Billings, Grace Bedell
Grace Bedell Billings
Albion, NY
Delphos Cemetery, Delphos, KS
No. of Siblings:
No. of Spouses:
No. of Children:
Norman Bedell (father), George Billings (husband, 1867), Harlow Drake Billings (son)
Census Snapshot
Children in 1860:
Residence in 1860:
Westfield, NY
Marital status in 1860:
Grace Bedell Billings (New York Times)
Mrs. Billings, Then Child, Met President-Elect After He Heeded Her Letter.
DELPHOS, Kan., Nov. 2 (AP).- Mrs. Grace Bedell Billings, who as an eleven-year-old girl was reputed to have induced Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard, died here today at the age of 88.
During the election campaign of 1860, Mrs. Billings, who was living in Westfield, N. Y., noticed some election poster portraits of Lincoln, and scrawled this latter to the presidential nominee:
"Dear Mr. Lincoln: I think you would look better with whiskers. Two of my brothers are Republicans, two are Democrats. I think I could get my Democratic brothers to vote for you if you wore a beard. The rail fence around your picture in the poster is very pretty. Have you any little girls?"
Four days later, she received this answer from Lincoln:
"My Dear Grace Bedell: Your very agreeable letter of the 15th received. I regret to say I have no little girl. I have three sons, one 17 years old, one 9, and one 7. Speaking of whiskers, don't you think people would call it a silly affection if I should begin wearing whiskers?"
Mrs. Billings recalled in an interview several years ago that Lincoln, while going through Westfield in February after his election, left the train and on meeting her said, "Gracie, look at my whiskers; I have been growing them for you," whereupon he kissed her. She never saw him again.
Mrs. Billings still had the letter at her death.
"Suggester of Beard for Lincoln Dies, 88," New York Times, November 3, 1936, p. 25.
02/16/1861 02/16/1861 Abraham Lincoln travels from Cleveland to Buffalo, New York meeting Grace Bedell on the way
Election of 1860
Author Docs
10/15/1860 Grace Bedell to Abraham Lincoln, October 15, 1860
Subject Docs
02/16/1861 Abraham Lincoln's Remarks at Westfield, New York, February 16, 1861
Addressee Docs
10/19/1860 Abraham Lincoln to Grace Bedell, October 19, 1860
Chicago Style Entry
Lincoln National Life Foundation. Lincoln's Beard: Photostat Reproductions of correspondence between Abraham Lincoln and Grace Bedell. Fort Wayne, IN: Lincolniana Publishers, 1933.
Hughes, James. "Those Who Passed Through: Unusual Visits to Unlikely Places." New York History 87, no. 3 (2006): 378-382.
Steers, Edward, Jr. "'A Puttin' on (H)airs'." Lincoln Herald 91, no. 3 (1989): 86-90.
Holzer, Harold. "The Bearding of the President, 1860: The Portraitists put on Hairs." Lincoln Herald 78, no. 3 (1976): 95-101.
How to Cite This Page: "Billings, Grace Bedell," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/16809.