Lincoln's beard

The reason I liked the story of Lincoln’s beard is that #1 I live in Vienna, ME, birthplace of Milton Bradley the inventor of “The Game of Life”. His first try at financial success had been to print an early lithograph of A. Lincoln; an effort that financially failed because of an 11 yr old girl. Also, I grew up with Lincoln items sitting around our house, inherited from a great uncle (long story there). However, one of those items was an ugly rifle that Lincoln had carried in the Black Hawk Indian War and with further research appears to be an experimental gun with the new style percussion cap hammer system designed by the French and which Gen Lafayette carried with him on his return tour of the U.S. years after the Revolution………………….Hello Cheryl. Thank you for your wonderful message and… wow—there’s a lot to unpack there! So, Grace Bedell was the cause of Milton Bradley’s business going bust because she had encouraged Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard, which ruined the likeness of his Lincoln lithograph—what a great story. As for Lincoln's rifle that you remember growing up and the connection with General Lafayette, what can I say, other than I hope you still have the rifle in the family. Hopefully you saw the newsletter I wrote a couple of weeks ago when I talked about the extraordinary Tadeusz Kościuszko and his contribution to the Revolutionary War. I believe Kościuszko and Lafayette became close friends when they returned to Paris after the war. Once again, many thanks for writing and have a great week. Best wishes, Steve.