Family Trees - Robert Lincoln 1865

Robert Thompson Lincoln

Birth:		16-Jan-1865 Belmont, Portage County, Wisconsin
Death:		11-May-1954 Sutherland, Nebraska
Marriage:		10-Mar-1886 to Ida Ann Tunks

Paternal Lineage

Children

With wife Ida Ann Tunks:

Notes

Robert Thompson Lincoln married Ida Ann Tunks when he was 21 (she was 18). Both were born in Belmont, Wisconsin, and married in Parfreyville, Wisconsin, a town about 15 miles east of Belmont. They shortly moved to Nebraska after getting married, as their first son (in fact all their children) was born in Scotia, Nebraska three years later. Robert moved to Nebraska in 1880 when he was 15. His father, Warren, died when he was 7, and his two older brothers, George and Albert, moved the family to the Scotia, Nebraska area presumably for the homesteading opportunities there. Robert apparently went back to Wisconsin to marry Ida Tunks, and then they came out to Scotia, Nebraska to farm and raise a family (see obituary of George Lincoln).

Robert was a farmer, and did various other jobs including shelling corn for other farmers. He was a well driller, carried rural mail, and ran a dray line (a wagon pulled by a team of two horses that hauled merchandise). In 1908, Robert and his two oldest sons, Elery and Allan, made a trip to western Nebraska after hearing about homesteads available there. They were impressed with the valley there and prepared to make the move West from Scotia to Bayard, Nebraska. They put all their possessions, including livestock, on the Union Pacific Railroad, then transferred to the Burlington Railroad to get to Bayard. Their homestead was located 4 miles north and 6 miles east of Bayard. At that time, most newly built homes were constructed from grass and sod from the surrounding prairie.

In 1916, Robert (age 51) and Ida (age 49) moved into the town of Bayard. There, Robert ran the sprinkler wagon (to settle the dust on streets without pavement) and carried mail sacks from the post office to the railroad depot. In later years he and his son, Guy Lincoln, operated the Conoco gas service station in Bayard. He served on the school board, and was a member of the Bayard City Council, and was mayor of Bayard in the early 1930's.

In his later years, ill health forced Robert to move in with his son, Allan, in Wallace, Nebraska. He died in a hospital in Sutherland, Nebraska in 1954 at the age of 89, and is buried in the Bayard Cemetery with his wife.

Ida Ann Tunks was born 15-Jul-1867 in Belmont, Portage County, Wisconsin. At Bayard, she was active in the Methodist Church and Royal Neighbors Lodge. She made artificial flowers and sold magazine subscriptions. She died in her home in Bayard in 18-Aug-1947 at the age of 80.

A short biography of Robert T. Lincoln and wife Ida Tunks was written by Ruby Lincoln Hill, a granddaughter, for the Bayard Nebraska Sesquicentennial, and it is edited by Robert Martin Lincoln, a grandson of Robert and Ida Lincoln. It is shown on the right, and there is also a letter Robert T. Lincoln wrote to one of his grandsons, Jerry Lincoln, in 1953, about a year before his death.

Documentation is from:

Personal family records especially from Robert Martin Lincoln, grandson of Robert and Ida Lincoln.
Personal communication with Ruby Lincoln Hill, granddaughter of Robert and Ida Lincoln.
Marriage certificate from Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society.
Death certificates from State of Nebraska, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
Funeral Records from Bayard Cemetery.