Lincoln Memorial

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the sixteenth President of the United States, was born on the twelfth day of February, 1809, in that part of Hardin county, Kentucky, which is now known as Larue. His father, Thomas Lincoln, and his grandfather, Abraham, were natives of Rockingham county, Virginia, to which their ancestors emigrated from Berks county, Pennsylvania. In the year 1780 the grandfather removed his family to Kentucky, where, taking possession of a small tract of land in the wilderness, he erected a rude cabin, and proceeded to make his new home comfortable and his forest farm productive. His daily labors were attended with great personal danger. There was no other resident within two or three miles, and the country was infested with Indians, who allowed no opportunity of slaughtering the white settlers to pass unimproved. His gun was carried as regularly to his work as was any implement necessary to the successful clearing of the land, and at night the weapon was placed in a corner of his cabin, where it could be quickly grasped in the event of an attack from the savage enemy. Abraham Lincoln, for nearly four years, escaped their bloodthirsty cruelty; but then, while clearing a piece of land about four miles from home, was suddenly attacked and killed, and his scalped remains were found the next morning. The widow found herself with

out a neighbor in the wilderness, with three sons and two daughters. Poverty rendered it necessary that the family should separate; and all the children but Thomas bade adieu to their mother and left the county, the second son removing to Indiana, and the others to other counties of Kentucky.

Thomas also left home before he was twelve years old, but subsequently returned to Kentucky, and in the year 1806 married Nancy Hanks, who was a native of Virginia. Thomas Lincoln and his wife were conscientious members of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Lincoln could read but not write: her husband could do neither, except that he was able to write his own name. He respected, however, the superior learning of others; his kindness of heart was proverbial, and he was industrious and persevering. Mrs. Lincoln was a woman of excellent judgment and great piety, and a mother whose precepts and teachings exerted a happy influence in the formation of her children's characters. Thomas and Nancy Lincoln had three children-a daughter, a son who died in infancy, and Abraham. The sister attained the years of womanhood, and married, but died without issue.

When Abraham was seven years of age he was sent to school with an old copy of Deiworth's Spelling Book, one of the three books that formed the family library. His teacher had neither ambition nor ability to impart greater instruction than that which would enable his pupils to read and write. His term of schooling was of short duration.

Thomas Lincoln had witnessed the evils of the "peculiar institution," and longed to be free from the effects of a condition of society by which the laborer was degraded, and whose labors were controlled by an unprincipled and lazy master. In October, 1816, finding a purchaser for

his farm, he made arrangements for removal. The price paid by the purchaser was ten barrels of whisky, of forty gallons each, valued at two hundred and eighty dollars, and twenty dollars in money. Such transactions in real estate were then common, and recognized as proper.

The farm was near Rolling Fork river. Mr. Lincoln, with such assistance as Abraham could give him, hewed out a flat-boat, loaded it with his household articles and tools and the whisky, and began a hazardous journey to Indiana, to select a new home. His journey down the Rolling Fork and into the Ohio river, was accomplished without accident, but soon afterwards his boat was upset, and its cargo thrown into the water. Some men standing on the bank witnessed the accident and saved the boat and its owner, but all the freight was lost except a few carpenter's tools, axes, three barrels of whisky and some minor articles. Again getting started, Mr. Lincoln proceeded to a well-known ferry on the river, from whence he was guided into the interior by an old settler, to whom he gave his boat in payment for his services. After several days of difficult traveling, much of the time being employed in cutting a road through the forest wide enough for a team, Spencer county, Indiana, was reached, at a point eighteen miles from the river. The site for his new home having been selected, Mr. Lincoln, returned to Kentucky on foot, and made preparations to remove his family.

Not many days were required for these preparations. The emigrant party left their old home in true backwoods style-Mrs. Lincoln and her daughter riding one horse, Abraham another, and the father a third. After seven days' journey through an uninhabited country, their resting-place at night being the ground, they arrived at the quarter section selected for their future residence. No

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Lincoln Memorial– The Journeys of Abraham Lincoln: from Springfield to ...