The Library › Reel VI · The Roommate
Did Lincoln really move into Joshua Speed’s bed because he could not afford seventeen dollars of bedding?
VERDICTTRUE
By Speed’s own later account, Lincoln walked into his Springfield store in April 1837, asked what the furniture for a single bed would cost, heard seventeen dollars, and said he could not pay. Speed offered to share his very large room and very large double bed upstairs. Lincoln carried his saddlebags up, came back down and said, “Well, Speed, I’m moved.” They roomed together into 1841.
The receipts
- Joshua Speed, Mr. Lincoln and Friends, The Lehrman Institute
- The Lincolns in Springfield 1837-1847, National Park Service, Lincoln Home National Historic Site
The comedy version
The untold story of Abraham Lincoln and the man who lent him half a bed.
Play The Roommate ☞More from this shelf
- Was it normal for two men to share a bed in the 1830s?True
- What happened on Lincoln’s “fatal first of January” 1841?Disputed
- Did Lincoln really call himself “the most miserable man living”?True
- Did Lincoln visit Joshua Speed’s family plantation in Kentucky?True
- Did Lincoln write that he was jealous when Speed got married?True
- Did Lincoln ask Speed whether marriage was worth it, a month before his own wedding?True