Annotation
[1] ALS, owned by Mary King. The manuscript is damaged in spots: portions of the text now illegible are bracketed as from NH.
Mary Owens first came to New Salem in 1833 to visit her sister, Mrs. Bennett Abell. Upon a later visit in 1836, brought about by the match-making activities of Mrs. Abell, who suggested to Lincoln that he marry her sister, Mary Owens and Lincoln reached some sort of understanding. That the prospects were not satisfactory to either party is evident from Lincoln's letters to Mary and from the letters which Mary wrote to William H. Herndon in 1866, answering queries about her side of the affair.
[2] Lincoln attended the opening session of the legislature on December 5.
[3] This was the third State House, begun in August, 1836, when the old building collapsed beyond repair.
[4] Governor Joseph Duncan, whose message denounced President Jackson's policies.
[5] John Taylor. The ``new county'' was named ``Menard.''
[6] Variant spellings in other sources are ``Abel'' and ``Able.''