Named after his paternal grandfather Thomas Lincoln, he was soon nicknamed "Tad" by his father, for his small body and large head, and because as an infant he wiggled like a tadpole.

"[8] The cleft palate contributed to uneven teeth; he had such difficulty chewing food that his meals were specially prepared.

If they pulled down all the books from the shelves, bent the points of all the pens, overturned inkstands, scattered law papers over the floor or threw the pencils into the spittoon, it never disturbed the serenity of their father's good nature.

Tad had free run of the White House, and there are stories of him interrupting presidential meetings, collecting animals, charging visitors to see his father, and more.

When news of the assassination spread to Grover's Theatre, the manager made an announcement to the entire audience.

[19] Lincoln suffered from what one modern commentator has called a "complex speech and language disorder" related to some form of a cleft lip or palate.

While at the Elizabeth Street School in that city, his schoolmates sometimes called him "Stuttering Tad" because of the speech impediment,[20] which he was able to learn how to manage as a teenager.

[19] On Saturday morning, July 15, 1871, Lincoln died at the age of 18[21] at the Clifton House hotel in Chicago.

[22] The cause of death has been variously referred to as tuberculosis,[23] a pleuristic attack,[24] pneumonia,[21] or congestive heart failure.

His body was transported to Springfield and buried in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery, alongside his father and two of his brothers.