Born in Brimfield, MA, to Dr. Asa Lincoln and Sarah Danielson, Timothy
studied law. After passing his examination for the Massachusetts
Bar, he decided to move westward. Stories relate that his
intended destination was St. Louis, but when his stagecoach stopped for
several hours of rest in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became thoroughly
enchanted with the town and immediately decided to stay. It is
also suggested that part of his decision was based on the sight of a
lovely young woman, Mary Snelling Clark, whom he would eventually
marry.
The daughter of Major Nathan Clark and
Charlotte Ann Seymour, Mary was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the
home of her father's family. With her father serving in the U.S. Army,
Mary spent her early years on the frontier in Winsconsin, before her
mother brought her to Cincinnati to be educated. After becoming
engaged to Timothy Lincoln, she decided to enter the Roman Catholic
Church, offering to release the Congregationalist Timothy from his
engagement if he objected. He did not object, but chose not to be
formally received into the Catholic Church until just before his
death. They were married in 1844, in an Episcopal Church in
Detroit. Mary had wanted to spare her widowed mother the cost of
a wedding, but on her return, she found that the canon law of the Roman
Catholic Church of that time required a member of the Church to be
married only by a Catholic priest. Her friend, Bishop (later
Archbishop) John Baptiste Purcell of Cincinnati, quickly arranged a
private ceremony to remedy this situation.
The above photos are from "The Lincoln
Oak", by Louis Henri Gustave Bouscaren.
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