The Lincoln ConnectionSecond Presbyterian Church shares an honor with the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Illinois and the New York Avenue Church in Washington, D.C.: we are a Lincoln church.
Mary's first cousin and close friend, Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, was an attending physician at Lincoln's bedside following the assassination. After Lincoln's death, Dr. Todd returned to Lexington to practice medicine. He was a loyal and very active member of Second until his death in 1902. |
Robert
Smith Todd, future father-in-law to Abraham Lincoln, was one
of the founders of the original Market Street Church. His daughter, Mary
Todd, as well as her siblings, grew up attending Sunday School and
worship services at Second Presbyterian. In the 1830's, Mary Todd moved
to Springfield, Illinois. It was in Springfield that she met and, in 1842,
married the future President. 
When
visiting her family in Lexington in 1847, the Lincoln's attended Thanksgiving
Day services in Second's new sanctuary on Market Street. The minister they
heard preach, the Rev. John H. Brown, would later become the pastor
of their church in Springfield (First Presbyterian) in 1857. 
One
of Lincoln's opponents in the 1860 presidential election was U.S. Vice-President
John C. Breckinridge. A Lexington native and the son of one of Second's
founders, Breckinridge was baptized at the church on May 6, 1821.