Excerpt from Curios and Relics, Vehicles: Carriage Used by Lincoln; Excerpts From Newspapers and Other Sources Brewster, last surviving member of the famous firm which built Brewster carriages, four volumes of business records of Brewster and Company. In them are listed all the various kinds of carriages sold from 1 8 5 8 to 1 882, with prices and the names of their purchasers. In the first volume, on page 33 1 under the date February 1 8, 1 86 1 there is an 1tem of particular interest. On that day, a fortnight before his first inauguration as President, Abra ham Lincoln purchased one of Brewster's most expensive two horse coaches. The entry in the ledger reads: Sold - For Hon Abram Lincoln. One Elegant H. Cloth Coach. 588. In the margin are two entries which show that Lincoln paid for the coach in installments. On January 30, I 862 and on March I 7, he made two payments of $5 500 each to balance his account. This would indicate that his original payment in 1 861 was 35400. An interesting additional bit of information was gleaned from page 1 o of the ledger, where it is recorded that this same coach, described as one 2 H [orse] H Cloth Coach was consigned to James B. Brewster on October 9, r 858, so it was evidently held in stock until its purchase by Lincoln. The H. Cloth in the description of his coach appears to be hammer cloth, an orna mental valance for the coachman's seat, made of cloth laid in ornamental folds and embellished with fringe, lace, and tassels. Since a hammer cloth seat was the most elaborate kind in use, it is evident that Lincoln's coach was indeed an elegant one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.