Now owned by Mrs. Samuel Hill, Petersburg, Illinois. ]
ANN RUTLEDGE’S ENGAGEMENT TO JOHN McNEILL.
John McNeill was an unmarried man—at least so he represented himself to be—and very soon after becoming a resident of New Salem he formed the acquaintance of Ann Rutledge, then a girl of seventeen. It was a case of love at first sight, and the two soon became engaged, in spite of the rivalry of Samuel Hill, McNeill’s partner. But Ann was as yet only a young girl; and it was thought very sensible in her, and very gracious and considerate in her lover, that both acquiesced in the wishes of Ann’s parents that, for some time, at least, the marriage be postponed.
MAJOR JOHN T. STUART, THE MAN WHO INDUCED LINCOLN TO STUDY LAW.
After a photograph owned by his widow, Mary Nash Stuart, Springfield, Illinois. John T. Stuart was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, seven miles east of Lexington, November 10, 1807. He was a son of Robert Stuart, a Presbyterian minister, and professor of languages in Transylvania University. His mother’s maiden name was Hannah Todd. She was a daughter of General Levi Todd, and a sister of Robert S. Todd, the father of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. John T. Stuart graduated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1826, and after studying law in Richmond, Kentucky, he went to Springfield, Illinois. This was in 1828. Here he at once began the practice of the law. In the Black Hawk War he was major of the battalion in which Lincoln commanded a company, and here his acquaintance with Lincoln seems to have been formed. In 1832 he was elected a representative in the State legislature, and was reëlected in 1834. In 1836 he was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for Congress. Two years later he was again a candidate, and this time was elected, defeating Stephen A. Douglas. He was reëlected in 1840. Lincoln, upon his removal to Springfield in the spring of 1837, became Major Stuart’s law partner. The partnership continued until April 14, 1841, when Lincoln became the partner of Judge Stephen T. Logan. For many years Major Stuart was the senior member of the law firm of Stuart, Edwards and Brown, the two other members being Benjamin S. Edwards and Christopher C. Brown. In 1837, at Jacksonville, Illinois, he was married to Mary V. Nash, who is still living. Major Stuart died in 1885. ]