Louisville Unearthed: Abraham Lincoln's grandfather lived and was murdered in Middletown
Abraham (Linkhorn) Lincoln’s grave marker was erected in 1937,
The 16th president of the United States and face of the five dollar bill, Abraham Lincoln’s connection to Kentucky sometimes goes forgotten.
A politician from Illinois, Lincoln was born in a single-room log cabin on his father's land, known as Sinking Spring Farm, on Feb. 12, 1809. The farm was located in central Kentucky, which then was frontier. The family would later move to Indiana, but a state park in LaRue County now commemorates Lincoln’s birth.
But Lincoln’s connection to Kentucky goes even deeper – and hits close to home. Following the Revolutionary War, Abraham “Linkhorn” Lincoln, who had been a military captain during the war, settled on several hundred acres of land just east of Louisville in what is now Middletown.
The year was 1780, Kentucky was still technically part of Virginia, and the farmland he occupied was approximately where Long Run Road is now. Some biographers feel the name “Linkhorn” was actually a mistake on the part of a clerk when the land was purchased, although Abraham would later sign documents related to the land as “Linkhorn” even while giving his children the surname “Lincoln.” It’s more likely, then, that Linkhorn changed the name of the family to “Lincoln” following the war.
The land warrant for Abraham Linkhorn’s property east of Louisville.
Old Linkhorn had been a tanner before moving to Louisville, but he settled into the farming life while also raising a family. But there was one small issue: The land he farmed was located on a parcel that local Native Americans still considered theirs, which meant the Linkhorn farm had its share of problems from time to time in protecting the land, a common situation in those days.
One account, courtesy of the Loyola Notre Dame Library, said these American Indians “resisted the white invader by every craft of cruel warfare known to them.”
Six years after his acquisition of the land, Linkhorn was tilling his fields when a shot was fired. The Revolutionary War veteran fell dead on the spot by an unseen assailant in the nearby woods. Linkhorn’s three sons saw the shooting, and two of them, 14-year-old Mordecai and the youngest, 7-year-old Thomas, ran to the family cabin while eldest son Josiah went for help.
Mordecai then saw a Native American emerge from the woods and approach his father’s body. Assuming this was the person who shot Linkhorn and was about to scalp his father, Mordecai shot and killed the Native American. From this, it has generally been assumed that the Native American was Abraham Linkhorn’s killer.
Two decades later, young Thomas would start a family of his own, move to central Kentucky and name his son Abraham in honor of his fallen father. That son would ultimately become a statesman and the 16th President of the United States.
Many historians have tried to tie Abraham Lincoln’s lineage to other Lincolns from the east, but the president himself acknowledged Linkhorn as his paternal grandfather. According to Explore Kentucky History, in 1854, Lincoln wrote in a letter to a relative about his grandfather, “the story of his death by the Indians, and of Uncle Mordecai, then fourteen years old, killing one of the Indians, is the legend more strongly than all others imprinted upon my mind and memory.”
Buried next to his cabin shortly after his death, Abraham (Linkhorn) Lincoln didn’t get a grave marker until 1937. The spot is now in a small cemetery located behind Long Run Baptist Church, and it is accessible to those who want to pay their respects to old Linkhorn.
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