoln, lived in Carter County, on the Watauga River, about four miles east of Elizabethton, Tenn.
Mr. Lincoln's wife was Miss Mary Ward, who came of a splendid family.
There was born to them one child, a son, who was drowned when only a few years old. Isaac Lincoln maintained a sugar camp on his farm, not far from his home. The little boy started to the camp and was lost. A rain storm came up, and when the child was found, he was lying face down in a pool of water, dead! He had fallen into the water and drowned!
Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln then took William Stover, son of Phoebe Ward (sister of Mrs. Lincoln), who had married Daniel Stover, and reared William as their own child. They also reared Phoebe Williams, daughter of Mordecai Williams and Elizabeth Stover.
William Stover inherited most of their property. Phoebe Williams and her husband, Campbell Crowe, also inherited a goodly share. Mrs. Mary Ward Lincoln also remembered her brother-in-law. Christian Carriger, who had married her sister Levisa Ward, quite generously by willing him some slaves. She also remembered her namesake, Mary Lincoln Carriger, daughter of Christian Carriger and Levisa (Ward) Carriger, giving her several slaves.
Mrs. William Stover nursed Mrs. Mary Ward Lincoln during her last illness. Mrs. Lincoln died of a cancer of the breast.
Mrs. Stover said Isaac Lincoln was pretty "close," and used to dress in home-made flax suits, with a hat band of old tow string.
He used to keep his money in a secret drawer under the bottom of a large chest. He never seemed to count his money, but just packed it away. Mrs. Stover gave the old chest to a girl who lived with her.
Mrs. Mary Ward Lincoln was a widow when she married Isaac Lincoln and was considered wealthy. Most of the money came by her. Some say her first husband was a Mr. Beshears.
It is stated that Isaac Lincoln owned land in Mitchell County, N. Car., known as "Old Fields of Tow." Col. Dan Stover and Dr. Murray Stover sons of William Stover, used to go to that section to look after the lands inherited from their great uncle, Isaac Lincoln. Also, Isaac Lincoln owned land near Flag Pond Station, and in Carter County.
There are traditions that Thomas Lincoln lived on the Isaac Lincoln farm, and some believe that Abraham (later president of the United States) was born here, but that cannot be established.
All of the older Carrigers believed that Thomas Lincoln lived here. The Carrigers were in a position to know a great deal about the Lincolns, because the two families were on very intimate terms, owned land joining each other, and Christian Carriger and Isaac Lincoln married sisters...
After Isaac Lincoln's death, the negroes dug all around over the old place, looking for money, and some was found. Isaac Lincoln seems to have been a modest man who attended strictly to his own business, and stayed near his own home, and only went on business trips to his various farms and lands. Isaac Lincoln was of a retiring disposition, and did not mix much in politics, and that is the reason we know so little of his life and works.
He met with congenial companions in his brothers-in-law, the Carrigers, as they were of the same modest retiring dispositon, shunning the limelight, and giving their attention to agriculture and the manufacture of iron, and not mixing in politics, although Isaac Lincoln's brother-in-law. Christian Carriger, represented Carter County for many years in the State Legislature, and his brother Godfrey Carriger, Jr., was County Register from 1796 to 1827, the year of his death.
The Carrigers had grants for land. I do not know how Isaac Lincoln obtained his lands, whether by grants or whether he bought the land. Isaac Lincoln, the Wards, Stovers and Carrigers were refined and cultured people. Some of the descendants speak now of the great culture and refinement of the older members of these families...
