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Carolina Country has earned the reputation for keeping lively the allegation that Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born in rural North Carolina. We see no good reason for stopping now.
Our loyal puzzle-master Charles G. Joyner started it all in a February article a few years ago when he recirculated the story first published in 1899 by James H. Cathey, himself a North Carolinian from Jackson County. Cathey’s book, “The Genesis of Lincoln” (long since out of print, but still around in the rare books world), recounted several stories from people who were downright positive that Lincoln was born in about 1804 in rural Swain County.
There is no dispute that Abraham’s mother was Nancy Hanks. The dispute lies in where Nancy Hanks was when Abraham was born, and just when that was, and just who the father was. Most historians, and Honest Abe himself, say he was born on Feb. 12, 1809, the son of Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln of Hardin (now LaRue) County, Ky. North Carolina fans claim he was the illegitimate son of Abram Enloe, a gentleman farmer who moved his family and maidservant Nancy Hanks from Rutherford County to the Ocunaluftee area of today’s Swain County while Nancy was pregnant with his child. Other North Carolina fans say Abram Enloe’s wife banished the pregnant Miss Hanks from the Enloes’ Swain County household, and the young women returned to the former Enloe stomping grounds in Rutherford County and delivered little Abe.
The North Carolina story has been told repeatedly over the past two centuries by Enloe family members, Honest Abe spotters and writers who cite interviews with reliable sources and hard-to-deny evidence, including photos of Abram Enloe’s descendants who look an awful lot like Abraham Lincoln (the long and angular face, the lanky build, arms that hang almost to the knees).
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