Sarah Margaret Clark
Zina Robins wrote of his family's most notable connection to history, "Grandmother's mother and Lincoln's father were a sister and brother and migrated to Indiana at the same time."
Uncle Zina demonstrated his Midwestern pragmatism by hastening to add, "All this may boost our opinions of ourselves a little, but if we stop a minute, think it is there in the neighborhood of 2,000 other people who can claim same lineage, so we are not exclusive by any means. Besides, Lincoln's father's reputation was not brilliant."1
It is true that Zina's great-grandmother was Mary Lincoln, sister of Thomas Lincoln. And, yes, even Abe himself said that his father was, "even in childhood a wandering, laboring boy." Thomas Lincoln's inclination to 'wandering' led to several farms, most rented, though he died on his own land in Illinois. (A farm that his, then successful Springfield lawyer son bought a third of, in order to pull the father out of financial difficulty.2) Though Thomas was said to be a "a responsible citizen living on the frontier," by more than one biographer, one of whom points out, "He was at times a jury member, a petitioner for a road, and a guard for county prisoners." But, in that biographer's estimation (and perhaps in Abe's own, as well), Thomas was something less than what you might expect from the father of a Statesman and future, great President: " In terms of education [Thomas] lacked ambition, and he never fully understood Abraham's desire to read and learn. He was a good storyteller and was popular with his neighbors."
While Abe Lincoln's relationship with his father was sufficiently strained so that he did not attend his father's funeral, Abraham did name his youngest and favorite son, Tad, after his father.
Perhaps more distinguished than her tenuous connection to the Great Emancipator was Zina's mother's direct descent from Thomas Nelson, Jr., her grandfather, who not only signed the Declaration of Independence, but was a hero of the Southern Campaign that spelled Victory at Yorktown, as was acknowledged by George Washington, himself.3
For her own part, Sarah Margaret Clark married the 26-year old Samuel Robins in Richland County, Illinois on November 19, 1871. Samuel had been given a medical discharge from the Union army in 1864 after contracting the measles during Sherman's "March to the Sea." He suffered a "lung feer" after his discharge, and never fully regained his health. The couple did have two children, Zina and Mary Margaret Robins. According to a notarized letter from Sarah for the widow's pension she and the children received, she and Samuel lived in Jasper County, Illinois at the time of his death on Nov. 19, 1875.4
1) (0177) "Letter," Robins, Zina. V., January 1947.
2) Warren, Louis Austin, "Lincoln's Parentage & Childhood," Century Co., New York, 1926.
3) http://www.colonialhall.com/nelson/nelson.php 2005.05.28
4) National Archive, Washington, D.C. affirmed by Elva (Moore) Templeton.
