Grace Bedell Billings (New York Times)

Obituary
“Suggester of Beard for Lincoln Dies, 88,” New York Times, November 3, 1936, p. 25.

Mrs. Billings, Then Child, Met President-Elect After He Heeded Her Letter.

DELPHOS, Kan., Nov. 2 (AP).- Mrs. Grace Bedell Billings, who as an eleven-year-old girl was reputed to have induced Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard, died here today at the age of 88.

During the election campaign of 1860, Mrs. Billings, who was living in Westfield, N. Y., noticed some election poster portraits of Lincoln, and scrawled this latter to the presidential nominee:

Joseph Benson Parker (Dickinson Alumni Record)

Reference
George Leffingwell Reed, ed., Alumni Record: Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA: Dickinson College, 1905), 190.
Parker, Joseph Benson — Born June 20, 1841, Bloomfield, Perry County, Pa.; p., Joseph and Mary (Shearer) Parker; prep., Dickinson grammar school; entered 1856; A. B., 1860, A. M., 1863; M. D., New York medical college; surgeon; entered navy as assistant surgeon, March, 1863; past assistant surgeon, 1867-76; surgeon, 1876; medical director; 1898; retired, 1903, with rank of rear admiral on account of age and service in Civil War; contributed to medical reports; Sigma Chi; B. L. society; married, Oct. 15, 1868, to Margaret J. Yorke, Salem, N.
Alumni Record: Dickinson College
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