Details
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President. Autograph manuscript signed ("Lincoln & Herndon"), with a second, signed endorsement, comprising a bill for divorce, CONTAINING ABOUT 325 WORDS, Logan County, [1858?]. 2 pages, folio, with a few deletions, two small tears at fold (not affecting text). Fine.
A BILL AND COMPLAINT FOR DIVORCE IN STARK VS. STARK, 1858
A detailed document in Lincoln's familiar large hand, dating from his last and most famous partnership with William Henry Herndon, later his controversial biographer. The Lincoln/Herndon association began in 1844 and lasted until Lincoln became the Republican presidential nominee in 1860. The present complaint is filed on behalf of Emma A. Stark for divorce on grounds of cruelty, non-support and desertion: "...[In] 1850, in the State of New York...[Emma A. Stark] was lawfully married to one La Fayette Stark; that they lived together as husband and wife, she performing all the duties of a faithful wife, until about the 30th day of April 1856, when she was constrained to separate herself from him, by his neglect to furnish herself from him, by his neglect to furnish her the necessaries of life...and by continuous harshness of treatment, going the length of seriously affecting her health, and altogether amounting to extreme and repeated cruelty; that she has ever since continued separate and apart from him; that she and her said husband have one child living, a son, now in the sixth year of his age...Pray that said La Fayette Stark be made defendant to the Bill; that the Peoples Writ of Subpoena issue for him; that he be required to answer all and singular the allegations hereof...and that...a final hearing [regarding] the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between said defendant...be decreed to be absolved; that she be declared to have the...custody of said child..." The complaint is signed by Emma A. Stark beneath her sworn statement that La Fayette Stark "resides without the State of Illinois..." Not in Collected Works and apparently unpublished.
A BILL AND COMPLAINT FOR DIVORCE IN STARK VS. STARK, 1858
A detailed document in Lincoln's familiar large hand, dating from his last and most famous partnership with William Henry Herndon, later his controversial biographer. The Lincoln/Herndon association began in 1844 and lasted until Lincoln became the Republican presidential nominee in 1860. The present complaint is filed on behalf of Emma A. Stark for divorce on grounds of cruelty, non-support and desertion: "...[In] 1850, in the State of New York...[Emma A. Stark] was lawfully married to one La Fayette Stark; that they lived together as husband and wife, she performing all the duties of a faithful wife, until about the 30th day of April 1856, when she was constrained to separate herself from him, by his neglect to furnish herself from him, by his neglect to furnish her the necessaries of life...and by continuous harshness of treatment, going the length of seriously affecting her health, and altogether amounting to extreme and repeated cruelty; that she has ever since continued separate and apart from him; that she and her said husband have one child living, a son, now in the sixth year of his age...Pray that said La Fayette Stark be made defendant to the Bill; that the Peoples Writ of Subpoena issue for him; that he be required to answer all and singular the allegations hereof...and that...a final hearing [regarding] the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between said defendant...be decreed to be absolved; that she be declared to have the...custody of said child..." The complaint is signed by Emma A. Stark beneath her sworn statement that La Fayette Stark "resides without the State of Illinois..." Not in Collected Works and apparently unpublished.