Shaking hands with Lincoln twice removed

Steve Dougherty shook hands with Larry Howe, who shook hands with Civil War veteran James A. Hard, who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. Not bad.

According to an article in the Democrat’s neighborhoods edition last week, Hard shook hands with Mary Lincoln and son Robert as well as with the President in the Blue Room of the White House. “He had a wonderful smile,” Hard said.

Hard once described Lincoln as a “comical looking fellow on horseback” who he saw on two other occasions during troop reviews. Stovepipe hat or no, Abe was Hard’s hero; he cast his first vote for Lincoln in 1864 and his last for Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.