Meserve-Kunhardt Collection says: President Lincoln’s dog.
Abraham Lincoln Association says: Of all the pets owned by the Lincoln family, only two had the honor of being photographed. One of those is Fido, the Lincoln family dog. What we know of the yellowish mixed breed–what would have been called a mongrel in Lincoln’s day, the Westminster Dog Show today proudly calls the “All American”–is detailed in recollections by Isaac Diller, a playmate of Willie and Tad, and John Linden Roll, another playmate and last caretaker of Fido. Because of the long, cramped train trip from Springfield to Washington, D.C., the Lincolns decided to leave Fido behind. The Lincoln boys, however, managed to persuade their parents to have photographs of Fido made at F. W. Ingmire’s studio. Fido was not a good subject to photograph, since he could not sit still long enough for the negative to develop.
The slightly blurred photographs seemed to satisfy the boys. At least they had something with which to remember Fido. And the photographer later used the negatives to make images of “President Lincoln’s Dog” available for the larger buying public. The dog was left with John Linden Roll and Frank Roll, playmates of W/illie’s and Tad’s. The Roll boys enjoyed Fido and took good care of him. William Fleurville, Lincoln’s Springfield barber, included mention of Fido in his letter to the president dated December 27, 1863. “Tell Taddy that his (and Willys) Dog is alive and Kicking doing well,” Fleurville wrote, adding “he stays mostly with John E. Rolls with his Boys.”
Fido’s carefree life took a tragic turn less than a year after the funeral of the Sixteenth President. According to John Linden Roll: “We possessed the dog for a number of years when one day the dog, in a playful manner put his dirty paws upon a drunken man sitting on the street curbing [who] in his drunken rage, thrust a knife into the body of poor old Fido. He was buried by loving hands. So Fido, just a poor yellow dog met the fate his his illustrious master–Assassination.”
