A Lincoln Connection?

 In the Ogden Cemetery, near Paris in Edgar Co, Illinois, and just a few miles north of Marshall, are markers for several members of the Rhoads family, ancestors of Olive Geisert, wife of Adam Imle. In the cemetery lie Olive’s great great grandfather, Daniel Rhoads, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Her great great grandmother Elizabeth (Newman) Rhoads. Her great great uncle Newman Rhoads. Her cousins (first, second, third, and otherwise) Willington, Benjamin Tolbert, Daniel, Benjamin Rhoads. And also in Ogden Cemetery is a marker for Sarah (Hanks) Varrell, whose great granddaughter is believed to be Bessie Maude Hanks, who married Lawrence Willington Rhoads, Olive’s third cousin. Now that would not be anything special except that Sarah’s marker is inscribed 

SARAH HANKS
VARRELL
1786 - 1876
AUNT OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 So, do we relatives of Adam and Olive Imle have a connection with Abraham, our sixteenth president? Disappointingly, we probably don’t. Though Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln, did have a sister Sarah, the two Sarahs are apparently not the same. The Sarah Hanks buried in Ogden was probably a daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Harper) Hanks and not of Lucy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln’s grandmother.

 The grave marker clearly states that Sarah was Abraham Lincoln’s Aunt. But on the marker is a plaque inscribed “DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.” The marker proclaiming the Lincoln relationship was erected by the DAR long after Sarah’s death, and we all know how reliable the DAR is. Often, not very. For more information on the extremely murky genealogy of Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln, I recommend Nancy Hanks, of Undistinguished Families, published 1959 by Adin Baber. You can see a free copy on Internet Archive. (As a side note: Adin Baber’s first cousin, three times removed, David Baber, married Elizabeth Tapscott, my third cousin, four times removed. This, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the Hanks or Rhoads family.)

Me with Sarah’s replaced marker, back 
when I thought I was connected (2003).

Sarah’s original marker (Find A Grave).