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