Last updated: November 3, 2024
Person
Elizabeth Johnston Hanks
Quick Facts
Significance:
Step-sister to Abraham Lincoln
Place of Birth:
Hardin County, Kentucky
Date of Birth:
January 9, 1807
Place of Death:
Coles County, Illinois
Date of Death:
December 18, 1864
Place of Burial:
Coles County, Illinois
Cemetery Name:
Old City Cemetery
All three step-siblings of Abraham Lincoln were born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky to Daniel and Sarah Bush Johnston. Elizabeth was born on January 9, 1807, John D. around 1809/1810, and Matilda in 1811. During June or July of 1816, their father died, and, after his death, they moved from the Hardin County Jail, where he was the jailor, to a cabin that their mother rented, then later owned outside Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Sarah Bush Johnston and Thomas Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s father, met again following the death of their spouses. Thomas married Sarah on December 2, 1819. Sarah left Elizabethtown, Kentucky and moved with her three children, Elizabeth, John D, and Matilda, aged twelve, ten?, and nine, to Spencer County, Indiana, to join Thomas and his children. There were eight people then living in the Lincoln cabin.
Over time Elizabeth and Matilda married and started their own families while continuing to reside in the Little Pigeon Creek Community. In March of 1830, the entire family moved to Illinois and first settled in Macon County, Illinois. They later moved to Coles County, Illinois, where most lived the rest of their days.
There is not much known about the step-siblings of Abraham Lincoln during their time in Indiana.
Things that we do know about each step-sibling are:
Elizabeth Johnston married Dennis F. Hanks on June 14, 1821, in Spencer County, Indiana. Elizabeth died on December 18, 1864. She is buried
in Old City Cemetery in Charleston, Illinois. Together they had eight children survive infancy, Nancy, Sarah, Harriett, John, Amanda, Charles, Mary, and Theophilus.
Matilda Johnston was married twice. She married Squire Hall on September 13, 1826, in Spencer County, Indiana, and married Reuben Moore on June 19, 1856, in Coles County, Illinois. Matilda died in 1878 and is buried by her first husband in the Thomas Lincoln Cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. With Squire, Matilda had six children, John, Nancy, Elizabeth, Alfred, Sarah, Amanda, and Joseph Hall, and with Reuben, they had one child, Giles Moore.
John D Johnston was married twice. First to Mary A. Barker on October 16, 1834, in Coles County, Illinois, and second to Nancy Jane Williams on March 5, 1851, in Clark County, Illinois. It is unknown when he died, but he is buried in an unmarked grave in the Thomas Lincoln Cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. John had at least five children survive infancy. Their names are Abraham, Thomas, Mary, Richard, and Dennis. He also served during the Blackhawk War as a Private.