February 12th is the birthday of one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, who brought us through the fiery trial of the Civil War and served as an inspirational figure for generations to come. Still, most people do not realize that this beloved political icon has a significant tie to Williamsport and Lycoming County, and with that same connection, Williamsport is also linked to legendary pioneer woodsman Daniel Boone.
William Winters was a land speculator and landowner from the area near Reading in Berks County. At 19, he married Ann Boone, sister of Daniel Boone, the legendary frontiersman and pioneer.
Their union produced 11 children; among these children was Hannah Winters, their oldest daughter. She moved to Rockingham County, Virginia, where she met and married Abraham Lincoln, the namesake, who would become President Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather. Lincoln owned a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and supposedly visited his father-in-law, William Winters, at what is now Williamsport in about 1780.
Lincoln had moved to Kentucky and, according to John Linn’s “History of Centre County,” passed through the Bellefonte area on his way back to Kentucky, accompanied by his brother-in-law, John Winters, after having left from William Winters’ farm here in the Williamsport area.
Hannah and Abraham Lincoln’s son, Thomas, was born and later married Nancy Hanks, and they were to become the parents of the future President of the United States, who would bear his grandfather’s name.
Lincoln’s great-grandfather, William Winters, played a role in the events leading to the founding of Williamsport.
According to a 1986 “Grit” article, citing John Meginness’ monumental “History of Lycoming County,” Winters, in 1778, purchased a tract of land belonging to Amariah Sutton that was located in the area that is now in the western part of the city of Williamsport, just east of Lycoming Creek.
In 1791, Winters bought another 287 acres, known as the “Virginia Tract,” from his brother-in-law, Hawkins Boone, brother of the famous Daniel Boone. This is the same tract of land on which the city of Williamsport would be laid out when it was designated the county seat of Lycoming County in 1796.
Shortly before Winters’ death in 1794, he sold this tract of land to Michael Ross, the founder of Williamsport,
Some of the first court sessions of the new Lycoming County were held at Winters’ former farmhouse in the area, near what is today the intersection of Rose and West Fourth streets. These sessions were held in 1796 and 1797 in the house occupied by Winters’ second wife, Eleanor Campbell Winters. His first wife, Hannah, died in 1771. It is unknown where Hannah is buried.
Winters died in 1794 and is buried locally. At first, he was buried in the small graveyard in the area of West Fourth and Cemetery streets, where the former Calvary United Methodist Church now sits. He was later disinterred and re-interred at the Wildwood Cemetery.
Another Williamsport connection to Abraham Lincoln, the “Great Emancipator,” is James Pollock, who served as a former judge of the court of common pleas for Lycoming County, which was then part of the Eighth Judicial District. He also was elected as Governor of Pennsylvania in 1854.
Pollock was born in Milton and later served with Abraham Lincoln in the U.S. House of Representatives. The two became good friends, having resided at the same Washington boardinghouse. Later, after Lincoln became president, he named Pollock the director of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. At Pollock’s behest, all U.S. coins and currency were inscribed with the words “In God We Trust.”
So, as you can see, Williamsport has quite a connection to our beloved 16th President, and his birth is a period of celebration but also one of reflection in which we pause to remember and consider his significant place in the history of this republic.
