Mary and Robert Lincoln Go to Manchester, Vermont

HildeneMary Lincoln hated Washington, especially during the pestilent humidity of the capital city during the heat of summer. It’s the reason President Lincoln moved to the soldier’s home (now President Lincoln’s Cottage) each summer, beginning with 1862 after Willie’s death earlier that year. Mary would take Tad northward, often to New York and into New England, usually to be joined by Robert during his summer break from his studies at Harvard College. In 1863 they traveled to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, then in August of 1864 Robert met his mother and brother in the Green Mountains of Vermont. He intended to return with the president in the summer of 1865, but the assassination kept that from happening. Notwithstanding, the 1864 trip would capture Robert’s fancy enough to return decades later to build his own summer cottage known as Hildene.

On their visit in 1864, the Lincoln family (minus the President, who was busy trying to save the Union), stayed at the Equinox House Hotel in Manchester. Manchester is in southwestern Vermont in Bennington County, home to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum, where the poet wrote some of the poems that garnered him four Pulitzer Prizes. It’s unknown whether Robert Lincoln ever met Robert Frost, although Frost frequented the area in the 1920s when Lincoln was in the final years of his life. In any case, Robert Lincoln had many opportunities to become familiar with the area long after his initial visit with his mother. In the 1890s, he commonly visited his Chicago law partner, Edward S. Isham, who had a large estate called Ormsby Hill just outside of town. Following Isham’s death, Lincoln returned for a two week stay at the Equinox Hotel and decided to buy land – conveniently adjacent to Ormsby Hill – to build “a modest summer place.” He named the resulting 24-room Georgian estate Hildene, combining the Old English words for hill (Hil) and valley (dene), reflecting the highland and lowland portions of the now 412-acre property.

Earlier this year I also traveled to Vermont, roughly following the route Robert would have followed as he made his way from Harvard. Even today the environment remains pristine. It’s no wonder Robert Frost was inspired to write his most famous poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” while living at the Stone House. After a brief pilgrimage to Frost’s house, I moved on to my main goals in Manchester – the Equinox and Hildene.

I had booked a room at the Equinox Golf Resort and Spa because I wanted to feel the presence of Mary, Tad, and Robert as they enjoyed the time away from the constant trials of civil war. The Equinox was expanded in 1980 but retains the original portions where the Lincoln’s stayed. The sprawling, but intensely beautiful, white edifice now sprawls across several buildings while maintaining its historic charm. The Equinox Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s impossible not to be awed by the history. My visit to Hildene wasn’t until the next morning so I had time to wander around Manchester to visit the compelling River Walk and Veterans Park, hit up the local independent bookstore (for Lincoln books, of course), and take in a late lunch at the quaint Mystic Restaurant.

When I finally did get to Hildene it was easy to see why Robert Lincoln felt at home there. Built when he was still president of the Pullman sleeping car company, Robert maintained his house in Chicago, then later when he was Secretary of War to two presidents, a house in Washington, D.C. But Hildene was where he went to relax. The home itself is cozy despite its two-dozen rooms (some of which were for his servants). While he did do some work there, he wanted it not as a show house for guests but as a retreat to escape the madness of corporate and government life. He even built himself an observatory where he could gaze at the stars. After Robert’s death in 1926, the house remained in the family, with his granddaughter, Mary Lincoln Beckwith (who everyone called Peggy), the last Lincoln descendant to live at Hildene. She died in 1975, leaving the property (at least briefly) to the Church of Christ, Scientist in accordance with her grandmother’s wishes. It wasn’t long before Hildene was transferred to the nonprofit Friends of Hildene that now owns and runs it.

There is much more about Hildene to talk about, including the Pullman car and goat farm, but I’ll save those for another day. Peggy herself deserves some discussion as she reminds me of another woman I admired, Katharine Hepburn.

[Photo: Hildene, 2023, by David J. Kent]

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Robert Lincoln’s Observatory at Hildene

Hildene observatoryRobert Lincoln got his initial interest in astronomy from his father. Abraham Lincoln was fascinated by astronomy, as I discuss in my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, and in a previous post. Robert did him one better – he built his own observatory at Hildene, which I saw on a recent visit to Robert’s Vermont summer home.

As I crested the hill walking from Hildene’s welcome center to house, my eyes immediately gravitated to the odd-looking domed structure standing at the edge of the woods. Robert’s observatory. About 12 feet in diameter and maybe 20 feet tall, the observatory was much smaller than I expected. Whereas his father had a fascination with astronomy, Robert had made it into a deep hobby. Robert had a habit of diving into his avocations – he surveyed all of Hildene as it was being built and did math problems in the evenings “to relax” – and astronomy was no exception. It was Robert who selected and surveyed the site for the observatory not far from the main house.

In addition to his father’s influence, Robert’s interest was likely expanded by his mentor and benefactor Jonathan Young Scammon, who besides being a lawyer, banker, and newspaper publisher was a dedicated amateur astronomer. Robert frequently used the large telescope at Dearborn Observatory on the campus of Chicago University (now Northwestern), often accompanied by close friend, and later renowned astronomer Shelbourne Wesley Burnham. According to Robert Lincoln biographer, Jason Emerson, Robert became a voracious reader of books on astronomy, about thirty of which still remain in his library at Hildene. “I belong to the class of old-young amateurs in astronomy, but I enjoy my study of it very much,” Emerson says Robert wrote to the director of the Lick Observatory in California. Before building the observatory, he used his telescope on a tripod, and would synchronize his stopwatch every day at the Manchester telegraph office to ensure the precision of his astronomical calculations. Later, he installed a relay at Hildene so he could get exact noontime readings via telegraph without having to go into town.

Hildene Observatory

Originally, Robert’s telescope was a four-inch diameter Bardon, which in the observatory on a high point overlooking the “dene” gave a wonderfully unobstructed view of the sky. As his expertise and interest grew, however, the Bardon proved inadequate, so in 1909 he commissioned construction of a six-inch refracting telescope as a replacement. He became quite proud of the observatory and often bragged about it to his friends.

Being a scientist myself, I lingered at the observatory for a while, fascinated by the existing telescope. Whether it still worked or not was somewhat moot, as it was locked behind a metal gate to protect it from tourists. It was also time to go inside the main building to meet the archivist. More on that soon. As fascinating as it was inside the mansion, I couldn’t help but look back at the mini-dome as I strolled back down the hill. I would have loved to hang out with Robert gazing at the stars.

[Photos by David J. Kent]

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.