Abraham “Jack” Lincoln II was born, the only grandson of Abraham Lincoln, on August 14, 1873. Jack tragically died from complications and the medical ineptitude of the day in 1890 at the age of 16.
What if… what if his father, Robert had declined President Benjamin Harrison’s appointment to the Court of St. James? The Lincolns would have stayed in the United States and most historians believe that Jack would not have died in 1890.
Jack, unlike his father, Robert, embraced the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and by most accounts sought to know as much about his grandfather as possible and strove to emulate him. What little is known of Jack seems to indicate that he was on his way to be being successful in that pursuit.
By the outbreak of World War I, Jack would have been forty-four and would probably have distinguished himself in the war. In 1920 he would have been 47 and the ideal candidate for president—name recognition, character, charisma and, unlike his grandfather, charming good looks. Had he sought the nomination, it probably would have been his—his father, Robert was courted by the Republicans to run for president in just about every election between 1880 and 1892 or 1896. Robert, never one to trade on his family name, ran from the presidency; Jack, showing the slightest interest in the job, would have been swept up by the party and public alike.