About the Author

James Harrison Cathey was born in North Carolina on December 1, 1866 to Benjamin and Mariah (Conley) Cathey. He and his wife, Mary (Caler), had seven children. His research shed further light on some enigmatic statements found in William H. Herndon's original (and suppressed) manuscript and Ward Lamon's Life of Lincoln regarding the paternity of the sixteenth United States President. His work was used as the basis for James Caswell Coggins' own contributions to the subject: Abraham Lincoln: A North Carolinian (1926) and The Eugenics of President Abraham Lincoln (1940). Cathey passed away on September 1, 1929 in Jackson, North Carolina.