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writes as if he too had been in love with her — but is otherwise nearly correct.
“Miss Rutledge,” says a lady1 who knew her, “had auburn hair, blue eyes, fair complexion.
She was pretty, slightly slender, but in everything a good hearted young woman.
She was about five feet two inches high, and weighed in the neighborhood of a hundred and twenty pounds. She was beloved by all who knew her. She died as it were of grief.
In speaking of her death and her grave, Lincoln once said to me. ‘My heart lies buried there.’
”
Before narrating the details of Lincoln's courtship with Miss Rutledge, it is proper to mention briefly a few facts that occurred before their attachment began.
About the same time that Lincoln drifted into New Salem there came in from the Eastern States John McNeil, a young man of enterprise and great activity, seeking his fortune in the West.
He went to work at once, and within a short time had accumulated by commendable effort a comfortable amount of property.
Within three years he owned a farm, and a half interest with Samuel Hill in the leading store.
He had good capacity for business, and was a valuable addition to that already pretentious village — New Salem.
It was while living at James Cameron's house that this plucky and industrious young business man first saw Anne Rutledge.
At that time she was attending the school
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