Tad Lincoln

Infobox Person
name = Thomas Lincoln


image_size = 250px
caption = Tad Lincoln reading a book with his father
birth_date = birth date|1853|04|04
birth_place = Springfield, Illinois, USA
death_date = death date and age|1871|07|15|1853|04|04
death_place = Chicago, Illinois, USA
education =
occupation =
spouse =
parents = Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln
children =

Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (April 4, 1853 – July 15, 1871) was the fourth and youngest son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.

1853–1865

During the time his father lived, Tad was impulsive, unrestrained, and did not attend school. John Hay wrote that Tad's numerous tutors in the White House usually quit in frustration. Tad had free run of the White House, and there are stories of him interrupting Presidential meetings, drilling the White House guard, collecting animals, charging visitors to see his father, and more.

On April 14, 1865, Tad went to the Grover Theater to see "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" while his parents attended "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. The same night, his father was shot by John Wilkes Booth. He arrived just as his father died. Tad cried deeply as Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president.

1866–1871

After the assassination, the surviving Lincolns (Mary, Tad, Robert) lived together in Chicago. Tad's older brother, Robert Lincoln, moved out after a short time.

At age 12, Tad still could not read. He began attending school in 1866 and eventually learned how to read and write, but never seems to have been a good student: his mother constantly worried about his progress.

During the post-assassination years, Tad lived with his mother, to whom he was devoted. In 1868, they left Chicago and lived in Europe for two and a half years.

Tad's social history is poorly known; it is not clear that he ever had any good friends, although there is a report he did fancy a girl in Chicago. He was sometimes called "Stuttering Tad" because of a speech impediment (which was more of a lisp than a stutter). The lisp later resolved.

Death and medical diagnoses

Shortly after the May 1871 sea voyage that returned Tad and his mother from Europe to the United States, Tad became ill. The first sign, weight loss, had started some months before this.

The acute phase of the illness lasted about six weeks, and was characterized by difficulty breathing unless sitting up, fluid around (not in) the lungs, no reports of fever, no reports of chest pain, and at least one episode of fainting while walking.

After a night of progressively worsening breathing, Tad died on July 15 1871 at the age of 18, in the Clifton House in Chicago. The official record of Tad's death was lost in the Chicago Fire, but newspapers reported the cause as fluid in his lungs (or, variously, around his heart).

In 1932 Dr. C. A. Evans wrote that Tad probably died from pleurisy caused by tuberculosis, but this is unlikely, as Tad had neither pain nor fever.

In 2008, it was proposed that Tad died of medullary thyroid cancer that had spread (metastasized) to his chest cavity, causing a malignant pleural effusion (i.e. the fluid in his chest). This hypothesis, which explains all of Tad's symptoms, derives from the conclusion that Tad and his father both had the genetic cancer syndrome called multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2B (MEN2B). High-resolution photographs of Tad, taken over many years, show that he had masses in his lips, characteristic of MEN2B.

Funeral

Funeral services were held for Tad in Robert Lincoln's home in Chicago. Tad's remains were transported to Springfield and buried in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery, alongside his Father and two of his brothers. Robert accompanied the casket on the train, but Mary was too distraught to make the trip.

References

* cite book
last = Sotos
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Physical Lincoln: Finding the Genetic Cause of Abraham Lincoln's Height, Homeliness, Pseudo-depression, and Imminent Cancer Death
publisher = Mt. Vernon Book Systems
date = 2008
location = Mt. Vernon, VA
pages =
url = http://www.physical-lincoln.com/
doi =
id =

External links

* [http://www.physical-lincoln.com/wiki/Tad_Lincoln_photographs Photographs of Tad Lincoln]