The Other Mary: Mary Owens Part I
Abraham Lincoln took notice
when she, Mary Owens,
a blue eyed, dark haired beauty
was in New Salem in 1833; visiting.
Of course he took notice!
She was born on September 29, 1808
in Green County on the Green River,
in Greensburg,
in South Central Kentucky.
Her father, Nathaniel, a prominent
Green County pioneer and business man
became the first High Sheriff of the county
and a Quarter Sessions Court Judge.
Mr. Lincoln asked her to marry him in 1836.
After his letter dated May 7, 1837,
she turned him down.
Mary Owens tells us:
I agree with Mary Todd Lincoln,
we do not kiss and tell,
but Abraham Lincoln
wrote me a letter,
and well,
after I read it,
I decided, with a good heart,
to decline. Just something
that was not designed
to be, so I declined.
It was at that time
I met Jesse Vinney,
we married and moved to Missouri.
But I will say of Mr. Lincoln,
"He was a man with a heart full
of kindness
and a head full of sense."
CONTINUED PART II
Copyright © Jean Ward | Year Posted 2005
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