Title: The Lincoln Country in Pictures
Author: Frazier, Rosalie, Frazier, Carl
Language: English
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                       The Isaac Golliher house.

  [Illustration: Split-rail fence.]



                             _The_ LINCOLN
                                COUNTRY
                             _in Pictures_


                      By CARL and ROSALIE FRAZIER

  [Illustration: Ox-drawn wagon.]

             HASTINGS HOUSE    _Publishers_    New York 22

  [Illustration: The story of Abraham Lincoln is ever fresh. It appeals
  to the imagination and grips the vision of many people in various
  ways. Perhaps that is why millions of visitors make pilgrimages to the
  humble abodes in which he lived and the places he frequented.
                       _Photograph Courtesy Chicago Historical Society._]

  [Illustration: “Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition.
  Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so
  great as that of being truly esteemed by my fellow men, rendering
  myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying
  this ambition, is yet to be developed.”
                           —_Address to Sangamon County, March 9, 1832._]

             Copyright © 1963, by Carl and Rosalie Frazier

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
              without written permission of the publisher.

                   Published simultaneously in Canada
           by S. J. Reginald Saunders, Publishers, Toronto 2B

           Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-19173

               _Printed in the United States of America_



                                FOREWORD


We know it is no longer possible to add anything new to the written word
about Lincoln. The hundreds of historians who have attempted to write
the life of the Great Emancipator have covered every facet of it.
Therefore, we have chosen to present our story of a by-gone day in a
series of camera impressions, hoping to arouse in our readers an
emotional sense of “present being.”

We have done this for two reasons: first, because Lincoln’s early
frontier has achieved a factual and imaginative rebirth through loving
care and painstaking efforts after having fallen into ruin for many
years. Secondly, we believe as many historians do, that America owes
much of the credit for its national character and institutions to the
atmosphere of the early frontier. It was the appreciation of the role it
played on the character of Lincoln that brought about the restoration of
New Salem, Illinois, and those objects which were so closely associated
with him. These objects are of special interest because it was among
them that he moved slowly forward through a cycle of failures and
successes before reaching the high place which destiny had reserved for
him. No man in American history has started with so little and achieved
so much.

With a certain temerity then, we present our pictorial history of the
environment in which Lincoln spent the most formative years of his life.
It was from this frontier atmosphere and these frontier people that
Lincoln acquired his uncanny understanding of how common folk think and
the wisdom that enabled him to hold in his hands the ties that bound a
people and made a nation.



                _A Brief Chronology of Abraham Lincoln_


  Feb. 12, 1809    Born on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
  1811 to 1816     The family, which included Abe’s sister, Sarah, lived
                   on Knob Creek near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
  Nov. 1816        The family moved to Pigeon Creek in Indiana.
  Oct. 5, 1818     Abe’s mother died of “milk sickness.”
  Dec. 2, 1819     Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow
                   with three children, from Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
  Jan. 20, 1828    Sister Sarah died.
  Mar. 1830        The Lincoln family moved from Indiana to Illinois.
  Apr. 19, 1831    Offut’s flatboat piloted by Lincoln got stuck on the
                   dam at New Salem, Illinois.
  Mar. 9, 1832     Announced candidacy for the Illinois Legislature.
  May 8, 1832      Mustered into U.S. Army for service in Black Hawk War.
  July 16, 1832    Mustered out of military service.
  Aug. 6, 1832     Defeated for the Legislature.
  May 7, 1833      Appointed postmaster at New Salem, Illinois.
  Aug. 4, 1834     Elected to the Legislature.
  Mar. 24, 1836    Sworn in as a lawyer of the Circuit Court of Sangamon
                   County.
  Aug. 1, 1836     Reelected to the Legislature for a second term.
  Sept. 9, 1836    Licensed to practice law.
  Mar. 1, 1837     Admitted to the bar in Illinois.
  Mar. 15, 1837    Moved from New Salem to Springfield, Illinois.
  Aug. 1, 1838     Reelected to the Legislature for a third term.
  Dec. 3, 1839     Admitted to practice law in the Circuit Court of the
                   United States.
  Aug. 1, 1840     Reelected to the Legislature for a fourth term.
  Nov. 4, 1842     Married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky.
  Aug. 1, 1843     First child, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born.
  Jan. 7, 1844     Bought home in Springfield.
  Mar. 10, 1846    Second child, Edward Baker Lincoln, was born.
  Aug. 3, 1846     Elected to Congress.
  Dec. 6, 1847     Took seat in Congress.
  Mar. 7, 1849     Admitted to practice law before United States Supreme
                   Court.
  Feb. 1, 1850     Second child, Edward Baker Lincoln, died.
  Dec. 21, 1850    Third child, William Wallace Lincoln, was born.
  Jan. 17, 1851    Lincoln’s father, Thomas, died.
  Apr. 4, 1853     Fourth child, Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, was born.
  June 16, 1858    Delivered “house divided” speech at Springfield.
  Aug. 21, 1858    First debate, with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa,
                   Illinois.
  Aug. 27, 1858    Second debate, at Freeport, Illinois.
  Sept. 15, 1858   Third debate, at Jonesboro, Illinois.
  Sept. 18, 1858   Fourth debate, at Charleston, Illinois.
  Oct. 7, 1858     Fifth debate, at Galesburg, Illinois.
  Oct. 13, 1858    Sixth debate, at Quincy, Illinois.
  Oct. 15, 1858    Seventh and last debate, at Alton, Illinois.
  Nov. 2, 1858     Defeated by Douglas for the United States Senate.
  Nov. 5, 1858     First mentioned in press for President.
  May 18, 1860     Nominated for the Presidency.
  Nov. 6, 1860     Elected President.
  Jan. 31, 1861    Visited for the last time with his stepmother.
  Mar. 4, 1861     Inaugurated as President.
  Nov. 8, 1864     Reelected as President.
  Mar. 4, 1865     Reinaugurated as President.
  Apr. 14, 1865    Shot by Booth.
  Apr. 15, 1865    Died in Washington.
  May 4, 1865      Buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.

  [Illustration: It was from the faithful Sinking Spring, near
  Hodgenville, Kentucky, that the farm of Lincoln’s nativity got its
  name.]

  [Illustration: The branches of the Boundary Oak, a landmark for early
  frontiersmen, still shelter the hallowed birthplace of the man who
  went to school for perhaps a year, split rails in frontier clearings,
  traveled the Eighth Circuit as a lawyer, became President of the
  United States, freed the slaves, spoke the First and Second Inaugurals
  and the Gettysburg Address.]

  [Illustration: On February 12, 1809, a blizzard raged at Sinking
  Spring Farm, near Hodgenville, Kentucky. The wind howled down the
  chimney and through the cracks of the humble log cabin in which
  Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. The proud
  parents named the boy Abraham after his grandfather.]

  [Illustration: When Abe was two years old, his father moved the family
  to Knob Creek Farm where they lived until Abe was seven. The cabin lay
  nestled in a valley surrounded by rolling hills and deep gorges. Here
  Abe played with his friend, Austin Gollaher, gathered firewood from
  the forest, wild berries from the vales, and for a short time attended
  Mrs. Hodgen’s “blab” school. Thomas Lincoln decided to move his family
  across the Ohio River to live on Pigeon Creek in Indiana where the
  soil was richer and there were no slaves.]

  [Illustration: The Lincoln’s erected a new log cabin on Pigeon Creek
  in Indiana. For the next fourteen years they struggled with the almost
  impossible odds of a bitter and treacherous wilderness. It was here
  that Abe’s mother died, and he helped his father lay her to rest in
  the forest.]

  [Illustration: In the little Log Schoolhouse near Pigeon Creek, in
  Indiana, Abe managed to get a few scattered weeks of sporadic
  schooling in readin’ writin’ and cipherin’ to the rule of three.]

  [Illustration: Abe did his homework by the light of the smouldering
  fireplace. He would scrape his charcoal cipherin’ from wooden boards
  so as to use them over and over again.]

  [Illustration: The Lincoln family often attended services in the
  little Baptist Church that Abe helped his father to build, near Pigeon
  Creek, in Indiana.]

  [Illustration: This was the home of Josiah Crawford, a neighboring
  farmer, where Abe alternated working and learning. Mr. Crawford had
  several books which he lent Abe. When plowing, Abe read at the end of
  each furrow while he stopped to allow his horse to “breathe.”]

  [Illustration: In Gentryville, not far from Pigeon Creek, Mr. Gentry,
  a farmer and storekeeper lived in this two-story log mansion. At
  times, when his father didn’t need his help, Abe worked in Mr.
  Gentry’s store and on the farm. He helped Allen, Mr. Gentry’s son,
  build a flatboat, load it with store produce and float it down the
  Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.]

  [Illustration: It was early spring of 1830 when the Lincoln’s made the
  long dismal journey from Indiana to the promising prairies of
  Illinois. Their stout wagons were piled high with rough-hewn
  furniture, feather beds, personal belongings, iron pots and pans.
  There were plows for breaking the “prairie’s sleeping sod” and tools
  for building a new log cabin.]

  [Illustration: This rustic abode was the last home of Thomas and Sarah
  Lincoln. Abe, who was now past twenty-one, had left his parents to
  seek his fortune on the bustling Illinois frontier.]

  [Illustration: Timber lined the river’s banks and crowned the rolling
  hills.]

  [Illustration: Historical marker.]


                               NEW SALEM

In the fall of 1828, James Rutledge and John Camron erected homes on
this hill. The following year they built a grist and sawmill on the
Sangamon River just below the hill, laid out the town of New Salem and
began to sell lots. The mill became so popular that the town grew
rapidly and flourished for several years although it never included more
than one hundred inhabitants. With the founding and growth of
Petersburg, two miles to the north and more accessibly located, its
decline began. When the seat of the new County of Menard was located at
Petersburg in 1839, New Salem quickly passed out of existence.

Abraham Lincoln resided at New Salem from the summer of 1831 until the
spring of 1837, supporting himself successively as clerk and mill hand,
soldier in the Black Hawk War, storekeeper, postmaster and deputy
surveyor. In 1832 he entered politics. Although defeated in his first
campaign for the Legislature, he was elected a member of the House of
Representatives in 1834 and again in 1836. Throughout his residence at
New Salem, Lincoln strove to perfect his education, studying grammar,
mathematics, and finally law. Upon his admission to the bar in March
1837, he sought greater opportunities than New Salem offered, and so
removed to Springfield.

  [Illustration: It was on a pleasant April day that the flat-bottomed
  boat, loaded with barrel pork, corn and live pigs, and piloted by
  young Abe Lincoln, rounded a bend in the Sangamon River and came to
  rest on top of the miller’s dam that stretched out across the river.
  The bow of the boat was raised high into the air. The squeals of the
  frightened pigs brought the citizens of New Salem hurrying down the
  bluff to the river bank.

  This was Lincoln’s introduction to the people of New Salem. Denton
  Offut, a swaggering, boastful, hard-drinking frontiersman, was owner
  of the boat. He became so impressed with the thriving little village
  that he decided to return after the voyage to New Orleans, and open a
  store with Lincoln as his clerk. The new store was opened the
  following September.]

  [Illustration: Lincoln helped fell the trees from which Offut’s
  one-room log store was erected. It stands on the bluff that leads down
  to the grist mill and the river bank. It was the usual type of
  frontier store, stocked with produce from the prairie farms or objects
  made at home.

  It was while working for Offut that Lincoln decided to improve his
  education. In fair weather, when there were no customers about,
  Lincoln could be seen lounging on the porch studying or talking with
  friends about slavery, crops, politics, cockfighting, horse racing or
  just telling stories to listening loafers.]

  [Illustration: At the top of the bluff, among the tall oak trees,
  stood the cabin of Rowen Herndon. Lincoln boarded here because it was
  near the store.]

  [Illustration: Bill Cleary’s saloon stood a short distance down the
  bluff from Offut’s store. It was the hangout for Jack Armstrong, who
  challenged Lincoln to a wrestling match. Even though the match ended
  in a draw, it gave Lincoln the reputation for courage and strength
  that convinced his associates that he “belonged.”]

  [Illustration: New Salem was a trading post for the farmers who
  cultivated farms on the surrounding prairies. On Main Street there was
  a cobbler, a hatter, a cooper, a blacksmith and wagon builder, a
  wheelwright and several merchants.

  These tradesmen had come to New Salem to help fill the needs felt by
  everyone. At the height of its prosperity, New Salem had a population
  of a hundred citizens and some twenty-five or thirty buildings.]

  [Illustration: The buildings were made of logs, notched together at
  the corners and chinked with native clay.]

  [Illustration: Roofs were pitched and covered with clapboard shingles
  called “shakes.”]

  [Illustration: Better homes in New Salem had chimneys made of stone.]

  [Illustration: Most homes had “cat and clay” chimneys, made of logs
  and chinked with native clay. On cold windy days members of the
  household were kept busy running outside to see whether or not the
  chimney had caught fire.]

  [Illustration: New Salem homes had window panes made of glass.]

  [Illustration: Windows were usually near the fireplace where family
  activity was carried on.]

  [Illustration: Over an open fire, in iron pots, frying pans and
  skillets, housewives cooked venison stew, roasted pork and wild game,
  fried mush, baked corn bread and corn dodgers to a golden brown and
  often hard enough “to split a board or fell a deer at forty feet.”]

  [Illustration: Sturdy trestle tables served the pioneer family well.]

  [Illustration: Pioneer women were especially proud of their chinaware.]

  [Illustration: A Seth Thomas clock adorned the mantles of those who
  were able to afford a touch of elegance.]

  [Illustration: Housewives spun the wool from which they made garments
  often stiff and too large, but suitable as garments to protect the
  family from the elements.]

  [Illustration: Beds were dressed with home-woven coverlets.]

  [Illustration: Babies came in annual crops.]

  [Illustration: Of the humble one-room log house the cooper’s son
  wrote: “At meal time it was all kitchen. On rainy days, when neighbors
  came to relate their exploits, how many deer and wild turkey they had
  killed, it was all sitting room. On Sunday, when the young men all
  dressed up in their jeans, and the young ladies, in their best bow
  dresses, it was all parlor. At night it was all bedroom.”]

  [Illustration: Outside, wood stacked high during the summer, dwindled
  rapidly as the winter passed.]

  [Illustration: From the ash hoppers, found in every backyard, lye was
  leeched for use in making soap.]

  [Illustration: Wells with windlass ropes and wooden buckets supplied
  the household with needed water.]

  [Illustration: Rain barrels caught the “soft” water that dripped from
  the eaves. This water was used for the family washing.]

  [Illustration: Samuel Hill, New Salem’s most prosperous businessman,
  owned the only four-room, two-story house in the village.]

  [Illustration: The opulence reflected in the Hill residence was not
  common to the homes of New Salem.]

  [Illustration: Samuel Hill was also owner of the woolhouse and carding
  machine. In spring, during wool shearing time, farmers brought their
  wool to the warehouse in sacks, old bed quilts and petticoats, pinned
  with thorns from the honey locust.]

  [Illustration: The carding machine in action was New Salem’s most
  dramatic attraction. From dawn until darkness the weary treading of
  oxen hoofs on the cleated treadmill powered the squeaking, moaning,
  wooden gears of the carding machine.]

  [Illustration: Samuel Hill and John McNeal owned the most successful
  store in New Salem. It was the center of village life. Under its
  protective porch people gathered to argue the questions of temperance,
  travel and human slavery.]

  [Illustration: Doctor John Allen lived across the road from the
  Hill-McNeal store. Unconvinced of the virtue of quinine for treating
  malaria fever, the doctor kept to such old remedies as Peruvian bark,
  jalop, calomel and boneset tea.]

  [Illustration: Peter Lukin, the cobbler, lived next door to Doctor
  Allen. The cobbler shop was in the small lean-to. As winter approached
  the cobbler converted piles of animal hides into shoes for the
  community.]

  [Illustration: Residence and office of Doctor Francis Regnier, Allen’s
  capable colleague, who purged, bled, blistered, puked, and salivated
  his patients.]

  [Illustration: The Doctor’s medical laboratory and reference library.]

  [Illustration: This was the home and workshop of Martin Waddell, the
  village hatter. He made hats from opossum, raccoon and rabbit skins. A
  rabbitskin hat cost fifty cents. A hat made from an opossum or raccoon
  skin, with the tail hanging down in the back, cost two dollars.]

  [Illustration: In this kettle Waddell prepared the skins from which he
  made the hats.]

  [Illustration: Residence of Isaac Burner. Very little is known about
  the Burner family.]

  [Illustration: A familiar sight on Main Street, New Salem.]

  [Illustration: In the small lean-to in the rear of his cabin, Robert
  Johnson, the wheelwright and cabinetmaker, painstakingly made spinning
  wheels, wagon wheels, looms, and sturdy furniture for the community.]

  [Illustration: Residence of Isaac Golliher, who had the only root
  cellar in the village.]

  [Illustration: For three years Lincoln was postmaster at New Salem. In
  this position he became well-acquainted with people for miles around.
  It was here he began his lifelong habit of reading newspapers, through
  which, in part, he learned to interpret public opinion. To supplement
  his earnings as postmaster he did odd jobs, such as clerking in Hill’s
  store, helping out at the mill or splitting rails.]

  [Illustration: This was the home of Alexander Trent. When Lincoln
  became postmaster he was required to furnish bond of five hundred
  dollars. Alexander Trent was one of his bondsmen.]

  [Illustration: Henry Onstat’s cabin and the cooperage where he made
  barrels so much in demand by the community of New Salem.]

  [Illustration: The cooperage was a busy place. There was always a
  great pile of shavings in the fireplace. Lincoln often came to the
  cooperage at night and by the glow of the burning shavings he studied
  mathematics, literature and law.]

  [Illustration: Across the road from the cooperage stood the double
  cabin of Jack Kelso, philosopher and fisherman, and his
  brother-in-law, Joshua Miller, the powerful village blacksmith.]

  [Illustration: Lincoln was a frequent visitor to the Kelso cabin; he
  and Jack often sat around the table and by the cheerful glow of the
  fireplace, read and discussed Shakespeare, Blackstone and Burns. It
  was Jack Kelso who introduced Lincoln to the classics of literature.]

  [Illustration: Joshua Miller’s blacksmith shop was the busiest place
  in town. The ring of his anvil was heard from morning until night
  throughout the village as he shaped metal into oxen shoes, horseshoes
  and farm implements.]

  [Illustration: Lincoln, seeking an occupation that would afford him a
  better living than odd jobs, considered becoming a blacksmith. For a
  time his strong arms grappled with the chore, but he preferred lighter
  work which allowed him more time for studying. He also had thoughts of
  becoming a merchant.]

  [Illustration: The limbs of the great oak tree still cast their
  shadows across the Lincoln-Berry store. In fair weather, when
  housewives were busy and sales were restricted to an occasional pound
  of sugar or a piece of beeswax, Lincoln, barefoot, lay stretched out
  under the oak tree, lost in a book.]

  [Illustration: The Rutledge Tavern, where Lincoln courted Ann
  Rutledge, stood across the road from the Lincoln-Berry store. While
  waiting on a customer, or studying under the oak tree, he often paused
  to watch her as she moved about the yard of the tavern.]

  [Illustration: A burning candle in the tavern window welcomed whatever
  wayfarer might be seeking food and lodging.]

  [Illustration: The tavern was a pleasant and comfortable place. Every
  day brought new guests to the dining room. For a time Lincoln lived at
  the tavern; his wit and tall tales often made him the center of
  interest.]

  [Illustration: While residing at the tavern, Lincoln climbed the rungs
  of a well-worn ladder to the loft, where he shared a bed with E. Y.
  Ellis, who says that Lincoln’s wit and stories often kept the other
  male guests in an uproar until late at night.]

  [Illustration: The west room of the tavern accommodated the Rutledge
  family and now and then an overnight lady guest.]

  [Illustration: On Sunday evenings the Rutledge family and friends
  gathered before the fireplace to listen to a sermon and to sing hymns.
  Lincoln stood near Ann and turned the pages of her _Missouri Harmony
  Song Book_.]

  [Illustration: The betrothal of Ann Rutledge and Lincoln ended with
  her untimely death. Ann’s brother said: “The effect upon Mr. Lincoln’s
  mind was terrible. He became plunged in despair, and many of his
  friends feared reason would desert her throne. His extraordinary
  emotions were regarded as strong evidence of the existence of the
  tenderest relations between himself and the deceased.”]

  [Illustration: Lincoln, the ardent student, could be found pursuing
  his studies in the most unusual places. Squire Godbey, seeing him
  stretched out on a pile of wood, inquired: “What are you reading Abe?”
  Lincoln replied: “I am not reading. I am studying Law.” “Law? Good God
  A’mighty!” exclaimed the surprised squire as he walked away.]

  [Illustration: The little subscription schoolhouse stands a half mile
  south of the village near Purkapile “crick.” Schoolmaster Mentor
  Graham was a constant stimulus to Lincoln and always ready to help and
  encourage him. After the day’s routine had ended Lincoln often came to
  the school so that the master might evaluate his progress.]

  [Illustration: In 1834, Lincoln’s quest for knowledge and esteem was
  rewarded. The citizens of Sangamon County sent the novice lawmaker to
  the State Capitol at Vandalia, to take his seat in the Ninth General
  Assembly of the Legislature of Illinois.]

  [Illustration: In the Assembly, Lincoln said little, but observed
  closely and learned much. He was among men of affairs, education and
  political experience. He became floor leader of the Whigs and an
  esteemed member of a political group known as the “Long Nine” who were
  successful in having the State Capitol moved from Vandalia to
  Springfield.]

  [Illustration: In March of 1837, after having been admitted to the bar
  in Illinois, Lincoln moved from New Salem to Springfield. For the next
  twenty-five years the first State Capitol Building in Springfield
  became the center of his many activities.]

  [Illustration: The Postville Courthouse was on the “Old Eighth
  Circuit.” In Lincoln’s day judges and lawyers rode horseback from one
  county courthouse to another, so as to make a living by representing
  the litigants in the suits to be heard. This was known as “riding the
  circuit.”]

  [Illustration: The Mount Pulaski Courthouse hasn’t changed much since
  Lincoln practiced law here more than a hundred years ago.]

  [Illustration: In the court and jury room Lincoln argued cases before
  such distinguished judges as David Davis, who became a Justice of the
  United States Supreme Court.]

  [Illustration: During those inevitable moments of disturbance when the
  courtroom became unruly, Judge Davis would sound this gavel calling
  for order in the court.]

  [Illustration: The Metamora Courthouse, dating from 1845, retains the
  atmosphere of those rugged days when Lincoln and his colleagues came
  here to plead for justice before the bar.]

  [Illustration: At Metamora, Lincoln sat at this table. The “skirt” was
  cut away to accommodate his long legs.]

  [Illustration: The well-worn courthouse doorstep is evidence of one
  court room visitor’s observations: “Court week is a general holiday.
  Not only suitors, jurors and witnesses, but all who can spare the time
  brush up their coats and brush down their horses to go to court.”]

  [Illustration: An atmosphere of exultation pervaded the Metamora
  courtroom when Lincoln was present. He was the most popular of all the
  barristers who traveled the Eighth Circuit.]

  [Illustration: The Old Cass County Courthouse in Beadstown, Illinois,
  was the scene of the “Duff” Armstrong murder trial in which Lincoln
  defended the son of “Aunt Hanna” Armstrong, who had befriended him
  when he lived in New Salem. During the trial Lincoln proved, by
  referring to an almanac, that the moon was not shining brightly at the
  time of the murder. It is said that tears stood in Lincoln’s eyes as
  he pleaded for the boy’s life and that the hardened pioneer jurymen
  wept with him. Young Armstrong was acquitted.]

  [Illustration: The courtroom.]

  [Illustration: On the evening of July 29, 1858, Lincoln, Republican
  Candidate for the United States Senate and the incumbent Democratic
  Senator, Stephen A. Douglas, were guests at the Bryant Home. It was
  here that the two politicians agreed to their seven debates.]

  [Illustration: Lincoln occupied the chair below during the evening’s
  discussion.]

  [Illustration: On this table Douglas wrote a letter to Lincoln
  confirming the schedule for seven debates.]

  [Illustration: This memorial to the Lincoln-Douglas debates, at
  Quincy, Illinois, stands as a symbol of Lincoln’s moral and spiritual
  convictions. They enabled him to match wits with Stephen A. Douglas,
  who was blind to the evils of slavery and deaf and dumb to those who
  expressed a desire to abolish it.]

  [Illustration: Lincoln had crossed the threshold of his greatest
  ambition when he and his family became frequent visitors to the
  Governor’s Mansion, where they mingled with the elite both politically
  and socially. Lincoln’s name had been mentioned in the press as a
  possible candidate for the Presidency.]

  [Illustration: “The Rail Splitter.” Lincoln acquired this nickname
  during the 1860 convention in Chicago, where he became known as “The
  Rail Splitter” candidate for President of the United States.]

  [Illustration: It was to this house, Lincoln’s Springfield residence,
  that the appointed committee came on May 19, 1860 to notify “The Rail
  Splitter” candidate of his nomination for the Presidency.]

  [Illustration: One of the committeemen rang the front doorbell, which
  has announced visitors to the Lincoln house for more than a hundred
  years.]

  [Illustration: “The Rail Splitter” himself opened the front door and
  welcomed the committee into the entrance hall, where both the humble
  and the great had always been welcome visitors.]

  [Illustration: It was in the north parlor that the committee
  spokesman, George Ashmun, delivered to Lincoln the letter which
  confirmed his nomination, a copy of the Republican platform and a
  short congratulatory speech. “The Rail Splitter” candidate stood tall
  and dignified, a grave expression on his rugged countenance.]

  [Illustration: The committee was introduced to Mrs. Lincoln in the
  south parlor, where she served refreshments and water. Later “The Rail
  Splitter” opined that the water seemed a sufficient stimulant.]

  [Illustration: Mr. Lincoln’s favorite rocker.]

  [Illustration: Mrs. Lincoln’s sewing rocker.]

  [Illustration: When Mrs. Lincoln was entertaining friends, “Honest
  Abe” often retired to the kitchen where he stretched out on the floor
  to read a book or newspaper.]

  [Illustration: It was a cold January day when Lincoln journeyed from
  Springfield to this quaint little house near Charleston, Illinois, to
  visit for the last time with his beloved stepmother, before leaving
  for Washington and his inauguration.]

  [Illustration: While sitting before the glowing fireplace, Lincoln and
  his stepmother must have reminisced about those formidable days in the
  forests of Indiana and the first few years on the prairies of
  Illinois.]

  [Illustration: “How slowly, and yet by happily prepared steps, he came
  to his place,” said Emerson. This statue is in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.]

  [Illustration: At the dedication of the memorial and tomb to the Great
  Emancipator in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, Governor
  Richard Oglesby spoke these words: “And now under the gracious favor
  of Almighty God, I dedicate this monument to the memory of the obscure
  boy, the honest man, the illustrious statesman, the great liberator,
  and the martyr President Abraham Lincoln, and to the keeping of Time.”]



                          The LINCOLN COUNTRY:
                              IN PICTURES
                     _by Carl and Rosalie Frazier_


Perhaps no man in American history has been viewed with such respect and
reverence by the American people as has Abraham Lincoln. School children
and scholars alike have been moved by the humanity of his deeply lined
face, have marveled at his rise from poverty to the Presidency, have
sorrowed anew at the tragedy of his death, have read his words and been
unable to erase them from their memory. If there is one historic person
most of us would like to know, it is Abraham Lincoln.

Here—in these pages which recreate the world Lincoln knew as a child and
a young man—the reader can come close to Lincoln. In these fine
photographs, which carefully depict the familiar, everyday scenes of
young Abe’s manhood, he can see Lincoln’s world as Lincoln saw it. As
the authors say: “It was from this frontier atmosphere and these
frontier people that Lincoln acquired his uncanny understanding of how
common folk think and the wisdom that enabled him to hold in his hands
the ties that bound a people and made a nation.”

It is this atmosphere that the authors have captured in over 100
photographs, and it is the rhythm of frontier life that they have caught
in the factual simplicity of the text. Here is the farm in Kentucky
where Lincoln was born; here are reconstructed the smithy, the tavern,
the houses of New Salem, Illinois where Lincoln was a clerk, where he
studied law, where he was elected to the state legislature. Here is the
Springfield that Lincoln knew when he was first elected to Congress, the
town where his sons were born, where in 1860 he learned that he was a
candidate for the Presidency. This is Lincoln’s country. As the reader
follows Lincoln through the pages of this book, he will feel suddenly
close to the man who left such an indelible imprint on the history of
this nation—and upon its people.


CARL and ROSALIE FRAZIER live in Chicago, Illinois where they pursue
their professions as artists and photographers. Their knowledge of
Abraham Lincoln comes from their considerable and extensive research
into Lincoln’s life and their many pilgrimages to those places where he
lived in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

The Fraziers became interested in trying to capture through the lenses
of their cameras that certain something which attracts visitors by the
thousands to the Lincoln shrines every year. They hope this picture book
will preserve, or at least refresh the memories of these observant
visitors, and bring to those who may never have this opportunity a
better mental picture of this benevolent man’s environment.


                      HASTINGS HOUSE • PUBLISHERS
                             _New York 22_

  [Illustration: The Rutledge Tavern where Abraham Lincoln often stayed.
  The well-worn ladder leads to his bed in the loft.]



                          Transcriber’s Notes


--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
  domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
  dialect unchanged.

--Moved some captions closer to the corresponding pictures.

--In the text versions, delimited italicized text by _underscores_.





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