The Man Who Kept Surviving History

 

Robert Todd Lincoln spent his life trying to escape his father’s shadow.

Instead, history kept finding him.

In April 1865, Robert was in Washington when his father, Abraham Lincoln, was shot at Ford’s Theatre. He wasn’t in the box and didn’t see the gunfire. But he arrived at the Petersen House soon after and watched his father die.

In July 1881, he was in Washington when President James Garfield was shot at a train station. Robert had been invited to travel with Garfield that morning. He was nearby when the news broke and later visited the wounded president.

Then, in September 1901, history repeated itself.

Robert Todd Lincoln was in Buffalo, New York, attending the Pan-American Exposition when President William McKinley was shot. He wasn’t in the room when the shots were fired, but he was close enough that the shock reached him almost immediately.

Three assassinated presidents. All connected to one man.

Robert Lincoln eventually refused invitations to presidential events. He once remarked that there was a “fatality about presidential functions” where he was concerned.

He lived into old age, but history seemed to follow him, anyway.

Not as a target, but as a witness.