Alva Review-Courier -

President Abraham Lincoln (who served from 1861 to 1865) and his wife, Mary, had four children. All boys, they were – in the order of their births – Robert, Edward, William and Thomas. Unfortunately, Robert was the only one to live to adulthood.

Robert Lincoln lived a long and notable life. Born in August 1843, he became a successful corporate attorney after undergraduate work at Harvard and law school at Northwestern University in his native Illinois.

Lincoln also had a distinguished political career, serving as U.S. Secretary of War from 1881 to 1885 and as ambassador to Great Britain from 1889 to 1893. He rejected all efforts of his fellow Republicans to nominate him for either president or vice president.

In his later years, Lincoln was president and then chairman of the board of the Pullman Palace Car Company, which manufactured railroad cars. He died in 1926, less than a week before his 83rd birthday.

But Robert Lincoln almost died during his father’s presidency. Lincoln acknowledged that in late 1863 or early 1864 (he was not sure of the date) he was lucky to escape serious injury or possibly death.

The 20-year-old Lincoln was at a railway station in Jersey City, New Jersey, as part of a large group standing on the platform waiting to board. The rush of the crowd caused Lincoln to fall off the platform into the space between it and the moving train.

He could have easily been killed but a fellow passenger reached down, grabbed the collar of his coat, and pulled him to safety. The person who rescued him was famous. Lincoln recognized him instantly and thanked him for saving his life.

A few months later, Robert Lincoln enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant. When Robert told one of Grant’s officers about his brush with death, the officer wrote a letter of thanks to the rescuer.

The man who saved Robert’s life was actor Edwin Booth. In April 1865 Edwin’s brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Robert Lincoln’s father.