Uncle of President Abraham Lincoln, little is known of his life in Kentucky where he settled with his father at an early age. He became a farmer and President Lincoln wrote the following about Josiah and the family line: "I knew Mordecai and Josiah Lincoln intimately. They were excellent men, plain, moderately educated, candid in their manners and intercourse and looked upon as honorable as any men I have heard of". (Letter of Henry Pittle, June 17, 1865; see "Herndon's Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I, p 7.)
One of the many stories that PresidentLincoln told was the death of his grandfather for whom he was named. Josiah was witness the murder of his father Abraham Lincoln (the elder).
Dr. Warren in his "Lincoln's Parentage and Childhood", page 8, describes the death of pioneer Abraham Lincoln. "Abraham Lincoln, with his three sons, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas was busily engaged in the field putting in a crop of corn. Without warning they were attacked by two of three Indians. The father was killed at the first fusillade. Josiah, then thirteen years of age, started for Hughes' Station, half a mile away, where the family was then making their home in one of the fort's eight cabins. Mordecai and Thomas aged fifteen and ten respectively, made for a cabin nearby, which Abraham had erected and where the family would make their home as soon as safety would allow. An Indian despising the ability of Mordecai's marksmanship stepped out of the thicket to secure the scalp of the paleface. Mordecai from within the cabin took aim at a silver pendant on the breast of the Indian and brought him down. Josiah had reached the fort and warned the settlers, who started in pursuit of the redskins." On page 297, he fixes the time of this massacre as May 1786, through the papers in a suit in the Nelson Circuit Court. Josiah moved to Harrison County in southern Indiana.
Son of Bathsheba Herring and Abraham Lincoln
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Josiah is 24 degrees from Herbert Adair, 21 degrees from Richard Adams, 17 degrees from Mel Blanc, 24 degrees from Dick Bruna, 16 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 29 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 18 degrees from Sam Edwards, 15 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 19 degrees from Marty Krofft, 13 degrees from Junius Matthews, 15 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 16 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.