A Few Things You Might Not Have Known About Abraham Lincoln

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

* Lincoln had a wart on his right cheek, a scar on his thumb from an axe accident, and a scar over his right eye from a fight with a gang of thieves.

* He loved the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.

* As a six-foot teenager, Lincoln once lifted a chicken pen that weighed 600 pounds.

* Lincoln and his wife held many seances in the White House. They were greatly interested in psychic phenomena.

* Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. It was named that because it was created as a guest room during renovations under the supervision of Mary Todd Lincoln.

* Lincoln is the only president to have a patent. He created a hydraulic system that raised ships over shoals.

* He read the Bible daily.

* He had a horse named Old Bob, dogs named Fido and Jip, two goats named Nanny and Nanko, and a turkey named Jack. Lincoln was also fond of cats, and took in many kittens.

Lincoln's dog Fido.

* He once walked over six miles to borrow a grammar book.

* Lincoln had a substitute fight for him during the Civil war. He was not a paid substitute. J. Summerfield Staples was the son of an Army chaplain. He heard that Lincoln felt the president should fight in the war, but couldn't because of his duties. Staples volunteered and was allowed to serve as a substitute for Lincoln. Both Staples and his father survived the war and returned home to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. If you go to the local cemetery there, you can visit his grave.

* He gave his most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, while suffering from smallpox. He spoke to about 15,000 people.

* Lincoln played marbles to relieve stress during the Civil War.

* Lincoln had a dream right before the fall of Richmond that he would die. He dreamed he was in the White House and heard crying. When he found the room it was coming from, he asked who died. The man who was crying said, "The president." Lincoln looked into the coffin and saw his own face. A week later, he was assassinated.

* Lincoln was shot during the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. The same play was running at the McVerick Theater in Chicago on May 18, 1860 -the same day Lincoln was nominated for president in that city.

* Lincoln was carried across the street from Ford's Theater after he was shot. He died in the same bed and room that John Wilkes Booth had rented on an earlier occasion.