Wilson, Douglas L., ed.; Davis, Rodney O., ed.; Lamar, John W. 'John W. Lamar to J. W. Wartmann' in 'Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln' . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. [format: book], [genre: letter]. Permission: University of Illinois Press
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=herndon598b.html

487. John W. Lamar to J. W. Wartmann ^[1].

Buffaloville Ind Jany 3rd /87

My Dear friend

yours of the 29 at hand, allways glad to hear from you, inclosed you will find the Herndon letter I think you can get all the facts you want in the matter of the Lincoln-Grigsby affair, from what I have allways understood the thing happened about as Mr Herndon heard it. My father-in-law told the story to me and my wife often.

My wifes father was a brother to the old lady Grigsby, ^[2] and was at the infair when the thing happened, and Lincoln wrote a piece about nearly all the people present, and a piece about my father-in-law that he never got over until after Lincoln was a candidate for President

Old John Swaney, who was a carpenter, was working about the old Grigsby house, and found the paper, that Lincoln wrote about the Grigsby affair, and called it the "Cronicals of Reuben as Reuben was the old man Grigsby's given name. My wife was at the Grigsby infair, but too young to recollect much about only what her parents talked about the matter. Red Grigsby ^[3] could tell a good deal about it, if he would. Red told me that his brother Bill and Johnson had fight over the Cronicals of Reuben.