From the Dec. 22nd Danville (Il) Commercial News. Thanks for the alert Civil War Interactive Newswire.
On. December 24th, the Ward Hill Lamon Civil War Round Table will hold a brief ceremony at the grave site of Mariah Vance. Afterwards, they will lay a wreath at the southwest section of Spring Hill Cemetery near the entrance off English Street.
Mariah Vance was laundress, maid and nurse for the Lincolns from 1850 until they left Springfield for the White House in 1860.
Her family moved to Danville in 1861 when her husband got a job as a miner in the area.
Her stories were written down by an Attica, Indiana, woman who went to her laundry in the early 1900s. They have since been printed in a controversial book "Lincoln's Personal Life: An Oral History."
Their is some debate as to how much she really knew about the Lincoln's, but their son, Robert Todd Lincoln came to Danville once and visited with Mariah.
She died in 1904 and was front-page news in Danville, but was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1964, the Round Table placed a marker at the grave.
Never Heard of Her. --Old-B-Runner
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