Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was a gentleman farmer in the United States who is best recognized as the last undisputed descendant of America’s most revered President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln. He was one of the last heirs to his grandmother’s Mary Harlan Lincoln Trust, and he worked on the family farm he had inherited. He married three times, however, like his sister Mary Lincoln Beckwith and cousin Lincoln Isham, he had no children. Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, the son of his second wife, Annemarie Hoffman, was the subject of a legal battle to determine his ancestry. Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, Annemarie said, was the child’s father. Robert, on the other hand, contended that it was exceedingly implausible because he had had a vasectomy a few years before, and the court eventually agreed with him. The Lincoln bloodline officially ended after his death in 1985. Historian Michael Beschloss, who has written several volumes on the president, believes that Robert Beckwith lamented the fact that his lineage was coming to an end near the end of his life.
The Ascension to Stardom
While Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith avoided the media as much as possible, he was frequently mentioned in the news, including once when he was jailed for speeding in Omaha, Nebraska, when he was young. However, a nasty legal struggle over the paternity of his second wife Annemarie Hoffman’s kid, which was extensively covered in the media, pushed him into the public eye in the latter half of his life. Following the death of his sister Mary Lincoln Beckwith, who had no children, he became the last undisputed descendant of Abraham Lincoln in 1975, and he went back under the radar.
Scandals & Controversies
In October 1968, Annemarie Hoffman, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith’s second wife, gave birth to a son called Timothy Lincoln Beckwith. While Robert Beckwith was named as the boy’s father, he was divorcing his wife due to adultery allegations. When his wife refused to take any blood tests for her or her child, his lawyers produced confirmation that he had had a vasectomy with a prostatectomy six years prior. In 1976, while the youngster was seven years old, a court trial was underway to determine his Lincoln ancestry. The divorce was granted in September of that year, with the decision judge declaring that the child was the result of a “adulterous relationship.” However, it was indicated that the boy’s claim to the family money would be decided separately in a separate case.
After Robert Beckwith’s death in 1985, the inheritance question resurfaced in the news. His $3 million wealth had been split between three charities: the American Red Cross, Iowa Wesleyan College, and the First Church of Christ, Scientist. The charity needed to make sure no one claimed the bequest, so they tracked down Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, a 17-year-old living with his mother, who had remarried. They allegedly made him an offer of roughly $1 million, which he accepted.
Personal Experiences of Robert
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was born in Riverside, Illinois, on July 19, 1904. His parents were Jessie Harlan Lincoln and Warren Wallace Beckwith. In 1897, his mother eloped with her classmate Warren, the youngest daughter of Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife Mary. His father attended Iowa Wesleyan College and was a standout football player. Mary Lincoln Beckwith, Robert’s older sister, was the younger of his parents’ two children. He was one of the three last descendants of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, along with his sister Mary and cousin Lincoln Isham.
He went to a private school in Washington, D.C. before enrolling at the New York Military Academy in Manhattan. He also spent two years at Phillips Exeter Academy, the boarding school where his grandpa Robert Todd Lincoln had attended.
He began working on the farm he inherited as a hobby rather than for profit, and identified himself as a ‘gentleman farmer.’
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith married Hazel Holland Wilson, an older widow with two children, when he was 25 years old. The pair had no children together despite being married for 35 years till her death.
When he was 63, he married Annemarie Hoffman, a 27-year-old German woman. A year later, she gave birth to a boy, but it was later discovered that Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was not the father. In 1979, he married Margaret Hogan Fristoe after divorcing Hoffman.
His wife survived him when he died on December 24, 1985.
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith Net Worth
Robert is one of the wealthiest and most popular members of the family. Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith has a net worth of $1.5 million, according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.