EARLY ACCOUNTS OF LINCOLN'S WRESTLING MATCH WITH DANIEL NEEDHAM

Wayne Whipple's Account

Sometime in June the party took passage on a steamboat going up the river, and remained together until they reached St. Louis, where Offutt left them, and Abe, Hanks and Johnston started foot for the interior of Illinois. At Edwardsville, twenty-five miles out, Hanks took the road to Springfield, and Abe and Johnston took that to Coles County, where Tom Lincoln had moved since Abraham's departure from home. .... Scarcely had Abe reached Coles County, and begun to think what next to turn his hand to, when he received a visit from a famous wrestler, one Daniel Needham, who regarded him as a growing rival, and had a fancy to try him a fall or two. He considered himself “the best man” in the county, and the report of Abe's achievements filled his big breast with envious pains. His greeting was friendly and hearty, but his challenge was rough and peremptory. Abe ... met him by public appointment in the “greenwood, I' at Wabash Point, where he threw Needham twice with such ease that the latter's pride was more hurt than his body.

“Lincoln,” said he, “you have thrown me twice, but you can't whip me.”

“Needham,” replied Abe, “are you satisfied that I can throw you? If you are not, and must be convinced through a thrashing, I will do that, too, for your sake.”

Needham surrendered with such grace as he could command.

The Story Life of Abraham Lincoln: A Biography Composed of Five Hundred True Stories Told by Abraham Lincoln and His Friends, Philadelphia: The J.C. Winston Company, 1908, pages 84-85.

W.M. Thayer's Account

A few days after Abraham reached his father's house in Cole's County, a famous wrestler, by the name of Daniel Needham, called to see him. Needham had heard of Abraham's great strength, and that he was an expert wrestler, and he desired to see him.

“S'pose we try a hug,” suggested Needham. 

“No doubt you can throw me,” answered Abraham. "You are in practice, and I am not.”

“Then you'll not try it?” continued Needham.

“Not much sport in being laid on my back,” was Abraham's evasive answer.

“It remains to be seen who will lay on his back,” suggested Needham. “S'pose you make the trial.”

By persistent urging Abraham finally consented to meet Needham, at a specified place and time, according to the custom that prevailed. Abraham was true to his promise, met the bully, and threw him twice with no great difficulty. Needham was both disappointed and chagrined. His pride was greatly humbled, and his wrath was not a little exercised.

“You have thrown me twice, Lincoln, but you can't whip me,” he said.

“I don't want to whip you, whether I can or not,” Abraham replied magnanimously; “and I don't want to get whipped;” and the closing sentence was spoken jocosely.

The Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President: The Story of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1882, page 164.

William O. Stoddard's Account

This second experience of river life in the South left the young giant little better off than before in worldly goods, whatever else he may have gained by it. But while he was away his talkative friends had taken good care of his reputation as a man of muscle. They had said so much, indeed, that the champion wrestler of that region, one Daniel Needham, sent him a challenge to a public trial of strength and skill. It was accepted, as a matter of course, and the meeting took place

with all the customary prairie formalities; but rarely has a “champion” been more astonished than was Daniel Needham. It was not so much that he was thrown twice in quick succession,

but that the thing was done for him with so much apparent ease; and his wrath rose hotly to the fighting point.

“Lincoln,” he shouted, “you've thrown me twice, but you can't whip me.”

“Needham,” said Abe, “are you satisfied I can throw you?  Well, if you ain't, and I’ve got to satisfy you by thrashing you, I'll do that too, for your own good.”

The crowd laughed; but the champion. gave the matter a sober second thought, and concluded that his own good did not require a mauling from that man. He was entirely satisfied already.

Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Showing the Inner Growth, Special Training, and Peculiar Fitness of the Man for His Work, New York: Fords, Howard, and Hulbert, 1885, page 72.

Charles Godfrey Leland's Account

He had hardly returned, before he received a challenge from a famous wrestler, named Daniel Needham. There was a great assembly at Wabash Point, to witness the match, where Needham was thrown with so much ease that his pride was more hurt than his body.

Leland,  Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery in the United States, New York: J.P. Putnam's Sons, 1881, page 33.

Ward H. Lamon's Account

Scarcely had Abe reached Coles County, and begun to think what next to turn his hand to, when he received a visit from a famous wrestler, one Daniel Needham, who regarded him as a growing rival, and had a fancy to try him a fall or two. He considered himself “the best man” in the  country, and the report of Abe's achievements filled his big breast with envious pains. His greeting was friendly and hearty, but his challenge was rough and peremptory. Abe valued

his popularity among “the boys” too highly to decline it, and met him by public appointment in the “greenwood,” at Wabash Point, where he threw him twice with so much ease that Needham's pride was more hurt than his body.

“Lincoln,” said he, “you have thrown me twice, but you can't whip me.”—

“Needham,” replied Abe, “are you satisfied that I can throw you? If you are not, and must be convinced through a thrashing, I will do that, too, for your sake.” Needham had hoped that the youngster would shrink from the extremity of a fight with the acknowledged “bully of the

patch;” but finding him willing, and at the same time magnanimously inclined to whip him solely for his own good, he concluded that a bloody nose and a black eye would be the reverse of soothing to his feelings, and therefore surrendered the field with such grace as he could command.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln from His Birth to His Inauguration as President, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1872, pages 84-85.