Person:Robert Todd (14)

Research Notes

• Father of U.S. First Lady, Mary (Todd) Lincoln.

1. ↑ Historical Marker, in Kentucky Historical Society. Historical Marker Database [1].

   Mary Todd Lincoln House
   Marker Number 2261
   County Fayette
   Location 578 W. Main St., Lexington
   Description Built in 1806 as an inn. Became home of politician & businessman Robert S. Todd in 1832. Mary Todd, his daughter, born in Lexington on Dec. 13, 1818, moved to IL in 1839. There, she met & married Abraham Lincoln. They visited here in fall of 1847. The Todds moved away after Mr. Todd died in the 1849 cholera epidemic.

2.   Family Recorded, in English, William Hayden. Conquest of the country northwest of the river Ohio, 1778-1783, and life of Gen. George Rogers Clark: with numerous sketches of men who served under Clark, and full list of those allotted lands in Clark's Grant for service in the campaigns against the British posts, showing exact land allotted each. (Indianapolis, Indiana: Bowen-Merrill Co., 1896)
   2:951.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Family Recorded, in Todd, Malcolm Newton. A genealogy of the Todd-family descendants and celebrities: Mary Todd wife Abraham Lincoln. (Lawrenceville, Illinois, 1951)
   14, 20.

   ... Levi married Jean Briggs, who begat seven children, the seventh being Robert Smith Todd who married Eliza Ann Parker ...
   
   ... The seventh of Levi Todd's eleven children, born in 1791, was Robert Smith Todd, who at fourteen entered Transylvania University, studied mathematics, Latin, astronomy, logic, Greek, history, and according to the university president, James Blythe, "conducted himself in a becoming and praiseworthy manner." Leaving the university he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1811. The twenty-year-old lawyer didn't begin practice; he held on to his job in the Fayette County circuit court clerk's office. And he paid attention to a seventeen- year-old girl, Eliza Parker. She was the daughter of Major Robert Parker, a Revolutionary War officer, and a first cousin of Levi Todd. The Parker home, it was said, was the first brick residence in Lexington.
   
   When Eliza's father died in 1800, the Kentucky Gazette noted him as "an early adventurer to Kentucky — of extensive acquaintance — and universally esteemed." His will, leaving farms, slaves, town lots and personal property to his widow, enjoined "It is my sincere will and desire that all my children be carefully brought up and well educated."
   
   Then came the War of 1812. Robert S. Todd as captain of a company of raw militiamen, disbanded his men and enlisted with them in the Lexington Light Infantry. Early in the field service Todd went down with pneumonia, was brought back to Lexington, recovered his health, and decided to go to the field of battle. Young Eliza Parker was willing for him to go. She was also willing to marry him before he should go. On November 26, 1812, they were married. On the next day he kissed her goodbye and with a brother rode off to join Kentucky soldiers camped in sleet and snow on the Maumee River. They marched to Fort Defiance through snow drifts and across icy streams.
   
   They marched with an expedition against Frenchtown on the River Raisin and in a battle with Proctor and his Indians the rifles and tomahawks of the red men killed half of the boys of the company from Lexington. The Kentucky Gazette noted with the news, "Never have people of this town and its neighborhood met with a stroke so afflicting as that produced by the late battle of Raisin. . . . We all have lost a relative or friend."
   
   Two of the Todd brothers, Sam and John, were wounded and taken prisoners. John ran the gauntlet and made his escape; Sam was adopted into a tribe and lived with the copper faces for a year, when his liberty was bought for a barrel of whiskey. Robert S. Todd was in the thick of the fighting, came through alive, and before the end of 1813 was at home in Lexington housekeeping with the young cousin he had married.
   
   Robert S. Smith was a prosperous grocer, a partner in Smith and Todd's "Extensive Grocery Establishment," Clerk of the Kentucky House of Representatives, member of the Fayette County Court, and still later president of the Lexington Branch Bank of Kentucky, also a cotton manufacturer. Robert S. Todd was a solid and leading citizen. The growing family that came was served by negro slaves; Jane Sanders, the housekeeper; Chaney, the cook; Nelson, the body servant and coachman; old "Mammy Sally" and young Judy, who took care of the little ones.
   
   Two daughters, Elizabeth and Frances, were born, then a son Levi, then on December 13, 1818 Mary Ann Todd. Like the others, Mary seemed to be of the well born. She was born as one more beautiful baby in the world, flawless and full of promise. A baby brother came, died in the second summer. Then a girl who was named Ann Marie and thereafter Mary Ann dropped the Ann from her name, except in signing legal documents.
   
   Another baby brother came. And the house was dark. And the horse two wheel carriage of the doctor stood in front of the one-house. And the children were taken next door to their grandmother.
   
   It was the Fourth of July; artillery cadets firing cannon: church bells ringing; famous generals visiting Henry Clay at a barbecue dinner, toasts to Washington, the Union and "The Ladies of the Western Country — the rose is not less lovely, nor its fragrance less delightful because it blooms in the Wilderness."
   
   And the one-horse gigs of the doctors waited in front of the home of Robert S. Todd. The new child, the baby brother, came. But Eliza Parker Todd didn't live through it. It was the next day that old Nelson, the black slave, hitched up the family carriage and delivered to the friends of his master little cards with black border, reading: — "Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of Mrs. Eliza P., Consort of Robert S. Todd. Esq., from his residence on Short Street, this evening at four o'clock. July 6, 1825."
   
   Seven months later Robert S. Todd had plans under way to marry Miss Elizabeth (Betsy) Humphreys. She was the daughter of Dr. Alexander Humphreys of Staunton, Virginia. She had uncles distinguished in medicine and politics, and was herself mentioned as having "charms and culture." She quoted a First Family saying of the time: it takes seven generations to make a Lady. The talk of her possible marriage to Robert S. Todd was unpleasant to Mrs. Robert Parker, mother of Todd's first wife. The wedding came off at the bride's home in Frankfort, Kentucky, on November 1, 1826. The best man was John J. Crittenden, a United States senator.
   
   By this second marriage Robert S. Todd had nine children. The first, a boy, named Robert Smith Todd, died a few days after birth. The others, three boys and five girls grew into manhood and womanhood. Their father for nearly a quarter of a century was elected clerk of the House of Representatives, held various public offices, conducted a bank that never failed, and in T. M. Green's Historic Families of Kentucky was noted as "not a man of brilliant talents, but one of clear strong mind, sound judgment, exemplary life and conduct, dignified and manly bearing, an influential and useful citizen." ...