A unique piece of jewelry has been donated to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, which the library collection’s curator said is a never-seen before keepsake of the pets kept by the 16th president’s family.

The president’s youngest son, Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, often rode his pony near the White House, where a Union officer was stationed.

The boy gave to the officer’s wife a ring braided from the pony’s hair. The officer died a few years later. His wife remarried and moved to Effingham, where her descendants, the Broom family, held onto the ring until now.

William Broom the third, a Carbondale attorney, donated it to the library in December.

The ring has a small clasp engraved with the name Thomas Lincoln.

Collection curator James Cornelius said the artifact is a wonderful reminder of Tad as little boy playing with his menagerie of animals on White House grounds.

This story was submitted to us by WJBC’s Howard Packowitz.