Ann Rutledge Tent No. 11 instituted May 26, 1921, was chartered on October 16, 1921, Hastings, Adams County, Nebraska. Nellie M. Goodman was the National President, Catherine McKinley was Department President, and Inez Pearl Gilbert, Department Secretary. The first president of the tent was Mrs. Grace Marie Hall, 1921-22.
Tent members chose the name of Ann Rutledge for the name of their tent. Ann was born in 1816, and died August 25, 1835. She was the daughter of the innkeeper at New Salem, Illinois at whose establishment Abraham Lincoln was a boarder before going to Springfield. Her alleged engagement to Lincoln, which was ended by her death from "brain fever" has been the subject of much romantic speculation by poets, biographers, and novelists. She is known to have been engaged to a friend of Lincoln who is said (upon evidence which many historians refuse to accept) to have broken off the relationship whereupon Lincoln allegedly entered into some kind of understanding with her. There is no doubt that Lincoln was genuinely grieved when she died, but there is no conclusive evidence that she was therefore the sole great love of his life (which was the theory advanced in 1866 by William H. Herndon).
The above-referenced material was taken from, "A Short History of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865 and the Nebraska Department of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865 issued by the Nebraska Department Bicentennial Committee.
Meetings are held at 1:30 P.M. on the second Saturday of the month at Nebraska Veterans Home, West Capital Avenue, Grand Island.
For more information contact Susan Webster
