Abraham Lincoln, the rail splitter, who spent his early years growing up in Kentucky, is also well known in the Carolinas. His mother, Nancy Hanks married Tom Lincoln of North Carolina and soon after moved to Kentucky, first settling near Hodgen’s Mill, where Lincoln was born. Today, the area is home to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Historical Park in Hodgenville, KY. In 2014 TACF’s KY Chapter planted a demonstration orchard of B3F3 chestnut seedlings at the picnic area east of the Historical Park.
The second historical site, in Hillsborough, NC was home to Elizabeth Hobbs, confidant of and seamstress for First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, who hired Hobbs in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln became President. Born a slave in Dinwiddie, Virginia in 1818, Hobbs moved to Hillsborough in 1835 with Reverend Burwell and his family to the home that later became the Burwell School, now a National Historic Place. By 1855 she purchased her freedom and married James Keckly. The Bicentennial of her birth is being celebrated during 2018 through events held at the Burwell School Historic site. The Carolinas Chapter in 2017 assisted in an educational planting of two B3F3 chestnut seedlings at the Burwell School site.
