President Lincolns dog "Fido"...

    By foto, saturnine & melancholic President Lincoln wears the weight of the world upon his towering shoulders, his crystal-blue eyes stare fixedly into thoughts we cannot mine. Yet, regardless of our beliefs as regards the truth of the Civil War & Lincoln's involvement in same, he was a deeply feeling man & very obviously, a good man. It was his love of animals that perhaps brought him the cardinal directions one needs when one is thrust into the tumult, double-dealing, contrived & otherwise tricky politicks that became his world when he was nominated to the presidency. That he already had a chaotic personal life, thanks in no small part to Mary Lincoln, is a known. It is then particularly moving that Lincoln elected to keep Fido ("faithful" in The Latin)...his fine yellow dog & constant companion, out of the chaos & clamor of Washington, DC.

    Fido joined the Lincoln family in 1855-ish at a time in history when dogs were not kept as pets...they were instead considered a luxury. Bourgeoisie.  The population of Springfield, IL was 5,100 people in 1850...& this was with the Sagamon & Morgan Railroads increasing movement of goods (the agricultural community of Springfield exported 100,000 bushels of wheat, 350,000 bushels of rye and oats, 3,300,000 bushels of corn, 120,000 pounds of wool, and more than 120,000 hogs in 1850 alone). 

    Fido's social life & mind-set involved following Abraham Lincoln & his sons on their daily rounds, often jumping up on people in the streets & greeting them with his muddy paws. He had his routine & this was taken into account...it was thus with heavy hearts that the beloved companion of the Lincoln family went to live with the president's childhood friend John Rolls Sr. (John Roll's son John Jr., was a friend in kind to the Lincoln boys) for the tenure of the Lincoln presidency. Accompanying Fido, was  Fido's favourite horsehair sofa & a specific set of rules, namely: never to scold Fido for entering the house with muddy paws & never to tie him up alone in the backyard. In addition, Fido was to be allowed into the Roll home whenever he scratched at the front door and into the Rolls' dining room at mealtimes, as he was accustomed to being given food from the Lincoln table.
   
  In a letter dated 12/27/1863 "Billy the Barber"- (William Florville/Fleurville)-the president's barber in Springfield, writes to Lincoln: ​“Tell Taddy that his Dog is alive and kicking doing well. He stays mostly at John E. Rolls with his boys who are about the size now that Tad & Willy were when they left for Washington.” 

    Following the assassination of Lincoln, fotografer F.W. Ingmire took fotos of Fido for posterity perhaps...in addition, fotos of Lincolns favourite horse (called "Bob"/"Old Bob"/"Robbins"/"Bobbins")...were taken in full mourning attire. These cabinet cards were sold at the time as mementos mori. (see fotos below)...

    Sadly, Fido too was assassinated in 1866. John Roll recounted the story of Fido’s death: ”One day the dog, in a playful manner, put his dirty paws upon a drunken man sitting on the street curbing [who] in his drunken rage, thrust a knife into the body of poor old Fido. He was buried by loving hands." The "drunken man" was Charlie E. Planck(age 24)- a local grocer's son, known to indulge in "intoxicating beverage".

     An 1893 account from the Illinois Journal reveals a different moment altogether: "He (Fido) was exceedingly friendly and had a habit of showing his congeniality by depositing his muddy yellow fore paws plump on the breast of any one who addressed him familiarly. His excessive friendliness eventually caused his death in a very unique way, in that Fido suffered the fate of his master – assassination. The dog, which was a yellow fellow of moderate size, ran against Charlie Plan(c)k, who was whittling a stick with a sharp, long bladed knife. By an accidental move while the dog was expressing himself in caresses the blade was buried deep in his body. He shot out the door like a flash and was never seen again alive. His body was found about a month afterwards where he had lain down to die behind the chimney of the old Universalist church."

    Planck's own resume is quite exceptional: he volunteered for Civil War service; was a member of Company G of the 114th Illinois Infantry Regiment over the rank's entire existence – (summer 1862 to spring 1865) & rose to the rank of corporal. Included in the 114th’s record were the battles of Nashville and Brice’s Crossroads.

    Was Planck a drunken, dog-stabbing hothead? I don't think so...I think, in fact, that the following account reveals his nature per the times: Planck was involved in an argument with one Peter Burns at 4th and Washington streets on March 5th, 1868  The dispute ended, according to the Illinois Journal, when “Planck drew a revolver loaded with small shot, and fired, wounding Burns slightly in the shoulder.” On March 6th (the day after the fight), Burns was fined $3 “for using language to Charles Planck, calculated to provoke a breach of the peace.” (Burns had a violent record. The same day he was fined for instigating the shooting; was fined another $20 for assaulting Josephine Howard, and a third case against him, for assaulting Mary Ward, was carried over. Later that spring, Burns was accused of assault with intent to kill, although that charge was dismissed.)...

    When Planck appeared in court March 10, he was ordered merely to “give $500 bonds to keep the peace, and was released from arrest,” the Journal reported. He apparently faced no other penalty.

    Sometime in the 1870s, Planck and his wife Hattie (they had married in 1867) moved to Michigan, where Planck worked as a clerk and “expressman.” He died on March 21, 1917, at the Grand Rapids Veterans Home, where he is buried.

    Back to the fotos of Fido! You thought the story would end here???? Scroll past the slideshow....

        It wasn't until the 1940s, that anyone even knew the story of the Lincoln family and Fido! However, thanks to the efforts of an avid photo historian and his daughter, the images of Fido availed an unfurling of important canine history. Frederick Hill Meserve (1865-1962) was a wealthy, executive in the textile industry. His hobby of collecting Civil War fotos was seeded by his father, Major William Neal Meserve, who fought in the Civil War and who'd left behind a compelling diary. Meserve indulged his hobby, doggedly collecting photographs from the Civil War theatre, adding Lincoln images & countless other haunting fotos until, like any good collector, he had amassed the largest privately held collection of Lincoln and Civil War fotos on earth! Two thousand of them. (& roughly 10,000 glass negatives of Matthew Brady's incredible work).

     Frederick's daughter, Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt (1901-1979) was a published author (famous for her children's book "Pat the Bunny") & in the 1930s, while researching a book on Lincoln’s sons,  she came upon 2 collodion negatives of a dog positioned atop a photographer’s studio table. Hmmmm. In the 1940s, while Dorothy was in Springfield, seeking out friends of the Lincoln boys...she found Isaac Diller (1854-1943) son of the drugstore owner who provided necessities for the Lincoln family. Though a boy when the Lincolns moved to Washington, Diller identified the dog in the fotograf as being Fido, the Lincoln family dog. Diller then referred Dorothy to John Roll II (referenced above) & the entire story of Fido congealed, thereby giving him his rightful place in history.


    On February 15, 1954, Life magazine published Dorothy Kunhardt’s story of Fido. She also co-wrote( with her son Philip) "Twenty Days"-a study of Lincoln's assassination.

    Me, I'm happy to be connected to Abraham Lincoln via Robert Lincoln  my 14th great grandfather...yay!

Thank you to the Sagamon County Historical Society for providing important details!