Abe Lincoln's Ghost - Some Spooky Stories for Halloween

Reports of ghosts at the White House are legion. “The damned place is haunted sure as shootin’,” a freaked-out President Harry Truman wrote to his wife in 1946. 

Even former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, sometimes got the creeps: “There is something about the house at night that you just feel like you are summoning up the spirits of all the people who have lived there and worked there and walked through the halls there,” she told Rosie O’Donnell in 1996.

But the phantom most often encountered haunting the corridors and rooms of the White House - according to various presidents and first ladies, guests, and members of the White House staff over the years - is Abe Lincoln. 

The Lincoln Bedroom and the Yellow Oval Room - both spaces historically associated with the 16th President - are the rooms where most of the encounters occur. 

The legend of Honest Ol' Abe’s ghost may have originated with longtime White House footman and storyteller, Jeremiah “Jerry” Smith in the late 19th century, but it has since taken on a life - or an afterlife - of its own. So much so, that these intriguing tales of the ghostly prairie lawyer with the long, sad face just may be true! 

Read on at your own risk!

~ Grace Coolidge, wife of Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president, was the first First Lady to report having actually seen the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. In a series of articles for American Magazine, the First Lady revealed that she once saw Lincoln standing by a window in the Lincoln Bedroom, solemnly gazing with his hands clasped behind his back.

~ Nancy Reagan wrote in her memoirs that staffers attributed strange noises and missing items to Lincoln’s ghost and that the Reagan family dog would bark at the door of the Lincoln bedroom, refusing to enter. 

~ Liz Carpenter, press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, told author John Alexander that the First Lady believed she’d felt Lincoln’s presence one spring evening while watching a television program about his death. She noticed a plaque she’d never seen before hanging over the fireplace. It mentioned the room's importance to Lincoln in some way. Mrs Johnson admitted feeling a strange coldness and a decided sense of unease. 

~ Another First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt - although she never claimed to have seen Lincoln’s ghost - said she, too, felt Lincoln's presence on numerous occasions, most strongly in the Lincoln Bedroom and the Yellow Oval Room, both spaces historically associated with the 16th President. She, too, mentioned the involvement of the Roosevelt family dog, Fala, a Scottish Terrier. The dog was usually well-mannered and composed, but sometimes, the First Lady noticed, he would bark inexplicably and intently at seemingly empty spaces. She believed that Fala’s inexplicable behavior could also be attributed to sensing Lincoln’s ghost. 

(Please note: The notion that animals often perceive spirits is a common thread in ghostly folklore.)

Oddly, the ghost of Lincoln was seen the most frequently during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt - our thirty-second president - when the country went through a devastating depression and then a world war. 

~ One of the sightings during World War II was in 1942. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was a guest at the White House, after being forced to flee her country by the Nazis. The Queen was awakened one night by a knock on her bedroom door. Thinking it might be an important message, she got up and opened the door. The top-hatted figure of President Lincoln stood in the hallway. adorned in his recognizable frock coat and top hat, his gaze steady and piercing.  She fainted, and her unconscious form was discovered by her staff. 

~ One of the most fascinating sightings of Lincoln’s ghost during FDR's presidency, involves the indomitable British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. 

Churchill, renowned for his grit and determination during World War II, was also known for his eccentricities. He relished a daily routine of retiring late, enjoying a long hot bath accompanied by a glass of Scotch, and winding down with a cigar. On one particular evening during Churchill’s stay at the White House in the early 1940s, this ritual took an unexpected turn.

After soaking in a bath, Churchill - naked and a cigar clamped between his teeth - strolled into the adjoining bedroom. To his astonishment, he found Abraham Lincoln standing by the fireplace, leaning on the mantle as though in deep contemplation. 

Churchill, never a man to be easily shaken, maintained his poise despite his state of undress. He removed the cigar from his mouth, tapped off the ash, and with a wry smile greeted the apparition: “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.” Lincoln’s ghost, in response, offered a brief smile, as if sharing in the jest, and then slowly faded away.

Several first daughters have also heard or seen Mr. Lincoln.

~ Following in her father’s footsteps of creepy experiences, Margaret Truman, the daughter of President Harry S. Truman, found herself embroiled in the tapestry of tales surrounding the ghost of Abraham Lincoln.

On the night of her encounter, Margaret was staying in the Lincoln Bedroom. As she settled into bed, surrounded by the artifacts and mementos of Lincoln’s era, she was startled by the sound of rapping at the door. The knocks were insistent. Gathering her courage, she went to see who could be at the door at such an hour. She found the hallway outside the room empty. However, Margaret felt a presence, as though she was not alone. She later said that the presence mentally suggested the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.

~ Ronald Reagan’s daughter Maureen was no stranger to overnight visits at the White House. She and her husband Dennis C. Revell, claimed to have seen Lincoln's spirit.  Her husband, Dennis, woke up to see a shadowy figure standing by the fireplace. Maureen didn’t believe him until several nights later when she, too, saw a man standing in their room in the middle of the night. She initially thought it was her father—until she realized she could see right through him.

Various White House staff members down through the years over time have experienced incidents.

~ On one occasion, FDR's personal valet ran screaming from the White House claiming he had seen Lincoln's ghost.

~ The Lincoln Bedroom in the White House, though named and furnished as such now, was not the sleeping quarters of Abraham Lincoln, but rather a meeting room and office during his time as president. In spite of this, several unnamed eyewitnesses claim to have seen a remarkably vivid shade of Lincoln himself lying down on the bed or sitting at the edge, pulling on his boots as if preparing for a journey. Of these, the most noteworthy account comes from Mary Eben, who served as the secretary to Eleanor Roosevelt.

On a day like any other, Mary was attending to her tasks when she walked by the Lincoln Bedroom. Through the partially open door, she glimpsed the figure of a man sitting on the edge of the bed, intently pulling on a pair of boots. As she watched, frozen in disbelief, she realized with escalating astonishment that the man bore an unmistakable resemblance to President Abraham Lincoln. Overcome with fright, Mary Eben reportedly fled the room in terror, her screams reverberating through the halls.

~ President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, was known for his stern demeanor and no-nonsense approach to the press. It was during Eisenhower’s tenure in the 1950s that Hagerty told about feeling an unexplained presence in the White House. Hagerty, who had spent countless nights working late in the historic building, mentioned that he felt Lincoln’s presence particularly in the Lincoln Bedroom and the executive offices. Though a man of few words when it came to personal experiences, the gravity with which he discussed this sensation hinted at the depth of his encounters.

~ There have been many whispers and tales of ghostly footsteps resonating through the hallways of the White House. Lillian Rogers Parks, a long-time White House seamstress and maid, recounted one such incident in her 1961 autobiography, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House. She was working near the Lincoln Bedroom. The night was quiet and the hallway deserted. Suddenly, she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps echoing through the corridor. The steps seemed heavy, as though burdened, and were deliberate in their pace. Lillian was paralyzed for a moment, as she realized there was no one else present. A deep sense of sadness overwhelmed her, and she could not shake the feeling that she was hearing the ghostly footfalls of President Lincoln.

~ The last reported sighting of Lincoln's ghost was in the early 1980s, when Tony Savoy - a White House operations foreman - came to work one morning in the White House. The corridors were still quiet, as the building was just waking up to the hum of political life. As he walked through the halls, something caught his eye at the top of one of the grand staircases. There, sitting in a chair, was the unmistakable figure of Abraham Lincoln. Savoy was shocked and unable to move or look away. The apparition was so vivid that he could make out the details of Lincoln’s attire and the expression on his face seemed as though Lincoln was in deep thought.

Happy Halloween!

Mac

Works Cited

[1]"The Lingering Legend of Abraham Lincoln’s Ghost.' History.com

[2] "Lincoln's Ghost". Wikipedia.com