Yesteryear’s in Lawrence County Ohio
Submitted by Tom Everett
(Thursday is the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. Today, we have a story about the man who buried Lincoln and his relatives living in Lawrence County, Ohio.)
LOCAL FOLKS’ KINSMAN WAS ABE LINCOLN’S UNDERTAKER
THE IRONTON REGISTER — IRONTON, OHIO
8 February 1976
Jesse Arnott, who has a place in history because he buried President Lincoln, has many relatives In Lawrence and Gallia Counties, especially In the Waterloo area. Among them are the Handleys, Stewarts, Wisemans, and Nulls.
“Jesse Arnott, born in 1812 in Monroe County when that state was still a part of Virginia, was married to Mary Elizabeth Handley, a sister of his stepmother, Lucinda Handley.
Arnott was living in Missouri, where he had a successful livery and undertaker’s business at the time Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. At first, Arnott, being a staunch Democrat, refused the assignment of burying Lincoln at nearby Springfield, Ill., but reconsidered and accepted the honor.
According to a book written about Lincoln by John Carroll Power, “As soon as the funeral car came alongside the depot, the coffin was transferred to the beautiful hearse which had been tendered for the occasion by Messrs. Lynch & Arnott of St. Louis through Mayor Thomas of that city and accepted by Mayor Dennis of Springfield.
“The hearse was built in Philadelphia at the cost of about six thousand dollars and was larger than ordinary size. After the offer was accepted, the proprietors had it additionally ornamented with a silver plate engraving of the initials ‘A.L.’ around a silver wreath, with two inverted torches and thirty-six silver stars representing the Union. It was drawn by six superb black.”
LINCOLN’S UNDERTAKER
Jesse Arnott
According to Dr. Maggie Ballard, who wrote the Arnott history for local relatives, Jesse Arnott drove the horses, not Mr. A. Arnott. The confusion was understandable since Jesse’s brother Anderson Arnott had a livery business in the same area.
Dr. Ballard writes that Arnott was deeply religious and that family devotions were never neglected in his house. “His conversations were of most entertaining chain and on religious topics were simply soul thrilling,” Ballard writes.
Arnott died May 11, 1896, at his sister’s home in Monroe County and was buried at St. Louis.
He was a Freemason, Odd Fellow, a member of Merchants Exchange, and a lifelong Methodist. He was very charitable, especially toward Orphans, the Aged, and the Friendless. It was through his exertion that the Methodist Orphans Home St. Louis was established in 1883, and he was a heavy subscriber to the fund for its maintenance.
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