Encounters
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Lincoln’s courtship of Mary Todd is poorly documented, but indirect light is shed on it by his earlier, well-recorded romance with Mary S. Owens. Born in Kentucky a few months before Lincoln, Mary Owens received a good education at the home of her wealthy father, a planter in Green County. She was older, bigger, and better-educated than Ann Rutledge. Raised in a relatively sophisticated society, she dressed more elegantly than women in and about New Salem. Her clothes may have been more attractive than Ann Rutledge’s, but her features and figure were not. Standing 5 feet, 5 inches tall, she was plump, weighing between 150 and 180 pounds, and considered “not pretty,” “matronly,” “strong nervous & muscular,” with a “massive, angular, square, prominent, and broad” forehead, “fair skin, deep blue eyes,” and “dark curling hair.” Though emphatically less comely than Ann Rutledge, Mary Owens was more intellectually gifted and accomplished. Caleb Carman remembered her as “Sharp—Shrewd and intellectual,” and brighter than Ann. Others deemed her “verry Talented,” “smart, sharp,” “quick & strong minded,” “very intellectual,” a “good conversationalist,” as well as “a splendid reader.” She reportedly “loved wit & humor,” had an “Excellent disposition,” was “jovial,” “social,” “good natured,” “gay and lively,” “light-hearted and cheery,” as well as “kind and considerate.” In her dealings with men, she showed “a little dash of coquetry.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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