Wilson, Douglas L., ed; Davis, Rodney O., ed. 'Register of Informants' in 'Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln' . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: University of Illinois Press
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=herndon737.html

A native of Hardin County and Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Haycraft began his public career at the age of fourteen in the office of the county and circuit clerk. In 1816 he was appointed clerk of the circuit and county courts and held this office until 1851. Thereafter he alternated between the practice of law and the holding of county and state offices. As a youth he had known Thomas Lincoln in Hardin County, and on the strength of this connection and his standing as a local historian, Haycraft corresponded with AL about his family in 1860. Though Kentucky was bitterly divided during the Civil War, Haycraft remained a loyal supporter of the Union. (BEK)