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Tad Lincoln’s Pet Turkey
Abraham Lincoln’s youngest son had a kind heart
It wasn’t until President Truman that turkey growers started to regularly donate birds to the White House for Thanksgiving, and it wasn’t until modern times, starting with Reagan, that every year they were routinely pardoned. Yet the first turkey to receive a stay of execution was the one that belonged to Araham Lincoln’s youngest son.
Thomas “Tad” Lincoln was a mischievous child who was allowed to wander about the White House as he liked. He would interrupt Presidential receptions and meetings and at one point charged admission to meet his father.
He was 10 years old when the turkey his pet. It was 1863, during the Civil War.
President Lincoln had declared a national Thanksgiving that year. It was a solemn occassion, during which Lincoln confessed his sins, asked for divine mercy for the nation, and asked people to help widows and orphans created by the war.
It was also the first time an American President pardoned a turkey. However, this event at Christmas, not Thanksgiving.
The bird in question was given late in the year in anticipation of being eaten for the Lincoln family’s Christmas dinner.
