Leslie and David's Wanderings: 17 Oct. 2018 Lexington, KY

We drove down to Lexington, KY from Georgetown (25 minutes), While in Lexington, we visited the Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Museum. The Museum is housed in the former Todd home where Mary lived for seven years before moving to Springfield, IL where she eventually meets Abraham Lincoln at a party. The Lincoln family visited the home several times prior to Mary’s Father passing away in the early 1850s. The Museum is the only one in the US dedicated to a single first lady. The Museum contains several personnel items from Mary and also her brothers/sisters and step brothers/sisters. We also visited the estate of Henry Clay. Henry Clay was a very influential politician in Kentucky and Washington DC. Known as the Great Compromiser, he helped broker three compromises to stave off a US Civil war between 1832 and 1851. He was the youngest Speaker of the House and actually helped define the role for those that followed. He ran unsuccessfully for president three times and also served as Secretary of State under President Adams. The mansion on the estate was torn down after his death in 1852 and rebuilt by his son between 1853 and 1855. The wood working in the mansion is incredible! David was so entranced by the woodwork he almost did not listen to the guide during the tour. The estate also has two underground icehouses. During the winter, ice from nearby lakes and rivers, and snow, would be collected and put in these two conical brick icehouses. As the ice melted in the summer, the cold water would be collected and routed to baths in the nearby underground dry cellar where it would be used to cool crocks full of butter and cream! An early refrigerator. This was before the collection of ice for refrigeration was commercialized and became an industry, which lasted until the mid 1900s. The estate also featured a gas works where liquid kerosene would be converted into gas and pumped into the house for the gas lanterns. There is no documentation that shows Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln ever worked together, but it is known that Mary Lincoln talked frequently with Henry Clay when he was a visitor to the Todd house and that Abraham Lincoln was a great admirer. President Lincoln used quotes from Henry Clay’s speeches in his own speech’s frequently. By this point Leslie’s knee was hurting pretty bad so we headed home to the wanderer.