| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: The early life of Abraham Lincoln: - containing many unpublished documents and unpublished - reminiscences of Lincoln's early friends
Author: Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The early life of Abraham Lincoln: - containing many unpublished documents and unpublished - reminiscences of Lincoln's early friends" ***
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)
[Illustration:
THE EARLIEST PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a carbon enlargement, by Sherman and McHugh, New York, of a
daguerreotype in the possession of the Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, and
first published in the MCCLURE’S Life of Lincoln. It is generally
believed that Lincoln was not over thirty-five years old when this
daguerreotype was taken, and it is certainly true that it shows the
face of Lincoln as a young man. It is probably earlier by six or
seven years, at least, than any other existing portrait of Lincoln.
]
THE EARLY LIFE
OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
CONTAINING MANY UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS AND UNPUBLISHED REMINISCENCES OF
LINCOLN’S EARLY FRIENDS
BY
IDA M. TARBELL
ASSISTED BY
J. McCAN DAVIS
WITH 160 ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING
20 PORTRAITS OF LINCOLN
NEW YORK
S. S. McCLURE, LIMITED
LONDON
1896
[_All rights reserved_]
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY
S. S. MCCLURE, LIMITED
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY
S. S. MCCLURE, LIMITED
Press of J. J. Little & Co.
Astor Place, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION.
It has been only within the last ten years that the descent of Abraham
Lincoln from the Lincolns of Hingham, Massachusetts, has been
established with any degree of certainty. The satisfactory proof of his
lineage is a matter of great importance. In a way it explains Lincoln.
It shows that he came of a family endowed with the spirit of adventure,
of daring, of patriotism, and of thrift; that his ancestors were men who
for nearly two hundred years before he was born were active and
well-to-do citizens of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or
Virginia, men who everywhere played their parts well. Abraham Lincoln
was but the flowering of generations of upright, honorable men.
The first we learn of the Lincolns in this country is between the years
1635 and 1645, when there came to the town of Hingham, Massachusetts,
from the west of England, eight men of that name. Three of these,
Samuel, Daniel, and Thomas, were brothers. Their relationship, if any,
to the other Lincolns who came over from the same part of the country at
about the same time is not clear. Two of these men, Daniel and Thomas,
died without heirs; but Samuel left a large family, including four sons.
Among the descendants of Samuel Lincoln’s sons were many good citizens
and prominent public officers. One was a member of the Boston Tea Party,
and served as a captain of artillery in the War of the Revolution.
Others were privates in that war. Three served on the brig “Hazard”
during the Revolution. Levi Lincoln, a great-great-grandson of Samuel,
born in Hingham in 1749, and graduated from Harvard, was one of the
minute-men at Cambridge immediately after the battle of Lexington, a
delegate to the convention in Cambridge for framing a State
Constitution, and in 1781 was elected to the Continental Congress, but
declined to serve. He was a member of the House of Representatives and
of the Senate of Massachusetts, and was appointed Attorney-General of
the United States by Jefferson; for a few months preceding the arrival
of Madison he was Secretary of State, and in 1807 he was elected
Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts. In 1811 he was appointed Associate
Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Madison, an
office which he declined. From the close of the Revolutionary War he was
considered the head of the Massachusetts bar.
His eldest son, Levi Lincoln, born in 1782, had also an honorable public
career. He was a Harvard graduate, became Governor of the State of
Massachusetts, and held other important public offices. He received the
degree of LL.D. in 1824 from Williams College, and from Harvard in 1826.
Another son of Levi Lincoln, Enoch Lincoln, served in Congress from 1818
to 1826. He became Governor of Maine in 1827, holding the position until
his death in 1829. Enoch Lincoln was a writer of more than ordinary
ability.
The fourth son of Samuel Lincoln was called Mordecai (President Lincoln
descended from him, being his great-great-great-grandson). Mordecai
Lincoln was a rich “blacksmith,” as an iron-worker was called in those
days, and the proprietor of numerous iron-works, saw-mills, and
grist-mills, which with a goodly amount of money he distributed at his
death among his children and grandchildren. Two of his children,
Mordecai and Abraham, did not remain in Massachusetts, but removed to
New Jersey, and thence to Pennsylvania, where both became rich, and
dying, left fine estates to their children. Their descendants in
Pennsylvania have continued to this day to be well-to-do people, some of
them having taken prominent positions in public affairs. Abraham
Lincoln, of Berks County, who was born in 1736 and died in 1806, filled
many public offices, being a member of the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania, of the State Convention of 1787, and of the State
Constitutional Convention in 1790.
One of the sons of this second Mordecai, John (the great-grandfather of
President Lincoln), received from his father “three hundred acres of
land, lying in the Jerseys.” But evidently he did not care to cultivate
his inheritance, for about 1758 he removed to Virginia. “Virginia” John,
as this member of the family was called, had five sons, all of whom he
established well. One of these sons, Jacob, entered the Revolutionary
Army and served as a lieutenant at Yorktown.
The settlers of western Virginia were all in those days more or less
under the fascination of the adventurous spirit which was opening up the
West, and three of “Virginia” John’s sons decided to try their fortunes
in the new country. One went to Tennessee, two to Kentucky. The first to
go to Kentucky was Abraham (the grandfather of the President). He was
already a well-to-do man when he decided to leave Virginia, for he sold
his estate for some seventeen thousand dollars. A portion of this money
he invested in land-office treasury warrants.
On emigrating to Kentucky he bought one thousand seven hundred acres of
land. But almost at the beginning of his life in the new country, while
still a comparatively young man, he was slain by the Indians. His estate
seems to have been inherited by his eldest son, Mordecai, who afterward
became prominent in the State; was a great Indian fighter, a famous
story-teller, and, according to the traditions of his descendants, a
member of the Kentucky legislature. This last item we have not, however,
been able to verify. We have had the fullest collection of journals of
the Kentucky legislature which exists, that of Dr. R. T. Durrett of
Louisville, Kentucky, carefully searched, but no mention has been found
in them of Mordecai Lincoln.
It is with the brother of Mordecai, the youngest son of the pioneer
Abraham, we have to do, a boy who was left an orphan at ten years of
age, and who in that rude time had to depend upon his own exertions. We
find from newly discovered documents that he was the owner of a farm at
twenty-five years of age, and from the contemporary evidence that he was
a very good carpenter; from a document we have discovered in Kentucky we
learn that he was even appointed a road surveyor, in 1816. We have found
his Bible, a very expensive book at that time; we have also found that
he had credit, and was able to purchase on credit a pair of suspenders
costing one dollar and fifty cents, and we have learned from the
recollections of Christopher Columbus Graham that in marrying the niece
of his employer he secured a very good wife. The second child of Thomas
Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln, who became the sixteenth President of the
United States and the foremost man of his age.
The career of Abraham Lincoln is more easily understood in view of his
ancestry. The story of his life, which is here told more fully and
consecutively, and in many points, both minor and important, we believe
more exactly than ever before, bears out our belief that Abraham Lincoln
inherited from his ancestry traits and qualities of mind which made him
a remarkable child and a young man of unusual promise and power. So far
from his later career being unaccounted for in his origin and early
history, it is as fully accounted for as in the case of any man.
So far as possible, the statements in this work are based on original
documents. This explains why in several cases the dates differ from
those commonly accepted. Thus the year of the death of the grandfather
of Abraham Lincoln is made 1788, instead of 1784, because of the
recently discovered inventory of his estate. The impression given of
Thomas Lincoln is different from that of other biographies, because we
believe the new documents we have found and the new contemporary
evidence we have unearthed, justify us in it. We have not made it a sign
of shiftlessness that Thomas Lincoln dwelt in a log cabin at a date when
there was scarcely anything else in the State.
An effort has been made, too, to give what we believe to be a truer
color to the fourteen years the Lincolns spent in southern Indiana. The
poverty and the wretchedness of their life has been insisted upon until
it is popularly supposed that Abraham Lincoln came from a home similar
to those of the “poor white trash” of the South. There is no attempt
made here to deny the poverty of the Lincoln household, but it is
insisted that this poverty was a temporary condition incident to pioneer
life and the unfortunate death of Thomas Lincoln’s father when he was
but a boy. Thomas Lincoln’s restless efforts to better his condition by
leaving Kentucky for Indiana in 1816, and afterwards, when he had
discovered that his farm in Spencer County was barren, by trying his
fortunes in Illinois, are sufficient proof that he had none of the
indolent acceptance of fate which characterizes the “poor whites.”
In telling the story of the six years of Lincoln’s life in New Salem, we
have attempted to give a consecutive narrative and to show the exact
sequence of events, which has never been done before. We have shown,
what seems to us very suggestive, the persistency and courage with which
he seized every opportunity and carried on simultaneously his business
as storekeeper and postmaster and surveyor and at the same time studied
law. To establish the order of events in this New Salem period, the
records of the county have been carefully examined, and many new
documents concerning Lincoln have been found in this search, including
his first vote, his first official document (an election return), and
several new surveying plats. The latter show Lincoln to have been much
more active as a surveyor than has commonly been supposed. We have also
brought to light the grammar Lincoln studied, with a sentence written on
the title page in Lincoln’s own hand.
For the first time, too, we publish documents signed by Lincoln as a
postmaster. These two letters are also earlier than any other published
letters of Lincoln. Many minor errors have been corrected, such as the
real number of votes which he received on his first election to the
legislature, and the times and places of his mustering out and into
service in the Black Hawk War.
The number of illustrations in the work is many times greater than ever
has before appeared in connection with the early life of Lincoln. The
scenes of his life in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois have been
photographed especially for us, and we have collected from various
sources numbers of pictures illustrating the primitive surroundings of
his boyhood and young manhood, together with portraits of many of his
companions in those days. Our object in giving such a profusion of
homely scenes and faces has been to make a history of Lincoln’s early
life _in pictures_. We believe that one examining these prints
independently of the text would have a good idea of Lincoln’s condition
from 1809 to 1836.
By far the most important of the illustrations of the work is the
collection of portraits. This is the first systematic effort to make a
complete collection of portraits of the great President. Our success so
far encourages us in believing that before we end our work on Lincoln we
shall have such a collection. Already we have some seventy-five
different portraits. Of these, the great majority are photographs,
ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes. It was Mr. Lincoln’s custom, after the
introduction of photography into Illinois, to sit for his picture
whenever he visited a town to make a speech. This picture he usually
gave to his host; the result was that there now remain, scattered among
his old friends, a large number of interesting portraits, of which
nobody but the owners knew until we undertook this work. Thus of the
twenty portraits which appear in this volume, twelve have never before
been published anywhere, so far as we know.
It has been through the generosity and courtesy of collectors and of our
correspondents and readers that it has been possible for us to gather so
great a number of portraits and documents. On all sides collections have
been put freely at our service, and numbers of our readers have sent us
unpublished ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, and photographs, glad, as they
have written us, to aid in completing a Lincoln portrait gallery. It is
not possible to mention here the names of all those to whom we are
indebted, not only for portraits but for documents and manuscripts, but
credit is given in inserting the material furnished.
Our effort has been to give in both text and notes as exact and full
statements as the information we have been able to gather permitted us
to do. If any reader of this volume discovers errors we shall be glad to
receive corrections.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Origin of the Lincoln Family.—Possessions of Lincoln’s
Grandfather.—Lincoln’s Story-telling Uncle.—Account of Lincoln’s
Father, Thomas Lincoln.—Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy 21
Hanks.—Character of Nancy Hanks.—Thomas Lincoln’s Manner of Life
and Standing among his Neighbors
CHAPTER II.
The Birth of Abraham Lincoln.—Lincoln’s Childhood
Home.—Reminiscences of Austin Gollaher, a Boyhood Comrade of 42
Lincoln’s.—Saves Lincoln’s Life.—Lincoln’s Early
School-teachers.—Lincoln’s Fondness for Study
CHAPTER III.
The Lincolns leave Kentucky.—Hewing a Way through the Forests of
Indiana.—A Cabin erected near Gentryville, Spencer County,
Indiana.—Description of Lincoln’s New Home.—Domestic Economy of 51
the Lincoln Household.—Pioneer Fare and Apparel.—Death of
Lincoln’s Mother.—Lincoln’s Strength and Skill as a
Laborer.—Lincoln earns a Dollar as a Ferryman
CHAPTER IV.
Lincoln’s Struggle for an Education.—The Books he Read.—Lincoln as
the Oracle of Jones’s Store.—Slavery in Indiana.—Lincoln 69
Develops into an Orator and Writer.—Life on the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers and its Effect on Lincoln
CHAPTER V.
Lincoln’s Literary Fame among his Neighbors.—The Champion of the
Spelling-bee.—His Retort to a Boasting Jockey.—His Affection for 80
his Step-mother
CHAPTER VI.
Amusements of Lincoln’s Life in Indiana.—Lincoln as a 88
Sportsman.—Lincoln’s Earliest Romance.—Early Bereavements
CHAPTER VII.
The Lincolns leave Indiana.—Parting from Old Friends in
Indiana.—The Journey to Illinois.—Lincoln as a Peddler.—Begins
Life on his own Account.—Splitting Rails for a Pair of 94
Trousers.—Lincoln’s Great Strength and his Pride in it.—Lincoln
and the Professional Athlete
CHAPTER VIII.
Lincoln’s First Work on his own Account.—Lincoln’s Popularity in
Sangamon County.—Rescues Three Comrades from Drowning.—Ingenuity 103
in getting a Flatboat over a Dam.—A Visit to New Orleans.—New
Orleans in 1831, and Lincoln’s Experiences there
CHAPTER IX.
Lincoln settles in New Salem.—He becomes a Grocery Clerk.—The
Frontier Store.—Lincoln defeats the Champion Wrestler of Clary’s 115
Grove.—His Popularity in New Salem.—His Chivalry and
Honesty.—Masters Kirkham’s Grammar and enters Politics
CHAPTER X.
Lincoln’s First Announcement to the Voters of Sangamon County.—His
Views on the Improvement of the Sangamon.—Views on Usury and 125
Education.—The Modesty of his Circular.—Pilots a Steamboat up
the Sangamon
CHAPTER XI.
The Black Hawk War.—Outbreak of Sacs and Foxes.—Lincoln volunteers
and is elected a Captain.—The Manner of his Election.—An
Inexperienced Captain and a Disorderly Company.—The Course of 134
the War.—Stillman’s Defeat.—Zachary Taylor’s Way of dealing with
Insubordination
CHAPTER XII.
Expiration of Lincoln’s Term and his Reënlistment.—Major Iles’s
Reminiscences of the Campaign.—The Frantic Terror raised by 144
Black Hawk.—Lincoln and his Company enter Michigan
Territory.—End of the War, and Lincoln’s Return to New Salem
CHAPTER XIII.
Electioneering in 1832 in Illinois.—Lincoln defeated of Election
to the Assembly.—Looking for Work.—Berry and Lincoln buy Three 155
Stores on Credit.—New Salem Merchants in Lincoln’s Day.—Lincoln
reads Burns and Shakespeare.—His Familiarity with Shakespeare
CHAPTER XIV.
Lincoln begins to Study Law.—His First Law-book.—A Chance Copy of
Blackstone.—Berry and Lincoln take out a Tavern License and hire 166
a Clerk
CHAPTER XV.
Lincoln appointed Postmaster.—Masters Surveying in Six Weeks, and
becomes Deputy County Surveyor.—Surveying with a Grapevine.—His 175
Work and Earnings as a Surveyor.—Early Illinois Towns laid out
by Lincoln
CHAPTER XVI.
Business Reverses.—The Kindness shown Lincoln in New Salem.—His
Helpfulness to all about him.—Growing Esteem and Influence in
Sangamon County.—Becomes a Second Time a Candidate for Member of 187
the Illinois Assembly.—Lincoln on the Stump.—Lincoln’s
Election.—The Vote
CHAPTER XVII.
Lincoln decides finally on a Legal Career.—His Methods of
Study.—First Session in the General Assembly.—Distrust of
Yankees in Early Illinois.—Description of the Early Frontier 197
Legislator.—Questions before the Assembly.—Internal
Improvements.—The State Bank
CHAPTER XVIII.
Lincoln’s Romance with Ann Rutledge.—Ann’s First Lover, John
McNeill, or McNamar.—McNeill’s Departure from New 208
Salem.—Lincoln’s Engagement.—Ann Rutledge’s Death, and Lincoln’s
Deep Grief
CHAPTER XIX.
Abraham Lincoln at Twenty-six Years of Age.—A Review of his Career 218
thus far.—His Excellent Preparation for what was to come
APPENDIX.
I. Memoranda for Lincoln’s Genealogy. By the Hon. L. E. 223
Chittenden
II. Christopher Columbus Graham and his Reminiscences of 227
Lincoln’s Parents
III. A Leaf from Lincoln’s Exercise-Book 236
IV. The Oldroyd Lincoln Collection 237
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1854.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a photograph owned by Mr. George Schneider of Chicago, Illinois,
former editor of the “Staats Zeitung,” the most influential
anti-slavery German newspaper of the West. Mr. Schneider first met
Mr. Lincoln in 1853, in Springfield. “He was already a man necessary
to know,” says Mr. Schneider. In 1854 Mr. Lincoln was in Chicago,
and Mr. Isaac N. Arnold, a prominent lawyer and politician of
Illinois, invited Mr. Schneider to dine with Mr. Lincoln. After
dinner, as the gentlemen were going down town, they stopped at an
itinerant photograph gallery, and Mr. Lincoln had the above picture
taken for Mr. Schneider. The newspaper he holds in his hands is the
“Press and Tribune.”
]
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1863.
From a photograph by Brady, taken in Washington.
]
THE EARLY LIFE
OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY.—THE LINCOLNS IN KENTUCKY.
The family from which Abraham Lincoln descended came to America from
Norfolk, England, in 1637. A brief table[1] will show at a glance the
line of descent:
_Samuel Lincoln_, born in 1620. Emigrated from Norfolk County,
England, to Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1637. His fourth
son was
_Mordecai Lincoln_, born in 1667. His eldest son was
_Mordecai Lincoln_, born in 1686. Emigrated to New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, 1714. His eldest son was
_John Lincoln_, born before 1725. In 1758 went to Virginia. His
third son was
_Abraham Lincoln_, date of birth uncertain. In 1780, or
thereabouts, emigrated to Kentucky. His third son was
_Thomas Lincoln_, born in 1778, whose first son was
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
Sixteenth President of the United States.
Footnote 1:
This table was prepared especially for this work by the Hon. L. E.
Chittenden of New York, Register of the Treasury under Mr. Lincoln. In
the Appendix will be found a full memorandum of Lincoln’s genealogy,
also prepared by Mr. Chittenden.
[Illustration:
LAND WARRANT ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, GRANDFATHER OF PRESIDENT
LINCOLN.
From the original, owned by R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of Louisville,
Kentucky. The land records of Kentucky show that Abraham Lincoln
entered two tracts of land when in Kentucky in the spring and summer
of 1780. These entries, furnished us by Dr. Durrett, are as follows:
MAY 29, 1780.—“Abraham Linkhorn enters four hundred acres of land on
Treasury Warrant, laying on Floyd’s Fork, about two miles above
Tice’s Fork, beginning at a Sugar Tree S. B., thence east three
hundred poles, then north, to include a small improvement.”—_Land
Register_, page 107.
JUNE 7, 1780.—“Abraham Linkhorn enters eight hundred acres upon
Treasury Warrant, about six miles below Green River Lick, including
an improvement made by Jacob Gum and Owen Diver.”—Page 126.
The first tract of land was surveyed May 7, 1785 (see page 23), and
the second on October 12, 1784. In 1782 he entered a third tract of
land, a record of which is found in Daniel Boone’s field-book. This
entry reads: “Abraham Lincoln enters five hundred acres of land on a
Treasury Warrant, No. 5994, beginning opposite Charles Yancey’s
upper line, on the south side of the river, running south two
hundred poles, then up the river for quantity; December 11, 1782.”
This is supposed by some authorities to be a tract of five hundred
acres of land in Campbell County, surveyed and patented in Abraham
Lincoln’s name, but after his death. The spelling of the name
Linkhorn instead of Lincoln, as it is invariably in other records of
the family, has caused some to doubt that the Treasury warrant above
was really issued to the grandfather of the President. The family
traditions, however, all say that the elder Abraham owned a tract on
Floyd’s Fork. The misspelling and mispronunciation of the name
Lincoln is common in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. The writer of
this note has frequently heard persons in Illinois speak of “Abe
Linkhorn” and “Abe Linkern.”
]
[Illustration:
FIELD NOTES OF SURVEY OF FOUR HUNDRED ACRES OF LAND OWNED BY ABRAHAM
LINCOLN, GRANDFATHER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
From the record of surveys in the surveyor’s office of Jefferson
County, Kentucky, Book B., page 60.
]
[Illustration:
HUGHES STATION, ON FLOYD’S CREEK, JEFFERSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY, WHERE
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, GRANDFATHER OF THE PRESIDENT, LIVED.—NOW FIRST
PUBLISHED.
From the original, owned by R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of Louisville,
Kentucky. “The first inhabitants of Kentucky,” says Dr. Durrett, “on
account of the hostility of the Indians, lived in what were called
forts. They were simple rows of the conventional log cabins of the
day, built on four sides of a square or parallelogram, which
remained as a court, or open space, between them. This open space
served as a playground, a muster field, a corral for domestic
animals, and a store-house for implements. The cabins which formed
the fort’s walls were dwelling-houses for the people.” At Hughes
Station, on Floyd’s Creek, lived Abraham Lincoln and his family. One
morning in 1788—the date of the death of Abraham Lincoln is placed
in 1784, 1786, and 1788 by different authorities; the inventory of
his estate (page 28) is dated 1788; for this reason we adopt
1788—the pioneer Lincoln and his three sons, Mordecai, Josiah, and
Thomas, were in their clearing, when a shot from an Indian killed
the father. The two elder sons ran for help, the youngest remaining
by the dead body. The Indian ran to the side of his victim, and was
just seizing the son Thomas, when Mordecai, who had reached the
cabin and secured a rifle, shot through a loophole in the logs and
killed the Indian. It was this tragedy, it is said, that made
Mordecai Lincoln one of the most relentless Indian haters in
Kentucky.
]
For our present purpose it is not necessary to examine the lives of
these ancestors farther back than the grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, who
has been supposed to have been born in Virginia in 1760. A consideration
of the few facts we have of his early life shows clearly that this date
is wrong. It is known that in 1773 Abraham Lincoln’s father, John
Lincoln, conveyed to his son a tract of two hundred and ten acres of
land in Virginia, which he hardly would have done if the boy had been
but thirteen years of age. We know, too, that in 1780 Abraham Lincoln
had a wife and five children, the youngest of whom was at least two
years old. Evidently he must have been over twenty years of age, and
have been born before 1760. Probably, too, his birthplace was
Pennsylvania, whence his father moved into Virginia about 1758.
[Illustration:
_Daniel Boone_
]
[Illustration:
RELICS OF DANIEL BOONE.
Photographed for this work from the originals, in the collection of
pioneer relics owned by R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of Louisville,
Kentucky. The articles are a rifle, scalping-knife, powder-horn,
tomahawk, and hunting-shirt. Dr. Durrett has all the documents
needful to establish the authenticity of each of these articles.
They unquestionably were used by Boone through a long period of
hunting and Indian stalking; all of the articles are well preserved,
and even the leather coat is still fit for service. The rifle, says
Dr. Durrett, is as true as it ever was. In this same collection are
a large number of similar relics of other Kentucky pioneers.
]
Abraham Lincoln was a farmer, and, by 1780, a rich one for his time.
This we know from the fact that in 1780 he sold a tract of two hundred
and forty acres of land for “five thousand pounds of current money of
Virginia;” a sum equal to about $17,000 at that date. This sale was
made, presumably, because the owner wished to move to Kentucky. He and
his family had for several generations back been friends of the Boones.
The spell the adventurous spirit of Daniel Boone cast over all his
friends, Abraham Lincoln felt; and in 1780, soon after selling his
Virginia estate, he visited Kentucky, and entered two large tracts of
land. Some months later he moved with his family from Virginia into
Kentucky.
Abraham Lincoln was ambitious to become a landed proprietor in the new
country, and he entered a generous amount of land—four hundred acres on
Long Run, in Jefferson County; eight hundred acres on Green River, near
Green River Lick; five hundred acres in Campbell County. He settled near
the first tract, where he undertook to clear a farm. It was a dangerous
task, for the Indians were still troublesome, and the settlers, for
protection, were forced to live in or near forts or stations. In 1784,
when John Filson published his “History of Kentucky,” though there was a
population of thirty thousand in the territory, there were but eighteen
houses outside of the stations. Of these stations, or stockades, there
were but fifty-two. According to the tradition in the Lincoln family,
Abraham Lincoln lived in one of these stockades.
[Illustration:
LONG RUN BAPTIST MEETING-HOUSE.
From the original drawing, owned by R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of
Louisville, Kentucky. This meeting-house was built on the land
Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the President, was clearing when
killed by Indians. It was erected about 1797.
]
All went well with him and his family until 1788. Then, one day, while
he and his three sons were at work in their clearing, an unexpected
Indian shot killed the father. His death was a terrible blow to the
family. The large tracts of land which he had entered were still wild,
and his personal property was necessarily small. The difficulty of
reaching the country at that date, as well as its wild condition, made
it impracticable for even a wealthy pioneer to own more stock or
household furniture than was absolutely essential. Abraham Lincoln was
probably as well provided with personal property as most of his
neighbors, and much better than many. He had, for a pioneer, an unusual
amount of stock, of farming implements, and of tools; and his cabin
contained comforts which were rare at that date. The inventory of his
estate, recently found at Bardstown, Kentucky, and here published for
the first time, gives a clearer idea of the life of the pioneer Lincoln,
and of the condition in which his wife and children were left, than any
description could do:
INVENTORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S ESTATE.[2]—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
“At the meeting of the Nelson County Court, October 10, 1788, present
Benjamin Pope, James Rogers, Gabriel Cox, and James Baird, on the motion
of John Coldwell, he was appointed administrator of the goods and
chattels of Abraham Lincoln, and gave bond in one thousand pounds, with
Richard Parker security.
Footnote 2:
We owe this interesting document to the courtesy of R. T. Durrett,
LL.D., of Louisville, Kentucky, a gentleman who for many years has
made a specialty of the pioneer history of his State, and through
whose energetic and intelligent researches most of the documents
concerning the pioneer Abraham Lincoln have been unearthed.
“At the same time John Alvary, Peter Syburt, Christopher Boston, and
William [John (?)] Stuck, or any three of them, were appointed
appraisers.
“March 10, 1789, the appraisers made the following return:
£. _s._ _d._
1 Sorrel horse 8
1 Black horse 9 10
1 Red cow and calf 4 10
1 Brindle cow and calf 4 10
1 Red cow and calf 5
1 Brindle bull yearling 1
1 Brindle heifer yearling 1
Bar spear-plough and tackling 2 5
3 Weeding hoes 7 6
Flax wheel 6
Pair smoothing-irons 15
1 Dozen pewter plates 1 10
2 Pewter dishes 17 6
Dutch oven and cule, weighing 15 pounds 15
Small iron kettle and cule, weighing 12 pounds 12
Tool adds 10
Handsaw 5
One-inch auger 6
Three-quarter auger 4 6
Half-inch auger 3
Drawing-knife 3
Currying-knife 10
Currier’s knife and barking-iron 6
Old smooth-bar gun 10
Rifle gun 55
Rifle gun 3 10
2 Pott trammels 14
1 Feather bed and furniture 5 10
Ditto 8 5
1 Bed and turkey feathers and furniture 1 10
Steeking-iron 1 6
Candle-stick 1 6
One axe 9
——— —————— —————
£68 16_s._ 6_d._
PETER SYBURT,
CHRISTOPHER BOSTON,
JOHN STUCK.”
[Illustration:
THE REV. JESSE HEAD.
From an original drawing in the possession of R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of
Louisville, Kentucky. The Rev. Jesse Head was a Methodist preacher
of Washington County, Kentucky, who married Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks. Christopher Columbus Graham, who was at the wedding, and who
knew Mr. Head well, says: “Jesse Head, the good Methodist preacher
who married them, was also a carpenter or cabinet-maker by trade,
and, as he was then a neighbor, they were good friends. He had a
quarrel with the bishops, and was an itinerant for several years,
but an editor and county judge afterwards in Harrodsburg.... The
preacher, Jesse Head, often talked to me on religion and politics,
for I always liked the Methodists. I have thought it might have been
as much from his free-spoken opinions as from Henry Clay’s
American-African colonization scheme, in 1817, that I lost a likely
negro man, who was leader of my musicians.... But Jesse Head never
encouraged any runaway, nor had any ‘underground railroad.’ He only
talked freely and boldly, and had plenty of true Southern men with
him, such as Clay.”—See Appendix.
]
Soon after the death of Abraham Lincoln, his widow moved from Jefferson
County to Washington County. The eldest son, Mordecai, who inherited
nearly all of the large estate, became a well-to-do and popular citizen.
The deed-book of Washington County still contains a number of records of
lands bought and sold by him. At one time he was sheriff of his county,
and, again, its representative in the legislature of the State. Mordecai
Lincoln is remembered especially for his sporting tastes and his bitter
hatred of the Indians. General U. F. Linder of Illinois, who, as a boy,
lived near Mordecai Lincoln in Kentucky, says: “I knew him from my
boyhood, and he was naturally a man of considerable genius; he was a man
of great drollery, and it would almost make you laugh to look at him. I
never saw but one other man whose quiet, droll laugh excited in me the
same disposition to laugh, and that was Artemus Ward. He was quite a
story-teller. He was an honest man, as tender-hearted as a woman, and,
to the last degree, charitable and benevolent.
“Lincoln had a very high opinion of his uncle, and on one occasion said
to me: ‘Linder, I have often said that Uncle Mord had run off with all
the talents of the family.’
“Old Mord, as we sometimes called him, had been in his younger days a
very stout man, and was quite fond of playing a game of fisticuffs with
any one who was noted as a champion. His sons and daughters were not
talented like the old man, but were very sensible people, noted for
their honesty and kindness of heart.” Mordecai remained in Kentucky
until late in life, when he removed to Hancock County, Illinois.
[Illustration:
MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN.
From a tracing of the original, made by Henry Whitney Cleveland.
]
Of Josiah, the second son, we know very little more than that the
records show that he owned and sold land. He left Kentucky when a young
man, to settle on the Blue River, in Harrison County, Indiana, and there
he died. The two daughters married into well-known Kentucky families:
the elder, Mary, marrying Ralph Crume; the younger, Nancy, William
Brumfield.
[Illustration:
MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS.—HITHERTO
UNPUBLISHED.
From the original, in the possession of Henry Whitney Cleveland of
Louisville, Kentucky. This interesting document, discovered by Mr.
Cleveland, and published for the first time in this biography,
completes the list of documentary evidence of the marriage of Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. The bond given by Thomas Lincoln and the
returns of Jesse Head, the officiating clergyman, were discovered
some years ago, but the marriage certificate was unknown until
recently discovered by Mr. Cleveland.
]
THOMAS LINCOLN’S BOYHOOD AND YOUNG MANHOOD.
The death of Abraham Lincoln was saddest for the youngest of the
children, a lad of ten years at the time, named Thomas, for it turned
him adrift to become a “wandering laboring-boy” before he had learned
even to read. Thomas seems not to have inherited any of the father’s
estate, and from the first to have been obliged to shift for himself.
For several years he supported himself by rough farm work of all kinds,
learning, in the meantime, the trade of carpenter and cabinet-maker.
According to one of his acquaintances, “Tom had the best set of tools in
what was then and now Washington County,” and was “a good carpenter for
those days, when a cabin was built mainly with the axe, and not a nail
or bolt-hinge in it; only leathers and pins to the door, and no glass,
except in watches and spectacles and bottles.”[3] Although a skilful
craftsman for his day, he never became a thrifty or ambitious man. “He
would work energetically enough when a job was brought to him, but he
would never seek a job.” But if Thomas Lincoln plied his trade
spasmodically, he shared the pioneer’s love for land, for when but
twenty-five years old, and still without the responsibility of a family,
he bought a farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. None of his biographers
have ever called attention to this fact, if they knew it. A search made
for this work in the records of Hardin County first revealed it to us,
and we cannot but regard it as of importance, proving as it does that
Thomas Lincoln was not the shiftless man he has hitherto been pictured.
Certainly he must have been above the grade of the ordinary country boy,
to have had the energy and ambition to learn a trade and secure a farm
through his own efforts by the time he was twenty-five. He was
illiterate, never doing more “in the way of writing than to bunglingly
write his own name.” Nevertheless, he had the reputation in the country
of being good-natured and obliging, and possessing what his neighbors
called “good strong horse-sense.” Although he was “a very quiet sort of
man,” he was known to be determined in his opinions, and quite competent
to defend his rights by force if they were too flagrantly violated. He
was a moral man, and, in the crude way of the pioneer, religious.
Footnote 3:
Christopher Columbus Graham, as reported by H. W. Cleveland of
Louisville, Ky., in an interview in 1884, in Mr. Graham’s hundredth
year, and never before published.
[Illustration:
RETURN OF MARRIAGE OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS.
From a tracing of the original, made by Henry Whitney Cleveland. This
certificate was discovered about 1885 by W. F. Booker, Esq., Clerk
of Washington County, Kentucky.
]
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN FEBRUARY, 1860, AT THE TIME OF THE COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH.
From a photograph by Brady. The debate with Douglas in 1858 gave
Lincoln a national reputation, and the following year he received
many invitations to lecture. One came from a young men’s Republican
club in New York,—which was offering a series of lectures designed
for an audience of men and women of the class apt to neglect
ordinary political meetings. Lincoln consented, and in February,
1860 (about three months before his nomination for the Presidency),
delivered what is known, from the hall in which it was delivered, as
the “Cooper Institute speech”—a speech which more than confirmed his
reputation. While in New York he was taken by the committee of
entertainment to Brady’s gallery, and sat for the portrait
reproduced above. It was a frequent remark with Lincoln that this
portrait and the Cooper Institute speech made him President.
]
[Illustration:
From a photograph by Klauber of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Graham, born
in 1784, lived until 1885, and was the only man of our generation
who could be called a contemporary of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks. Long before the documentary evidence of their marriage was
found, Mr. Graham gave his reminiscences of that event. Recent
discoveries made in the public records of Kentucky regarding the
Lincolns, bear out in every particular his recollections. He is, in
fact, the most important witness we have as to the character of the
parents of President Lincoln and their condition in life. The
accuracy of his memory and the trustworthiness of his character are
affirmed by the leading citizens of Louisville, Kentucky, of which
city he was a resident. In the Appendix will be found a full
statement by Mr. Graham of what he knew of Thomas Lincoln and his
life.
]
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF A PASSAGE FROM LINCOLN’S EXERCISE-BOOK.
]
[Illustration:
HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS BORN.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
Thomas Lincoln moved into this cabin on the Big South Fork of Nolin
Creek, three miles from Hodgensville, in La Rue County, Kentucky, in
1808; and here, on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. In
1813 the Lincolns removed to Knob Creek. The Nolin Creek farm has
been known as the “Creal Farm” for many years; recently it was
bought by New York people. The cabin was long ago torn down, but the
logs were saved. The new owners, in August, 1895, rebuilt the old
cabin on the original site. This, the first and only picture which
has been taken of it, was made for this biography.
]
Thomas Lincoln learned his trade as carpenter in Elizabethtown, in the
shop of one Joseph Hanks. There he met a niece of his employer, Nancy
Hanks, whom, when he was twenty-eight years old, he married. Nancy Hanks
was, like her husband, a Virginian. Her experience in life had, too,
been similar to her husband’s, for the Hanks family had been drawn into
Kentucky by the fascination of Boone, as had the Lincolns. But it was
only in her surroundings and her family that Nancy Hanks was like Thomas
Lincoln. In nature, in education, and in ambition she was, if tradition
is to be believed, quite another person. Certainly a fair and delicate
woman, who could read and write, who had ideas of refinement, and a
desire to get more from life than fortune had allotted her, was hardly
enough like Thomas Lincoln to be very happy with him. She was still more
unfit to be his wife because of a sensitive nature which made her brood
over her situation—a situation made the more hopeless by the fact that
she had neither the force of character nor strength of body to do
anything to improve it; if, indeed, she had any clear notion of what it
lacked. Hers was that pitiful condition where one feels with vague
restlessness that life has something better than one has found,
something not seen or understood, but without which life will never be
complete.
[Illustration:
THOMAS LINCOLN’S BIBLE.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From the original, in the collection of O. H. Oldroyd, Washington, D.
C. It is not known when or how Thomas Lincoln obtained this Bible.
After his death it passed to his step-children, the Johnstons, and
was sold by them to the “Lincoln Log Cabin Company,” to be exhibited
at the World’s Fair. It was purchased from this company for the
Oldroyd collection. The family record, reproduced on pages 58 and
59, belongs to this Bible. It was taken out and sold to Mr. C. F.
Gunther before the Bible was sold to Mr. Oldroyd.
]
[Illustration:
VIEW OF ROCK SPRING FARM, WHERE PRESIDENT LINCOLN WAS BORN.
From a photograph taken in September, 1895, for this biography. The
house in which Lincoln was born is seen to the right, in the
background. Rock Spring is in a hollow, under a clump of trees, in
the left centre of the picture.
]
[Illustration:
ROCK SPRING ON THE FARM WHERE LINCOLN WAS BORN.
From a photograph taken in September, 1895, for this biography. The
spring is in a hollow at the foot of the gentle slope on the top of
which the house stands.
]
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were married near Beechland, in Washington
County, Kentucky, on June 12, 1806. The wedding was celebrated in the
boisterous style of one hundred years ago, and was followed by an
infare, given by the bride’s guardian. To this celebration came all the
neighbors, and, according to that entertaining Kentucky centenarian, Dr.
Christopher Columbus Graham, even those who happened in the neighborhood
were made welcome. He tells how he heard of the wedding while “out
hunting for roots,” and went “just to get a good supper.” “I saw Nancy
Hanks Lincoln at her wedding,” continues Mr. Graham, “a fresh-looking
girl, I should say over twenty. I was at the infare, too, given by John
H. Parrott, her guardian—and only girls with money had guardians
appointed by the court. We had bear-meat; ... venison; wild turkey and
ducks; eggs, wild and tame, so common that you could buy them at two
bits a bushel; maple sugar, swung on a string, to bite off for coffee or
whiskey; syrup in big gourds; peach-and-honey; a sheep that the two
families barbecued whole over coals of wood burned in a pit, and covered
with green boughs to keep the juices in; and a race for the whiskey
bottle.”
After his marriage Thomas Lincoln settled in Elizabethtown. His home was
a log cabin, but at that date few people in the State had anything else.
Kentucky had been in the Union only fourteen years. When admitted, the
few brick structures within its boundaries were easily counted, and
there were only log schoolhouses and churches. Fourteen years had
brought great improvements, but the majority of the population still
lived in log cabins, so that the home of Thomas Lincoln was as good as
those of most of his neighbors. Little is known of his position in
Elizabethtown, though we have proof that he had credit in the community,
for the descendants of two of the early storekeepers of the place still
remember seeing on their grandfathers’ account books sundry items
charged to T. Lincoln. Tools and groceries were the chief purchases he
made, though on one of the ledgers a pair of “silk suspenders,” worth
one dollar and fifty cents, was entered. He not only enjoyed a certain
credit with the merchants of Elizabethtown; he was sufficiently
respected by the public authorities to be appointed in 1816 a road
surveyor, or, as the office is known in some localities, supervisor. It
was not, to be sure, a position of great importance, but it proves that
he was considered fit to oversee a body of men at a task of considerable
value to the community. Indeed, all of the documents which we have been
able to discover, mentioning Thomas Lincoln, show him to have had a much
better position in Hardin County than he has been credited with.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1858.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
After a faded ambrotype of Mr. Lincoln, now in the Lincoln Monument
collection at Springfield, Illinois. All that is known of it is that
it was taken at Beardstown in 1858. Mr. Lincoln wore a linen coat on
the occasion. The picture is regarded as a good likeness of him as
he appeared during the Lincoln Douglas campaign.
]
[Illustration:
APPOINTMENT OF THOMAS LINCOLN AS ROAD SURVEYOR.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a tracing made by Henry Whitney Cleveland. The original of this
document is in the records of Hardin County, at Elizabethtown,
Kentucky. It has hitherto been entirely overlooked by the
biographers of Lincoln, and was discovered in the course of a search
for documents instituted for this work. The appointment was made on
May 13, 1816, only a few months before the Lincolns moved to
Indiana. It shows that Thomas Lincoln had a standing in the
community, which his biographers have always ignored. The
appointment, if modest, would not have been made, we have a right to
believe, if Lincoln had been the “easy-going” and idle fellow he has
been asserted to be.
]
CHAPTER II.
THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—HIS EARLY EDUCATION AND FRIENDS.
It was at Elizabethtown that the first child of the Lincolns was born, a
daughter. Soon after this event Thomas Lincoln decided to combine
farming with his trade, and moved to the farm he had bought in 1803 on
the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in Hardin County, now La Rue County,
three miles from Hodgensville, and about fourteen miles from
Elizabethtown. Here he was living when, on February 12, 1809, his second
child, a boy, was born. The little new-comer was called Abraham, after
his grandfather—a name which had persisted through many preceding
generations of the Lincolns.
The home into which the child came was the ordinary one of the poorer
Western pioneer—a one-roomed cabin with a huge outside chimney, no
windows, and only a rude door. The descriptions of its squalor and
wretchedness, which are so familiar, have been overdrawn. Dr. Graham,
than whom there is no better authority on the life of that day, and who
knew Thomas Lincoln well, declares:
“It is all stuff about Tom Lincoln keeping his wife in an open shed in a
winter when the wild animals left the woods and stood in the corners
next the stick-and-clay chimneys, so as not to freeze to death; or, if
climbers, got on the roof. The Lincolns had a cow and calf, milk and
butter, a good feather bed,—for I have slept in it, while they took the
buffalo-robes on the floor, because I was a doctor. They had home-woven
‘kiverlids,’ big and little pots, a loom and wheel; and William
Hardesty, who was there too, can say with me that Tom Lincoln was a man,
and took care of his wife.”
[Illustration:
DEED OF SALE SIGNED BY THOMAS LINCOLN AND WIFE.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
The Book of Deeds in Hardin County, Kentucky, shows that in 1803,
three years before his marriage, Thomas Lincoln bought a farm in
Hardin County. The same records contain a deed of the sale in 1814
of this same farm, it is supposed, signed by Thomas Lincoln. The
deed is evidently written and signed by one person. Nancy Lincoln
affixes her mark. This is not proof that she could not write; it not
infrequently happens that people in remote country districts make a
mark rather than labor with a pen, to which they are unaccustomed.
All accounts of Nancy Lincoln agree that she was well educated for
her day.
]
The Lincoln home was undoubtedly rude, and in many ways uncomfortable,
but it sheltered a happy family, and its poverty affected the new child
but little. He was robust and active; and life is full of interest to
the child fortunate enough to be born in the country. He had several
companions. There was his sister Nancy, or Sarah—both names are given
her—two years his senior; there was a cousin of his mother’s, ten years
older, Dennis Hanks, an active and ingenious leader in sports and
mischief; and there were the neighbors’ boys. One of the latter, Austin
Gollaher, still tells with pleasure of how he played with young Lincoln
in the shavings of his father’s carpenter shop, of how he hunted coons
and ran the woods with him, and once even saved his life.
[Illustration:
A KENTUCKY HAND-MILL.
From a photograph of the original, owned by R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of
Louisville, Kentucky. This mill was formerly the property of Joseph
Brooks, a prominent pioneer of Kentucky. Similar ones were used by
all Western pioneers.
]
“Yes,” said Mr. Gollaher, “the story that I once saved Abraham Lincoln’s
life is true, but it is not correct as generally related.
“Abraham Lincoln and I had been going to school together for a year or
more, and had become greatly attached to each other. Then school
disbanded on account of there being so few scholars, and we did not see
each other much for a long while. One Sunday my mother visited the
Lincolns, and I was taken along. Abe and I played around all day.
Finally, we concluded to cross the creek to hunt for some partridges
young Lincoln had seen the day before. The creek was swollen by a recent
rain, and, in crossing on the narrow footlog, Abe fell in. Neither of us
could swim. I got a long pole and held it out to Abe, who grabbed it.
Then I pulled him ashore. He was almost dead, and I was badly scared. I
rolled and pounded him in good earnest. Then I got him by the arms and
shook him, the water meanwhile pouring out of his mouth. By this means I
succeeded in bringing him to, and he was soon all right.
[Illustration:
MAP SHOWING POINTS OF INTEREST IN LINCOLN’S LIFE.—MADE SPECIALLY FOR
THIS BIOGRAPHY.
The above map shows where Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather first took
land in Kentucky, where his father and mother were married, where
they first lived, where he was born, and where he lived from 1809 to
1816. It shows the Rolling Fork, Salt River, and the Ohio, which
Thomas Lincoln followed in going into Indiana in 1816; the new home
in Indiana; the point where Lincoln kept the ferry about 1826;
Boonville, where he went to hear trials; the grave of his mother;
the route by which it is supposed he went to Illinois in 1830 (see
page 87 for note correcting this route); the location of both of
Thomas Lincoln’s farms in Illinois, and his grave, near Farmington,
Coles County. Sangamon, New Salem, Vandalia, Springfield, and the
chief places where Mr. Lincoln practised law are shown, as well as
the points where the Lincoln and Douglas debates and the important
political events of the campaign of 1860 took place.
]
“Then a new difficulty confronted us. If our mothers discovered our wet
clothes they would whip us. This we dreaded from experience, and
determined to avoid. It was June, the sun was very warm, and we soon
dried our clothing by spreading it on the rocks about us. We promised
never to tell the story, and I never did until after Lincoln’s tragic
end.
“Abraham Lincoln had a sister. Her name was Sallie, and she was a very
pretty girl. Sallie Lincoln was about my age; she was my sweetheart. I
loved her and claimed her, as boys do. I suppose that was one reason for
my warm regard for Abe. When the Lincoln family moved to Indiana, I was
prevented by circumstances from bidding good-by to either of the
children, and I never saw them again.”[4]
Footnote 4:
Unpublished MS. of an interview with Austin Gollaher, by D. J. Thomas.
[Illustration:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S INDIANA HOME.
After an old photograph showing the cabin as it appeared in 1869.
Thomas Lincoln built this house in 1817, and moved into it about a
year after he reached his farm. At first it had neither windows,
door, nor floor; but after the advent of Sally Bush Lincoln it was
greatly improved. When he decided to leave Indiana he was preparing
the lumber for a better house.
]
All the young people went to school. At that day the schools in the West
were usually accidental, depending upon the coming of some poor and
ambitious young man who was willing to teach a few terms while he looked
for an opening to something better. The terms were irregular, their
length being decided by the time the settlers felt able to board the
master and pay his small salary. The chief qualification for a
school-master seems to have been enough strength to keep the “big boys”
in order, though one high authority affirms that pluck went “for a heap
sight more’n sinnoo with boys.”
[Illustration:
LINCOLN FARM IN INDIANA.
From a photograph taken for this biography. Present appearance of the
quarter section of government land in Spencer County, Indiana,
entered by Thomas Lincoln, October 15, 1817, view looking east.
Thomas Lincoln selected this tract in 1816, and, to identify it, he
blazed the trees, and piled up brush at the corners to establish
boundary lines. When he returned with his family he was obliged to
cut his way to the spot chosen for his cabin, and to fell trees to
find space for the “half-face camp” in which he first lived. This
land was entered under the old credit system. Later Mr. Lincoln gave
up to the United States the east half, and the amount paid on it was
passed to his credit to complete paying for the west half. The
patent issued for the latter tract was dated June 6, 1827.
]
Many of the itinerant masters were Catholics—strolling Irishmen from the
colony in Tennessee, or French priests from Kaskaskia. Lincoln’s first
teacher, Zachariah Riney, was a Catholic. Of his second teacher, Caleb
Hazel, we know even less than of Riney. Mr. Gollaher says that Abraham
Lincoln, in those days when he was his schoolmate, was “an unusually
bright boy at school, and made splendid progress in his studies. Indeed,
he learned faster than any of his schoolmates. Though so young, he
studied very hard. He would get spice-wood brushes, hack them up on a
log, and burn them two or three together, for the purpose of giving
light by which he might pursue his studies.”
Probably the boy’s mother had something to do with the spice-wood
illuminations. Tradition has it that Mrs. Lincoln took great pains to
teach her children what she knew, and that at her knee they heard all
the Bible lore, fairy tales, and country legends that she had been able
to gather in her poor life.
Besides the “A B C schools,” as Lincoln called them, the only other
medium of education in the country districts of Kentucky in those days
was “preaching.” Itinerants like the schoolmasters, the preachers, of
whatever denomination, were generally uncouth and illiterate; the code
of morals they taught was mainly a healthy one, and they, no doubt, did
much to keep the consciences of the pioneers awake. It is difficult to
believe that they ever did much for the moral training of young Lincoln,
though he certainly got his first notion of public speaking from them;
and for years in his boyhood one of his chief delights was to get his
playmates about him, and preach and thump until he had his auditors
frightened or in tears.
[Illustration:
GRAVE OF NANCY HANKS LINCOLN.
From a photograph loaned by W. W. Admire. The grave of Abraham
Lincoln’s mother is on a wooded knoll about half a mile southeast of
the site of her Indiana home. Near her are buried Thomas and Betsey
Sparrow, who followed the Lincolns to Indiana, and who died a few
days before Mrs. Lincoln, and of the same disease; and also Levi
Hall and his wife, who died several years later. There are two or
three other graves in the vicinity. Until 1879 the only mark about
the grave of Nancy Lincoln was the names of visitors to the spot,
cut in the bark of the trees which shaded it; then Mr. P. E.
Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana, erected the stone, and soon after
a fence was purchased by a few of the leading citizens of Rockport,
Indiana. The inscription on the stone runs: “Nancy Hanks Lincoln,
Mother of President Lincoln, died October 5, A.D., 1818. Aged
thirty-five years. Erected by a friend of her martyred son.”
]
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1857.
From a photograph loaned by H. W. Fay of De Kalb, Illinois. The
original was taken early in 1857 by Alexander Hesler of Chicago. Mr.
Fay writes of the picture: “I have a letter from Mr. Hesler stating
that one of the lawyers came in and made arrangements for the
sitting, so that the members of the bar could get prints. Lincoln
said at the time that he did not know why the boys wanted such a
homely face.” Mr. Joseph Medill of Chicago went with Mr. Lincoln to
have the picture taken. He says that the photographer insisted on
smoothing down Lincoln’s hair, but Lincoln did not like the result,
and ran his fingers through it before sitting. The original negative
was burned in the Chicago fire.
]
[Illustration:
MARRIAGE LICENSE OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND SARAH JOHNSTON.—NOW FIRST
PUBLISHED.
From a tracing made by Henry Whitney Cleveland.
]
CHAPTER III.
THE LINCOLNS LEAVE KENTUCKY.—THEY SETTLE IN SOUTHERN INDIANA—CONDITIONS
OF LIFE IN THEIR NEW HOME.
In 1816 a great event happened to the little boy. His father emigrated
to Indiana from Knob Creek (Thomas Lincoln had removed from the farm on
Nolin Creek to one some fifteen miles northeast, on Knob Creek, when
Abraham was four years old). “This removal was partly on account of
slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in
Kentucky,” says his son. It was due, as well, no doubt, to the
fascination which an unknown country has always for the adventurous, and
to that restless pioneer spirit which drives even men of sober judgment
continually towards the frontier, in search of a place where the
conflict with nature is less severe—some spot farther on, to which a
friend or a neighbor has preceded, and from which he sends back glowing
reports. It may be that Thomas Lincoln was tempted into Indiana by the
reports of his brother Josiah, who had settled on the Big Blue River in
that State. At all events, in the fall of 1816 he started with wife and
children and household stores to journey by horseback and by wagon from
Knob Creek to a farm selected on a previous trip he had made. This farm,
located near Little Pigeon Creek, about fifteen miles north of the Ohio
River, and a mile and a half east of Gentryville, Spencer County, was in
a forest so dense that the road for the travellers had to be hewed out
as they went.
[Illustration:
SARAH BUSH LINCOLN.
From a photograph in the possession of her granddaughter, Mrs. Harriet
Chapman of Charleston, Illinois. Sarah Bush was born in Kentucky,
December 13, 1788. She was a friend of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks, and it is said that Thomas Lincoln had been her suitor before
she married Daniel Johnston. Her husband died in October, 1818. In
November, 1819, Thomas Lincoln went to Kentucky to seek her a second
time in marriage. An incident of the courtship is told by Mr. J. L.
Nall, a cousin of President Lincoln: “Uncle Thomas came back to
Kentucky after the death of his first wife, Nancy Hanks, and
proposed marriage to the widow Johnston; she told him that she would
be perfectly willing to marry him, as she had known him a long time,
and felt that the marriage would be congenial and happy; but it
would be impossible for her even to think of marrying, and leaving
the State, as she was considerably in debt. Uncle Thomas told her
that need make no difference, as he had plenty of money, and would
take care of her financial affairs; and when he had ascertained the
amount of her indebtedness and the names of the parties to whom the
money was due, he went around and redeemed all her paper and
presented it to her, and told her, when she showed so much honor
about debts, he was more fully satisfied than ever that she would
make him a good wife. She said, as he had displayed so much
generosity in her behalf, she was willing then to marry and go with
him to Spencer County, Indiana.” Sarah Bush Lincoln changed the
character of the Lincoln home completely when she entered it, and
there is no question of the importance of her influence upon the
development of her step-son Abraham. She was a woman of great
natural dignity and kindliness, and highly esteemed by all who knew
her. She died on the 10th of December, 1869, at the old homestead in
Coles County, Illinois.
]
[Illustration:
THE MARRIAGE BOND GIVEN BY THOMAS LINCOLN AT HIS MARRIAGE WITH SARAH
JOHNSTON.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From a tracing made by Henry Whitney Cleveland.
]
[Illustration:
BUCKTHORN VALLEY, WHERE LINCOLN WORKED AND HUNTED.
After a photograph made for this biography. In this valley are located
nearly all the farms on which Lincoln worked in his boyhood,
including the famous Crawford place, where he and his sister Sarah
were both employed as “help.” Visitors to the locality have pointed
out to them numberless items associated with his early life—fields
he helped to clear and till, fences he built, houses he repaired,
wells he dug, paths he walked, playgrounds he frequented. Indeed,
the inhabitants of Buckthorn Valley take the greatest pride in
Lincoln’s connection with it.
]
To a boy of seven years, free from all responsibility, and too vigorous
to feel its hardships, such a journey must have been, as William Cooper
Howells, the father of the novelist, says of his own trip from Virginia
to Ohio, in 1813, “a panorama of delightful novelty.” Life suddenly
ceased its routine, and every day brought forth new scenes and
adventures. Little Abraham saw forests greater than he had ever dreamed
of, peopled by strange birds and beasts, and he crossed a river so wide
that it must have seemed to him like the sea. To Thomas and Nancy
Lincoln the journey was probably a hard and sad one; but to the children
beside them it was a wonderful voyage into the unknown.
A NEW HOME IN INDIANA.
On arriving at the new farm an axe was put into the boy’s hands, and he
was set to work to aid in clearing a field for corn, and to help build
the “half-face camp” which for a year was the home of the Lincolns.
There were few more primitive homes in the wilderness of Indiana in 1816
than this of young Lincoln’s, and there were few families, even in that
day, who were forced to practise more makeshifts to get a living. The
cabin which took the place of the “half-face camp” had but one room,
with a loft above. For a long time there was no window, door, or floor;
not even the traditional deer-skin hung before the exit; there was no
oiled paper over the opening for light; there was no puncheon covering
on the ground.
[Illustration:
THE OLD SWIMMING-HOLE.
A secluded part of Little Pigeon Creek, not far from Gentryville,
where Lincoln, Dennis Hanks, John Johnston, the Gentry boys, and
others of the neighborhood used to bathe. It is still pointed out as
“the place where Abe went in swimming.”
]
[Illustration:
BRICK-MOULD USED BY THOMAS LINCOLN.
From a photograph loaned by Jesse W. Weik.
]
The furniture was of their own manufacture. The table and chairs were of
the rudest sort—rough slabs of wood in which holes were bored and legs
fitted in. Their bedstead, or, rather, bed-frame, was made of poles held
up by two outer posts, and the ends made firm by inserting the poles in
auger-holes that had been bored in a log which was a part of the wall of
the cabin; skins were its chief covering. Little Abraham’s bed was even
more primitive. He slept on a heap of dry leaves in the corner of the
loft, to which he mounted by means of pegs driven into the wall.
[Illustration:
WELL DUG BY LINCOLN.
In a field near the Crawford house is a well which is pointed out to
sight-seers as one which Lincoln helped to dig. Many things about
the Crawford place—fences, corn-cribs, house, barn—were built in
part by Lincoln.
]
[Illustration:
HICKORY-BARK OX-MUZZLE.
After a drawing made from the original, in the collection of pioneer
articles in the United States National Museum, at Washington, D. C.
Hickory bark was used freely by the Western pioneers. From it and
from corn husks they were obliged, in fact, to make most of their
harness.
]
Their food, if coarse, was usually abundant; the chief difficulty in
supplying the larder was to secure any variety. Of game there was
plenty—deer, bear, pheasants, wild turkeys, ducks, birds of all kinds.
There were fish in the streams, and wild fruits of many kinds in the
woods in the summer, and these were dried for winter use; but the
difficulty of raising and milling corn and wheat was very great. Indeed,
in many places in the West the first flour cake was an historical
event.[5] Corn dodger was the every-day bread of the Lincoln household,
the wheat cake being a dainty reserved for Sunday mornings.
Footnote 5:
The first flour cake made in Louisville, Kentucky, was made in 1779.
The records of the city thus describe the event: “It is related that,
when the first patch of wheat was raised about this place, after being
ground in a rude and laborious hand-mill, it was sifted through a
gauze neckerchief, belonging to the mother of the gallant man who gave
us the information, as the best bolting-cloth to be had. It was then
shortened, as the housewife phrased it, with raccoon fat, and the
whole station invited to partake of a sumptuous feast upon a flour
cake.”—_History of the Ohio Falls Counties_, page 174.
[Illustration:
THE CRAWFORD HOUSE, WHERE LINCOLN WAS A FARM-HAND.
The house of Josiah Crawford, near Gentryville, Indiana. Here Lincoln
worked by the day for several months, while his sister was a “hired
girl” for Mrs. Crawford. In 1829 Lincoln cut down timber and
whip-sawed it into planks for a new house which his father proposed
to build; but Thomas Lincoln decided to go to Illinois before the
new house was begun, and Abraham sold his planks to Mr. Crawford,
who worked them into the southeast room of his house, where
relic-seekers have since cut them to pieces to make canes. This
picture is made after a photograph taken before the death of Mr. and
Mrs. Crawford, both of whom are shown here.
]
Potatoes were the only vegetables raised in any quantity, and there were
times in the Lincoln family when they were the only food on the table; a
fact proved to posterity by the oft-quoted remark of Abraham to his
father after the latter had asked a blessing over a dish of roasted
potatoes—that they were “mighty poor blessings.” Not only were they all
the Lincolns had for dinner sometimes; one of their neighbors tells of
calling there when raw potatoes, pared and washed, were passed around
instead of apples or other fruit.
[Illustration:
By permission, from Herndon and Weik’s “Life of Abraham Lincoln.”
Copyright 1892, by D. Appleton & Co.
LINCOLN FAMILY RECORD.
Written by Abraham Lincoln in his Father’s Bible. _From original in
possession of C. F. Gunther, Esq., Chicago._
]
The food was prepared in the rudest way, for the supply of both
groceries and cooking utensils was limited. The former were frequently
wanting entirely, and as for the latter, the most important item was the
Dutch oven. An indispensable article in the primitive kitchen outfit was
the “gritter.” It was made by flattening out an old piece of tin,
punching it full of holes, and nailing it to a board. Upon this all
sorts of things were grated, even ears of corn, in which slow way enough
meal was sometimes secured for bread. Old tin was used for many other
little contrivances besides the “gritter,” and every scrap was carefully
saved. Most of the dishes were of pewter; the spoons, iron; the knives
and forks, horn-handled.
The Lincolns of course made their own soap and candles, and if they had
cotton or wool to wear they had literally to grow it. One of the “old
settlers” of Illinois says of her experience in clothing her family:
“As for our clothes, we had to raise, pick, spin, and weave cotton
for winter and summer. We also made linsey of wool and flax. The
first indigo we had we raised. Besides that we used sumac berries,
white-walnut bark, and other barks for coloring.
[Illustration:
DENNIS HANKS.
From a photograph in the Libby Prison Museum of Chicago, by
permission of Mr. C. F. Gunther. Dennis Hanks, a cousin of Nancy
Hanks Lincoln, was born in Kentucky, in 1799, and was brought up
by his uncle Thomas Sparrow. The year after Thomas Lincoln moved
to Indiana, Thomas Sparrow followed him, but both he and his wife
died there in 1818. Dennis then became an inmate of the Lincoln
household. He afterwards married one of the daughters of Sally
Bush Lincoln. It was largely through his influence that the
Lincolns moved into Illinois in 1830. Dennis Hanks has been one of
the most prolific contributors to the early period of Mr.
Lincoln’s life, his letters to Mr. Herndon being full of curious
and valuable matter. He died in October, 1892. One of his
daughters, Mrs. Harriet Chapman, is still living at Charleston,
Illinois.
]
“Now for cotton picking. We children had to lie before the fire and
pick the seed from the cotton bolls before we could go to bed. The
warmer the cotton the better it picked; so we would take a good
sweat. The next day that had to be carded and spun; so some would
soap the cotton, some card, and some spin; and when we would get
enough spun and colored to make a dress apiece we would put it in
the loom and weave it. It did not take fifteen or twenty yards to
make a dress then; six or eight yards of linsey were enough for any
woman.”
It is probable that young Abraham Lincoln wore little cotton or
linsey-woolsey. His trousers were of roughly tanned deer-skin, his
foot-covering a home-made moccasin, his cap a coonskin; it was only the
material for his shirt or blouse which was woven at home. If this
costume had some obvious disadvantages, it was not to be despised. So
good an authority as Governor Reynolds says of one of its articles—the
linsey-woolsey shirt—“It was an excellent garment. I have never felt so
happy and healthy since I put it off.”
These “pretty pinching times,” as Abraham Lincoln once described the
early days in Indiana, lasted until 1819. The year before, Nancy Lincoln
had died, and for many months no more forlorn place could be conceived
than this pioneer home bereft of its guiding spirit; but finally Thomas
Lincoln went back to Kentucky and returned with a new wife—Sally Bush
Johnston, a widow with three children, John, Sarah, and Matilda. The new
mother came well provided with household furniture, bringing many things
unfamiliar to little Abraham—“one fine bureau, one table, one set of
chairs, one large clothes-chest, cooking utensils, knives, forks,
bedding, and other articles.” She was a woman of energy, thrift, and
gentleness, and at once made the cabin home-like, and taught the
children habits of cleanliness and comfort.
[Illustration:
MOUTH OF ANDERSON CREEK, WHERE LINCOLN KEPT THE FERRY-BOAT.
From a photograph taken for this biography. This ferry, at the mouth
of Anderson Creek, was first established and owned by James
McDaniel, and was afterwards kept by his son-in-law James Taylor. It
was the latter who hired Abraham Lincoln, about 1826, to attend the
ferry-boat. As the boat did not keep him busy all the time, he acted
as man-of-all-work around the farm. A son of James Taylor, Captain
Green B. Taylor of South Dakota, is still alive, and remembers
distinctly the months Lincoln spent in his father’s employ. Captain
Taylor says that Lincoln “slept up-stairs” with him, and used to
read “till near midnight.”
]
[Illustration:
JOSIAH CRAWFORD.
Among those whom Lincoln served in Indiana as “hired boy” was Josiah
Crawford, a well-to-do farmer living near Gentryville. Mr. Crawford
owned a copy of Weems’s “Life of Washington,” a precious book in
those days, and Lincoln borrowed it to read. “Late in the night,
before going to rest, he placed the borrowed book in his only
bookcase, the opening between two logs of the walls of the cabin,
and retired to dream of its contents. During the night it rained;
the water dripping over the ‘mud-daubing’ on to the book stained the
leaves and warped the binding. Abe valued the book in proportion to
the interest he had in the hero, and felt that the owner must value
it beyond his ability to pay. It was with the greatest trepidation
he took the book home and told the story, and asked how he might
hope to make restitution. Mr. Crawford answered: ‘Being as it is
you, Abe, I won’t be hard on you. Come over and shuck corn three
days, and the book is yours.’ Shuck corn three days and receive a
hero’s life! He felt that the owner was giving him a magnificent
present. After reading the book he used to tell the Crawfords: ‘I do
not always intend to delve, grub, shuck corn, split rails, and the
like.’ His whole mind was devoted to books, and he declared he ‘was
going to fit himself for a profession.’ These declarations were
often made to Mrs. Crawford, who took almost a mother’s interest in
him, and she would ask: ‘What do you want to be now?’ His answer was
invariably: ‘I’ll be President.’ As he was generally playing a joke
on some one, she would answer: ‘You’d make a purty President with
all your tricks and jokes. Now, wouldn’t you?’ He would then
declare: ‘Oh, I’ll study and get ready, and then the chance will
come.’”[6]
]
Footnote 6:
Unpublished MS. by A. Hoosier.
ABRAHAM BECOMES A LABORER.
Abraham was ten years old when his new mother came from Kentucky, and he
was already an important member of the family. He was remarkably strong
for his years, and the work he could do in a day was a decided advantage
to Thomas Lincoln. The axe which had been put into his hand to help in
making the first clearing, he had never been allowed to drop; indeed, as
he says himself, “from that till within his twenty-third year he was
almost constantly handling that most useful instrument.” Besides, he
drove the team, cut the elm and linn brush with which the stock was
often fed, learned to handle the old shovel-plough, to wield the sickle,
to thresh the wheat with a flail, to fan and clean it with a sheet, to
go to mill and turn the hard-earned grist into flour. In short, he
learned all the trades the settler’s boy must know, and so well that
when his father did not need him he could hire him to the neighbors.
Thomas Lincoln also taught him the rudiments of carpentry and
cabinet-making, and kept him busy much of the time as his assistant in
his trade. There are houses still standing, in and near Gentryville, on
which it is said he worked. The families of Lamar, Jones, Crawford,
Gentry, Turnham, and Richardson, all claim the honor of having employed
him upon their cabins.
[Illustration:
A MISSISSIPPI “BROAD-HORN.”
From a model in the exhibit of the United States National Museum at
the Atlanta Exposition of 1895. The flatboat which Abraham Lincoln
piloted to New Orleans was not, probably, as well built a boat as
the above model represents; but it was built on the same general
plan. The hold was enclosed to protect the produce, and on the deck
was a cabin in which the boatmen lived. In going down the river,
rough sails were sometimes rigged up on these broad-horns, though
they floated usually, directed by huge paddles. If the boat was
brought back, it was warped and poled by hand up the river. More
often, however, the boatmen sold both boat and cargo at New Orleans,
and came back by the steamers as deck passengers. Boats like the two
models on this page are still seen in great numbers on the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers.
]
[Illustration:
A RIVER PRODUCE BOAT.
From a model in the exhibit of the United States National Museum at
the Atlanta Exposition of 1895. The photograph of this model, and of
the one above, we owe to the courtesy of the director of the Museum,
Mr. G. Brown Goode.
]
As he grew older he became one of the strongest and most popular “hands”
in the vicinity, and much of his time was spent as a “hired boy” on some
neighbor’s farm. For twenty-five cents a day—paid to his father—he was
hostler, ploughman, wood-chopper, and carpenter, besides helping the
women with the “chores.” For them he was ready to carry water, make the
fire, even tend the baby. No wonder that a laborer who never refused to
do anything asked of him, who could “strike with a mall heavier blows”
and “sink an axe deeper into the wood” than anybody else in the
community, and who at the same time was general help for the women,
never lacked a job in Gentryville.
[Illustration:
JOSEPH GENTRY.
One of the few companions of Lincoln’s youth in Indiana, now living,
is Joseph Gentry. He resides on a farm one-fourth mile west from the
Lincoln farm, where he has lived about sixty years. When a boy he
lived in Gentryville—a town founded by the Gentrys. He was present
at the funeral of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and remembers hearing the
minister say it was through the efforts of the little son of the
dead woman that his services had been secured.
]
Of all the tasks his rude life brought him, none seems to have suited
him better than going to the mill. It was, perhaps, as much the leisure
enforced by this trip as anything else that attracted him. The machinery
was primitive, and each man waited his turn, which sometimes was long in
coming. A story is told by one of the pioneers of Illinois of going many
miles with a grist, and waiting so long for his turn that, when it came,
he and his horse had eaten all the corn, and he had none to grind. This
waiting with other men and boys on like errands gave an opportunity for
talk, story-telling, and games, which were Lincoln’s delight.
In 1826 he spent several months as a ferryman at the mouth of Anderson
Creek, where it joins the Ohio. This experience suggested new
possibilities to him. It was a custom among the farmers of Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois at this date to collect a quantity of produce, and
float down to New Orleans on a raft, to sell it. Young Lincoln saw this,
and wanted to try his fortune as a produce merchant. An incident of his
projected trip he related once to Mr. Seward:
“Seward,” he said, “did you ever hear how I earned my first dollar?”
“No,” said Mr. Seward.
[Illustration:
Carbon enlargement, made by Sherman & McHugh of New York City.
LINCOLN IN 1858.
From a photograph loaned by W. J. Franklin of Macomb, Illinois, and
taken in 1866 from an ambrotype made in 1858 in Macomb. This
portrait figures in the collection in the Lincoln Home at
Springfield, Illinois, and on the back of the photograph is the
following inscription: “This likeness of Abraham Lincoln is a
faithful copy of an original ambrotype, now in possession of James
K. Magie. It was taken August 25, 1858, by Mr. T. P. Pierson, at
Macomb, in this State, and is believed to be of anterior date to
any other likeness of Mr. Lincoln ever brought before the public.
Mr. Magie happened to remain over night at Macomb, at the same
hotel with Mr. Lincoln, and the next morning took a walk about
town, and upon Mr. Magie’s invitation they stepped into Mr.
Pierson’s establishment, and the ambrotype of which this is a copy
was the result. Mr. Lincoln, upon entering, looked at the camera
as though he was unfamiliar with such an instrument, and then
remarked: ‘Well, do you want to take a shot at me with that
thing?’ He was shown to a glass, where he was told to ‘fix up,’
but declined, saying it would not be much of a likeness if he
fixed up any. The old neighbors and acquaintances of Mr. Lincoln
in Illinois, upon seeing this picture, are apt to exclaim: ‘There!
that’s the best likeness of Mr. Lincoln that I ever saw!’ The
dress he wore in this picture is the same in which he made his
famous canvass with Senator Douglas.” This inscription was written
by J. C. Power, now dead, but for many years custodian of the
Lincoln monument in Springfield.
]
“Well,” replied he, “I was about eighteen years of age, and
belonged, as you know, to what they call down South the ‘scrubs;’
people who do not own land and slaves are nobody there; but we had
succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I
thought, to justify me in taking it down the river to sell. After
much persuasion I had got the consent of my mother to go, and had
constructed a flatboat large enough to take the few barrels of
things we had gathered to New Orleans. A steamer was going down the
river. We have, you know, no wharves on the Western streams, and the
custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings, they were to
go out in a boat, the steamer stopping, and taking them on board. I
was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it
stronger or improve it in any part, when two men with trunks came
down to the shore in carriages, and looking at the different boats,
singled out mine, and asked, ‘Who owns this?’ I answered modestly,
‘I do.’ ‘Will you,’ said one of them, ‘take us and our trunks out to
the steamer?’ ‘Certainly,’ said I. I was very glad to have the
chance of earning something, and supposed that each of them would
give me a couple of bits. The trunks were put in my boat, the
passengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the
steamer. They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on
the deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called
out, ‘You have forgotten to pay me.’ Each of them took from his
pocket a silver half-dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat. I
could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. You may
think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me
like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I
could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in
less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a
more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.”
[Illustration:
SAMUEL CRAWFORD.
Only living son of Josiah Crawford, who lent Lincoln the Weems’s “Life
of Washington.” To our representative in Indiana, who secured this
picture of Mr. Crawford, he said, when asked if he remembered the
Lincolns: “Oh, yes; I remember them, although I was not Abraham’s
age. He was twelve years older than I. One day I ran in, calling
out, ‘Mother! mother! Aaron Grigsby is sparking Sally Lincoln; I saw
him kiss her!’ Mother scolded me, and told me I must stop watching
Sally, or I wouldn’t get to the wedding. [It will be remembered that
Sally Lincoln was ‘help’ in the Crawford family, and that she
afterwards married Aaron Grigsby.] Neighbors thought lots more of
each other then than now, and it seems like everybody liked the
Lincolns. We were well acquainted, for Mr. Thomas Lincoln was a good
carpenter, and made the cupboard, mantels, doors, and sashes in our
old home that was burned down.”
]
Soon after this, while he was working for Mr. Gentry, the leading
citizen of Gentryville, his employer decided to send a load of produce
to New Orleans, and chose young Lincoln to go as “bow-hand,” “to work
the front oars.” For this trip he received eight dollars a month and his
passage back.
[Illustration:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
After a photograph in the collection of Mr. J. C. Browne of
Philadelphia.
]
[Illustration:
MISSISSIPPI RIVER FLATBOAT.
]
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY EDUCATION.—BOOKS ABRAHAM READ.—THE JONES GROCERY STORE.—LIFE ON
THE RIVER.
With all his hard living and hard work, Lincoln was getting, in this
period, a desultory kind of education. Not that he received much
schooling. He went to school “by littles,” he says; “in all it did not
amount to more than a year.” And, if we accept his own description of
the teachers, it was, perhaps, just as well that it was only “by
littles.” “No qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond
‘readin’, writin’, and cipherin’ to the rule of three.’ If a straggler
supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he
was looked upon as a wizard.” But more or less of the schoolroom is a
matter of small importance if a boy has learned to read, and to think of
what he reads. And that, this boy had learned. His stock of books was
small, but he knew them thoroughly, and they were good books to know:
the Bible, “Æsop’s Fables,” “Robinson Crusoe,” Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s
Progress,” a “History of the United States,” Weems’s “Life of
Washington,” and the “Statutes of Indiana.” These are the chief ones we
know about. He did not own them all, but sometimes had to borrow them
from the neighbors: a practice which resulted in at least one casualty,
for Weems’s “Life of Washington” he allowed to get wet, and to make good
the loss he had to pull fodder three days. No matter. The book became
his then, and he could read it as he would. Fortunately he took this
curious work in profound seriousness, which a wide-awake boy would
hardly be expected to do to-day. Washington became an exalted figure in
his imagination; and he always contended later, when the question of the
real character of the first President was brought up, that it was wiser
to regard him as a godlike being, heroic in nature and deeds, as Weems
did, than to contend that he was only a man who, if wise and good, still
made mistakes and indulged in follies, like other men.
In 1861, addressing the Senate of the State of New Jersey, he said:
“May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away back
in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got
hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have
ever seen—Weems’s ‘Life of Washington.’ I remember all the accounts
there given of the battlefields and struggles for the liberties of
the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply
as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the
river, the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships endured at
that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any single
Revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys,
how these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect
thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been
something more than common that these men struggled for.”
Besides these books he borrowed many. He once told a friend that he
“read through every book he had ever heard of in that country, for a
circuit of fifty miles.” From everything he read he made long extracts,
using a turkey-buzzard pen and brier-root ink. When he had no paper he
would write on a board, and thus preserve his selections until he
secured a copy-book. The wooden fire-shovel was his usual slate, and on
its back he ciphered with a charred stick, shaving it off when covered.
The logs and boards in his vicinity he filled with his figures and
quotations. By night he read and worked as long as there was light, and
he kept a book in the crack of the logs in his loft, to have it at hand
at peep of day. When acting as ferryman, in his nineteenth year,
anxious, no doubt, to get through the books of the house where he
boarded, before he left the place, he read every night “till
midnight.”[7]
Footnote 7:
The first authorized sketch of Lincoln’s life was written by the late
John L. Scripps of the Chicago “Tribune,” who went to Springfield at
Mr. Lincoln’s request, and by him was furnished the data for a
campaign biography. In a letter written to Mr. Herndon after the death
of Lincoln, which Herndon turned over to me, Scripps relates that in
writing his book he stated that Lincoln as a youth read Plutarch’s
“Lives.” This he did simply because, as a rule, almost every boy in
the West in the early days did read Plutarch. When the advance sheets
of the book reached Mr. Lincoln, he sent for the author and said,
gravely: “That paragraph wherein you state that I read Plutarch’s
‘Lives’ was not true when you wrote it, for up to that moment in my
life I had never seen that early contribution to human history; but I
want your book, even if it is nothing more than a campaign sketch, to
be faithful to the facts; and in order that that statement might be
literally true, I secured the book a few days ago, and have sent for
you to tell you I have just read it through.”—JESSE W. WEIK.
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1894 by D. Appleton & Co., publishers of Herndon’s “Life of
Lincoln,” and reproduced by special permission.
JOHN HANKS.
The son of Joseph Hanks, with whom Thomas Lincoln learned the
carpenter’s trade, and a cousin of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. John Hanks
lived with Thomas Lincoln in Indiana, from about 1823 to 1827, then
returned to Kentucky, and from there emigrated to Illinois. It was
largely through his influence that Thomas Lincoln and Dennis Hanks
went to the Sangamon country in 1830. When Mr. Lincoln first left
home he and John Hanks worked together. In 1831 they made a trip to
New Orleans on a flatboat. It was John Hanks who, in 1860,
accompanied Governor Oglesby to the old Lincoln farm in Macon
County, to select the rails Lincoln had split, and it was he who
carried them into the convention of the Republican party of
Illinois, which nominated Lincoln as its candidate. John Hanks was
an illiterate man, being able neither to read nor write; but he was
honest and kindly, and his reminiscences of Mr. Lincoln’s early
life, gathered by Mr. Herndon and others, are regarded by all who
knew him as trustworthy. After Mr. Lincoln’s election to the
Presidency, he desired an Indian agency; but his lack of even a
rudimentary education made it impossible to give it to him.
]
Every lull in his daily labor he used for reading, rarely going to his
work without a book. When ploughing or cultivating the rough fields of
Spencer County, he found frequently a half hour for reading. At the end
of every long row the horse was allowed to rest, and Lincoln had his
book out, and was perched on stump or fence, almost as soon as the
plough had come to a standstill. One of the few people still left in
Gentryville who remembers Lincoln, Captain John Lamar, tells to this day
of riding to mill with his father, and seeing, as they drove along, a
boy sitting on the top rail of an old-fashioned stake-and-rider worm
fence, reading so intently that he did not notice their approach. His
father, turning to him, said: “John, look at that boy yonder, and mark
my words, he will make a smart man out of himself. I may not see it, but
you’ll see if my words don’t come true.” “That boy was Abraham Lincoln,”
adds Mr. Lamar, impressively.
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1894, by D Appleton & Co., publishers of Herndon’s “Life of
Lincoln,” and reproduced by special permission.
JUDGE JOHN PITCHER.
A lawyer of Rockport, Indiana, at the time the Lincolns lived near
Gentryville. An essay of Mr. Lincoln’s, composed when he was about
nineteen, was submitted to Mr. Pitcher, who declared the “world
couldn’t beat it;” and he seems to have taken a kindly interest in
the author from that time forward, lending him books freely from his
law office. Mr. Pitcher was still living in 1889, in Mt. Vernon,
Indiana, having reached the age of ninety-three years. His
reminiscences of the boyhood of Lincoln are embodied in Herndon’s
“Life.”
]
In his habits of reading and study the boy had little encouragement from
his father, but his step-mother did all she could for him. Indeed,
between the two there soon grew up a relation of touching gentleness and
confidence. In one of the interviews a biographer of Mr. Lincoln sought
with her before her death, Mrs. Lincoln said:
“I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study at home, as well
as at school. At first he was not easily reconciled to it, but finally
he too seemed willing to encourage him to a certain extent. Abe was a
dutiful son to me always, and we took particular care when he was
reading not to disturb him—would let him read on and on till he quit of
his own accord.”
This consideration of his step-mother won the boy’s confidence, and he
rarely copied anything that he did not take it to her to read, asking
her opinion of it; and often, when she did not understand it, explaining
the meaning in his plain and simple language.
No newspaper ever escaped him. One man in Gentryville, Mr. Jones, the
storekeeper, took a Louisville paper, and here Lincoln went regularly to
read and discuss its contents. All the men and boys of the neighborhood
gathered there, and everything which the paper related was subjected to
their keen, shrewd common-sense. It was not long before young Lincoln
became the favorite member of the group, the one listened to most
respectfully. Politics were warmly discussed by these Gentryville
citizens, and it may be that sitting on the counter of Jones’s grocery
Lincoln even argued on slavery. It certainly was one of the live
questions in Indiana at that date.
[Illustration:
CORN-HUSK COLLAR.
Drawn from the original, in the United States National Museum, at
Washington, D.C. These collars were used in Indiana and Illinois in
Lincoln’s day.
]
For several years after the organization of the Territory, and in spite
of the Ordinance of 1787, a system of thinly disguised slavery had
existed; and it took a sharp struggle to bring the State in without some
form of the institution. So uncertain was the result that, when decided,
the word passed from mouth to mouth all over Hoosierdom, “She has come
in free, she has come in free!” Even in 1820, four years after the
admission to Statehood, the census showed one hundred and ninety slaves,
nearly all of them in the southwest corner, where the Lincolns lived,
and it was not, in reality, until 1821 that the State Supreme Court put
an end to the question. In Illinois in 1822–1824 there was carried on
one of the most violent contests between the friends and opponents of
slavery which occurred before the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The
effort to secure slave labor was nearly successful. In the campaign,
pamphlets _pro_ and _con_ literally inundated the State; the pulpits
took it up; and “almost every stump in every county had its bellowing,
indignant orator.” So violent a commotion so near their borders could
hardly have failed to reach Gentryville.
[Illustration:
PUNCHED SHEET-IRON LANTERN.
Drawn from the original, in the United States National Museum, at
Washington, D.C. Oiled paper was sometimes used in the lanterns.
]
[Illustration:
JOHN W. LAMAR.
Mr. Lamar was a young boy in Spencer County when Lincoln left Indiana,
but was old enough to have seen much of him and to have known his
characteristics and his reputation in the county. He is still living
near his old home.
]
There had been other anti-slavery agitation going on within hearing for
several years. In 1804 a number of Baptist ministers of Kentucky started
a crusade against the institution, which resulted in a hot contest in
the denomination, and the organization of the “Baptist Licking-Locust
Association Friends of Humanity.” The Rev. Jesse Head, the minister who
married Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, talked freely and boldly against
slavery; and one of their old friends, Christopher Columbus Graham, the
man who was present at their wedding, says: “Tom and Nancy Lincoln and
Sally Bush were just steeped full of Jesse Head’s notions about the
wrong of slavery and the rights of man as explained by Thomas Jefferson
and Thomas Paine.” In 1806 Charles Osborn began to preach “immediate
emancipation” in Tennessee. Ten years later he started a paper in Ohio,
devoted to the same idea, and in 1819 he transferred his crusade to
Indiana. In 1821 Benjamin Lundy started, in Tennessee, the famous
“Genius,” devoted to the same doctrine; and in 1822, at Shelbyville,
only about one hundred miles from Gentryville, was started a paper
similar in its views, the “Abolition Intelligencer.”
At that time there were in Kentucky five or six abolition societies, and
in Illinois was an organization called the “Friends of Humanity.”
Probably young Lincoln heard but vaguely of these movements; but of some
of them he must have heard, and he must have connected them with the
“Speech of Mr. Pitt on the Slave Trade;” with Merry’s elegy, “The
Slaves;” and with the discussion given in his “Kentucky Preceptor,”
“Which has the Most to complain of, the Indian or the Negro?” all of
which tradition declares he was fond of repeating. It is not impossible
that, as Frederick Douglas first realized his own condition in reading a
school-speaker, the “Columbian Orator,” so Abraham Lincoln first felt
the wrong of slavery in reading his “American Preceptor.”
[Illustration:
REV. ALLEN BROONER.
An Indiana acquaintance of Lincoln, still living near Gentryville.
“Mr. Brooner’s mother was a friend of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. In the
fall of 1818 Mrs. Brooner was very sick, and Mrs. Lincoln called to
see her. The sick woman was very despondent, and said: ‘Mrs.
Lincoln, I am going to die. You will not see me again while living.’
‘Tut te tut. You must not say that. Why, you will live longer than
I. So cheer up,’ answered Mrs. Lincoln. Then, after a few parting
words, Mrs. Lincoln went home. The next day she was very ill and in
a few days she died. A few days later Mrs. Brooner died. When the
tombstone was placed at Mrs. Lincoln’s grave, no one could state
positively which was Mrs. Brooner’s and which Mrs. Lincoln’s grave.
Mr. Allen Brooner gave his opinion, and the stone was placed; but
the iron fence encloses both graves, which lie in a half-acre tract
of land owned by the United States Government. Mr. Allen Brooner,
after his mother’s death, became a minister of the United Brethren
Church, and moved to Illinois. Like all of the old settlers of
Gentryville, he remembers the departure of the Lincolns for
Illinois. ‘When the Lincolns were getting ready to leave,’ says Mr.
Brooner, ‘Abraham and his step-brother, John Johnston, came over to
our house to swap a horse for a yoke of oxen. John did all the
talking. If any one had been asked that day which would make the
greatest success in life, I think the answer would have been John
Johnston.’”[8]
]
Footnote 8:
From an unpublished MS. by A. Hoosier.
Lincoln was not only winning in these days in the Jones grocery store a
reputation as a talker and story-teller; he was becoming known as a kind
of backwoods orator. He could repeat with effect all the poems and
speeches in his various school-readers, he could imitate to perfection
the wandering preachers who came to Gentryville, and he could make a
political speech so stirring that he drew a crowd about him every time
he mounted a stump. The applause he won was sweet; and frequently he
indulged his gifts when he ought to have been at work—so thought his
employers and Thomas his father. It was trying, no doubt, to the
hard-pushed farmers, to see the men who ought to have been cutting grass
or chopping wood throw down their sickles or axes and group around a
boy, whenever he mounted a stump to develop a pet theory or repeat with
variations yesterday’s sermon. In his fondness for speech-making he
attended all the trials of the neighborhood, and frequently walked
fifteen miles to Boonville to attend court.
[Illustration:
LINES FROM LINCOLN’S COPY-BOOK.
These lines were written on a leaf of a copy-book in which Lincoln
wrote out the tables of weights and measures, and the sums in
connection with them. His step-mother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, gave the
leaf, with a few others from the book, to Mr. Herndon. It is now
owned by Jesse W. Weik.
]
He wrote as well as spoke, and some of his productions were even
printed, through the influence of his admiring neighbors. Thus a local
Baptist preacher was so struck with one of Abraham’s essays on
temperance that he sent it to Ohio, where it appeared in some paper.
Another article, on “National Politics,” so pleased a lawyer of the
vicinity that he declared the “world couldn’t beat it.”
INFLUENCE OF THE RIVER LIFE.
In considering the different opportunities for development which the boy
had at this time, his months spent on the Ohio as a ferryman and his
trips down the Mississippi should not be forgotten. In fact, all that
Abraham Lincoln saw of men and the world outside of Gentryville and its
neighborhood, until after he was twenty-one years of age, he saw on
these rivers. For many years the Ohio and the Mississippi were the
Appian Way, the one route to the world for the Western settlers. To
preserve it they had been willing in early times to go to war with Spain
or with France, to secede from the Union, even to join Spain or France
against the United States if either country would insure their right to
their highway. In the long years in which the ownership of the great
river was unsettled, every man of them had come to feel with Benjamin
Franklin, “a neighbor might as well ask me to sell my street-door.” In
fact, this water-way was their “street-door,” and all that many of them
ever saw of the world passed here. Up and down the rivers was a
continual movement. Odd craft of every kind possible on a river went by:
“arks” and “sleds,” with tidy cabins where families lived, and where one
could see the washing stretched, the children playing, the mother on
pleasant days rocking and sewing; keel-boats, which dodged in and out
and turned inquisitive noses up all the creeks and bayous; great fleets
from the Alleghanies, made up of a score or more of timber rafts, and
manned by forty or fifty rough boatmen; “Orleans boats,” loaded with
flour, hogs, produce of all kinds; pirogues, made from great trees;
“broad-horns;” curious nondescripts worked by a wheel; and, after 1812,
steamboats.
[Illustration:
FRAGMENT FROM A LEAF OF LINCOLN’S EXERCISE-BOOK.
]
[Illustration:
SEE APPENDIX.
]
[Illustration:
WILLIAM JONES.
The store in Gentryville in which Lincoln first made his reputation as
a debater and story-teller was owned by Mr. Jones. The year before
the Lincolns moved to Illinois Abraham clerked in the store, and it
is said that when he left Indiana Mr. Jones sold him a pack of goods
which he peddled on his journey. Mr. Jones was the representative
from Spencer County in the State legislature from 1838 to 1841. He
is no longer living. His son, Captain William Jones, is still in
Gentryville.
]
All this traffic was leisurely. Men had time to tie up and tell the news
and show their wares. Even the steamboats loitered as it pleased them.
They knew no schedule. They stopped anywhere to let passengers off. They
tied up wherever it was convenient, to wait for fresh wood to be cut and
loaded, or for repairs to be made. Waiting for repairs seems, in fact,
to have absorbed a great deal of the time of these early steamers. They
were continually running on to “sawyers,” or “planters,” or “wooden
islands,” and they blew up with a regularity which was monotonous. Even
as late as 1842, when Charles Dickens made the trip down the
Mississippi, he was often gravely recommended to keep as far aft as
possible, “because the steamboats generally blew up forward.”
It was this varied river life with which Abraham Lincoln came into
contact as a ferryman and boatman. Who can believe that he could see it
and be part of it without learning much of the life and the world beyond
him? Every time a steamboat or raft tied up near Anderson Creek and he
with his companions boarded it and saw its mysteries and talked with its
crew, every time he rowed out with passengers to a passing steamer, who
can doubt that he came away with new ideas and fresh energy? The trips
to New Orleans were, to a thoughtful boy, an education of no mean value.
It was the most cosmopolitan and brilliant city of the United States at
that date, and there young Lincoln saw life at its intensest.
CHAPTER V.
LINCOLN’S REPUTATION IN INDIANA.—REMINISCENCES OF HIS ASSOCIATES.
In spite of the crudeness of these early opportunities for learning; in
spite of the fact that he had no wise direction, that he was brought up
by a father with no settled purpose, and that he lived in a pioneer
community, where a young man’s life at best is but a series of
makeshifts, Lincoln soon developed a determination to make something out
of himself, and a desire to know, which led him to neglect no
opportunity to learn.
The only unbroken outside influence which directed and stimulated him in
his ambitions was that coming first from his mother, then from his
step-mother. These two women, both of them of unusual earnestness and
sweetness of spirit, were one or the other of them at his side
throughout his youth and young manhood. The ideal they held before him
was the simple ideal of the early American, that if a boy is upright and
industrious he may aspire to any place within the gift of the country.
The boy’s nature told him they were right. Everything he read confirmed
their teachings, and he cultivated, in every way open to him, his
passion to know and to be something.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1858.
From a photograph in the possession of Mr. Stuart Brown of
Springfield, Illinois. The original of this photograph was bought in
1860, in a Springfield gallery, by Mr. D. McWilliams of Dwight,
Illinois. Mr. McWilliams sent the picture to Mr. Milton Hay
Jopingfield, an intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln’s, and from him
received the following letter: “I am greatly pleased with this
picture of Lincoln. I think it reproduces the man as he was, in the
sober expression most habitual with him, better than any other
photograph I have seen of him; and this is the opinion of all the
old familiar acquaintances of his to whom I have shown it.”
]
There are many proofs that Lincoln’s characteristics were recognized at
this period by his associates; that his determination to excel, if not
appreciated, yet made its imprint. In 1865, thirty-five years after he
left Gentryville, a biographer, anxious to save all that was known of
Lincoln in Indiana, went among his old associates, and with a sincerity
and thoroughness worthy of respect, interviewed them. At that time there
were still living numbers of the people with whom Lincoln had been
brought up. They all remembered something of him. It is curious to note
that all of these people tell of his doing something different from what
other boys did, something sufficiently superior to have made a keen
impression upon them. In almost every case each person had his own
special reason for admiring Lincoln. A facility in making rhymes and
writing essays was the admiration of many, who considered it the more
remarkable because “essays and poetry were not taught in school,” and
“Abe took it up on his own account.”
[Illustration:
GREEN B. TAYLOR, A BOYHOOD FRIEND OF LINCOLN.
Son of James Taylor, for whom Lincoln ran the ferry-boat at the mouth
of Anderson Creek. Mr. Taylor, now in his eighty-second year, lives
in South Dakota. He remembers Mr. Lincoln perfectly, and says that
his father hired Abraham Lincoln for one year, at six dollars a
month, and that he was “well pleased with the boy.”
]
Many others were struck by the clever use he made of his gift for
writing. The wit he showed in taking revenge for a social slight by a
satire on the Grigsbys, who had failed to invite him to a wedding, made
a lasting impression in Gentryville. That he should write so well as to
be able to humiliate his enemies more deeply than if he had resorted to
the method of taking revenge current in the country, and thrashed them,
seemed to his friends a mark of surprising superiority.
Others remembered his quick-wittedness in helping his friends.
“We are indebted to Kate Roby,” says Mr. Herndon, “for an incident which
illustrates alike his proficiency in orthography and his natural
inclination to help another out of the mire. The word ‘defied’ had been
given out by Schoolmaster Crawford, but had been misspelled several
times when it came Miss Roby’s turn. ‘Abe stood on the opposite side of
the room,’ related Miss Roby to me in 1865, ‘and was watching me. I
began d-e-f—, and then I stopped, hesitating whether to proceed with an
i or a y. Looking up, I beheld Abe, a grin covering his face, and
pointing with his index finger to his eye. I took the hint, spelled the
word with an i, and it went through all right.’”
This same Miss Roby it was who said of Lincoln, “He was better read then
than the world knows or is likely to know exactly.... He often and often
commented or talked to me about what he had read—seemed to read it out
of the book as he went along—did so to others. He was the learned boy
among us unlearned folks. He took great pains to explain; could do it so
simply. He was diffident then, too.”
[Illustration:
CABINET MADE BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
This cabinet is now in the possession of Captain J. W. Wartmann of
Evansville, Indiana. It is of walnut, two feet in height, and very
well put together. Thomas Lincoln is said to have aided his son in
making it.
]
One man was impressed by the character of the sentences he had given him
for a copy. “It was considered at that time,” said he, “that Abe was the
best penman in the neighborhood. One day, while he was on a visit at my
mother’s, I asked him to write some copies for me. He very willingly
consented. He wrote several of them, but one of them I have never
forgotten, although a boy at that time. It was this:
“‘Good boys who to their books apply
Will all be great men by and by.’”
All of his comrades remembered his stories and his clearness in
argument. “When he appeared in company,” says Nat Grigsby, “the boys
would gather and cluster around him to hear him talk. Mr. Lincoln was
figurative in his speech, talks, and conversation. He argued much from
analogy, and explained things hard for us to understand by stories,
maxims, tales, and figures. He would almost always point his lesson or
idea by some story that was plain and near us, that we might instantly
see the force and bearing of what he said.”
[Illustration:
PIGEON CREEK CHURCH, WHICH THE LINCOLNS ATTENDED IN INDIANA.
From a photograph loaned by W. W. Admire of Chicago. This little log
church, or “meetin’ house,” is where the Lincolns attended services
in Indiana. The pulpit is said to have been made by Thomas Lincoln.
The building was razed about fifteen years ago, after having been
used for several years as a tobacco barn.
]
There are many proofs that he was an authority on all subjects, even the
country jockeys bringing him their stories and seeking to inspire his
enthusiasm. Captain John Lamar of Gentryville, who was a very small boy
in the neighborhood when Lincoln was a young man, is still fond of
describing a scene he witnessed once, which shows with what care even
the “heroes” of the country tried to impress young Lincoln. “Uncle Jimmy
Larkins, as everybody called him,” says Mr. Lamar, “was a great hero in
my childish eyes. Why, I cannot now say, without it was his manners.
There had been a big fox-chase, and Uncle Jimmy was telling about it. Of
course he was the hero. I was only a little shaver, and I stood in front
of Uncle Jimmy, looking up into his eyes; but he never noticed me. He
looked at Abraham Lincoln, and said: ‘Abe, I’ve got the best horse in
the world; he won the race and never drew a long breath.’ But Abe paid
no attention to Uncle Jimmy, and I got mad at the big, overgrown fellow,
and wanted him to listen to my hero’s story. Uncle Jimmy was determined
that Abe should hear, and repeated the story. ‘I say, Abe, I have the
best horse in the world; after all that running he never drew a long
breath.’ Then Abe, looking down at my little dancing hero, said: ‘Well,
Larkins, why don’t you tell us how many short breaths he drew?’ This
raised a laugh on Uncle Jimmy, and he got mad, and declared he’d fight
Abe if he wasn’t so big. He jumped around until Abe quietly said: ‘Now,
Larkins, if you don’t shut up I’ll throw you in that water.’ I was very
uneasy and angry at the way my hero was treated, but I lived to change
my views about _heroes_.”
[Illustration:
THE FIRST LINCOLN MONUMENT.
From a photograph made for this work. When Abraham Lincoln left
Indiana, in 1830, his friend James Gentry planted, in remembrance of
him, near the Lincoln cabin, a cedar tree. It still stands, sturdy
and strong, though it is stripped of twigs as high as one can reach.
Those who point out the tree explain the bareness by saying: “The
folks who come lookin’ around have taken twigs until you can’t reach
any more very handy.”
]
There is one other testimony to his character as a boy which should not
be omitted. It is that of his step-mother:
“Abe was a good boy, and I can say what scarcely one woman—a mother—can
say in a thousand: Abe never gave me a cross word or look, and never
refused, in fact or appearance, to do anything I requested him. I never
gave him a cross word in all my life.... His mind and mine—what little I
had—seemed to run together. He was here after he was elected President.
He was a dutiful son to me always. I think he loved me truly. I had a
son, John, who was raised with Abe. Both were good boys; but I must say,
both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or expect to
see.”
[Illustration:
OLD POST FORD ACROSS THE WABASH RIVER, WHERE THE LINCOLNS CROSSED FROM
INDIANA TO ILLINOIS.
From a photograph made for this work. The route by which the Lincolns
went into Illinois from Indiana has always been a question in
dispute. Some of the acquaintances of the family still living in
Indiana claim that they followed the line marked on our map (page
45). Others say that they went from Gentryville to the Old Post Ford
across the Wabash. The route on the map was drawn on the supposition
that they would have taken the road by which they would have avoided
the greatest number of watercourses. Information has come to us
since the map was made which shows that they went by Vincennes. Mr.
Jesse W. Weik says that Dennis Hanks, who was in the party, told him
in 1886 that they went through Vincennes. Colonel Chapman of
Charleston, the grandson of Sarah Bush Lincoln, told Mr. Weik that
in February, 1861, when Mr. Lincoln visited his mother for the last
time, he told him that the settlers passed through Vincennes, where
they remained a day. There, Lincoln said, they saw a printing-press
for the first time. At Palestine, on the Illinois side of the
Wabash, he remembered seeing a large crowd around the United States
Land Office, and a travelling juggler performing sleight-of-hand
tricks. We also know that they entered Decatur from the south, near
the present line of the Illinois Central. This Mr. Lincoln told Mr.
H. C. Whitney.
]
CHAPTER VI.
AMUSEMENTS OF LINCOLN’S LIFE IN INDIANA.—HIS FIRST SORROWS.
If Abraham Lincoln’s early struggle for both livelihood and education
was rough and hard, his life was not without amusements. At home the
rude household was overflowing with life. There were Abraham and his
sister, a step-brother and two step-sisters, and a cousin of Nancy Hanks
Lincoln, Dennis Hanks, whom misfortune had made an inmate of the Lincoln
home—quite enough to plan sports and mischief and keep time from growing
dull. Thomas Lincoln and Dennis Hanks were both famous story-tellers,
and the Lincolns spent many a cozy evening about their cabin fire,
repeating the stories they knew.
[Illustration:
GRAVE OF LINCOLN’S SISTER.
From a photograph taken for this work. Sarah, or Nancy, Lincoln was
born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in 1807. In 1826 she married Aaron
Grigsby, and a year later died. She was buried not far from
Gentryville, in what is now called “Old Pigeon Cemetery.” Her grave
is marked by the rude stone directly over the star. The marble
monument in the centre is that of her husband.
]
[Illustration:
CORN-HUSK BROOMS AND MOPS.
Photographed for this work from the originals, in the United States
National Museum at Washington. Corn-husks were used by the pioneers
of the West to make brooms, brushes, mats, and horse-collars.
]
Of course the boys hunted. Not that Abraham ever became a true
sportsman; indeed, he seems to have lacked the genuine sporting
instinct. In a curious autobiography, written entirely in the third
person, which Mr. Lincoln prepared at the request of a friend in
1860,[9] he says of his exploits as a hunter: “A few days before the
completion of his eighth year, in the absence of his father, a flock of
wild turkeys approached the new log cabin; and Abraham, with a rifle
gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. He
has never since pulled the trigger on any larger game.” This exploit is
confirmed by Dennis Hanks, who says: “No doubt about A. Lincoln’s
killing the turkey. He done it with his father’s rifle, made by William
Lutes of Bullitt County, Kentucky. I have killed a hundred deer with her
myself; turkeys too numerous to mention.”
Footnote 9:
Preserved in “Abraham Lincoln. Complete Works.” Edited by John G.
Nicolay and John Hay. Volume I., page 639. The Century Company.
[Illustration:
A LINCOLN CHAIR.
This chair was made from rails split by Abraham Lincoln when he was
living in Spencer County, Indiana.
]
But there were many other country sports which he enjoyed to the full.
He went swimming in the evenings; fished with the other boys in Pigeon
Creek, and caught chubs and suckers enough to delight any boy; he
wrestled, jumped, and ran races at the noon rests. He was present at
every country horse-race and fox-chase. The sports he preferred were
those which brought men together: the spelling-school, the husking-bee,
the “raising;” and of all these he was the life by his wit, his stories,
his good nature, his doggerel verses, his practical jokes, and by a
rough kind of politeness—for even in Indiana in those times there was a
notion of politeness, and one of Lincoln’s schoolmasters had even given
“lessons in manners.” Lincoln seems to have profited in a degree by
them; for Mrs. Crawford, at whose home he worked some time, declares
that he always “lifted his hat and bowed” when he made his appearance.
[Illustration:
PIONEER KITCHEN UTENSILS.
Drawn for this work from the original articles, in the United States
National Museum, through the courtesy of the director, Mr. G. Brown
Goode. The articles in the group are a hominy mortar and pestle,
water gourd and gourd dipper, wooden pails and tub, and a wooden
piggin.
]
There was, of course, a rough gallantry among the young people; and
Lincoln’s old comrades and friends in Indiana have left many tales of
how he “went to see the girls,” of how he brought in the biggest
back-log and made the brightest fire; then of how the young people,
sitting around it, watching the way the sparks flew, told their
fortunes. He helped pare apples, shell corn, and crack nuts. He took the
girls to meeting and to spelling-school, though he was not often allowed
to take part in the spelling-match, for the one who “chose first” always
chose “Abe Lincoln,” and that was equivalent to winning, as the others
knew that “he would stand up the longest.”
The nearest approach to sentiment at this time, of which we know, is
recorded in a story Lincoln once told to an acquaintance in Springfield.
It was a rainy day, and he was sitting with his feet on the window-sill,
his eyes on the street, watching the rain. Suddenly he looked up and
said:
[Illustration:
THE HILL NEAR GENTRYVILLE FROM WHICH THE LINCOLNS TOOK THEIR LAST LOOK
AT THEIR INDIANA HOME.
]
“Did you ever write out a story in your mind? I did when I was a little
codger. One day a wagon with a lady and two girls and a man broke down
near us, and while they were fixing up, they cooked in our kitchen. The
woman had books and read us stories, and they were the first I ever had
heard. I took a great fancy to one of the girls; and when they were gone
I thought of her a great deal, and one day when I was sitting out in the
sun by the house I wrote out a story in my mind. I thought I took my
father’s horse and followed the wagon, and finally I found it, and they
were surprised to see me. I talked with the girl and persuaded her to
elope with me; and that night I put her on my horse, and we started off
across the prairie. After several hours we came to a camp; and when we
rode up we found it was the one we had left a few hours before, and we
went in. The next night we tried again, and the same thing happened—the
horse came back to the same place; and then we concluded that we ought
not to elope. I stayed until I had persuaded her father to give her to
me. I always meant to write that story out and publish it, and I began
once; but I concluded it was not much of a story. But I think that was
the beginning of love with me.”[10]
Footnote 10:
Interview with Mr. T. W. S. Kidd of Springfield, Illinois, editor of
“The Morning Monitor.”
[Illustration:
LINCOLN’S FIRST HOME IN ILLINOIS.
After a photograph owned by H. E. Barker of Springfield, Illinois. A
printed description accompanying the photograph says: “The above is
an exact reproduction of a photograph taken in 1865 of Abraham
Lincoln’s cabin on the banks of the Sangamon River. The cabin was
located upon Section 28, Harristown Township, Macon County,
Illinois.” The genuineness of the picture is attested by the Hon.
Richard J. Oglesby, at that time Governor of Illinois.
]
EARLY SORROWS.
His life had its tragedies as well as its touch of romance—tragedies so
real and profound that they gave dignity to all the crudeness and
poverty which surrounded him, and quickened and intensified the
melancholy temperament he had inherited from his mother. Away back in
1816, when Thomas Lincoln had started to find a farm in Indiana, bidding
his wife be ready to go into the wilderness on his return, Nancy Lincoln
had taken her boy and girl to a tiny grave, that of her youngest child;
and the three had there said good-by to a little one whom the children
had scarcely known, but for whom the mother’s grief was so keen that the
boy never forgot the scene.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN’S BROAD-AXE.
This broad-axe is said to have been owned originally by Abram Bales of
New Salem; and, according to tradition, it was bought from him by
Lincoln. After Lincoln forsook the woods, he sold the axe to one Mr.
Irvin. Mr. L. W. Bishop of Petersburg now has the axe, having gotten
it directly from Mr. Irvin. There are a number of affidavits
attesting its genuineness. The axe has evidently seen hard usage,
and is now covered with a thick coat of rust.
]
Two years later he saw his father make a green pine box and put his dead
mother into it, and he saw her buried not far from their cabin, almost
without prayer. Young as he was, it was his efforts, it is said, which
brought a parson from Kentucky, three months later, to preach the sermon
and conduct the service which seemed to the child a necessary honor to
the dead.[11] As sad as the death of his mother was that of his only
sister, Sarah. Married to Aaron Grigsby in 1826, she had died a year and
a half later in child-birth, a death which to her brother must have
seemed a horror and a mystery.
Footnote 11:
It still happens frequently in the mountain districts of Tennessee
that the funeral services are not held until months after the burial.
A gentleman who has lived much in the South tells of a man marrying a
second wife at a decent interval after the death of his first, but
still _before_ the funeral of the first had taken place.
Apart from these family sorrows there was all the crime and misery of
the community—all of which came to his ears and awakened his nature. He
even saw in those days one of his companions go suddenly mad. The young
man never recovered his reason, but sank into idiocy. All night he would
croon plaintive songs, and Lincoln himself tells how, fascinated by this
mysterious malady, he used to rise before daylight to cross the fields
and listen to this funeral dirge of the reason. In spite of the poverty
and rudeness of his life the depth of his nature was unclouded. He could
feel intensely, and his imagination was quick to respond to the touch of
mystery.
CHAPTER VII.
THE LINCOLNS LEAVE INDIANA.—THE JOURNEY TO ILLINOIS.—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF.
In the spring of 1830, when Abraham was twenty-one years old, his
father, Thomas Lincoln, decided to leave Indiana. The reason Dennis
Hanks gives for this removal was a disease called the “milk-sick.”
Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and several of their
relatives who had followed them from Kentucky had died of it. The cattle
had been carried off by it. Neither brute nor human life seemed to be
safe. As Dennis Hanks says: “This was reason enough (ain’t it?) for
leaving.” Any one who has travelled through the portions of Spencer
County in which the Lincolns settled will respect Thomas Lincoln for his
energy in moving. When covered with timber, as the land was when he
chose his farm, it no doubt promised well; but fourteen years of hard
labor showed him that the soil was niggardly and the future of the
country unpromising. To-day, sixty-five years since the Lincolns left
Spencer County, the country remains as it was then, dull, commonplace,
unfruitful. The towns show no signs of energy or prosperity. There are
no leading streets or buildings; no man’s house is better than his
neighbor’s, and every man’s house is ordinary. For a long distance on
each side of Gentryville, as one passes by rail, no superior farm is to
be seen, no prosperous mine or manufactory. It is a dead, monotonous
country, where no possibilities of quick wealth have been discovered,
and which only centuries of tilling and fertilizing can make prosperous.
Thomas Lincoln did well to leave Indiana.
The place chosen for their new home was the Sangamon country in central
Illinois. It was at that day a country of great renown in the West, the
name meaning “The land where there is plenty to eat.” One of the
family—John Hanks, a cousin of Dennis—was already there, and the
inviting reports he had sent to Indiana were no doubt what led the
Lincolns to decide on Illinois as their future home.
Gentryville saw young Lincoln depart with real regret, and his friends
gave him a score of rude proofs that he would not be forgotten. Even
to-day there is not a family living in and around Gentryville, who
remembers the Lincolns at all, who has not some legend to repeat of
their departure. They tell how in those days “neighbors were like
relatives,” and everybody offered some kindly service to the movers as a
parting sign of good-will. The entire Lincoln family was invited to
spend the last night before starting, with Mr. Gentry. He was so loath
to part with Lincoln that he “accompanied the movers along the road a
spell.” After they were gone, one of his sons, James Gentry, planted a
cedar tree in memory of Abraham, which now marks the site of the Lincoln
home.
[Illustration:
JOHN E. ROLL, WHO HELPED LINCOLN BUILD THE FLATBOAT.
Born in Green Village, New Jersey, June 4, 1814. He went to Illinois
in 1830, the year in which Mr. Lincoln went, settling in Sangamon
town, where he had relatives. It was here he met Lincoln, and made
the “pins” for the flatboat. Later Mr. Roll went to Springfield. A
quarter of the city is now known as “Roll’s addition.” Mr. Roll was
well acquainted with Lincoln, and when the President left
Springfield he gave Mr. Roll his dog Fido. Mr. Roll knew Stephen A.
Douglas well, and carries a watch which once belonged to the “Little
Giant.”
]
The spot on the hill overlooking Buckthorn valley, where the Lincolns
said good-by to their old home and to the home of Sarah Lincoln Grigsby,
to the grave of the mother and wife, to all their neighbors and friends,
is still pointed out. Buckthorn valley held many recollections dear to
them all, but to no one of the company was the place dearer than to
Abraham. It is certain that he felt the parting keenly, and he certainly
never forgot his years in the Hoosier State. One of the most touching
experiences he relates in all his published letters is his emotion at
visiting his old Indiana home fourteen years after he had left it. So
strongly was he moved by the scenes of his first conscious sorrows,
efforts, joys, ambitions, that he put into verse the feelings they
awakened.[12]
Footnote 12:
Letter to —— Johnston, April 18, 1846. “Abraham Lincoln. Complete
Works.” Edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Volume I., pages 86,
87. The Century Co.
[Illustration:
SANGAMON TOWN IN 1831.
Drawn for this work by J. McCan Davis, with the aid of Mr. John E.
Roll, a former resident.
]
While he never attempted to conceal the poverty and hardship of these
days, and would speak humorously of the “pretty pinching times” he saw,
he never regarded his life at this time as mean or pitiable. Frequently
he talked to his friends in later days of his boyhood, and always with
apparent pleasure. “Mr. Lincoln told this story” (of his youth), says
Leonard Swett, “as the story of a happy childhood. There was nothing sad
or pinched, and nothing of want, and no allusion to want in any part of
it. His own description of his youth was that of a joyous, happy
boyhood. It was told with mirth and glee, and illustrated by pointed
anecdote, often interrupted by his jocund laugh.”
And he was right. There was nothing ignoble or mean in this Indiana
pioneer life. It was rude, but with only the rudeness which the
ambitious are willing to endure in order to push on to a better
condition than they otherwise could know. These people did not accept
their hardships apathetically. They did not regard them as permanent.
They were only the temporary deprivations necessary in order to
accomplish what they had home into the country to do. For this reason
they endured hopefully all that was hard. It is worth notice, too, that
there was nothing belittling in their life; there was no pauperism, no
shirking. Each family provided for its own simple wants, and had the
conscious dignity which comes from being equal to a situation. If their
lives lacked culture and refinement, they were rich in independence and
self-reliance.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1859.
From a photograph in the collection of H. W. Fay, De Kalb, Illinois.
The original was made by S. M. Fassett of Chicago; the negative was
destroyed in the Chicago fire. This picture was made at the
solicitation of D. B. Cook, who says that Mrs. Lincoln pronounced it
the best likeness she had ever seen of her husband. Rajon used the
Fassett picture as the original of his etching, and Kruell has made
a fine engraving of it.
]
FROM INDIANA TO ILLINOIS.
The company which emigrated to Illinois included the family of Thomas
Lincoln and those of Dennis Hanks and Levi Hall, married to Lincoln’s
step-sisters—thirteen persons in all. They sold land, cattle, and grain,
and much of their household goods, and were ready in March of 1830 for
their journey. All the possessions which the three families had to take
with them were packed into a big wagon—the first one Thomas Lincoln had
ever owned, it is said—to which four oxen were attached, and the caravan
was ready. The weather was still cold, the streams were swollen, and the
roads were muddy; but the party started out bravely. Inured to
hardships, alive to all the new sights on their route, every day brought
them amusement and adventures, and especially to young Lincoln the
journey must have been of keen interest.
He drove the oxen on this trip, he tells us, and, according to a story
current in Gentryville, he succeeded in doing a fair peddler’s business
on the route. Captain William Jones, in whose father’s store Lincoln had
spent so many hours in discussion and in story-telling, and for whom he
had worked the last winter he was in Indiana, says that before leaving
the State Abraham invested all his money, some thirty-odd dollars, in
notions. Though the country through which they expected to pass was but
sparsely settled, he believed he could dispose of them. “A set of knives
and forks was the largest item entered on the bill,” says Captain Jones;
“the other items were needles, pins, thread, buttons, and other little
domestic necessities. When the Lincolns reached their new home, near
Decatur, Illinois, Abraham wrote back to my father, stating that he had
doubled his money on his purchases by selling them along the road.
Unfortunately we did not keep that letter, not thinking how highly we
would have prized it years afterwards.”
The pioneers were a fortnight on their journey. All we know of the route
they took is from a few chance remarks of Lincoln’s to his friends to
the effect that they passed through Vincennes, where they saw a
printing-press for the first time, and through Palestine, where they saw
a juggler performing sleight-of-hand tricks. They reached Macon County,
their new home, from the south. Mr. H. C. Whitney says that once in
Decatur he and Lincoln passed the court-house together. “Lincoln walked
out a few feet in front, and, after shifting his position two or three
times, said, as he looked up at the building, partly to himself and
partly to me: ‘Here is the exact spot where I stood by our wagon when we
moved from Indiana, twenty-six years ago; this isn’t six feet from the
exact spot.’ ... I asked him if he, at that time, had expected to be a
lawyer and practise law in that court-house; to which he replied: ‘No; I
didn’t know I had sense enough to be a lawyer then.’ He then told me he
had frequently thereafter tried to locate the route by which they had
come, and that he had decided that it was near the main line of the
Illinois Central Railroad.”
[Illustration:
MODEL OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S DEVICE FOR LIFTING VESSELS OVER SHOALS.
The inscription above this model, which is shown to all visitors to
the Model Hall of the Patent Office, reads: “6469, Abraham Lincoln,
Springfield, Illinois. Improvement in method of lifting vessels over
shoals. Patented May 22, 1849.” The apparatus consists of a bellows
placed in each side of the hull of the craft, just below the
water-line, and worked by an odd but simple system of ropes and
pulleys. When the keel of the vessel grates against the sand or
obstruction, the bellows is filled with air; and, thus buoyed up,
the vessel is expected to float over the shoal. The model is about
eighteen or twenty inches long, and looks as if it had been whittled
with a knife out of a shingle and a cigar box. There is no
elaboration in the apparatus beyond that necessary to show the
operation of buoying the vessel over the obstructions.
]
The party settled some ten miles west of Decatur, in Macon County. Here
John Hanks had the logs already cut for their new home, and Lincoln,
Dennis Hanks, and Hall soon had a cabin erected. Mr. Lincoln says in his
short autobiography of 1860, which he wrote in the third person: “Here
they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and made sufficient of
rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke the ground, and
raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year. These are, or are
supposed to be, the rails about which so much is being said just now,
though these are far from being the first or only rails ever made by
Abraham.”
If they were far from being his “first and only rails,” they certainly
were the most famous ones he or anybody else ever split. This was the
last work he did for his father, for in the summer of that year (1830)
he exercised the right of majority and started out to shift for himself.
When he left his home, he went empty-handed. He was already some months
over twenty-one years of age, but he had nothing in the world, not even
a suit of respectable clothes; and one of the first pieces of work he
did was “to split four hundred rails for every yard of brown jeans dyed
with white-walnut bark that would be necessary to make him a pair of
trousers.” He had no trade, no profession, no spot of land, no patron,
no influence. Two things recommended him to his neighbors—he was strong,
and he was a good fellow.
His strength made him a valuable laborer. Not that he was fond of hard
labor. Mrs. Crawford says: “Abe was no hand to pitch into work like
killing snakes;” but when he did work, it was with an ease and
effectiveness which compensated his employer for the time he spent in
practical jokes and extemporaneous speeches. He would lift as much as
three ordinary men, and “My, how he would chop!” says Dennis Hanks. “His
axe would flash and bite into a sugar-tree or sycamore, and down it
would come. If you heard him fellin’ trees in a clearin’, you would say
there was three men at work by the way the trees fell.”
Standing six feet four, he could out-lift, out-work, and out-wrestle any
man he came in contact with. Friends and employers were proud of his
prowess, and boasted of it, never failing to pit him against any hero
whose strength they heard vaunted. He himself was proud of it, and
throughout his life was fond of comparing himself with tall and strong
men. When the committee called on him in Springfield, in 1860, to notify
him of his nomination as President, Governor Morgan of New York was of
the number, a man of great height and brawn. “Pray, Governor, how tall
may you be?” was Mr. Lincoln’s first question. There is a story told of
a poor man seeking a favor from him once at the White House. He was
overpowered by the idea that he was in the presence of the President,
and, his errand done, was edging shyly out, when Mr. Lincoln stopped
him, insisting that he _measure_ with him. The man was the taller, as
Mr. Lincoln had thought; and he went away evidently as much abashed that
he dared be taller than the President of the United States as that he
had dared to venture into his presence.
Governor Hoyt tells an excellent story illustrating this interest of
Lincoln’s in manly strength, and his involuntary comparison of himself
with whoever showed it. It was in 1859, after Lincoln had delivered a
speech at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Fair in Milwaukee. Governor
Hoyt had asked him to make the rounds of the exhibits, and they went
into a tent to see a “strong man” perform. He went through the ordinary
exercises with huge iron balls, tossing them in the air and catching
them, and rolling them on his arms and back; and Mr. Lincoln, who
evidently had never before seen such a combination of agility and
strength, watched him with intense interest, ejaculating under his
breath now and then, “By George! By George!” When the performance was
over, Governor Hoyt, seeing Mr. Lincoln’s interest, asked him to go up
and be introduced to the athlete. He did so; and, as he stood looking
down musingly on the man, who was very short, and evidently wondering
that one so much smaller than he could be so much stronger, he suddenly
broke out with one of his quaint speeches. “Why,” he said, “why, I could
lick salt off the top of your hat.”
His strength won him popularity, but his good-nature, his wit, his
skill in debate, his stories, were still more efficient in gaining him
good-will. People liked to have him around, and voted him a good
fellow to work with. Yet such were the conditions of his life at this
time that, in spite of his popularity, nothing was open to him but
hard manual labor. To take the first job which he happened
upon—rail-splitting, ploughing, lumbering, boating, store-keeping—and
make the most of it, thankful if thereby he earned his bed and board
and yearly suit of jeans, was apparently all there was before Abraham
Lincoln in 1830, when he started out for himself.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN, OFFUTT, AND GREEN ON THE FLATBOAT AT NEW SALEM.
From a painting in the State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois. This
picture is crude and inaccurate. The flatboat built by Lincoln, and
by him piloted to New Orleans, was larger than the one here
portrayed, and the structure over the dam belittles the real mill.
There was not only a grist-mill, but also a saw-mill. The mill was
built in 1829. March 5, 1830, we find John Overstreet averring
before the County Commissioners “that John Cameron and James
Rutledge have erected a mill-dam on the Sangamon River which
obstructs the navigation of said river;” and Cameron and Rutledge
are ordered to alter the dam so as to restore “safe navigation.”
James M. Rutledge of Petersburg, a nephew of the mill-owner, helped
build the mill, and says: “The mill was a frame structure, and was
solidly built. They used to grind corn mostly, though some flour was
made. At times they would run day and night. The saw-mill had an
old-fashioned upright saw, and stood on the bank.” For a time this
mill was operated by Denton Offutt, under the supervision of
Lincoln. A few stakes, a part of the old dam, still show at low
water.
]
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST INDEPENDENT WORK.—FIRST APPEARANCE IN SANGAMON COUNTY.—VISIT TO
NEW ORLEANS IN 1831.
Through the summer and fall of 1830 and the early winter of 1831, Mr.
Lincoln worked in the vicinity of his father’s new home, usually as a
farm-hand and rail-splitter. Most of his work was done in company with
John Hanks. Before the end of the winter he secured employment of which
he has given an account himself, though in the third person:
“During that winter Abraham, together with his step-mother’s son, John
D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired
themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown,
Illinois, to New Orleans, and for that purpose were to join him (Offutt)
at Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go off. When it did
go off, which was about March 1, 1831, the country was so flooded as to
make travelling by land impracticable; to obviate which difficulty they
purchased a large canoe and came down the Sangamon River in it from
where they were all living (near Decatur). This is the time and manner
of Abraham’s first entrance into Sangamon County. They found Offutt at
Springfield, but learned from him that he had failed in getting a boat
at Beardstown. This led to their hiring themselves to him for twelve
dollars per month each, and getting the timber out of the trees, and
building a boat at old Sangamon town, on the Sangamon River, seven miles
northwest of Springfield, which boat they took to New Orleans,
substantially on the old contract.”
Sangamon town, where Mr. Lincoln built the flatboat, has, since his day,
completely disappeared from the earth; but then it was one of the
flourishing settlements on the river of that name. Lincoln and his
friends, on arriving there in March, immediately began work. There is
still living in Springfield, Illinois, a man who helped Lincoln at the
raft-building—Mr. John Roll, a well-known citizen, and one who has been
prominent in the material advancement of the city. Mr. Roll remembers
distinctly Lincoln’s first appearance in Sangamon town. “He was a tall,
gaunt young man,” he says, “dressed in a suit of blue homespun jeans,
consisting of a roundabout jacket, waistcoat, and breeches which came to
within about four inches of his feet. The latter were encased in rawhide
boots, into the tops of which, most of the time, his pantaloons were
stuffed. He wore a soft felt hat which had at one time been black, but
now, as its owner dryly remarked, ‘was sunburned until it was a combine
of colors.’”
Mr. Roll’s relation to the new-comer soon became something more than
that of a critical observer; he hired out to him, and says with pride,
“I made every pin which went into that boat.”
LINCOLN’S POPULARITY IN SANGAMON.
It took some four weeks to build the raft, and in that period Lincoln
succeeded in captivating the entire village by his story-telling. It was
the custom in Sangamon for the “men-folks” to gather at noon and in the
evening, when resting, in a convenient lane near the mill. They had
rolled out a long peeled log, on which they lounged while they whittled
and talked. Lincoln had not been long in Sangamon before he joined this
circle. At once he became a favorite by his jokes and good-humor. As
soon as he appeared at the assembly ground the men would start him to
story-telling. So irresistibly droll were his “yarns” that, says Mr.
Roll, “whenever he’d end up in his unexpected way the boys on the log
would whoop and roll off.” The result of the rolling off was to polish
the log like a mirror. The men, recognizing Lincoln’s part in this
polishing, christened their seat “Abe’s log.” Long after Lincoln had
disappeared from Sangamon “Abe’s log” remained, and until it had rotted
away people pointed it out, and repeated the droll stories of the
stranger.
[Illustration:
THOMAS LINCOLN’S HOME IN ILLINOIS.
This cabin was built by Thomas Lincoln in 1831, on Goose Nest Prairie,
in Coles County, Illinois, where he had taken up forty acres of
land. It was situated nine miles south of Charleston, on what is
called Lincoln’s Lane. Here Thomas Lincoln died in 1851. The cabin
was occupied until 1891, when it was bought by the Lincoln Log Cabin
Association to be shown at the World’s Fair in 1893.
]
AN EXCITING ADVENTURE.
The flatboat was done in about a month, and Lincoln and his friends
prepared to leave Sangamon. Before he started, however, he was the hero
of an adventure so thrilling that he won new laurels in the community.
Mr. Roll, who was a witness to the whole exciting scene, tells the
story:
“It was the spring following the winter of the deep snow.[13] Walter
Carman, John Seamon, myself, and at times others of the Carman boys had
helped Abe in building the boat, and when he had finished we went to
work to make a dug-out, or canoe, to be used as a small boat with the
flat. We found a suitable log about an eighth of a mile up the river,
and with our axes went to work under Lincoln’s direction. The river was
very high, fairly ‘booming.’ After the dug-out was ready to launch we
took it to the edge of the water, and made ready to ‘let her go,’ when
Walter Carman and John Seamon jumped in as the boat struck the water,
each one anxious to be the first to get a ride. As they shot out from
the shore they found they were unable to make any headway against the
strong current. Carman had the paddle, and Seamon was in the stern of
the boat. Lincoln shouted to them to ‘head up-stream,’ and ‘work back to
shore,’ but they found themselves powerless against the stream. At last
they began to pull for the wreck of an old flatboat, the first ever
built on the Sangamon, which had sunk and gone to pieces, leaving one of
the stanchions sticking above the water. Just as they reached it Seamon
made a grab, and caught hold of the stanchion, when the canoe capsized,
leaving Seamon clinging to the old timber, and throwing Carman into the
stream. It carried him down with the speed of a mill-race. Lincoln
raised his voice above the roar of the flood, and yelled to Carman to
swim for an elm tree which stood almost in the channel, which the action
of the high water changed.
Footnote 13:
1830–1831. “The winter of the deep snow” is the date which is the
starting point in all calculations of time for the early settlers of
Illinois, and the circumstance from which the old settlers of Sangamon
County receive the name by which they are generally known,
“Snow-birds.”
“Carman, being a good swimmer, succeeded in catching a branch, and
pulled himself up out of the water, which was very cold, and had almost
chilled him to death; and there he sat shivering and chattering in the
tree. Lincoln, seeing Carman safe, called out to Seamon to let go the
stanchion and swim for the tree. With some hesitation he obeyed, and
struck out, while Lincoln cheered and directed him from the bank. As
Seamon neared the tree he made one grab for a branch, and, missing it,
went under the water. Another desperate lunge was successful, and he
climbed up beside Carman. Things were pretty exciting now, for there
were two men in the tree, and the boat was gone.
[Illustration:
NEW SALEM.
From a painting in the State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois. New Salem
was founded by James Rutledge and John Cameron in 1829. In that year
they built a dam across the Sangamon River, and erected a mill.
Under date of October 23, 1829, Reuben Harrison, surveyor, certifies
that “at the request of John Cameron, one of the proprietors, I did
survey the town of New Salem.” The town within two years contained a
dozen or fifteen houses, nearly all of them built of logs. New
Salem’s population probably never exceeded a hundred persons. Its
inhabitants, and those of the surrounding country, were mostly
Southerners—natives of Kentucky and Tennessee—though there was an
occasional Yankee among them. Soon after Lincoln left the place, in
the spring of 1837, it began to decline. Petersburg had sprung up
two miles down the river, and rapidly absorbed its population and
business. By 1840 New Salem was almost deserted. The Rutledge
tavern, the first house erected, was the last to succumb. It stood
for many years, but at last crumbled away. Salem hill is now only a
green cow pasture.
]
“It was a cold, raw April day, and there was great danger of the men
becoming benumbed and falling back into the water. Lincoln called out to
them to keep their spirits up and he would save them. The village had
been alarmed by this time, and many people had come down to the bank.
Lincoln procured a rope, and tied it to a log. He called all hands to
come and help roll the log into the water, and after this had been done,
he, with the assistance of several others, towed it some distance up the
stream. A daring young fellow by the name of ‘Jim’ Dorrell then took his
seat on the end of the log, and it was pushed out into the current, with
the expectation that it would be carried down stream against the tree
where Seamon and Carman were.
“The log was well directed, and went straight to the tree; but Jim, in
his impatience to help his friends, fell a victim to his good
intentions. Making a frantic grab at a branch, he raised himself off the
log, which was swept from under him by the raging water, and he soon
joined the other two victims upon their forlorn perch. The excitement on
shore increased, and almost the whole population of the village gathered
on the river bank. Lincoln had the log pulled up the stream, and,
securing another piece of rope, called to the men in the tree to catch
it if they could when he should reach the tree. He then straddled the
log himself, and gave the word to push out into the stream. When he
dashed into the tree, he threw the rope over the stump of a broken limb,
and let it play until he broke the speed of the log, and gradually drew
it back to the tree, holding it there until the three now nearly frozen
men had climbed down and seated themselves astride. He then gave orders
to the people on the shore to hold fast to the end of the rope which was
tied to the log, and leaving his rope in the tree he turned the log
adrift. The force of the current, acting against the taut rope, swung
the log around against the bank, and all ‘on board’ were saved. The
excited people, who had watched the dangerous experiment with alternate
hope and fear, now broke into cheers for Abe Lincoln and praises for his
brave act. This adventure made quite a hero of him along the Sangamon,
and the people never tired of telling of the exploit.”
[Illustration:
THE NEW SALEM MILL TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.
After a painting by Mrs. Bennett; reproduced, by permission, from
“Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album,” Petersburg, Illinois, 1893.
The Rutledge and Cameron mill, of which Lincoln at one time had
charge, stood on the same spot as the mill in the picture, and had
the same foundation. From the map on page 116 it will be seen that
the mill was below the bluff and east of the town.
]
A SECOND ADVENTURE.
The flatboat built and loaded, the party started for New Orleans about
the middle of April. They had gone but a few miles when they met with
another adventure. At the village of New Salem there was a mill-dam. On
it the boat stuck, and here for nearly twenty-four hours it hung, the
bow in the air and the stern in the water, the cargo slowly setting
backward—shipwreck almost certain. The village of New Salem turned out
in a body to see what the strangers would do in their predicament. They
shouted, suggested, and advised for a time, but finally discovered that
one big fellow in the crew was ignoring them and working out a plan of
relief. Having unloaded the cargo into a neighboring boat, Lincoln had
succeeded in tilting his craft. Then, by boring a hole in the end
extending over the dam, the water was let out. This done, the boat was
easily shoved over and reloaded. The ingenuity which he had exercised in
saving his boat made a deep impression on the crowd on the bank, and it
was talked over for many a day. The proprietor of boat and cargo was
even more enthusiastic than the spectators, and vowed he would build a
steamboat for the Sangamon and make Lincoln the captain. Lincoln himself
was interested in what he had done, and nearly twenty years later he
embodied his reflections on this adventure in a curious invention for
getting boats over shoals.
[Illustration:
A MATRON OF NEW SALEM IN 1832.
This costume, worn by Mrs. Lucy M. Bennett of Petersburg, Illinois,
has been a familiar attraction at old settlers’ gatherings in Menard
County for years. The dress was made by Mrs. Hill of New Salem; and
the reticule, or work-bag, will be readily recognized by those who
have any recollection of the early days. The bonnet occupied a place
in the store of Samuel Hill at New Salem. It was taken from the
store by Mrs. Hill, worn for a time by her, and has been carefully
preserved to this day. It is an imported bonnet—a genuine
Leghorn—and of a kind so costly that Mr. Hill made only an
occasional sale of one. Its price, in fact, was twenty-five dollars.
]
[Illustration:
A NEW SALEM BONNET.
]
NEW ORLEANS IN 1831.
The raft over the New Salem dam, the party went on to New Orleans,
reaching there in May, 1831, and remaining a month. It must have been a
month of intense intellectual activity for Lincoln. Since his first
visit, made with young Gentry, New Orleans had entered upon her “flush
times.” Commerce was increasing at a rate which dazzled speculators, and
drew them from all over the United States. From 1830 to 1840 no other
American city increased in such a ratio; exports and imports, which in
1831 amounted to $26,000,000, in 1835 had more than doubled. The Creole
population had held the sway so far in the city; but now it came into
competition, and often into conflict, with a pushing, ambitious, and
frequently unscrupulous native American party. To these two
predominating elements were added Germans, French, Spanish, negroes, and
Indians. Cosmopolitan in its make-up, the city was even more
cosmopolitan in its life. Everything was to be seen in New Orleans in
those days, from the idle luxury of the wealthy Creole to the
organization of filibustering juntas. The pirates still plied their
trade in the Gulf, and the Mississippi River brought down hundreds of
river boatmen—one of the wildest, wickedest sets of men that ever
existed in any city.
[Illustration:
THE SITE OF NEW SALEM AS IT APPEARS TO-DAY.
]
Lincoln and his companions ran their boat up beside thousands of others.
It was the custom to tie such craft along the river front where St.
Mary’s Market now stands, and one could walk a mile, it is said, over
the tops of these boats without going ashore. No doubt Lincoln went,
too, to live in the boatmen’s rendezvous, called the “swamp,” a wild,
rough quarter, where roulette, whiskey, and the flint-lock pistol ruled.
All of the picturesque life, the violent contrasts of the city, he would
see as he wandered about; and he would carry away the sharp impressions
which are produced when mind and heart are alert, sincere, and healthy.
In this month spent in New Orleans Lincoln must have seen much of
slavery. At that time the city was full of slaves, and the number was
constantly increasing; indeed, one-third of the New Orleans increase in
population between 1830 and 1840 was in negroes. One of the saddest
features of the institution was to be seen there in its most aggravated
form—the slave market. The better class of slave-holders of the South,
who looked on the institution as patriarchal, and who guarded their
slaves with conscientious care, knew little, it should be said, of this
terrible traffic. Their transfer of slaves was humane, but in the open
markets of the city it was attended by shocking cruelty and degradation.
Lincoln witnessed in New Orleans for the first time the revolting sight
of men and women sold like animals. Mr. Herndon says that he often heard
Mr. Lincoln refer to this experience. “In New Orleans for the first
time,” he writes, “Lincoln beheld the true horrors of human slavery. He
saw ‘negroes in chains—whipped and scourged.’ Against this inhumanity
his sense of right and justice rebelled, and his mind and conscience
were awakened to a realization of what he had often heard and read. No
doubt, as one of his companions has said, ‘slavery ran the iron into him
then and there.’
“One morning, in their rambles over the city, the trio passed a slave
auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto girl was being sold. She
underwent a thorough examination at the hands of the bidders; they
pinched her flesh, and made her trot up and down the room like a horse,
to show how she moved, and in order, as the auctioneer said, that
‘bidders might satisfy themselves’ whether the article they were
offering to buy was sound or not. The whole thing was so revolting that
Lincoln moved away from the scene with a deep feeling of ‘unconquerable
hate.’ Bidding his companions follow him, he said: ‘Boys, let’s get away
from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing’ (meaning slavery),
‘I’ll hit it hard.’”
[Illustration:
MR. LINCOLN IN 1857.
The original of this picture is an ambrotype owned by C. F. Gunther of
Chicago, who bought it from W. H. Somers of El Cajon, California.
Mr. Somers bought the original directly from the artist, a Mr.
Alschuler of Urbana, Illinois. In a recent letter he explains why he
bought the picture: “At the time I was clerk of the circuit court,
and was about as well acquainted with Mr. Lincoln as with most of
the forty-odd lawyers who practised law in the circuit. Of course I
was then quite a young man, and the fall term of 1857 was my first
term as clerk. On the opening day of court, which was always an
interesting occasion, largely because we were curious to see what
attorneys from a distance were in attendance, while sitting at my
desk and watching the lawyers take their places within the bar of
the court-room, I observed that Mr. Lincoln was among them; and as I
looked in his direction, he arose from his seat, and came forward
and gave me a cordial hand-shake, accompanying the action with words
of congratulation on my election. I mention this fact because the
conduct of Mr. Lincoln was so in contrast with that of the other
members of the bar that it touched me deeply, and made me, ever
afterwards, his steadfast friend.”
Mr. J. O. Cunningham, who was present when the picture was taken,
writes us as follows of the circumstances: “One morning I was in the
gallery of Mr. Alschuler, when Mr. Lincoln came into the room and
said he had been informed that he (Alschuler) wished him to sit for
a picture. Alschuler said he had sent such a message to Mr. Lincoln,
but he could not take the picture in that coat (referring to a
linen-duster in which Mr. Lincoln was clad), and asked if he had not
a dark coat in which he could sit. Mr. Lincoln said he had not; that
this was the only coat he had brought with him from his home.
Alschuler said he could wear his coat, and gave it to Mr. Lincoln,
who pulled off the duster and put on the artist’s coat. Alschuler
was a very short man, with short arms, but with a body nearly as
large as the body of Mr. Lincoln. The arms of the latter extended
through the sleeves of the coat of Alschuler a quarter of a yard,
making him quite ludicrous, at which he (Lincoln) laughed
immoderately, and sat down for the picture to be taken with an
effort at being sober enough for the occasion. The lips in the
picture show this.”
]
Mr. Herndon gives John Hanks as his authority for this statement. This
is plainly an error; for, according to Mr. Lincoln himself, Hanks did
not go on to New Orleans, but, having a family, and finding that he was
likely to be detained from home longer than he had expected, he turned
back at St. Louis. Though there is reason for believing that Lincoln was
deeply impressed on this trip by something he saw in a New Orleans slave
market, and that he often referred to it, the story told above probably
grew to its present proportions by much telling.
CHAPTER IX.
LINCOLN SETTLES IN NEW SALEM.—HE BECOMES A GROCERY CLERK.—HIS POPULARITY
IN NEW SALEM.
The month in New Orleans passed swiftly, and in June, 1831, Lincoln and
his companions took passage up the river. He did not return, however, in
the usual way of the river boatman “out of a job.” According to his own
way of putting it, “during this boat-enterprise acquaintance with
Offutt, who was previously an entire stranger, he conceived a liking for
Abraham, and believing he could turn him to account, he contracted with
him to act as a clerk for him on his return from New Orleans, in charge
of a store and mill at New Salem.” The store and mill were, however, so
far only in Offutt’s imagination, and Lincoln had to drift about until
his employer was ready for him. He made a short visit to his father and
mother, now in Coles County, near Charleston (fever and ague had driven
the Lincolns from their first home in Macon County), and then, in July,
1831, he went to New Salem, where, as he says, he “stopped indefinitely,
and for the first time, as it were, by himself.”
[Illustration:
MAP OF NEW SALEM.—MADE ESPECIALLY FOR THIS WORK.
Map drawn by J. McCan Davis, aided by surviving inhabitants of New
Salem. Dr. John Allen was the leading physician of New Salem. He was
a Yankee, and was at first looked upon with suspicion, but he was
soon conducting a Sunday-school and temperance society, though
strongly opposed by the conservative church people. Dr. Allen
attended Ann Rutledge in her last illness. He was thrifty, and,
moving to Petersburg in 1840, became wealthy. He died in 1860. Dr.
Francis Regnier was a rival physician and a respected citizen.
Samuel Hill and John McNeill (whose real name subsequently proved to
be McNamar) operated a general store next to Berry and Lincoln’s
grocery. Mr. Hill also owned the carding-machine. He moved his store
to Petersburg in 1839, and engaged in business there, dying quite
wealthy. Jack Kelso followed a variety of callings, being
occasionally a school-teacher, now and then a grocery clerk, and
always a fisher and hunter. He was a man of some culture, and when
warmed by liquor, quoted Shakespeare and Burns profusely, a habit
which won for him the close friendship of Lincoln. Joshua Miller was
a blacksmith, and lived in the same house with Kelso—a double house.
He is said to be still living, somewhere in Nebraska. Miller and
Kelso were brothers-in-law. Philemon Morris was a tinner. Henry
Onstott was a cooper by trade. He was an elder in the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, and meetings were often held at his house. Rev.
John Berry, father of Lincoln’s partner, frequently preached there.
Robert Johnson was a wheelwright, and his wife took in weaving.
Martin Waddell was a hatter. He was the best-natured man in town,
Lincoln possibly excepted. The Trent brothers, who succeeded Berry
and Lincoln as proprietors of the store, worked in his shop for a
time. William Clary, one of the first settlers of New Salem, was one
of a numerous family, most of whom lived in the vicinity of “Clary’s
Grove.” Isaac Burner was the father of Daniel Green Burner, Berry
and Lincoln’s clerk. Alexander Ferguson worked at odd jobs. He had
two brothers, John and Elijah. Isaac Gollaher lived in a house
belonging to John Ferguson. “Row” Herndon, at whose house Lincoln
boarded for a year or more after going to New Salem, moved to the
country after selling his store to Berry and Lincoln. John Cameron,
one of the founders of the town, was a Presbyterian preacher and a
highly esteemed citizen.
]
The village of New Salem, the scene of Lincoln’s mercantile career, was
one of the many little towns which, in the pioneer days, sprang up along
the Sangamon River, a stream then looked upon as navigable and as
destined to be counted among the highways of commerce. Twenty miles
northwest of Springfield, strung along the left bank of the Sangamon,
parted by hollows and ravines, is a row of high hills. On one of these—a
long, narrow ridge, beginning with a sharp and sloping point near the
river, running south, and parallel with the stream a little way, and
then, reaching its highest point, making a sudden turn to the west, and
gradually widening until lost in the prairie—stood this frontier
village. The crooked river for a short distance comes from the east,
and, seemingly surprised at meeting the bluff, abruptly changes its
course, and flows to the north. Across the river the bottom stretches
out half a mile back to the highlands. New Salem, founded in 1829 by
James Rutledge and John Cameron, and a dozen years later a deserted
village, is rescued from oblivion only by the fact that Lincoln was once
one of its inhabitants. His first sight of the town had been in April,
1831, when he and his crew had been detained in getting their flatboat
over the Rutledge and Cameron mill-dam. When Lincoln walked into New
Salem, three months later, he was not altogether a stranger, for the
people remembered him as the ingenious flat-boatman who had freed his
boat from water (and thus enabled it to get over the dam) by resorting
to the miraculous expedient of boring a hole in the bottom.
[Illustration:
WILLIAM G. GREENE.
William G. Greene was one of the earliest friends of Lincoln at New
Salem. He stood on the bank of the Sangamon River on the 19th of
April, 1831, and watched Lincoln bore a hole in the bottom of the
flatboat which had lodged on the mill-dam, so that the water might
run out. A few months later he and Lincoln were both employed by the
enterprising Denton Offutt as clerks in the store and managers of
the mill which had been leased by Offutt. It was William G. Greene
who, returning home from college at Jacksonville on a vacation,
brought Richard Yates with him, and introduced him to Lincoln, the
latter being found stretched out on the cellar door of Bowling
Green’s cabin, reading a book. Mr. Greene was born in Tennessee in
1812, and went to Illinois in 1822. After the disappearance of New
Salem he removed to Tallula, a few miles away, where in after years
he engaged in the banking business. He died in 1894, after amassing
a fortune.
]
Offutt’s goods had not arrived when Mr. Lincoln reached New Salem; and
he “loafed” about, so those who remember his arrival say, good-naturedly
taking a hand in whatever he could find to do, and in his droll way
making friends of everybody. By chance, a bit of work fell to him almost
at once, which introduced him generally and gave him an opportunity to
make a name in the neighborhood. It was election day. The village
school-master, Mentor Graham by name, was clerk, but the assistant was
ill. Looking about for some one to help him, Mr. Graham saw a tall
stranger loitering around the polling-place, and called to him, “Can you
write?” “Yes,” said the stranger, “I can make a few rabbit tracks.” Mr.
Graham evidently was satisfied with the answer, for he promptly
initiated him; and he filled his place not only to the satisfaction of
his employer, but also to the delectation of the loiterers about the
polls, for whenever things dragged he immediately began “to spin out a
stock of Indiana yarns.” So droll were they that years afterward men who
listened to Lincoln that day repeated them to their friends. He had made
a hit in New Salem, to start with, and here, as in Sangamon town, it was
by means of his story-telling.
His next work was to pilot down the Sangamon and Illinois rivers, as far
as Beardstown, a flatboat bearing the family and goods of a pioneer
bound for Texas. At Beardstown he found Offutt’s goods, waiting to be
taken to New Salem. As he footed his way home he met two men with a
wagon and ox-team going for the goods. Offutt had expected Lincoln to
wait at Beardstown until the ox-team arrived, and the teamsters, not
having any credentials, asked Lincoln to give them an order for the
goods. This, sitting down by the roadside, he wrote out; and one of the
men used to relate that it contained a misspelled word, which he
corrected.
[Illustration:
A NEW SALEM SPINNING-WHEEL.
]
IN CHARGE OF DENTON OFFUTT’S STORE.
The precise date of the opening of Denton Offutt’s store is not known.
We only know that on July 8, 1831, the County Commissioners’ Court of
Sangamon County granted Offutt a license to retail merchandise at New
Salem, for which he paid five dollars, a fee which supposed him to have
one thousand dollars’ worth of goods in stock. When the oxen and their
drivers returned with the goods, the store was opened in a little log
house on the brink of the hill, almost over the river.
[Illustration:
A NEW SALEM INTERIOR, SHOWING GENUINE NEW SALEM COSTUMES AND FURNITURE
STILL EXTANT.
Reproduced by permission from “Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album,”
Petersburg, Illinois, 1893.
]
The frontier store filled a unique place. Usually it was a “general
store,” and on its shelves were found most of the articles needed in a
community of pioneers. But to be a place for the sale of dry goods and
groceries was not its only function; it was a kind of intellectual and
social centre. It was the common meeting-place of the farmers, the happy
refuge of the village loungers. No subject was unknown there. The
_habitués_ of the place were equally at home in discussing politics,
religion, or sports. Stories were told, jokes were cracked and laughed
at, and the news contained in the latest newspaper finding its way into
the wilderness was repeated again and again. Such a store was that of
Denton Offutt. Lincoln could hardly have chosen surroundings more
favorable to the highest development of the art of story-telling, and he
had not been there long before his reputation for drollery was
established.
THE CLARY’S GROVE BOYS.
But he gained popularity and respect in other ways. There was near the
village a settlement called Clary’s Grove. The most conspicuous part of
the population was an organization known as the “Clary’s Grove Boys.”
They exercised a veritable terror over the neighborhood, and yet they
were not a vicious band. Mr. Herndon, who had a cousin living in New
Salem at the time, and who knew personally many of the “boys,” says:
“They were friendly and good-natured; they could trench a pond, dig a
bog, build a house; they could pray and fight, make a village or create
a State. They would do almost anything for sport or fun, love or
necessity. Though rude and rough; though life’s forces ran over the edge
of the bowl, foaming and sparkling in pure deviltry for deviltry’s sake,
yet place before them a poor man who needed their aid, a lame or sick
man, a defenceless woman, a widow, or an orphaned child, they melted
into sympathy and charity at once. They gave all they had, and willingly
toiled or played cards for more. Though there never was under the sun a
more generous parcel of rowdies, a stranger’s introduction was likely to
be the most unpleasant part of his acquaintance with them.”
[Illustration:
VIEW FROM THE TOP OF NEW SALEM HILL.
]
Denton Offutt, Lincoln’s employer, was just the man to love to boast
before such a crowd. He seemed to feel that Lincoln’s physical prowess
shed glory on himself, and he declared the country over that his clerk
could lift more, throw farther, run faster, jump higher, and wrestle
better than any man in Sangamon County. The Clary’s Grove Boys, of
course, felt in honor bound to prove this false, and they appointed
their best man, one Jack Armstrong, to “throw Abe.” Jack Armstrong was,
according to the testimony of all who remember him, a “powerful
twister,” “square built and strong as an ox,” “the best-made man that
ever lived;” and everybody knew the contest would be close. Lincoln did
not like to “tussle and scuffle;” he objected to “woolling and pulling;”
but Offutt had gone so far that it became necessary to yield. The match
was held on the ground near the grocery. Clary’s Grove and New Salem
turned out generally to witness the bout, and betting on the result ran
high, the community as a whole staking their jack-knives, tobacco-plugs,
and “treats” on Armstrong. The two men had scarcely taken hold of each
other before it was evident that the Clary’s Grove champion had met a
match. The two men wrestled long and hard, but both kept their feet.
Neither could throw the other, and Armstrong, convinced of this, tried a
“foul.” Lincoln no sooner realized the game of his antagonist than,
furious with indignation, he caught him by the throat and, holding him
out at arm’s length, “shook him like a child.” Armstrong’s friends
rushed to his aid, and for a moment it looked as if Lincoln would be
routed by sheer force of numbers. But he held his own so bravely that
the “boys,” in spite of their sympathies, were filled with admiration.
What bade fair to be a general fight ended in a general hand-shake, even
Jack Armstrong declaring that Lincoln was the “best fellow who ever
broke into the camp.” From that day, at the cock-fights and horse-races,
which were their common sports, he became the chosen umpire; and when
the entertainment broke up in a row—a not uncommon occurrence—he acted
the peacemaker without suffering the peacemaker’s usual fate. Such was
his reputation with the “Clary’s Grove Boys,” after three months in New
Salem, that when the fall muster came off he was elected captain.
[Illustration:
MENTOR GRAHAM.
Mentor Graham was the New Salem school-master. He it was who assisted
Lincoln in mastering Kirkham’s Grammar, and later gave him valuable
assistance when Lincoln was learning the theory of surveying. He
taught in a little log schoolhouse on a hill south of the village,
just across Green’s Rocky Branch. Among his pupils was Ann Rutledge,
and the school was often visited by Lincoln. In 1845 Mentor Graham
was defendant in a lawsuit in which Lincoln and Herndon were
attorneys for the plaintiff, Nancy Green. It appears from the
declaration, written by Lincoln’s own hand, that on October 28,
1844, Mentor Graham gave his note to Nancy Green for one hundred
dollars, with John Owen and Andrew Beerup as sureties, payable
twelve months after date. The note not being paid when due, suit was
brought. That Lincoln, even as an attorney, should sue Mentor Graham
may seem strange; but it is no surprise when it is explained that
the plaintiff was the widow of Bowling Green—the woman who, with her
husband, had comforted Lincoln in an hour of grief. Justice, too, in
this case was clearly on her side. The lawsuit seems never to have
disturbed the friendly relations between Lincoln and Mentor Graham.
The latter’s admiration for the former was unbounded to the day of
his death. Mentor Graham lived on his farm near the ruins of New
Salem until 1860, when he removed to Petersburg. There he lived
until 1885, when he removed to Greenview, Illinois. Later he went to
South Dakota, where he died about 1892, at the ripe old age of
ninety-odd years.
]
Lincoln showed soon that if he was unwilling to indulge in “woolling and
pulling” for amusement, he did not object to it in a case of honor. A
man came into the store one day when women were present, and used
profane language. Lincoln asked him to stop; but the man persisted,
swearing that nobody should prevent his saying what he wanted to. The
women gone, the man began to abuse Lincoln so hotly that the latter
finally said, “Well, if you must be whipped, I suppose I might as well
whip you as any other man;” and going outdoors with the fellow, he threw
him on the ground, and rubbed smart-weed in his eyes until he bellowed
for mercy. New Salem’s sense of chivalry was touched, and enthusiasm
over Lincoln increased.
[Illustration:
MODEL OF FIRST PLOUGH MADE IN MENARD COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Reproduced by permission from “Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album,”
Petersburg, Illinois, 1893.
]
His honesty excited no less admiration. Two incidents seem to have
particularly impressed the community. Having discovered on one occasion
that he had taken six and a quarter cents too much from a customer, he
walked three miles that evening, after his store was closed, to return
the money. Again, he weighed out a half-pound of tea, as he supposed. It
was night, and this was the last thing he did before closing up. On
entering in the morning he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales.
He saw his mistake, and, closing up shop, hurried off to deliver the
remainder of the tea. This unusual regard for the rights of others soon
won him the title of “Honest Abe.”
[Illustration:
A NEW SALEM CHAIR.
This chair is now in the collection of Mr. Louis Vanuxem of
Philadelphia. It was originally owned by Caleb Carmen of New Salem,
and was once repaired by Abraham Lincoln.
]
LINCOLN STUDIES GRAMMAR.
As soon as the store was fairly under way, Lincoln began to look about
for books. Since leaving Indiana, in March, 1830, he had had, in his
drifting life, little leisure or opportunity for study, though he had
had a great deal for observation. Nevertheless his desire to learn had
increased, and his ambition to be somebody had been encouraged. In that
time he had found that he really was superior to many of those who were
called the “great” men of the country. Soon after entering Macon County,
in March, 1830, when he was only twenty-one years old, he had found he
could make a better speech than at least one man who was before the
public. A candidate had come along where John Hanks and he were at work,
and, as John Hanks tells the story, the man made a speech. “It was a bad
one, and I said Abe could beat it. I turned down a box, and Abe made his
speech. The other man was a candidate, Abe wasn’t. Abe beat him to
death, his subject being the navigation of the Sangamon River. The man,
after Abe’s speech was through, took him aside, and asked him where he
had learned so much and how he could do so well. Abe replied, stating
his manner and method of reading, what he had read. The man encouraged
him to persevere.”
He had found that people listened to him, that they quoted his opinions,
and that his friends were already saying that he was able to fill any
position. Offutt even declared the country over that “Abe” knew more
than any man in the United States, and that some day he would be
President.
Under this stimulus Lincoln’s ambition increased. “I have talked with
great men,” he told his fellow-clerk and friend Greene, “and I do not
see how they differ from others.” He made up his mind to put himself
before the public, and talked of his plans to his friends. In order to
keep in practice in speaking he walked seven or eight miles to debating
clubs. “Practising polemics” was what he called the exercise. He seems
now for the first time to have begun to study subjects. Grammar was what
he chose. He sought Mentor Graham, the school-master, and asked his
advice. “If you are going before the public,” Mr. Graham told him, “you
ought to do it.” But where could he get a grammar? There was but one,
said Mr. Graham, in the neighborhood, and that was six miles away.
Without waiting for further information, the young man rose from the
breakfast-table, walked immediately to the place, and borrowed this rare
copy of Kirkham’s Grammar. From that time on for weeks he gave his
leisure to mastering its contents. Frequently he asked his friend Greene
to hold the book while he recited, and when puzzled he would consult Mr.
Graham.
Lincoln’s eagerness to learn was such that the whole neighborhood became
interested. The Greenes lent him books, the school-master kept him in
mind and helped him as he could, and the village cooper let him come
into his shop and keep up a fire of shavings sufficiently bright to read
by at night. It was not long before the grammar was mastered. “Well,”
Lincoln said to his fellow-clerk Greene, “if that’s what they call a
science, I think I’ll go at another.”
Before the winter was ended he had become the most popular man in New
Salem. Although he was but twenty-two years of age in February, 1832;
had never been at school an entire year; had never made a speech, except
in debating clubs or by the roadside; had read only the books he could
pick up, and known only the men of the poor, out-of-the-way towns in
which he had lived, yet, “encouraged by his great popularity among his
immediate neighbors,” as he says, he announced himself, in March, 1832,
as a candidate for the General Assembly of the State.
CHAPTER X.
LINCOLN’S FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE VOTERS OF SANGAMON COUNTY.—HIS VIEWS
ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SANGAMON.—THE MODESTY OF HIS CIRCULAR.
The only preliminary expected of a candidate for the legislature of
Illinois at that date was an announcement stating his “sentiments with
regard to local affairs.” The circular in which Lincoln complied with
this custom was a document of about two thousand words, in which he
plunged at once into the subject he believed most interesting to his
constituents—“the public utility of internal improvements.”
[Illustration:
LINCOLN’S FIRST VOTE.—PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE ORIGINAL POLL-BOOK. AND
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
_Note_: LINCOLN’S FIRST VOTE.—The original poll-book from which the
vote as shown on page 126 is reproduced, is now on file in the
County Clerk’s office, Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s first vote
was cast at New Salem, “in the Clary’s Grove precinct,” August 1,
1831. At this election he aided Mr. Graham, who was one of the
clerks. In the early days in Illinois, elections were conducted by
the _viva voce_ method. The people did try voting by ballot, but the
experiment was unpopular. It required too much “book larnin,” and in
1829 the _viva voce_ method of voting was restored. The judges and
clerks sat at a table with the poll-book before them. The voter
walked up, and announced the candidate of his choice, and it was
recorded in his presence. There was no ticket peddling, and
ballot-box stuffing was impossible. To this simple system we are
indebted for the record of Lincoln’s first vote. As will be seen
from the facsimile, Lincoln voted for James Turney for Congressman,
Bowling Green and Edmund Greer for Magistrates, and John Armstrong
and Henry Sinco for Constables. Of these five men three were
elected. Turney was defeated for Congressman by Joseph Duncan.
Turney lived in Greene County. He was not then a conspicuous figure
in the politics of the State, but was a follower of Henry Clay, and
was well thought of in his own district. He and Lincoln, in 1834,
served their first terms together in the lower house of the
legislature, and later he was a State senator. Joseph Duncan, the
successful candidate, was already in Congress. He was a politician
of influence. In 1834 he was a strong Jackson man; but after his
election as Governor he created consternation among the followers of
“Old Hickory” by becoming a Whig. Sidney Breese, who received only
two votes in the Clary’s Grove precinct, afterward became the most
conspicuous of the five candidates. Eleven years later he defeated
Stephen A. Douglas for the United States Senate, and for twenty-five
years he was on the bench of the Supreme Court of Illinois, serving
under each of the three constitutions. For the office of Magistrate,
Bowling Green was elected, but Greer was beaten. Both of Lincoln’s
candidates for Constable were elected. John Armstrong was the man
with whom, a short time afterward, Lincoln had the celebrated
wrestling match. Henry Sinco was the keeper of a store at New Salem.
Lincoln’s first vote for President was not cast until the next year
(November 5, 1832), when he voted for Henry Clay.
]
At that time the State of Illinois—as, indeed, the whole United
States—was convinced that the future of the country depended on the
opening of canals and railroads, and the clearing out of the rivers. In
the Sangamon country the population felt that a quick way of getting to
Beardstown on the Illinois River, to which point the steamer came from
the Mississippi, was, as Lincoln puts it in his circular, using a phrase
of his hero Clay, “indispensably necessary.” Of course a railroad was
the dream of the settlers; but when it was considered seriously there
was always, as Lincoln says, “a heart-appalling shock accompanying the
amount of its cost, which forces us to shrink from our pleasing
anticipations.”
“The probable cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at two
hundred and ninety thousand dollars; the bare statement of which, in
my opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement
of the Sangamon River is an object much better suited to our infant
resources.
“Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being
contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely
practicable as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably
higher, to vessels of from twenty-five to thirty tons burden, for at
least one-half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater
burden a part of the time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is
probable that for the last twelve months I have given as particular
attention to the stage of the water in this river as any other
person in the country. In the month of March, 1831, in company with
others, I commenced the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and
finished and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that
time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These
circumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been very
inattentive to the stages of the water. The time at which we crossed
the mill-dam being in the last days of April, the water was lower
than it had been since the breaking of winter, in February, or than
it was for several weeks after. The principal difficulties we
encountered in descending the river were from the drifted timber,
which obstructions all know are not difficult to be removed. Knowing
almost precisely the height of water at that time, I believe I am
safe in saying that it has as often been higher as lower since.
“From this view of the subject, it appears that my calculations with
regard to the navigation of the Sangamon cannot but be founded in
reason; but, whatever may be its natural advantages, certain it is
that it never can be practically useful to any great extent without
being greatly improved by art. The drifted timber, as I have before
mentioned, is the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all
parts of this river, none will require as much labor in proportion
to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles; and
going with the meanderings of the channel, when we are this distance
above its mouth, we are only between twelve and eighteen miles from
Beardstown in something near a straight direction, and this route is
upon such low ground as to retain water in many places during the
season, and in all parts such as to draw two-thirds or three-fourths
of the river water at all high stages.
“This route is on prairie-land the whole distance, so that it
appears to me, by removing the turf a sufficient width, and damming
up the old channel, the whole river in a short time would wash its
way through, thereby curtailing the distance and increasing the
velocity of the current very considerably, while there would be no
timber on the banks to obstruct its navigation in future; and being
nearly straight, the timber which might float in at the head would
be apt to go clear through. There are also many places above this
where the river, in its zigzag course, forms such complete
peninsulas as to be easier to cut at the necks than to remove the
obstructions from the bends, which, if done, would also lessen the
distance.
“What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is
probable, however, that it would not be greater than is common to
streams of the same length. Finally, I believe the improvement of
the Sangamon River to be vastly important and highly desirable to
the people of the country; and, if elected, any measure in the
legislature having this for its object, which may appear judicious,
will meet my approbation and receive my support.”
Lincoln could not have advocated a measure more popular. At that moment
the whole population of Sangamon was in a state of wild expectation.
Some six weeks before Lincoln’s circular appeared, a citizen of
Springfield had advertised that as soon as the ice went off the river he
would bring up a steamer, the “Talisman,” from Cincinnati, and prove the
Sangamon navigable. The announcement had aroused the entire country,
speeches were made, and subscriptions taken. The merchants announced
goods direct per steamship “Talisman” the country over, and every
village from Beardstown to Springfield was laid off in town lots. When
the circular appeared the excitement was at its height.
Lincoln’s comments in his circular on two other subjects on which all
candidates of the day expressed themselves, are amusing in their
simplicity. The practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates was then a
great evil in the West. Lincoln proposed that the limits of usury be
fixed, and he closed his paragraph on the subject with these words,
which sound strange enough from a man who in later life showed so
profound a reverence for law:
“In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be means found to
cheat the law; while in all other cases it would have its intended
effect. I would favor the passage of a law on this subject which
might not be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and
difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of
greatest necessity.”
A general revision of the laws of the State was the second topic which
he felt required a word. “Considering the great probability,” he said,
“that the framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer
not meddling with them, unless they were attacked by others; in which,
case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand
which, in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice.”
Of course he said a word for education:
“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or
system respecting it, can only say that I view it as the most
important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every
man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be
enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by
which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions,
appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account
alone; to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be
derived from all being able to read the Scriptures and other works,
both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves.
“For my part, I desire to see the time when education—and by its
means morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry—shall become much
more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in
my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure
which might have a tendency to accelerate that happy period.”
The audacity of a young man in his position presenting himself as a
candidate for the legislature is fully equalled by the humility of the
closing paragraphs of his announcement:
“But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great
degree of modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I
have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the
subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I
may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a
sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all
times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be
erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1860.
From an ambrotype in the possession of Mr. Marcus L. Ward of Newark,
New Jersey. This portrait of Mr. Lincoln was made in Springfield,
Illinois, on May 20, 1860, for the late Hon. Marcus L. Ward,
Governor of New Jersey. Mr. Ward had gone to Springfield to see
Mr. Lincoln, and while there asked him for his picture. The
President-elect replied that he had no picture which was
satisfactory, but would gladly sit for one. The two gentlemen went
out immediately, and in Mr. Ward’s presence Mr. Lincoln had the
above picture taken.
]
[Illustration:
ABOVE THE DAM AT NEW SALEM.
Reproduced, by permission, from “Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir
Album,” Petersburg, Illinois, 1893.
]
“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 of my fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of
their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is
yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was
born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I
have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My
case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the
county; and, if elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me
for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But, if
the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the
background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very
much chagrined.”
[Illustration:
THE KIRKHAM’S GRAMMAR USED BY LINCOLN AT NEW SALEM.—NOW FIRST
PUBLISHED.
From a photograph made especially for this work. The copy of Kirkham’s
Grammar studied by Lincoln belonged to a man named Vaner. Some of
the biographers say Lincoln borrowed it; but it appears that he
became the owner of the book, either by purchase or through the
generosity of Vaner, for it was never returned to the latter. It is
said that Lincoln learned this grammar practically by heart.
“Sometimes,” says Herndon, “he would stretch out at full length on
the counter, his head propped up on a stack of calico prints,
studying it; or he would steal away to the shade of some inviting
tree, and there spend hours at a time in a determined effort to fix
in his mind the arbitrary rule that ‘adverbs qualify verbs,
adjectives, and other adverbs.’” He presented the hook to Ann
Rutledge, and it has since been one of the treasures of the Rutledge
family. After the death of Ann it was studied by her brother Robert,
and is now owned by his widow, who resides at Casselton, North
Dakota. The title page of the book appears above. The words, “Ann M.
Rutledge is now learning grammar,” were written by Lincoln. The
order on James Rutledge to pay David P. Nelson thirty dollars, and
signed “A. Lincoln for D. Offutt,” which is shown above, was pasted
upon the front cover of the book by Robert Rutledge.
]
Very soon after Lincoln had distributed his handbills, enthusiasm on the
subject of the opening of the Sangamon rose to a fever. The “Talisman”
actually came up the river; scores of men went to Beardstown to meet
her, among them Lincoln, of course; and to him was given the honor of
piloting her—an honor which made him remembered by many a man who saw
him that day for the first time. The trip was made with all the wild
demonstrations which always attended the first steamboat. On either bank
a long procession of men and boys on foot or horse accompanied the boat.
Cannons and volleys of musketry were fired as settlements were passed.
At every stop speeches were made, congratulations offered, toasts drunk,
flowers presented. It was one long hurrah from Beardstown to
Springfield, and foremost in the jubilation was Lincoln the pilot. The
“Talisman” went to the point on the river nearest to Springfield, and
there tied up for a week. When she went back, Lincoln again had a
conspicuous position as pilot. The notoriety this gave him was probably
quite as valuable politically as the forty dollars he received for his
service was financially.
While the country had been dreaming of wealth through the opening of the
Sangamon, and Lincoln had been doing his best to prove that the dream
was possible, the store in which he clerked was “petering out”—to use
his own expression. The owner, Denton Offutt, had proved more ambitious
than wise, and Lincoln saw that an early closing by the sheriff was
probable. But before the store was fairly closed, and while the trip of
the “Talisman” was yet exciting the country, an event occurred which
interrupted all of Lincoln’s plans.
[Illustration:
A NEW SALEM CENTRE TABLE.
This table is now owned by W. C. Green of Talula, Illinois. Originally
it was part of the furniture of the cabin of Bowling Green, near New
Salem.
]
[Illustration:
A CLARY’S GROVE LOG CABIN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From a water-color by Miss Etta Ackermann, Springfield, Illinois.
“Clary’s Grove” was the name of a settlement five miles southwest of
New Salem, deriving its name from a grove on the land of the Clarys.
It was the headquarters of a daring and reckless set of young men
living in the neighborhood and known as the “Clary’s Grove Boys.”
This cabin was the residence of George Davis, one of the “Clary’s
Grove Boys,” and grandfather of Miss Ackermann. It was built in
1824, seventy-one years ago, and is the only one left of the cluster
of cabins which constituted the little community.
]
CHAPTER XI.
OUTBREAK OF SACS AND FOXES.—LINCOLN VOLUNTEERS AND IS MADE A
CAPTAIN.—INCIDENTS OF HIS SERVICE AS CAPTAIN.—STILLMAN’S DEFEAT.
One morning in April a messenger from the governor of the State rode
into New Salem, scattering circulars. These circulars contained an
address from Governor Reynolds to the militia of the northwest section
of the State, announcing that the British band of Sacs and other hostile
Indians, headed by Black Hawk, had invaded the Rock River country, to
the great terror of the frontier inhabitants; and calling upon the
citizens who were willing to aid in repelling them, to rendezvous at
Beardstown within a week.
[Illustration:
NANCY GREEN.
Nancy Green was the wife of “Squire” Bowling Green. Her maiden name
was Nancy Potter. She was born in North Carolina in 1797, and
married Bowling Green in 1818. She removed with him to New Salem in
1820, and lived in that vicinity until her death, in 1864. Lincoln
was a constant visitor in Nancy Green’s home.
]
The name of Black Hawk was familiar to the people of Illinois. He was an
old enemy of the settlers, and had been a tried friend of the British.
The land his people had once owned in the northwest of the present State
of Illinois had been sold in 1804 to the government of the United
States, but with the provision that the Indians should hunt and raise
corn there until it was surveyed and sold to settlers. Long before the
land was surveyed, however, squatters had invaded the country, and tried
to force the Indians west of the Mississippi. Particularly envious were
these whites of the lands at the mouth of the Rock River, where the
ancient village and burial place of the Sacs stood, and where they came
each year to raise corn. Black Hawk had resisted their encroachments,
and many violent acts had been committed on both sides.
Finally, however, the squatters, in spite of the fact that the line of
settlement was still fifty miles away, succeeded in evading the real
meaning of the treaty and in securing a survey of the desired land at
the mouth of the river. Black Hawk, exasperated and broken-hearted at
seeing his village violated, persuaded himself that the village had
never been sold—indeed, that land could not be sold.
“My reason teaches me,” he wrote, “that land cannot be sold. The
Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon, and cultivate, as
far as is necessary for their subsistence; and so long as they
occupy and cultivate it they have the right to the soil, but if they
voluntarily leave it, then any other people have a right to settle
upon it. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried
away.”
[Illustration:
JOHN A. CLARY.
John A. Clary was one of the “Clary’s Grove Boys.” He was the son of
John Clary, the head of the numerous Clary family which settled in
the vicinity of New Salem in 1881. He was born in Tennessee in 1815
and died in 1880. He was an intimate associate of Lincoln during the
latter’s New Salem days.
]
Supported by this theory, conscious that in some way he did not
understand he had been wronged, and urged on by White Cloud, the
prophet, who ruled a Winnebago village on the Rock River, Black Hawk
crossed the Mississippi in 1831, determined to evict the settlers. A
military demonstration drove him back, and he was persuaded to sign a
treaty never to return east of the Mississippi. “I touched the
goose-quill to the treaty and was determined to live in peace,” he wrote
afterward; but hardly had he “touched the goose-quill” before his heart
smote him. Longing for his home, resentment at the whites, obstinacy,
brooding over the bad counsels of White Cloud and his disciple
Neapope—an agitating Indian who had recently been East to visit the
British and their Indian allies, and who assured Black Hawk that the
Winnebagoes, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawottomies would join him in a
struggle for his land, and that the British would send him “guns,
ammunition, provisions, and clothing early in the spring”—all persuaded
the Hawk that he would be successful if he made an effort to drive out
the whites. In spite of the advice of many of his friends and of the
Indian agent in the country, he crossed the river on April 6, 1832, and
with some five hundred braves, his squaws and children, marched to the
Prophet’s town, thirty-five miles up the Rock River.
As soon as they heard of Black Hawk’s invasion, the settlers of the
northwestern part of the State fled in a panic to the forts; and they
rained petitions for protection on Governor Reynolds. General Atkinson,
who was at Fort Armstrong, wrote to the governor for reënforcements;
and, accordingly, on the 16th of April Governor Reynolds sent out
“influential messengers” with a sonorous summons. It was one of these
messengers riding into New Salem who put an end to Lincoln’s canvassing
for the legislature, freed him from Offutt’s expiring grocery, and led
him to enlist.
There was no time to waste. The volunteers were ordered to be at
Beardstown, nearly forty miles from New Salem, on April 22d. Horses,
rifles, saddles, blankets were to be secured, a company formed. It was
work of which the settlers were not ignorant. Under the laws of the
State every able-bodied male inhabitant between eighteen and forty-five
was obliged to drill twice a year or pay a fine of one dollar. “As a
dollar was hard to raise,” says one of the old settlers, “everybody
drilled.”
LINCOLN A CAPTAIN.
[Illustration:
DUTCH OVEN.
From a photograph made for this work. Owned by Mrs. Ott of Petersburg,
Illinois. “A kind of flat-bottomed pot, ... which stood upon three
legs of three inches long, and had an iron lid. Into this bread or
meats were put, and baked by placing it on the hearth with a
quantity of coals under it and upon the lid, which was made with a
rim to keep the coals upon it, and a loop handle to lift it by. It
also had a bail like a pot, by which it could be hung over the
fire.”—_Recollections of Life in Ohio_, by WILLIAM COOPER HOWELLS.
]
Preparations were quickly made, and by April 22d the men were at
Beardstown. The day before, at Richland, Sangamon County, Lincoln had
been elected to the captaincy of the company from Sangamon to which he
belonged.
His friend Greene gave another reason than ambition to explain his
desire for the captaincy. One of the “odd jobs” which Lincoln had taken
since coming into Illinois was working in a saw-mill for a man named
Kirkpatrick. In hiring Lincoln, Kirkpatrick had promised to buy him a
cant-hook with which to move heavy logs. Lincoln had proposed, if
Kirkpatrick would give him the two dollars which the cant-hook would
cost, to move the logs with a common hand-spike. This the proprietor had
agreed to, but when payday came he refused to keep his word. When the
Sangamon company of volunteers was formed, Kirkpatrick aspired to the
captaincy, and Lincoln, knowing it, said to Greene: “Bill, I believe I
can now make Kirkpatrick pay that two dollars he owes me on the
cant-hook. I’ll run against him for captain;” and he became a candidate.
The vote was taken in a field, by directing the men at the command
“march” to assemble around the one they wanted for captain. When the
order was given, three-fourths of the men gathered around Lincoln.[14]
In Lincoln’s curious third-person autobiography he says he was elected,
“to his own surprise;” and adds, “He says he has not since had any
success in life which gave him so much satisfaction.”
Footnote 14:
This story of Kirkpatrick’s unfair treatment of Lincoln we owe to the
courtesy of Colonel Clark E. Carr of Galesburg, Illinois, to whom it
was told several times by Greene himself.
The company was a motley crowd of men. Each had secured for his outfit
what he could get, and no two were equipped alike. Buckskin breeches
prevailed, and there was a sprinkling of coonskin caps. Each man had a
blanket of the coarsest texture. Flint-lock rifles were the usual arms,
though here and there a man had a Cramer. Over the shoulder of each was
slung a powder-horn. The men had, as a rule, as little regard for
discipline as for appearances, and when the new captain gave an order
were as likely to jeer at it as to obey it. To drive the Indians out was
their mission, and any orders which did not bear directly on that point
were little respected. Lincoln himself was not familiar with military
tactics, and made many blunders, of which he used to tell afterwards
with relish. One of his early experiences in handling his company is
particularly amusing. He was marching with a front of over twenty men
across a field, when he desired to pass through a gateway into the next
inclosure.
“I could not for the life of me,” said he, “remember the proper word of
command for getting my company _endwise_, so that it could get through
the gate; so, as we came near the gate, I shouted, ‘This company is
dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side
of the gate!’”
Nor was it only his ignorance of the manual which caused him trouble. He
was so unfamiliar with camp discipline that he once had his sword taken
from him for shooting within limits. Another disgrace he suffered was on
account of his disorderly company. The men, unknown to him, stole a
quantity of liquor one night, and the next morning were too drunk to
fall in when the order was given to march. For their lawlessness Lincoln
wore a wooden sword two days.
[Illustration:
VIEW OF THE SANGAMON RIVER NEAR NEW SALEM.
The town lay along the ridge marked by the star.
]
But none of these small difficulties injured his standing with the
company. Lincoln was tactful, and he joined his men in sports as well as
duties. They soon grew so proud of his quick wit and great strength that
they obeyed him because they admired him. No amount of military tactics
could have secured from the volunteers the cheerful following he won by
his personal qualities.
[Illustration:
SITE OF DENTON OFFUTT’S STORE.
From a photograph taken for this work. The building in which Lincoln
clerked for Denton Offutt was standing as late as 1836, and
presumably stood until it rotted down. A slight depression in the
earth, evidently once a cellar, is all that remains of Offutt’s
store. Out of this hole in the ground have grown three trees, a
locust, an elm, and a sycamore, seeming to spring from the same
roots, and curiously twined together. High up on the sycamore some
genius has chiselled the face of Lincoln.
]
[Illustration:
JOHN POTTER, NEIGHBOR OF LINCOLN’S AT NEW SALEM.
From a recent photograph. John Potter, born November 10, 1808, was a
few months older than Lincoln. He is now living at Petersburg,
Illinois. He settled in the country one and one-half miles from New
Salem in 1820. Mr. Potter remembers Lincoln’s first appearance in
New Salem, in July, 1831. He corroborates the stories told of his
store, of his popularity in the community, and of the general
impression that he was an unusually promising young man.
]
The men soon learned, too, that he meant what he said, and would permit
no dishonorable actions. A helpless Indian took refuge in the camp one
day; and the men, who were inspired by what Governor Reynolds calls
_Indian ill-will_—that wanton mixture of selfishness, unreason, and
cruelty which seems to seize a frontiersman as soon as he scents a red
man—were determined to kill the refugee. He had a safe conduct from
General Cass; but the men, having come out to kill Indians and not
having succeeded, threatened to take revenge on the helpless savage.
Lincoln boldly took the man’s part, and, though he risked his life in
doing it, he cowed the company and saved the Indian.
It was on the 27th of April that the force of sixteen hundred men
organized at Beardstown started out. The spring was cold, the roads
heavy, the streams turbulent. The army marched first to Yellow Banks on
the Mississippi; then to Dixon on the Rock River, which they reached on
May 12th. At Dixon they camped, and near here occurred the first
bloodshed of the war.
A body of about three hundred and forty rangers under Major Stillman,
but not of the regular army, asked to go ahead as scouts, to look for a
body of Indians under Black Hawk, rumored to be about twelve miles away.
The permission was given, and on the night of the 14th of May, Stillman
and his men went into camp. Black Hawk heard of their presence. By this
time the poor old chief had discovered that the promises of aid from the
Indian tribes and the British were false, and, dismayed, he had resolved
to recross the Mississippi. When he heard of the whites near, he sent
three braves with a white flag to ask for a parley and permission to
descend the river. Behind them he sent five men to watch proceedings.
Stillman’s rangers were in camp when the bearers of the flag of truce
appeared. The men were many of them half drunk, and when they saw the
Indian truce-bearers, they rushed out in a wild mob, and ran them into
camp. Then catching sight of the five spies, they started after them,
killing two. The three who reached Black Hawk reported that the
truce-bearers had been killed, as well as their two companions. Furious
at this violation of faith, Black Hawk raised a yell, and sallied forth
with forty braves to meet Stillman’s band, who by this time were out in
search of the Indians. Black Hawk, too maddened to think of the
difference of numbers, attacked the whites. To his surprise the enemy
turned, and fled in a wild riot. Nor did they stop at their camp, which
from its position was almost impregnable; they fled in complete panic,
_sauve qui peut_, through their camp, across prairie and rivers and
swamps, to Dixon, twelve miles away. The first arrival reported that two
thousand savages had swept down on Stillman’s camp and slaughtered all
but himself. Before the next night all but eleven of the band had
arrived.
Stillman’s defeat, as this disgraceful affair is called, put all notion
of peace out of Black Hawk’s mind, and he started out in earnest on the
warpath. By the morning of the 15th, Governor Reynolds and his army were
in pursuit of Black Hawk. But it was like pursuing a shadow. The Indians
purposely confused their trail. Sometimes it was a broad path, then it
suddenly radiated to all points. The whites broke their bands, and
pursued the savages here and there, never overtaking them, though now
and then coming suddenly on some terrible evidences of their presence—a
frontier home deserted and burned, slaughtered cattle, scalps suspended
where the army could not fail to see them.
[Illustration:
BOWLING GREEN’S HOUSE.
From a photograph made for this work. Bowling Green’s log cabin, half
a mile north of New Salem, just under the bluff, still stands, but
long since ceased to be a dwelling-house, and is now a tumble-down
old stable. Here Lincoln was a frequent boarder, especially during
the period of his closest application to the study of the law.
Stretched out on the cellar door of this cabin, reading a book, he
met for the first time “Dick” Yates, then a college student at
Jacksonville, and destined to become the great “War Governor” of the
State. Yates had come home with William G. Greene to spend his
vacation, and Greene took him around to Bowling Green’s house to
introduce him to “his friend, Abe Lincoln.” Unhappily there is
nowhere in existence a picture of the original occupant of this
humble cabin. Bowling Green was one of the leading citizens of the
county. He was County Commissioner from 1826 to 1828; he was for
many years a justice of the peace; he was a prominent member of the
Masonic fraternity, and a very active and uncompromising Whig. The
friendship between him and Lincoln, beginning at a very early day,
continued until his death, in 1842.
]
This fruitless warfare exasperated the volunteers; they threatened to
leave, and their officers had great difficulty in making them obey
orders. On reaching a point on the Rock River, beyond which lay the
Indian country, the men under Colonel Zachary Taylor refused to cross,
urging that they had volunteered only to defend the State, and had the
right to refuse to go out of its borders. Taylor heard them to the end,
and then said: “I feel that all gentlemen here are my equals; in
reality, I am persuaded that many of them will, in a few years, be my
superiors, and perhaps, in the capacity of members of Congress, arbiters
of the fortunes and reputation of humble servants of the Republic, like
myself. I expect then to obey them as interpreters of the will of the
people; and the best proof that I will obey them is now to observe the
orders of those whom the people have already put in the place of
authority to which many gentlemen around me justly aspire. In plain
English, gentlemen and fellow-citizens, the word has been passed on to
me from Washington to follow Black Hawk and to take you with me as
soldiers. I mean to do both. There are the flatboats drawn up on the
shore, and here are Uncle Sam’s men drawn up behind you on the prairie.”
The volunteers knew true grit when they met it. They dissolved their
meeting and crossed the river without Uncle Sam’s men being called into
action.
CHAPTER XII.
LINCOLN AN INDEPENDENT RANGER.—MAJOR ILES’S REMINISCENCES OF THE
CAMPAIGN.—END OF THE-BLACK HAWK WAR.
The march in pursuit of the Indians led the army to Ottawa, where the
volunteers became so dissatisfied that on May 27th and 28th Governor
Reynolds mustered them out. But a force in the field was essential until
a new levy was raised, and a few of the men were patriotic enough to
offer their services, among them Lincoln, who, on May 29th, was mustered
in, at the mouth of the Fox River, by a man in whom, thirty years later,
he was to have a keen interest—General Robert Anderson, commander at
Fort Sumter in 1861. Lincoln became a private in Captain Elijah Iles’s
company of Independent Rangers, not brigaded—a company made up, says
Captain Iles in his “Footsteps and Wanderings,” of “generals, colonels,
captains, and distinguished men from the disbanded army.” General
Anderson says that at this muster Lincoln’s arms were valued at forty
dollars, his horse and equipment at one hundred and twenty dollars. The
Independent Rangers were a favored body, used to carry messages and to
spy on the enemy. They had no camp duties, and “drew rations as often as
they pleased;” so that as a private Lincoln was really better off than
as a captain.[15]
Footnote 15:
William Cullen Bryant, who was in Illinois in 1832, at the time of the
Black Hawk War, used to tell of meeting in his travels in the State a
company of Illinois volunteers, commanded by a “raw youth” of “quaint
and pleasant” speech, who, he learned afterwards, was Abraham Lincoln.
As Lincoln’s captaincy ended on May 27th, and Mr. Bryant did not reach
Illinois until June 12th, and as he never came nearer than fifty miles
to the Rapids of the Illinois, where the body of rangers to which
Lincoln belonged was encamped, it is evident that the “raw youth”
could not have been Lincoln, much as one would like to believe that it
was.
[Illustration:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a photograph in the collection of T. H. Bartlett, the sculptor,
of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Bartlett regards this as his earliest
portrait of Mr. Lincoln, but does not know when or where it was
taken. This portrait is also in the Oldroyd collection at
Washington, D. C., where it is dated 1856. The collection of Lincoln
portraits owned by Mr. Bartlett is the most complete and the most
intelligently arranged which we have examined. Mr. Bartlett began
collecting fully twenty years ago, his aim being to secure data for
a study of Mr. Lincoln from a physiognomical point of view. He has
probably the earliest portrait which exists, the one here given,
excepting the early daguerreotype owned by Mr. Robert Lincoln. He
has a large number of the Illinois pictures made from 1858 to 1860,
such as the Gilmer picture (page 209); a large collection of Brady
photographs, the masks, Volk’s bust, and other interesting
portraits. These he has studied from a sculptor’s point of view,
comparing them carefully with the portraiture of other men, as
Webster and Emerson. Mr. Bartlett has embodied his study of Mr.
Lincoln in an illustrated lecture, which is a model of what such a
lecture should be, suggestive, human, delightful. All his fine
collection of Lincoln portraits Mr. Bartlett has put freely at our
disposal, an act of courtesy and generosity for which the readers of
this work, as well as the authors, cannot fail to be deeply
grateful.
]
The achievements and tribulations of the body of rangers to which he
belonged are told with interesting detail by Major Iles.
“While the other companies were ordered to scout the country,” says
Major Iles, “mine was held by General Atkinson in camp as a reserve. One
company was ordered to go to Rock River (now Dixon) and report to
Colonel Taylor (afterwards President), who had been left there with a
few United States soldiers to guard the army supplies. The place was
also made a point of rendezvous. Just as the company got to Dixon, a man
came in, and reported that he and six others were on the road to Galena,
and, in passing through a point of timber about twenty miles north of
Dixon, they were fired on and six killed, he being the only one to make
his escape.... Colonel Taylor ordered the company to proceed to the
place, bury the dead, go on to Galena, and get all the information they
could about the Indians. But the company took fright, and came back to
the Illinois River, helter-skelter.
“General Atkinson then called on me, and wanted to know how I felt about
taking the trip; that he was exceedingly anxious to open communication
with Galena, and to find out, if possible, the whereabouts of the
Indians before the new troops arrived. I answered the general that
myself and men were getting rusty, and were anxious to have something to
do, and that nothing would please us better than to be ordered out on an
expedition; that I would find out how many of my men had good horses and
were otherwise well equipped, and what time we wanted to prepare for the
trip. I called on him again at sunset, and reported that I had about
fifty men well equipped and eager, and that we wanted one day to make
preparations. He said go ahead, and he would prepare our orders.
“The next day was a busy one, running bullets and getting our
flint-locks in order—we had no percussion locks then. General Henry, one
of my privates, who had been promoted to the position of major of one of
the companies, volunteered to go with us. I considered him a host, as he
had served as lieutenant in the war of 1812, under General Scott, and
was in the battle of Lundy’s Lane, and several other battles. He was a
good drill officer, and could aid me much.... After General Atkinson
handed me my orders, and my men were mounted and ready for the trip, I
felt proud of them, and was confident of our success, although numbering
only forty-eight. Several good men failed to go, as they had gone down
to the foot of the Illinois Rapids, to aid in bringing up the boats of
army supplies. We wanted to be as little encumbered as possible, and
took nothing that could be dispensed with, other than blankets, tin
cups, coffee-pots, canteens, a wallet of bread, and some fat side meat,
which we ate raw or broiled.
“When we arrived at Rock River, we found Colonel Taylor on the opposite
side, in a little fort built of prairie sod. He sent an officer in a
canoe to bring me over. I said to the officer that I would come over as
soon as I got my men in camp. I knew of a good spring half a mile above,
and I determined to camp at it. After the men were in camp I called on
General Henry, and he accompanied me. On meeting Colonel Taylor (he
looked like a man born to command) he seemed a little piqued that I did
not come over and camp with him. I told him we felt just as safe as if
quartered in his one-horse fort; besides, I knew what his orders would
be, and wanted to try the mettle of my men before starting on the
perilous trip I knew he would order. He said the trip was perilous, and
that since the murder of the six men all communication with Galena had
been cut off, and it might be besieged; that he wanted me to proceed to
Galena, and that he would have my orders for me in the morning, and
asked what outfit I wanted. I answered, ‘Nothing but coffee, side meat,
and bread.’
“In the morning my orders were to collect and bury the remains of the
six men murdered, proceed to Galena, make a careful search for the signs
of Indians, and find out whether they were aiming to escape by crossing
the river below Galena, and get all information at Galena of their
possible whereabouts before the new troops were ready to follow them.
[Illustration:
THE BLACK HAWK.
From a photograph made for this work. After a portrait by George
Catlin, in the National Museum at Washington, D. C., and here
reproduced by the courtesy of the director, Mr. G. Brown Goode.
Makataimeshekiakiak, the Black Hawk Sparrow, was born in 1767, on
the Rock River. He was not a chief by birth, but through the valor
of his deeds became the leader of his village. He was imaginative
and discontented, and bred endless trouble in the Northwest by his
complaints and his visionary schemes. He was completely under the
influence of the British agents, and in 1812 joined Tecumseh in the
war against the United States. After the close of that war the Hawk
was peaceable until driven to resistance by the encroachments of the
squatters. After the battle of Bad Axe he escaped, and was not
captured until betrayed by two Winnebagoes. He was taken to Fort
Armstrong, where he signed a treaty of peace, and then was
transferred as a prisoner of war to Jefferson Barracks, now St.
Louis, where Catlin painted him. Catlin, in his “Eight Years,” says:
“When I painted this chief he was dressed in a plain suit of
buckskin, with a string of wampum in his ears and on his neck, and
held in his hand his medicine-bag, which was the skin of a black
hawk, from which he had taken his name, and the tail of which made
him a fan, which he was almost constantly using.” In April, 1833,
Black Hawk and the other prisoners of war were transferred to
Fortress Monroe. They were released in June, and made a trip through
the Atlantic cities before returning West. Black Hawk settled in
Iowa, where he and his followers were given a small reservation in
Davis County. He died in 1838.
]
“John Dixon, who kept a house of entertainment here, and had sent his
family to Galena for safety, joined us, and hauled our wallets of corn
and grub in his wagon, which was a great help. Lieutenant Harris,
U.S.A., also joined us. I now had fifty men to go with me on the march.
I detailed two to march on the right, two on the left, and two in
advance, to act as lookouts to prevent a surprise. They were to keep in
full view of us, and to remain out until we camped for the night. Just
at sundown of the first day, while we were at lunch, our advance scouts
came in under whip and reported Indians. We bounced to our feet, and,
having a full view of the road for a long distance, could see a large
body coming toward us. All eyes were turned to John Dixon, who, as the
last one dropped out of sight coming over a ridge, pronounced them
Indians. I stationed my men in a ravine crossing the road, where any one
approaching could not see us until within thirty yards; the horses I had
driven back out of sight in a valley. I asked General Henry to take
command. He said, ‘No; stand at your post,’ and walked along the line,
talking to the men in a low, calm voice. Lieutenant Harris, U.S.A.,
seemed much agitated; he ran up and down the line, and exclaimed,
‘Captain, we will catch hell!’ He had horse-pistols, belt-pistols, and a
double-barrelled gun. He would pick the flints, reprime, and lay the
horse-pistols at his feet. When he got all ready he passed along the
line slowly, and seeing the nerves of the men all quiet—after General
Henry’s talk to them—said, ‘Captain, we are safe; we can whip five
hundred Indians.’ Instead of Indians, they proved to be the command of
General Dodge, from Galena, of one hundred and fifty men, _en route_ to
find out what had become of General Atkinson’s army, as, since the
murder of the six men, communication had been stopped for more than ten
days. My look-out at the top of the hill did not notify us, and we were
not undeceived until they got within thirty steps of us. My men then
raised a yell and ran to finish their lunch....
[Illustration:
WHITE CLOUD, THE PROPHET.
From a photograph made for this work. After a painting in the
collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and here
reproduced through the courtesy of the secretary, Mr. Reuben G.
Thwaites. The chief of an Indian village on the Rock River, White
Cloud was half Winnebago, half Sac. He was false and crafty, and it
was largely his counsels which induced Black Hawk to recross the
Mississippi in 1832. He was captured with Black Hawk, was a prisoner
at both Jefferson Barracks and Fortress Monroe, and made the tour of
the Atlantic cities with his friends. The above portrait was made at
Fortress Monroe by R. M. Sully. Catlin also painted White Cloud at
Jefferson Barracks in 1832. He describes him as about forty years
old at that time, “nearly six feet high, stout and athletic.” He
said he let his hair grow out to please the whites. Catlin’s picture
shows him with a very heavy head of hair. The prophet, after his
return from the East, remained among his people until his death in
1840 or 1841.
]
“When we got within fifteen miles of Galena, on Apple Creek, we found a
stockade filled with women and children and a few men, all terribly
frightened. The Indians had shot at and chased two men that afternoon,
who made their escape to the stockade. They insisted on our quartering
in the fort, but instead we camped one hundred yards outside, and
slept—what little sleep we did get—with our guns on our arms. General
Henry did not sleep, but drilled my men all night; so the moment they
were called they would bounce to their feet and stand in two lines, the
front ready to fire, and fall back to reload, while the others stepped
forward to take their places. They were called up a number of times, and
we got but little sleep. We arrived at Galena the next day, and found
the citizens prepared to defend the place. They were glad to see us, as
it had been so long since they had heard from General Atkinson and his
army. The few Indians prowling about Galena and murdering were simply
there as a ruse.
[Illustration:
BLACK HAWK.
From a photograph made for this work. After an improved replica of the
original portrait painted by R. M. Sully at Fortress Monroe in 1833,
and now in the Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
at Madison. It is reproduced through the courtesy of the secretary
of the society, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites.
]
[Illustration:
WHIRLING THUNDER.
From a photograph made for this work. After a painting by R. M. Sully
in the collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and
here reproduced through the courtesy of the secretary, Mr. Reuben G.
Thwaites. Black Hawk had two sons: the elder was the Whirling
Thunder, the younger the Roaring Thunder; both were in the war, and
both were taken prisoners with their father, and were with him at
Jefferson Barracks and at Fortress Monroe and on the trip through
the Atlantic cities. At Jefferson Barracks Catlin painted them, and
the pictures are in the National Museum. While at Fortress Monroe
the above picture of Whirling Thunder was painted. A pretty anecdote
is told of the Whirling Thunder. While on their tour through the
East the Indians were invited to various gatherings, and much was
done for their entertainment. On one of these occasions a young lady
sang a ballad. Whirling Thunder listened intently, and when she
ended he plucked an eagle’s feather from his head-dress and, giving
it to a white friend, said: “Take that to your mocking-bird squaw.”
Black Hawk’s sons remained with him until his death in 1838, and
then removed with the Sacs and Foxes to Kansas.
]
“On our return from Galena, near the forks of the Apple River and
Gratiot roads, we could see General Dodge on the Gratiot road, on his
return from Rock River. His six scouts had discovered my two men that I
had allowed to drop in the rear—two men who had been in Stillman’s
defeat, and, having weak horses, were allowed to fall behind. Having
weak horses they had fallen in the rear about two miles, and each took
the other to be Indians, and such an exciting race I never saw, until
they got sight of my company; then they came to a sudden halt, and after
looking at us a few moments, wheeled their horses and gave up the chase.
My two men did not know but that they were Indians until they came up
with us and shouted ‘Indians!’ They had thrown away their wallets and
guns, and used their ramrods as whips.
[Illustration:
ZACHARY TAYLOR.
At the breaking out of the Black Hawk War, Zachary Taylor, afterwards
general in the Mexican War, and finally President of the United
States, was colonel of the First Infantry. He joined Atkinson at the
beginning of the war, and was in active service until the end of the
campaign.
]
“The few houses on the road that usually accommodated the travel were
all standing, but vacant, as we went. On our return we found them burned
by the Indians. On my return to the Illinois River I reported to General
Atkinson, saying that, from all we could learn, the Indians were aiming
to escape by going north, with the intention of crossing the Mississippi
River above Galena. The new troops had just arrived and were being
mustered into service. My company had only been organized for twenty
days, and as the time had now expired, the men were mustered out. All
but myself again volunteered for the third time.”
LINCOLN AND HIS COMPANY ENTER MICHIGAN TERRITORY.
On June 20th Lincoln was mustered in again, by Major Anderson, as a
member of an independent company under Captain Jacob M. Early. His arms
were valued this time at only fifteen dollars, his horse and equipment
at eighty-five dollars.[16]
Footnote 16:
See “Wisconsin Historical Collections,” Volume X., for Major
Anderson’s reminiscences of the Black Hawk War.
[Illustration:
BLACK HAWK WAR RELICS.
From a photograph made for this work. This group of relics of the
Black Hawk War was selected for us from the collection in the museum
of the Wisconsin Historical Society by the secretary, Mr. Reuben G.
Thwaites. The coat and chapeau belonged to General Dodge, an
important leader in the war. The Indian relics are a tomahawk, a
Winnebago pipe, a Winnebago flute, and a knife. The powder-horn and
the flint-lock rifle are the only volunteer articles. One of the
survivors of the war, Mr. Elijah Herring of Stockton, Illinois, says
of the flint-lock rifles used by the Illinois volunteers: “They were
constructed like the old-fashioned rifle, only in place of a nipple
for a cap they had a pan in which was fixed an oil flint which the
hammer struck when it came down, instead of the modern cap. The pan
was filled with powder grains, enough to catch the spark and
communicate it to the load in the gun. These guns were all right,
and rarely missed fire on a dry, clear day; but unless they were
covered well, the dews of evening would dampen the powder, and very
often we were compelled to withdraw the charge and load them over
again. We had a gunsmith with us, whose business it was to look
after the guns for the whole regiment; and when a gun was found to
be damp, it was his duty to get his tools and ‘draw’ the load. At
that time the Cramer lock and triggers had just been put on the
market, and my rifle was equipped with these improvements, a fact of
which I was very proud. Instead of one trigger my rifle had two, one
set behind the other—the hind one to cock the gun, and the front one
to shoot it. The man Cramer sold his lock and triggers in St. Louis,
and I was one of the first to use them.”
]
The army moved up Rock River soon after the middle of June. Black Hawk
was overrunning the country, and scattering death wherever he went. The
settlers were wild with fear, and most of the settlements were
abandoned. At a sudden sound, at the merest rumor, men, women, and
children fled. “I well remember those troublesome times,” says one old
Illinois woman. “We often left our bread-dough unbaked, to rush to the
Indian fort near by.” When Mr. John Bryant, a brother of William Cullen
Bryant, visited the colony in Princeton, in 1832, he found it nearly
broken up on account of the war. Everywhere the crops were neglected,
for the able-bodied men were volunteering. William Cullen Bryant, who,
in June, 1834, travelled on horseback from Petersburg to near Pekin, and
back, wrote home: “Every few miles on our way we fell in with bodies of
Illinois militia proceeding to the American camp, or saw where they had
encamped for the night. They generally stationed themselves near a
stream or a spring in the edge of a wood, and turned their horses to
graze on the prairie. Their way was barked or girdled, and the roads
through the uninhabited country were as much beaten and as dusty as the
highways on New York Island. Some of the settlers complained that they
made war upon the pigs and chickens. They were a hard-looking set of
men, unkempt and unshaved, wearing shirts of dark calico, and sometimes
calico capotes.”
Soon after the army moved up the Rock River, the independent spy
company, of which Lincoln was a member, was sent with a brigade to the
northwest, near Galena, in pursuit of the Hawk. The nearest Lincoln came
to an actual engagement in the war was here. The skirmish of Kellogg’s
Grove took place on June 25th; Lincoln’s company came up soon after it
was over, and helped bury the five men killed. It was probably to this
experience that he referred when he told a friend once of coming on a
camp of white scouts one morning just as the sun was rising. The Indians
had surprised the camp, and had killed and scalped every man.
“I remember just how those men looked,” said Lincoln, “as we rode up the
little hill where their camp was. The red light of the morning sun was
streaming upon them as they lay heads towards us on the ground. And
every man had a round red spot on the top of his head, about as big as a
dollar, where the redskins had taken his scalp. It was frightful, but it
was grotesque; and the red sunlight seemed to paint everything all
over.” Lincoln paused, as if recalling the vivid picture, and added,
somewhat irrelevantly, “I remember that one man had buckskin breeches
on.”
By the end of the month the troops crossed into Michigan Territory—as
Wisconsin was then called—and July was passed floundering in swamps and
stumbling through forests, in pursuit of the now nearly exhausted Black
Hawk. On July 10th, three weeks before the last battle of the war, that
of Bad Axe, in which the whites finally massacred most of the Indian
band, Lincoln’s company was disbanded at Whitewater, Wisconsin, and he
and his friends started for home. The volunteers in returning suffered
much from hunger. Mr. Durley of Hennepin, Illinois, who walked home from
Rock Island, Illinois, says all he had to eat on the journey was meal
and water baked in rolls of bark laid by the fire. Lincoln was little
better off. The night before his company started from Whitewater he and
one of his messmates had their horses stolen; and, excepting when their
more fortunate companions gave them a lift, they walked as far as
Peoria, Illinois, where they bought a canoe, and paddled down the
Illinois River to Havana. Here they sold the canoe, and walked across
the country to New Salem.
CHAPTER XIII.
ELECTIONEERING IN 1832 IN ILLINOIS.—LINCOLN DEFEATED OF ELECTION TO THE
ASSEMBLY.—BUYS A STORE.
On returning to New Salem, Lincoln at once plunged into electioneering.
He ran as “an avowed Clay man,” and the county was stiffly Democratic.
However, in those days political contests were almost purely personal.
If the candidate was liked he was voted for irrespective of principles.
“The Democrats of New Salem worked for Lincoln out of their personal
regard for him,” said Stephen T. Logan, a young lawyer of Springfield,
who made Lincoln’s acquaintance in the campaign. “He was as stiff as a
man could be in his Whig doctrines. They did this for him simply because
he was popular; because he was Lincoln.”
It was the custom for the candidates to appear at every gathering which
brought the people out, and, if they had a chance, to make speeches.
Then, as now, the farmers gathered at the county-seat, or at the largest
town within their reach, on Saturday afternoons, to dispose of produce,
buy supplies, see their neighbors, and get the news. During election
times candidates were always present, and a regular feature of the day
was listening to their speeches. Public sales, also, were gatherings
which they never missed, it being expected that after the “vandoo” the
candidates would take the auctioneer’s place.
Lincoln let none of these chances to be heard slip. Accompanied by his
friends, generally including a few Clary’s Grove Boys, he always was
present. The first speech he made was after a sale at Pappsville. What
he said there is not remembered; but an illustration of the kind of man
he was, interpolated into his discourse, made a lasting impression. A
fight broke out in his audience while he was on the stand, and observing
that one of his friends was being worsted, he bounded into the group of
contestants, seized the fellow who had his supporter down, threw him
“ten or twelve feet,” remounted the platform, and finished the speech.
Sangamon County could appreciate such a performance, and the crowd that
day at Pappsville never forgot Lincoln.
[Illustration:
SCENE OF STILLMAN’S DEFEAT.
From a photograph loaned by S. J. Dodds of Lena, Illinois.
]
His appearance at Springfield at this time was of great importance to
him. Springfield was not then a very attractive place. Bryant, visiting
it in June, 1832, said that the houses were not as good as at
Jacksonville, “a considerable proportion of them being log cabins, and
the whole town having an appearance of dirt and discomfort.”
Nevertheless it was the largest town in the county, and among its
inhabitants were many young men of education, birth, and energy. One of
these men Lincoln had become well acquainted with in the Black Hawk War,
Major John Stuart,[17] at that time a lawyer, and, like Lincoln, a
candidate for the General Assembly. He met others at this time who were
to be associated with him more or less closely in the future in both law
and politics, such as Judge Logan and William Butler. With these men the
manners which had won him the day at Pappsville were of no value; what
impressed them was his “very sensible speech,” and his decided
individuality and originality.
Footnote 17:
There were many prominent Americans in the Black Hawk War, with some
of whom Lincoln became acquainted. Among the best known were General
Robert Anderson; Colonel Zachary Taylor; General Scott, afterwards
candidate for President, and Lieutenant-General; Henry Dodge, Governor
of the Territory of Wisconsin, and United States Senator; Hon. William
L. D. Ewing and Hon. Sidney Breese, both United States Senators from
Illinois; William S. Hamilton, a son of Alexander Hamilton; Colonel
Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone; Lieutenant Albert Sydney Johnston,
afterwards a Confederate general. Jefferson Davis was not in the war,
according to the muster-rolls of his company, which report him absent
on furlough from March 26 to August 18, 1832.
[Illustration:
From a photograph in the war collection of Mr. Robert Coster.
MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON.
Born in Kentucky in 1805. In 1825 graduated at West Point. Anderson
was on duty at the St. Louis Arsenal when the Black Hawk War broke
out. He asked permission to join General Atkinson, who commanded the
expedition against the Indians; was placed on his staff as Assistant
Inspector-General, and was with him until the end of the war.
Anderson twice mustered Lincoln into the service and once out. When
General Scott was sent to take Atkinson’s place, Anderson was
ordered to report to the former for duty, and was sent by him to
take charge of the Indians captured at Bad Axe. It was Anderson who
conducted Black Hawk to Jefferson Barracks. His adjutant in this
task was Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. From 1835–37 Anderson was an
instructor at West Point. He served in the Florida War in 1837–38,
and was wounded at Molino del Rey in the Mexican War. In 1857 he was
appointed Major of the First Artillery. On November 20, 1860,
Anderson assumed command of the troops in Charleston Harbor. On
April 14th he surrendered Fort Sumter, marching out with the honors
of war. He was made brigadier-general by Lincoln for his service. On
account of failing health he was relieved from duty in October,
1861. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general. He died in France in
1871.
]
The election came off on August 6th. Lincoln was defeated. “This was the
only time Abraham was ever defeated on a direct vote of the people,” say
his autobiographical notes. He had a consolation in his defeat, however,
for in spite of the pronounced Democratic sentiments of his precinct, he
received two hundred and seventy-seven votes out of three hundred cast.
The facts upon this point are here stated for the first time. The
biographers, as a rule, have agreed that Lincoln received all of the
votes cast in the New Salem precinct, except three. Mr. Herndon places
the total vote at 208; Nicolay and Hay, at 277; and Mr. Lincoln himself,
in his autobiography, has said that he received all but seven of a total
of 277 votes, basing his statement, no doubt, upon memory. An
examination of the official poll-book in the county clerk’s office at
Springfield shows that all of these figures are erroneous; exactly three
hundred votes were cast. Of these Lincoln received 277. The fact
remains, however—and it is a fact which has been commented upon by
several of the biographers as showing his phenomenal popularity—that the
vote for Lincoln was far in excess of that given any other candidate.
The twelve candidates, with the number of votes of each, were: Abraham
Lincoln, 277; John T. Stewart, 182; William Carpenter, 136; John Dawson,
105; E. D. Taylor, 88; Archer G. Herndon, 84; Peter Cartwright, 62;
Achilles Morris, 27; Thomas M. Neal, 21; Edward Robeson, 15; Zachariah
Peters, 4; Richard Dunston, 4.
Of the twenty-three who did not vote for Lincoln, ten refrained from
voting for representative at all, thus leaving only thirteen votes
actually cast against Lincoln. Lincoln is not recorded as voting. This
defeat did not take him out of politics. The first civil office Lincoln
ever held was that of clerk of the next election, in September. The
report in his hand still exists; as far as we know, it is his first
official document.
LOOKING FOR WORK.
It was in August, 1832, that Lincoln made his unsuccessful canvass for
the Illinois Assembly. The election over, he began to look for work. One
of his friends, an admirer of his physical strength, advised him to
become a blacksmith, but it was a trade which afforded little leisure
for study, and for meeting and talking with men; and he had already
resolved, it is evident, that books and men were essential to him. The
only employment in New Salem which offered both support and the
opportunities he sought, was clerking in a store. But the stores of New
Salem were in more need of customers than of clerks. The business had
been greatly overdone. In the fall of 1832 there were at least four
stores in New Salem. The most pretentious was that of Hill and McNeill,
which carried a large line of dry goods. The three others, owned
respectively by the Herndon brothers, Reuben Radford, and James
Rutledge, were groceries.
[Illustration:
BAD AXE BATTLE-GROUND.
From a copy of a painting by Samuel M. Brookes, in the Museum of the
Wisconsin Historical Society. The remnant of Black Hawk’s force was
slaughtered here on August 1st and 2d, while attempting to cross the
Mississippi. Only about one hundred and fifty of his original band
of one thousand escaped.
]
DECIDES TO BUY A STORE.
Failing to secure employment at any of these establishments, Lincoln
resolved to _buy_ a store. He was not long in finding an opportunity to
purchase. James Herndon had already sold out his half interest in
Herndon Brothers’ store to William F. Berry; and Rowan Herndon, not
getting along well with Berry, was only too glad to find a purchaser of
his half in the person of “Abe” Lincoln. Berry was as poor as Lincoln;
but that was not a serious obstacle, for their notes were accepted for
the Herndon stock of goods. They had barely hung out their sign when
something happened which threw another store into their hands. Reuben
Radford had made himself obnoxious to the Clary’s Grove Boys, and one
night they broke in his doors and windows, and overturned his counters
and sugar barrels. It was too much for Radford, and he sold out next day
to William G. Green for a four-hundred-dollar note signed by Green. At
the latter’s request, Lincoln made an inventory of the stock, and then
offered him six hundred and fifty dollars for it—a proposition which was
cheerfully accepted. Berry and Lincoln, being unable to pay cash,
assumed the four-hundred-dollar note payable to Radford, and gave Green
their joint note for two hundred and fifty dollars. The little grocery
owned by James Rutledge was the next to succumb. Berry and Lincoln
bought it at a bargain, their joint note taking the place of cash. The
three stocks were consolidated. Their aggregate cost must have been not
less than fifteen hundred dollars. Berry and Lincoln had secured a
monopoly of the grocery business in New Salem. Within a few weeks two
penniless men had become the proprietors of three stores, and had
stopped buying only because there were no more to purchase.
William F. Berry, the partner of Lincoln, was the son of a Presbyterian
minister, the Rev. John Berry, who lived on Rock Creek, five miles from
New Salem. The son had strayed from the footsteps of the father, for he
was a hard drinker, a gambler, a fighter, and “a very wicked young man.”
Lincoln cannot in truth be said to have chosen such a partner, but
rather to have accepted him from the force of circumstances. It required
only a little time to make plain that the partnership was wholly
uncongenial. Lincoln displayed little business capacity. He trusted
largely to Berry, and Berry rapidly squandered the profits of the
business in riotous living. Lincoln loved books as Berry loved liquor,
and hour after hour he was stretched out on the counter of the store, or
under a shade tree, reading Shakespeare or Burns.
His acquaintance with the works of these two writers dates from this
period. In New Salem there was one of those curious individuals
sometimes found in frontier settlements, half poet, half loafer,
incapable of earning a living in any steady employment, yet familiar
with good literature and capable of enjoying it—Jack Kelso. He repeated
passages from Shakespeare and Burns incessantly over the odd jobs he
undertook, or as he idled by the streams—for he was a famous
fisherman—and Lincoln soon became one of his constant companions. The
taste he formed in company with Kelso he retained through life.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1860.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a photograph loaned by H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois. After
Lincoln’s nomination for the presidency, Alexander Hesler of Chicago
published a portrait he had made of Lincoln in 1857 (see page 49).
At the same time he put out a portrait of Douglas. The contrast was
so great between the two, and in the opinion of the politicians so
much in Douglas’s favor, that they told Hesler he must suppress
Lincoln’s picture; accordingly the photographer wrote to
Springfield, requesting Lincoln to call and sit again. Lincoln
replied that his friends had decided that he remain in Springfield
during the canvass, but that if Hesler would come to Springfield he
would be “dressed up” and give him all the time he wanted. Hesler
went to Springfield, and made at least four negatives, three of
which are supposed to have been destroyed in the Chicago fire. The
fourth is owned by Mr. George Ayers of Philadelphia. The photograph
reproduced above is a print from one of the lost negatives.
]
William D. Kelley records an incident which shows that Lincoln had a
really intimate knowledge of Shakespeare. Mr. Kelley had taken
McDonough, an actor, to call at the White House, and Lincoln began the
conversation by saying:
“‘I am very glad to meet you, Mr. McDonough, and am grateful to Kelley
for bringing you in so early, for I want you to tell me something about
Shakespeare’s plays as they are constructed for the stage. You can
imagine that I do not get much time to study such matters, but I
recently had a couple of talks with Hackett—Baron Hackett, as they call
him—who is famous as Jack Falstaff, from whom I elicited few
satisfactory replies, though I probed him with a good many questions.’
“Mr. McDonough,” continues Mr. Kelley, “avowed his willingness to give
the President any information in his possession, but protested that he
feared he would not succeed where his friend Hackett had failed. ‘Well,
I don’t know,’ said the President, ‘for Hackett’s lack of information
impressed me with a doubt as to whether he had ever studied
Shakespeare’s text, or had not been content with the acting edition of
his plays.’ He arose, went to a shelf not far from his table, and having
taken down a well-thumbed volume of the ‘Plays’ of Shakespeare, resumed
his seat, arranged his glasses, and having turned to ‘Henry VI.’ and
read with fine discrimination an extended passage, said: ‘Mr. McDonough,
can you tell me why those lines are omitted from the acting play? There
is nothing I have read in Shakespeare, certainly nothing in “Henry VI.”
or the “Merry Wives of Windsor,” that surpasses its wit and humor.’ The
actor suggested the breadth of its humor as the only reason he could
assign for its omission, but thoughtfully added that it was possible
that if the lines were spoken they would require the rendition of
another or other passages which might be objectionable.
“‘Your last suggestion,’ said Mr. Lincoln, ‘carries with it greater
weight than anything Mr. Hackett suggested, but the first is no reason
at all;’ and after reading another passage, he said, ‘This is not
withheld, and where it passes current there can be no reason for
withholding the other.’... And, as if feeling the impropriety of
preferring the player to the parson [there was a clergyman in the room],
he turned to the chaplain and said: ‘From your calling it is probable
that you do not know that the acting plays which people crowd to hear
are not always those planned by their reputed authors. Thus, take the
stage edition of “Richard III.” It opens with a passage from “Henry
VI.,” after which come portions of “Richard III.,” then another scene
from “Henry VI.;” and the finest soliloquy in the play, if we may judge
from the many quotations it furnishes, and the frequency with which it
is heard in amateur exhibitions, was never seen by Shakespeare, but was
written—was it not, Mr. McDonough?—after his death, by Colley Cibber.’
[Illustration:
MONUMENT AT KELLOGG’S GROVE.
On June 24, 1832, Black Hawk attacked Apple River Fort, fourteen miles
east of Galena, Illinois, but was unable to drive out the inmates.
The next day he attacked a spy battalion of one hundred and fifty
men at Kellogg’s Grove, sixteen miles farther east. A detachment of
volunteers relieved the battalion, and drove off the savages, about
fifteen of whom were killed. The whites lost five men, who were
buried at various points in the grove. During the summer of 1886 the
remains of these men were collected and, with those of five or six
other victims of the war, were placed together under the monument
here represented.—See “The Black Hawk War,” by Reuben G. Thwaites,
Vol. XII. in Wisconsin Historical Collections. This account of the
Black Hawk War is the most trustworthy, complete, and interesting
that has been made.
]
“Having disposed, for the present, of questions relating to the stage
editions of the plays, he recurred to his standard copy, and ... read,
or repeated from memory, extracts from several of the plays, some of
which embraced a number of lines.... He interspersed his remarks with
extracts striking from their similarity to, or contrast with, something
of Shakespeare’s, from Byron, Rogers, Campbell, Moore, and other English
poets.”[18]
Footnote 18:
“Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln.” Edited by Allen Thorndike Rice,
1886.
[Illustration:
JOHN REYNOLDS, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS 1831–1834.
After a steel engraving in the Governor’s office, Springfield,
Illinois. John Reynolds, Governor of Illinois from 1831 to 1834, was
born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, February 26, 1788. He was
of Irish parentage. When he was six months old his parents moved to
Tennessee. In 1800 they removed to Illinois. When twenty years old,
John Reynolds went to Knoxville, Tennessee, to college, where he
spent two years. He was admitted to the bar at Kaskaskia in 1812. In
the war of 1812 he rendered distinguished service, earning the title
of “the Old Ranger.” He began the practice of law in the spring of
1814. In 1818 he was made an associate justice of the Supreme Court;
in 1826 he was elected a member of the legislature; and in 1830,
after a stirring campaign, he was chosen Governor of Illinois. The
most important event of his administration was the Black Hawk War.
He was prompt in calling out the militia to subdue the Black Hawk,
and went upon the field in person. In November, 1834, just before
the close of his term as Governor, he resigned to become a member of
Congress. In 1837, aided by others, he built the first railroad in
the State—a short line of six miles from his coal mine in the
Mississippi bluff to the bank of the river opposite St. Louis. It
was operated by horse-power. He again became a member of the
legislature in 1846 and 1852, during the latter term being Speaker
of the House. In 1860, in his seventy-third year, he was an
anti-Douglas delegate to the Charleston convention, and received the
most distinguished attentions from the Southern delegates. After the
October elections, when it became apparent that Lincoln would be
elected, he issued an address advising the support of Douglas. His
sympathies were with the South, though in 1832 he strongly supported
President Jackson in the suppression of the South Carolina
nullifiers. He died in Belleville in May, 1865. Governor Reynolds
was a quaint and forceful character. He was a man of some learning;
but in conversation (and he talked much) he rarely rose above the
odd Western vernacular of which he was so complete a master. He was
the author of two books; one an autobiography, and the other “The
Pioneer History of Illinois.”
]
CHAPTER XIV.
BERRY AND LINCOLN TAKE OUT A TAVERN LICENSE AND HIRE A CLERK.—LINCOLN
BEGINS TO STUDY LAW.
It was not only Burns and Shakespeare that interfered with the
grocery-keeping; Lincoln had begun seriously to read law. His first
acquaintance with the subject had been made when he was a mere lad in
Indiana and a copy of the “Revised Statutes of Indiana” had fallen into
his hands. The very copy he used is still in existence, and,
fortunately, in hands where it is safe. The book was owned by Mr. David
Turnham of Gentryville, and was given in 1865 by him to Mr. Herndon, who
placed it in the Lincoln Memorial collection of Chicago. In December,
1894, this collection was sold in Philadelphia, and the “Statutes of
Indiana” was bought by Mr. William Hoffman Winters, Librarian of the New
York Law Institute, and through his courtesy I have been allowed to
examine it. The book is worn, the title page is gone, and a few leaves
from the end are missing. The title page of a duplicate volume which Mr.
Winters kindly showed me reads: “The Revised Laws of Indiana, adopted
and enacted by the General Assembly at their eighth session. To which
are prefixed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the
United States, the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and sundry
other documents connected with the Political History of the Territory
and State of Indiana. Arranged and published by authority of the General
Assembly. Corydon: Printed by Carpenter and Douglass, 1824.”
We know from Dennis Hanks, from Mr. Turnham, to whom the book belonged,
and from other associates of Lincoln’s at the time, that he read the
book intently and discussed its contents intelligently. It was a
remarkable volume for a thoughtful lad whose mind had been fired already
by the history of Washington; for it opened with that wonderful
document, the Declaration of Independence, a document which became, as
Mr. John G. Nicolay says, “his political chart and inspiration.”
Following the Declaration of Independence was the Constitution of the
United States, the Act of Virginia passed in 1783 by which the
“Territory North Westward of the river Ohio” was conveyed to the United
States, and the Ordinance of 1787 for governing this territory,
containing that clause on which Lincoln in the future based many an
argument on the slavery question. This article, No. 6 of the Ordinance,
reads: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted: provided always, that any person
escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed
in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or
service, as aforesaid.”
Following this was the Constitution and the Revised Laws of Indiana,
three hundred and seventy-five pages, of five hundred words each, of
statutes—enough law, if thoroughly digested, to make a respectable
lawyer. When Lincoln finished this book, as he had, probably, before he
was eighteen, we have reason to believe that he understood the
principles on which the nation was founded, how the State of Indiana
came into being, and how it was governed. His understanding of the
subject was clear and practical, and he applied it in his reading,
thinking, and discussion.
It was after he had read the Laws of Indiana that Lincoln had free
access to the library of his admirer, Judge John Pitcher of Rockport,
Indiana, where, undoubtedly, he examined many law-books. But from the
time he left Indiana in 1830 he had no legal reading until one day soon
after the grocery was started, when there happened one of those trivial
incidents which so often turn the current of a life. It is best told in
Lincoln’s own words.[19] “One day a man who was migrating to the West
drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family
and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for
which he had no room in his wagon, and which he said contained nothing
of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I bought it, and
paid him, I think, half a dollar for it. Without further examination, I
put it away in the store, and forgot all about it. Some time after, in
overhauling things, I came upon the barrel, and emptying it upon the
floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a
complete edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries. I began to read those
famous works, and I had plenty of time; for during the long summer days,
when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few and
far between. The more I read”—this he said with unusual emphasis—“the
more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind
so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them.”
Footnote 19:
This incident was told by Lincoln to Mr. A. J. Conant the artist, who
in 1860 painted his portrait in Springfield. Mr. Conant, in order to
catch Mr. Lincoln’s animated expression, had engaged him in
conversation, and had questioned him about his early life; and it was
in the course of their conversation that this incident came out. It is
to be found in a delightful and suggestive article entitled, “My
Acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln,” contributed by Mr. Conant to the
“Liber Scriptorum,” and by his permission quoted here.
[Illustration:
From a photograph made for this biography.
ELIJAH ILES, CAPTAIN OF ONE OF THE COMPANIES IN WHICH LINCOLN SERVED
AS PRIVATE IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
After a painting by the late Mrs. Obed Lewis, niece of Major Iles, and
owned by Mr. Obed Lewis, Springfield, Illinois. Elijah Iles was born
in Kentucky, March 28, 1796, and when young went to Missouri. There
he heard marvellous stories about the Sangamon Valley, and he
resolved to go thither. Springfield had just been staked out in the
wilderness, and he reached the place in time to erect the first
building—a rude hut in which he kept a store. This was in 1821. “In
the early days in Illinois,” he wrote in 1883, “it was hard to find
good material for law-makers. I was elected a State Senator in 1826,
and again for a second term. The Senate then comprised thirteen
members, and the House twenty-five.” In 1827 he was elected major in
the command of Colonel T. McNeal, intending to fight the
Winnebagoes, but no fighting occurred. In the Black Hawk War of
1832, after his term as a private in Captain Dawson’s company had
expired, he was elected captain of a new company of independent
rangers. In this company Lincoln reënlisted as a private. Major Iles
lived at Springfield to the end of his life. He died September 4,
1883.
]
BERRY AND LINCOLN GET A TAVERN LICENSE.
But all this was fatal to business, and by spring it was evident that
something must be done to stimulate the grocery sales.
On the 6th of March, 1833, the County Commissioner’s Court of Sangamon
County granted the firm of Berry and Lincoln a license to keep a tavern
at New Salem.
It is probable that the license was procured to enable the firm to
retail the liquors which they had in stock, and not for keeping a
tavern. In a community in which liquor-drinking was practically
universal, at a time when whiskey was as legitimate an article of
merchandise as coffee or calico, when no family was without a jug, when
the minister of the gospel could take his “dram” without any breach of
propriety, it is not surprising that a reputable young man should have
been found selling whiskey. Liquor was sold at all groceries, but it
could not be lawfully sold in a smaller quantity than one quart. The
law, however, was not always rigidly observed, and it was the custom of
storekeepers to treat their patrons. Each of the three groceries which
Berry and Lincoln acquired had the usual supply of liquors, and it was
only good business that they should seek a way to dispose of the surplus
quickly and profitably—an end which could be best accomplished by
selling it over the counter by the glass. To do this lawfully required a
tavern license; and it is a warrantable conclusion that such was the
chief aim of Berry and Lincoln in procuring a franchise of this
character. We are fortified in this conclusion by the coincidence that
three other grocers of New Salem—William Clary, Henry Sinco, and George
Warberton—were among those who took out tavern licenses. To secure the
lawful privilege of selling whiskey by the “dram” was no doubt their
purpose; for their “taverns” were as mythical as the inn of Berry and
Lincoln. Lincoln may, of course, have desired to go into the tavern
business and so have taken out a license, but it is certain that he
never realized his ambition and that it was only in the grocery that he
sold liquor.
[Illustration:
A DISCHARGE FROM SERVICE IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR SIGNED BY ABRAHAM
LINCOLN AS CAPTAIN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
]
The license issued to Berry and Lincoln read as follows:
Ordered that William F. Berry, in the name of Berry and Lincoln,
have a license to keep a tavern in New Salem to continue 12 months
from this date, and that they pay one dollar in addition to the six
dollars heretofore paid as per Treasurer’s receipt, and that they be
allowed the following rates (viz.):
French Brandy per ½ pt. 25
Peach Brandy per ½ pt. 18¾
Apple Brandy per ½ pt. 12
Holland Gin per ½ pt. 18¾
Domestic per ½ pt. 12½
Wine per ½ pt. 25
Rum per ½ pt. 18¾
Whiskey per ½ pt. 12½
Breakfast, dinner or supper 25
Lodging per night 12½
Horse per night 25
Single feed 12½
Breakfast, dinner or supper for Stage Passengers 37½
who gave bond as required by law.
At the granting of a tavern license, the applicants therefor were
required by law to file a bond. The bond given in the case of Berry and
Lincoln was as follows:
Know all men by these presents, we, William F. Berry, Abraham
Lincoln and John Bowling Green, are held and firmly bound unto the
County Commissioners of Sangamon County in the full sum of three
hundred dollars to which payment well and truly to be made we bind
ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators firmly by these
presents, sealed with our seal and dated this 6th day of March A.D.
1833. Now the condition of this obligation is such that Whereas the
said Berry & Lincoln has obtained a license from the County
Commissioners Court to keep a tavern in the Town of New Salem to
continue one year. Now if the said Berry & Lincoln shall be of good
behavior and observe all the laws of this State relative to tavern
keepers—then this obligation to be void or otherwise remain in full
force.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN [Seal]
WM. F. BERRY [Seal]
BOWLING GREEN [Seal]
[Illustration:
MAP OF ILLINOIS IN 1832.—PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR THIS WORK.
]
This bond appears to have been written by the clerk of the
Commissioners’ Court; and Lincoln’s name was signed by some one other
than himself, very likely by his partner Berry.
THE FIRM HIRES A CLERK.
The license seems to have stimulated the business, for the firm
concluded to hire a clerk. The young man who secured this position was
Daniel Green Burner, son of Isaac Burner, at whose house Lincoln for a
time boarded. He is still living on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois, and
is in the eighty-second year of his age. “The store building of Berry
and Lincoln,” says Mr. Burner, “was a frame building, not very large,
one story in height, and contained two rooms. In the little back room
Lincoln had a fireplace and a bed. There is where we slept. I clerked in
the store through the winter of 1833–34, up to the 1st of March. While I
was there they had nothing for sale but liquors. They may have had some
groceries before that, but I am certain they had none then. I used to
sell whiskey over their counter at six cents a glass—and charged it,
too. N. A. Garland started a store, and Lincoln wanted Berry to ask his
father for a loan, so they could buy out Garland; but Berry refused,
saying this was one of the last things he would think of doing.”
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF AN ELECTION RETURN WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AS CLERK IN
1832.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From the original now on file in the county clerk’s office,
Springfield, Illinois. The first civil office Lincoln ever held was
that of election clerk, and the return made by him, of which a
facsimile is here presented, was his first official document. All
the men whose names appear on this election return are now dead,
except William McNeely, now residing at Petersburg. John Clary lived
at Clary’s Grove; John R. Herndon was “Row” Herndon, whose store
Berry and Lincoln purchased, and at whose house Lincoln for a time
boarded; Baxter Berry was a relative of Lincoln’s partner in the
grocery business, and Edmund Greer was a school-teacher, and
afterwards a justice of the peace and a surveyor; James Rutledge was
the keeper of the Rutledge tavern and the father of Ann Rutledge;
Hugh Armstrong was one of the numerous Armstrong family; “Uncle
Jimmy” White lived on a farm five miles from New Salem, and died
about thirty years ago, in the eightieth year of his age; William
Green was father of William G. Greene, Lincoln’s associate in
Offutt’s store; and as to Bowling Green, more is said elsewhere. In
the following three or four years, very few elections were held in
New Salem at which Lincoln was not a clerk. It is a somewhat
singular fact that Lincoln, though clerk of this election, is not
recorded as voting.
]
Among the other persons yet living who were residents with Lincoln of
New Salem or its near neighborhood, are Mrs. Parthenia W. Hill, aged
seventy-nine years, widow of Samuel Hill, the New Salem merchant; James
McGrady Rutledge, aged eighty-one years; John Potter, aged eighty-seven
years; and Thomas Watkins, aged seventy-one years—all now living at
Petersburg, Illinois. Mrs. Hill, a woman of more than ordinary
intelligence, did not become a resident of New Salem until 1835, the
year in which she was married. Lincoln had then gone out of business,
but she knew much of his store. “Berry and Lincoln,” she says, “did not
keep any dry goods. They had a grocery, and I have always understood
they sold whiskey.” Mr. Rutledge, a nephew of James Rutledge the
tavern-keeper, has a vivid recollection of the store. He says: “I have
been in Berry and Lincoln’s store many a time. The building was a
frame—one of the few frame buildings in New Salem. There were two rooms,
and in the small back room they kept their whiskey. They had pretty much
everything, except dry goods—sugar, coffee, some crockery, a few pairs
of shoes (not many), some farming implements, and the like. Whiskey, of
course, was a necessary part of their stock. I remember one transaction
in particular which I had with them. I sold the firm a load of wheat,
which they turned over to the mill.” Mr. Potter, who remembers the
morning when Lincoln, then a stranger on his way to New Salem, stopped
at his father’s house and ate breakfast, knows less about the store, but
says: “It was a grocery, and they sold whiskey, of course.” Thomas
Watkins says that the store contained “a little candy, tobacco, sugar,
and coffee, and the like;” though Mr. Watkins, being then a young boy,
and living a mile in the country, was not a frequent visitor at the
store.
[Illustration:
A STAGE-COACH ADVERTISEMENT, 1834.
This advertisement appeared in the “Sangamo Journal” in April, 1834,
and held a place in the paper through the next three years. As the
“Four Horse Coach” ran through Sangamontown and New Salem, it
doubtless had Lincoln as a passenger now and then; but not often,
probably, for the fare from New Salem to Springfield was one dollar
and twenty-five cents, and walking, or riding upon a borrowed horse,
must generally have been preferred by Lincoln to so costly a mode of
travelling.
]
CHAPTER XV.
LINCOLN IS APPOINTED POSTMASTER.—HE LEARNS SURVEYING, AND IS APPOINTED
DEPUTY SURVEYOR.—THE FIRST WORK HE DID IN HIS NEW PROFESSION.—WHAT HE
EARNED.
Even after the license was granted, however, business was not so brisk
in Berry and Lincoln’s store that the junior partner did not welcome an
appointment as postmaster which he received in May, 1833. The
appointment of a Whig by a Democratic administration seems to have been
made without comment. “The office was too insignificant to make his
politics an objection,” say the autobiographical notes. The duties of
the new office were not arduous, for letters were few, and their comings
far between. At that date the mails were carried by four-horse
post-coaches from city to city, and on horseback from central points
into the country towns. The rates of postage were high. A single-sheet
letter carried thirty miles or under cost six cents; thirty to eighty
miles, ten cents; eighty to one hundred and fifty miles, twelve and
one-half cents; one hundred and fifty to four hundred miles, eighteen
and one-half cents; over four hundred miles, twenty-five cents. A copy
of this magazine sent from New York to New Salem would have cost fully
twenty-five cents. The mail was irregular in coming as well as light in
its contents. Though supposed to arrive twice a week, it sometimes
happened that a fortnight or more passed without any mail. Under these
conditions the New Salem post-office was not a serious care.
[Illustration:
BERRY AND LINCOLN’S STORE IN 1895.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From a recent photograph by C. S. McCullough, Petersburg, Illinois.
The little frame store building occupied by Berry and Lincoln at New
Salem is now standing at Petersburg, Illinois, in the rear of L. W.
Bishop’s gun-shop. Its history after 1834 is somewhat obscure, but
there is no reason for doubting its identity. According to tradition
it was bought by Robert Bishop, the father of the present owner,
about 1835, from Mr. Lincoln himself; but it is difficult to
reconcile this legend with the sale of the store to the Trent
brothers, unless, upon the flight of the latter from the country and
the closing of the store, the building, through the leniency of
creditors, was allowed to revert to Mr. Lincoln, in which event he
no doubt sold it at the first opportunity, and applied the proceeds
to the payment of the debts of the firm. When Mr. Bishop bought the
store building, he removed it to Petersburg. It is said that the
removal was made in part by Lincoln himself; that the job was first
undertaken by one of the Bales, but that, encountering some
difficulty, he called upon Lincoln to assist him, which Lincoln did.
The structure was first set up adjacent to Mr. Bishop’s house, and
converted into a gun-shop. Later it was removed to a place on the
public square; and soon after the breaking out of the late war, Mr.
Bishop, erecting a new building, pushed Lincoln’s store into the
back yard, and there it still stands. Soon after the assassination
of Mr. Lincoln, the front door was presented to some one in
Springfield, and has long since been lost sight of. It is remembered
by Mr. Bishop that in this door there was an opening for the
reception of letters—a circumstance of importance as tending to
establish the genuineness of the building, when it is remembered
that Lincoln was postmaster while he kept the store. The structure,
as it stands to-day, is about eighteen feet long, twelve feet in
width, and ten feet in height. The back room, however, has
disappeared, so that the building as it stood when occupied by Berry
and Lincoln was somewhat longer. Of the original building there only
remain the frame-work, the black walnut weather-boarding on the
front end, and the ceiling of sycamore boards. One entire side has
been torn away by relic-hunters. In recent years the building has
been used as a sort of store-room. Just after a big fire in
Petersburg some time ago, the city council condemned the Lincoln
store building and ordered it demolished. Under this order a portion
of one side was torn down, when Mr. Bishop persuaded the city
authorities to desist, upon giving a guarantee that if Lincoln’s
store ever caught fire, he would be responsible for any loss which
might ensue.
]
[Illustration:
LINCOLN EARLY IN 1861.—PROBABLY THE EARLIEST PORTRAIT SHOWING HIM WITH
A BEARD.
From a photograph in the collection of H. W. Fay of De Kalb, Illinois,
taken probably in Springfield early in 1861. It is supposed to have
been the first, or at least one of the first, portraits made of Mr.
Lincoln after he began to wear a beard. As is well known, his face
was smooth until about the end of 1860; and when he first allowed
his beard to grow, it became a topic of newspaper comment, and even
of caricature. A pretty story relating to Lincoln’s adoption of a
beard is more or less familiar. A letter written to the authors of
this Life, under date of December 6, 1895, by Mrs. Grace Bedell
Billings, tells this story, of which she herself as a little girl
was the heroine, in a most charming way:
DELPHOS, KANSAS, _December 6, 1895_.
In reply to your letter of recent date inquiring about the incident of
my childhood and connected with Mr. Lincoln, I would say that at the
time of his first nomination to the Presidency I was a child of
eleven years, living with my parents in Chautauqua County, New York.
My father was an ardent Republican, and possessed of a profound
admiration for the character of the grand man who was the choice of
his party. We younger children accepted his opinions with
unquestioning faith, and listened with great delight to the
anecdotes of his life current at that time, and were particularly
interested in reading of the difficulties he encountered in getting
an education. So much did it appeal to our childish imaginations
that _we_ were firmly persuaded that if we could only study our
lessons prone before the glow and cheer of an open fire in a great
fireplace, _we_ too might rise to heights which now we could never
attain. My father brought to us, one day, a large poster, and my
mind still holds a recollection, of its crude, coarse work and
glaring colors. About the edges were grouped in unadorned and
exaggerated ugliness the pictures of our former Presidents, and in
the midst of them were the faces of “Lincoln and Hamlin,” surrounded
by way of a frame with a rail fence. We are all familiar with the
strong and rugged face of Mr. Lincoln; the deep lines about the
mouth, and the eyes have much the same sorrowful expression in all
the pictures I have seen of him. I think I must have felt a certain
disappointment, for I said to my mother that he would look much
nicer if he wore whiskers; and straightway gave him the benefit of
my opinion in a letter, describing the poster, and hinting, rather
broadly, that his appearance might be improved if he would let his
whiskers grow. Not wishing to wound his feelings, I added that the
rail fence around his picture looked real pretty! I also asked him
if he had any little girl, and if so, and he was too busy to write
and tell me what he thought about it, if he would not let her do so;
and ended by assuring him I meant to try my best to induce two
erring brothers of the Democratic faith to cast their votes for him.
I think the circumstance would have speedily passed from my mind but
for the fact that I confided to an elder sister that I had written
to Mr. Lincoln, and had she not expressed a doubt as to whether I
had addressed him properly. To prove that I had, and was not as
ignorant as she thought me, I rewrote the address for her
inspection: “_Hon. Abraham Lincoln Esquire._”
My mortification at the laughter and ridicule excited was somewhat
relieved by my mother’s remarking that “there would be no mistake as
to whom the letter belonged.” The reply to my poor little letter
came in due time, and the following is a copy of the original, which
is _still in my possession_.
“_Private._
“SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, _October 19, 1860_.
“MISS GRACE BEDELL.
“_My Dear little Miss_:—Your very agreeable letter of the 15th inst.
is received. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I
have three sons; one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of
age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the
whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call
it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin wearing them now?
Your very sincere well-wisher,
“A. LINCOLN.”
Probably the frankness of the child appealed to the humorous side of
his nature, for the suggestion was acted upon. After the election,
and on his journey from Springfield to Washington, he inquired of
Hon. G. W. Patterson, who was one of the party who accompanied him
on that memorable trip, and who was a resident of our town, if he
knew of a family bearing the name of Bedell. Mr. Patterson replying
in the affirmative, Mr. Lincoln said he had “received a letter from
a little girl called Grace Bedell, advising me to wear whiskers, as
she thought it would improve my looks.” He said the character of the
“letter was so unique, and so different from the many self-seeking
and threatening ones he was daily receiving, that it came to him as
a relief and a pleasure.” When the train reached Westfield, Mr.
Lincoln made a short speech from the platform of the car, and in
conclusion said he had a correspondent there, relating the
circumstance and giving my name, and if she were present he would
like to see her. I was present, but in the crowd had neither seen
nor heard the speaker; but a gentleman helped me forward, and Mr.
Lincoln stepped down to the platform where I stood, shook my hand,
kissed me, and said: “You see I let these whiskers grow for you,
Grace.” The crowd cheered, Mr. Lincoln reëntered the car, and I ran
quickly home, looking at and speaking to no one, with a much
dilapidated bunch of roses in my hand, which I had hoped might be
passed up to Mr. Lincoln with some other flowers which were to be
presented, but which in my confusion I had forgotten. Gentle and
genial, simple and warm-hearted, how full of anxiety must have been
his life in the days which followed! These words seem to fitly
describe him: “A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
Very sincerely,
GRACE BEDELL BILLINGS.
]
A large number of the patrons of the office lived in the country—many of
them miles away—but generally Lincoln delivered the letters at their
doors. These letters he would carefully place in the crown of his hat,
and distribute them from house to house. Thus it was in a measure true
that he kept the New Salem post-office in his hat. The habit of carrying
papers in his hat clung to Lincoln; for, many years later, when he was a
practising lawyer in Springfield, he apologized for failing to answer a
letter promptly, by explaining: “When I received your letter I put it in
my old hat, and buying a new one the next day, the old one was set
aside, and so the letter was lost sight of for a time.”
But whether the mail was delivered by the postmaster himself, or the
recipient came to the store to inquire, “Anything for me?” it was the
habit “to stop and visit awhile.” He who received a letter read it and
told the contents; if he had a newspaper, usually the postmaster could
tell him in advance what it contained, for one of the perquisites of the
early postmaster was the privilege of reading all printed matter before
delivering it. Every day, then, Lincoln’s acquaintance in New Salem,
through his position as postmaster, became more intimate.
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF A TAVERN LICENSE ISSUED TO BERRY AND LINCOLN MARCH 6,
1833, BY THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS’ COURT OF SANGAMON COUNTY.
The only tavern in New Salem in 1833 was that kept by James Rutledge—a
two-story log structure of five rooms, standing just across the
street from Berry and Lincoln’s store. Here Lincoln boarded. It
seems entirely probable that he may have had an ambition to get into
the tavern business, and that he and Berry obtained a license with
that end in view, possibly hoping to make satisfactory terms for the
purchase of the Rutledge hostelry. The tavern of sixty years ago,
besides answering the purposes of the modern hotel, was the dramshop
of the frontier. The business was one which, in Illinois, the law
strictly regulated. Tavern-keepers were required to pay a license
fee, and to give bonds to insure their good behavior. Minors were
not to be harbored, nor did the law permit liquor to be sold to
them; and the sale to slaves of any liquors “or strong drink, mixed
or unmixed, either within or without doors,” was likewise forbidden.
Nor could the poor Indian get any “fire-water” at the tavern or the
grocery. If a tavern-keeper violated the law, two-thirds of the fine
assessed against him went to the poor people of the county. The
Rutledge tavern was the only one at New Salem of which we have any
authentic account. There were other landlords besides Mr. Rutledge;
but nothing can be more certain than that Lincoln was not one of
them. The few surviving inhabitants of the vanished village, and of
the country round about, have a clear recollection of Berry and
Lincoln’s store; but not one has been found with the faintest
remembrance of a tavern kept by Lincoln, or by Berry, or by both.
Stage passengers jolting into New Salem sixty-two years ago must, if
Lincoln was inn-keeper, have partaken of his hospitality by the
score; but if they did, they all died many, many years ago, or have
all maintained an unaccountable and most perplexing silence.
]
A NEW OPENING.
As the summer of 1833 went on, the condition of the store became more
and more unsatisfactory. As the position of postmaster brought in only a
small revenue, Lincoln was forced to take any odd work he could get. He
helped in other stores in the town, split rails, and looked after the
mill; but all this yielded only a scant and uncertain support, and when
in the fall he had an opportunity to learn surveying, he accepted it
eagerly.
The condition of affairs in Illinois in the thirties made a demand for
the services of surveyors. The immigration had been phenomenal. There
were thousands of farms to be surveyed and thousands of corners to be
located. Speculators bought up large tracts, and mapped out cities on
paper. It was years before the first railroad was built in Illinois,
and, as all inland travelling was on horseback or in the stage-coach,
each year hundreds of miles of wagon road were opened through woods and
swamps and prairies. As the county of Sangamon was large, and eagerly
sought by immigrants, the county surveyor in 1833, one John Calhoun,
needed deputies; but in a country so new it was no easy matter to find
men with the requisite capacity.
With Lincoln, Calhoun had little, if any, personal acquaintance, for
they lived twenty miles apart. Lincoln, however, had made himself known
by his meteoric race for the legislature in 1832, and Calhoun had heard
of him as an honest, intelligent, and trustworthy young man. One day he
sent word to Lincoln by Pollard Simmons, who lived in the New Salem
neighborhood, that he had decided to appoint him a deputy surveyor if he
would accept the position.
Going into the woods, Simmons found Lincoln engaged in his old
occupation of making rails. The two sat down together on a log, and
Simmons told Lincoln what Calhoun had said. It was a surprise to
Lincoln. Calhoun was a “Jackson man;” he was for Clay. What did he know
about surveying, and why should a Democratic official offer him a
position of any kind? He immediately went to Springfield, and had a talk
with Calhoun. He would not accept the appointment, he said, unless he
had the assurance that it involved no political obligation, and that he
might continue to express his political opinions as freely and
frequently as he chose. This assurance was given. The only difficulty
then in the way was the fact that he knew absolutely nothing of
surveying. But Calhoun, of course, understood this, and agreed that he
should have time to learn.
With the promptness of action with which he always undertook anything he
had to do, he procured Flint and Gibson’s treatise on surveying, and
sought Mentor Graham for help. At a sacrifice of some time, the
school-master aided him to a partial mastery of the intricate subject.
Lincoln worked literally day and night, sitting up night after night
until the crowing of the cock warned him of the approaching dawn. So
hard did he study that his friends were greatly concerned at his haggard
face. But in six weeks he had mastered all the books within reach
relating to the subject—a task which, under ordinary circumstances,
would hardly have been achieved in as many months. Reporting to Calhoun
for duty (greatly to the amazement of that gentleman), he was at once
assigned to the territory in the northwest part of the county, and the
first work he did of which there is any authentic record was in January,
1834. In that month he surveyed a piece of land for Russell Godby,
dating the certificate January 14, 1834, and signing it “J. Calhoun, S.
S. C., by A. Lincoln.”
Lincoln was frequently employed in laying out public roads, being
selected for that purpose by the County Commissioners’ Court. So far as
can be learned from the official records, the first road he surveyed was
“from Musick’s Ferry, on Salt Creek, via New Salem, to the county line
in the direction of Jacksonville.” For this he was allowed fifteen
dollars for five days’ service, and two dollars and fifty cents for a
plat of the new road. The next road he surveyed, according to the
records, was that leading from Athens to Sangamon town. This was
reported to the County Commissioners’ Court, November 4, 1834. But road
surveying was only a small portion of his work. He was more frequently
employed by private individuals.
SURVEYING WITH A GRAPEVINE.
According to tradition, when he first took up the business he was too
poor to buy a chain, and, instead, used a long, straight grapevine.
Probably this is a myth, though surveyors who had experience in the
early days say it may be true. The chains commonly used at that time
were made of iron. Constant use wore away and weakened the links, and it
was no unusual thing for a chain to lengthen six inches after a year’s
use. “And a good grapevine,” to use the words of a veteran surveyor,
“would give quite as satisfactory results as one of those old-fashioned
chains.”
[Illustration:
THE STATE-HOUSE AT VANDALIA, ILLINOIS.—NOW USED AS A COURT-HOUSE.
Vandalia was the State capital of Illinois for twenty years, and three
different State-houses were built and occupied there. The first, a
two-story frame structure, was burned down December 9, 1823. The
second was a brick building, and was erected at a cost of twelve
thousand, three hundred and eighty-one dollars and fifty cents, of
which the citizens of Vandalia contributed three thousand dollars.
The agitation for the removal of the capital to Springfield began in
1833, and in the summer of 1836 the people of Vandalia, becoming
alarmed at the prospect of their little city’s losing its prestige
as the seat of the State government, tore down the old capitol (much
complaint being made about its condition), and put up a new one at a
cost of sixteen thousand dollars. The tide was too great to be
checked; but after the “Long Nine” had secured the passage of the
bill taking the capital to Springfield, the money which the Vandalia
people had expended was refunded. The State-house shown in this
picture was the third and last one. In it Lincoln served as a
legislator. Ceasing to be a capitol July 4, 1839, it was converted
into a court-house for Fayette County, and is still so used.
]
[Illustration:
DANIEL GREEN BURNER, BERRY AND LINCOLN’S CLERK.
From a recent photograph. Mr. Burner lived at New Salem from 1829 to
1834. Lincoln for many months lodged with his father, Isaac Burner.
He now lives on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois. Mr. Burner is over
eighty years of age.
]
[Illustration:
THE REV. JOHN M. CAMERON, A NEW SALEM FRIEND OF LINCOLN.
From a photograph in the possession of the Hon. W. J. Orendorff of
Canton, Illinois. John M. Cameron, a Cumberland Presbyterian
minister, and a devout, sincere, and courageous man, was held in the
highest esteem by his neighbors. Yet, according to Daniel Green
Burner, Berry and Lincoln’s clerk—and the fact is mentioned merely
as illustrating a universal custom among the pioneers—“John Cameron
always kept a barrel of whiskey in the house.” He was a powerful man
physically, and a typical frontiersman. He was born in Kentucky in
1791, and, with his wife, moved to Illinois in 1815. He settled in
Sangamon County in 1818, and in 1829 took up his abode in a cabin on
a hill overlooking the Sangamon River, and, with James Rutledge,
founded the town of New Salem. According to tradition, Lincoln for a
time lived with the Camerons. In the early thirties they moved to
Fulton County, Illinois; then, in 1841 or 1842, to Iowa; and
finally, in 1849, to California. In California they lived to a ripe
old age—Mrs. Cameron dying in 1875, and her husband following her
three years later. They had twelve children, eleven of whom were
girls. Mr. Cameron is said to have officiated at the funeral of Ann
Rutledge in 1835.
]
[Illustration:
JAMES SHORT, WHO SAVED LINCOLN’S HORSE AND SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS FROM
A CREDITOR.
From a photograph taken at Jacksonville, Illinois, about thirty years
ago. James Short lived on Sand Ridge, a few miles north of New
Salem. When Lincoln’s horse and surveying instruments were levied
upon by a creditor and sold, Mr. Short bought them in, and made
Lincoln a present of them. Lincoln, when President, made his old
friend an Indian agent in California. Mr. Short died in Iowa many
years ago. His acquaintance with Lincoln began in rather an
interesting way. His sister, who lived in New Salem, had made
Lincoln a pair of jeans trousers. The material supplied by Lincoln
was scant, and the trousers came out conspicuously short in the
legs. One day when James Short was visiting with his sister, he
pointed to a man walking down the street, and asked, “Who is that
man in the short breeches?” “That is Lincoln.” And Mr. Short went
out and introduced himself.
]
[Illustration:
SQUIRE COLEMAN SMOOT, ONE OF LINCOLN’S FIRST POLITICAL SUPPORTERS.
Coleman Smoot was born in Virginia, February 13, 1794; removed to
Kentucky when a child; married Rebecca Wright, March 17, 1817; came
to Illinois in 1831, and lived on a farm across the Sangamon River
from New Salem until his death, March 21, 1876. Lincoln met him for
the first time in Offutt’s store in 1831. “Smoot,” said Lincoln, “I
am disappointed in you; I expected to see a man as ugly as old
Probst,” referring to a man reputed to be the homeliest in the
county. “And I am disappointed,” replied Smoot; “I had expected to
see a good-looking man when I saw you.” After Lincoln’s election to
the legislature in 1834, he called on Smoot and said: “I want to buy
some clothes and fix up a little, and I want you to loan me two
hundred dollars.” The loan was cheerfully made, and, of course, was
subsequently repaid.
]
[Illustration:
SAMUEL HILL, AT WHOSE STORE LINCOLN KEPT THE POST-OFFICE.
From an old daguerreotype. Samuel Hill was among the earliest
inhabitants of New Salem. He opened a general store there in
partnership with John McNeill—the John McNeill who became betrothed
to Ann Rutledge, and whose real name was afterwards discovered to be
John McNamar. When McNeill left New Salem and went East, Mr. Hill
became sole proprietor of the store. He also owned the carding
machine at New Salem. Lincoln, after going out of the grocery
business, made his headquarters at Samuel Hill’s store. There he
kept the post-office, entertained the loungers, and on busy days
helped Mr. Hill wait on customers. Mr. Hill is said to have once
courted Ann Rutledge himself, but he did not receive the
encouragement which was bestowed upon his partner, McNeill. In 1835
he married Miss Parthenia W. Nance, who still lives at Petersburg.
In 1839 he moved his store to Petersburg, and died there in 1857.
]
[Illustration:
MARY ANN RUTLEDGE, MOTHER OF ANN MAYES RUTLEDGE.
From an old tintype. Mary Ann Rutledge was the wife of James Rutledge
and the mother of Ann. She was born October 21, 1787, and reared in
Kentucky. She lived to be ninety-one years of age, dying in Iowa,
December 26, 1878. The Rutledges left New Salem in 1833 or 1834,
moving to a farm a few miles northward. On this farm Ann Rutledge
died, August 25, 1835; and here also, three months later (December
3, 1835), died her father, broken-hearted, no doubt, by the
bereavement. In the following year the family moved to Fulton
County, Illinois, and some three years later to Birmingham, Iowa. Of
James Rutledge there is no portrait in existence. He was born in
South Carolina, May 11, 1781. He and his sons, John and David,
served in the Black Hawk War.
]
A GROUP OF LINCOLN’S OLD NEIGHBORS.
Lincoln’s surveys had the extraordinary merit of being correct. Much of
the government work had been rather indifferently done, or the
government corners had been imperfectly preserved, and there were
frequent disputes between adjacent landowners about boundary lines.
Frequently Lincoln was called upon in such cases to find the corner in
controversy. His verdict was invariably the end of the dispute, so
general was the confidence in his honesty and skill. Some of these old
corners located by him are still in existence. The people of Petersburg
proudly remember that they live in a town which was laid out by Lincoln.
This he did in 1836, and it was the work of several weeks.
Lincoln’s pay as a surveyor was three dollars a day, more than he had
ever before earned. Compared with the compensation for like services
nowadays, it seems small enough; but at that time it was really
princely. The governor of the State received a salary of only one
thousand dollars a year, the Secretary of State six hundred dollars, and
good board and lodging could be obtained for one dollar a week. But even
three dollars a day did not enable him to meet all his financial
obligations. The heavy debts of the store hung over him. He was obliged
to help his father’s family in Coles County. The long distances he had
to travel in his new employment had made it necessary to buy a horse,
and for it he had gone into debt.
“My father,” says Thomas Watkins of Petersburg, “sold Lincoln the horse,
and my recollection is that Lincoln agreed to pay him fifty dollars for
it. Lincoln was a little slow in making the payments, and after he had
paid all but ten dollars, my father, who was a high-strung man, became
impatient, and sued him for the balance. Lincoln, of course, did not
deny the debt, and raised the money and paid it. I do not often tell
this,” Mr. Watkins adds, “because I have always thought there never was
such a man as Lincoln, and I have always been sorry father sued him.”
[Illustration:
BOOT-JACK MADE AND USED BY LINCOLN WHEN A YOUNG MAN.
From Libby Prison Museum, Chicago, Illinois. By permission of C. F.
Gunther.
]
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF A LETTER AND RECEIPT WRITTEN BY LINCOLN WHILE POSTMASTER
AT NEW SALEM.
Reproduced by permission from “Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album,”
Petersburg, 1893.
]
CHAPTER XVI.
BUSINESS REVERSES.—LINCOLN FOR THE SECOND TIME A CANDIDATE FOR THE
LEGISLATURE.—IS ELECTED.
Between his duties as deputy surveyor and postmaster, Lincoln had little
leisure for the store, and its management passed into the hands of
Berry. The stock of groceries was on the wane. The numerous obligations
of the firm were maturing, with no money to meet them. Both members of
the firm, in the face of such obstacles, lost courage; and when, early
in 1834, Alexander and William Trent asked if the store was for sale, an
affirmative answer was eagerly given. A price was agreed upon, and the
sale was made. Now, neither Alexander Trent nor his brother had any
money; but as Berry and Lincoln had bought without money, it seemed only
fair that they should be willing to sell on the same terms. Accordingly
the notes of the Trent brothers were accepted for the purchase price,
and the store was turned over to the new owners. But about the time
their notes fell due the Trent brothers disappeared. The few groceries
in the store were seized by creditors, and the doors were closed, never
to be opened again.
Misfortunes now crowded upon Lincoln. His late partner, Berry, soon
reached the end of his wild career, and one morning a farmer from the
Rock Creek neighborhood drove into New Salem with the news that he was
dead.
The appalling debt which had accumulated was thrown upon Lincoln’s
shoulders. It was then too common a fashion among men who became deluged
in debt to “clear out,” in the expressive language of the pioneer, as
the Trents had done; but this was not Lincoln’s way. He quietly settled
down among the men he owed, and promised to pay them. For fifteen years
he carried this burden—a load which he cheerfully and manfully bore, but
one so heavy that he habitually spoke of it as the “national debt.”
Talking once of it to a friend, Lincoln said: “That debt was the
greatest obstacle I have ever met in life. I had no way of speculating,
and could not earn money except by labor; and to earn by labor eleven
hundred dollars, besides my living, seemed the work of a lifetime. There
was, however, but one way. I went to the creditors, and told them that
if they would let me alone, I would give them all I could earn over my
living, as fast as I could earn it.” As late as 1848, so we are informed
by Mr. Herndon, Mr. Lincoln, then a member of Congress, sent home money,
saved from his salary, to be applied on these obligations. All the
notes, with interest at the high rates then prevailing, were at last
paid.
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY LINCOLN WHILE POSTMASTER AT NEW
SALEM.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From the collection of Mr. C. F. Gunther of Chicago.
]
With a single exception, Lincoln’s creditors seem to have been lenient.
One of the notes given by him came into the hands of a Mr. Van Bergen,
who, when it fell due, brought suit. The amount of the judgment was more
than Lincoln could pay, and his personal effects were levied upon. These
consisted of his horse, saddle and bridle, and surveying instruments.
James Short, a well-to-do farmer living on Sand Ridge, a few miles north
of New Salem, heard of the trouble which had befallen his young friend.
Without advising Lincoln of his plans, he attended the sale, bought in
the horse and surveying instruments for one hundred and twenty dollars,
and turned them over to their former owner. By this kind act of “Uncle
Jimmy,” the young surveyor was enabled to continue his business.
[Illustration:
JOHN CALHOUN, UNDER WHOM LINCOLN LEARNED SURVEYING.
From a steel engraving in the possession of R. W. Diller, Springfield,
Illinois. John Calhoun was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October
14, 1806. In 1830 he removed to Springfield, Illinois, and after
serving in the Black Hawk War was appointed surveyor of Sangamon
County. He was a Democratic Representative in 1838; Democratic
presidential elector in 1844; candidate for Governor before the
Democratic State Convention in 1846; Mayor of Springfield in 1849,
1850, and 1851. In 1854, President Pierce appointed him
Surveyor-General of Kansas, and he became conspicuous in Kansas
politics. He was president of the Lecompton Convention. He died at
St. Joseph, Missouri, October 25, 1859. Mr. Frederick Hawn, who was
his boyhood friend, and afterward married a sister of Calhoun’s
wife, is now living at Leavenworth, Kansas, at the age of
eighty-five years. In an interesting letter to the writer he says:
“It has been related that Calhoun induced Lincoln to study surveying
in order to become his deputy. Presuming that he was ready to
graduate and receive his commission, he called on Calhoun, then
living with his father-in-law, Seth R. Cutter, on Upper Lick Creek.
After the interview was concluded, Mr. Lincoln, about to depart,
remarked: ‘Calhoun, I am entirely unable to repay you for your
generosity at present. All that I have you see on me, except a
quarter of a dollar in my pocket.’ This is a family tradition.
However, my wife, then a miss of sixteen, says, while I am writing
this sketch, that she distinctly remembers this interview. After
Lincoln was gone she says she and her sister, Mrs. Calhoun,
commenced making jocular remarks about his uncanny appearance, in
the presence of Calhoun, to which in substance he made this
rejoinder: ‘For all that, he is no common man.’ My wife believes
these were the exact words.”
]
Lincoln never forgot a benefactor. He not only repaid the money with
interest, but nearly thirty years later remembered the kindness in a
most substantial way. After Lincoln left New Salem, financial reverses
came to James Short, and he removed to the far West to seek his fortune
anew. Early in Lincoln’s presidential term he heard that “Uncle Jimmy”
was living in California. One day Mr. Short received a letter from
Washington. Tearing it open, he read the gratifying announcement that he
had been commissioned an Indian agent.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN’S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS.
Photographed for this work. After Lincoln gave up surveying, he sold
his instruments to John B. Gum, afterward county surveyor of Menard
County. Mr. Gum kept them until a few years ago, when he presented
the instruments to the Lincoln Monument Association, and they are
now on exhibition at the monument in Springfield, Illinois.
]
THE KINDNESS SHOWN LINCOLN IN NEW SALEM.
The kindness of Mr. Short was not exceptional in Lincoln’s New Salem
career. When the store had “winked out,” as he put it, and the
post-office had been left without headquarters, one of his neighbors,
Samuel Hill, invited the homeless postmaster into his store. There was
hardly a man or woman in the community who would not have been glad to
do as much. It was a simple recognition of Lincoln’s friendliness to
them. He was what they called “obliging”—a man who instinctively did the
thing which he saw would help another, no matter how trivial or homely
it was. In the home of Rowan Herndon, where he had boarded when he first
came to the town, he had made himself loved by his care of the children.
“He nearly always had one of them around with him,” says Mr. Herndon. In
the Rutledge tavern, where he afterwards lived, the landlord told with
appreciation how, when his house was full, Lincoln gave up his bed, went
to the store, and slept on the counter, his pillow a web of calico. If a
traveller “stuck in the mud” in New Salem’s one street, Lincoln was
always the first to help pull out the wheel. The widows praised him
because he “chopped their wood;” the overworked, because he was always
ready to give them a lift. It was the spontaneous, unobtrusive
helpfulness of the man’s nature which endeared him to everybody, and
which inspired a general desire to do all possible in return. There are
many tales told of homely service rendered him, even by the hard-working
farmers’ wives around New Salem. There was not one of them who did not
gladly “put on a plate” for Abe Lincoln when he appeared, or did not
darn or mend for him when she knew he needed it. Hannah Armstrong, the
wife of the hero of Clary’s Grove, made him one of her family. “Abe
would come out to our house,” she said, “drink milk, eat mush, cornbread
and butter, bring the children candy, and rock the cradle while I got
him something to eat.... Has stayed at our house two or three weeks at a
time.” Lincoln’s pay for his first piece of surveying came in the shape
of two buckskins, and it was Hannah who “foxed” them on his trousers.
His relations were equally friendly in the better homes of the
community; even at the minister, the Rev. John Cameron’s, he was
perfectly at home, and Mrs. Cameron was by him affectionately called
“Aunt Polly.” It was not only his kindly service which made Lincoln
loved; it was his sympathetic comprehension of the duties and joys and
sorrows and interests of the people. Whether it was Jack Armstrong and
his wrestling, Hannah and her babies, Kelso and his fishing and poetry,
the school-master and his books—with one and all he was at home. He
possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of entering into the
interests of others, a power found only in reflective, unselfish natures
endowed with a humorous sense of human foibles, and with great
tenderness of heart. Men and women amused Lincoln, but so long as they
were sincere he loved them and sympathized with them. He was human in
the best sense of that fine word.
LINCOLN’S ACQUAINTANCE IN SANGAMON COUNTY IS EXTENDED.
Now that the store was closed and his surveying increased, Lincoln had
an excellent opportunity to extend his acquaintance, for he was
travelling about the country. Everywhere he won friends. The surveyor,
naturally, was respected for his calling’s sake; but the new deputy
surveyor was admired for his friendly ways, his willingness to lend a
hand indoors as well as out, his learning, his ambition, his
independence. Throughout the county he began to be regarded as “a right
smart young man.” Some of his associates appear even to have
comprehended his peculiarly great character, and dimly to have foreseen
a splendid future. “Often,” says Daniel Green Burner, Berry and
Lincoln’s clerk in the grocery, “I have heard my brother-in-law, Dr.
Duncan, say he would not be surprised if some day Abe Lincoln got to be
Governor of Illinois. Lincoln,” Mr. Burner adds, “was thought to know a
little more than anybody else among the young people. He was a good
debater, and liked it. He read much, and seemed never to forget
anything.”
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN THE SUMMER OF 1860.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
From a copy (made by E. A. Bromley of the Minneapolis “Journal” staff)
of a photograph owned by Mrs. Cyrus Aldrich, whose husband, now
dead, was a Congressman from Minnesota. We owe the photograph to the
courtesy of Mr. Daniel Fish of Minneapolis. In the summer of 1860
Mr. M. C. Tuttle, a photographer of St. Paul, wrote to Mr. Lincoln,
requesting that he have a negative taken and sent to him for local
use in the campaign. The request was granted, but the negative was
broken in transit. On learning of the accident, Mr. Lincoln sat
again, and with the second negative he sent a jocular note wherein
he referred to the fact, disclosed by the picture, that in the
interval he had “got a new coat.” A few copies of the picture were
made by Mr. Tuttle, and distributed among the Republican editors of
the State. It has never before been reproduced. Mrs. Aldrich’s copy
was presented to her by William H. Seward when he was entertained at
the Aldrich homestead (now the Minneapolis City Hospital) in
September, 1860. A fine copy of this same photograph is owned by Mr.
Ward Monroe of Jersey City, New Jersey.
]
[Illustration:
LINCOLN’S SADDLE-BAGS.—PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THIS BIOGRAPHY.
These saddle-bags, now in the Lincoln Monument at Springfield, are
said to have been used by Lincoln while he was a surveyor.
]
Lincoln was fully conscious of his popularity, and it seemed to him in
1834 that he could safely venture to try again for the legislature.
Accordingly he announced himself as a candidate, spending much of the
summer of 1834 in electioneering. It was a repetition of what he had
done in 1832, though on the larger scale made possible by wider
acquaintance. In company with the other candidates, he rode up and down
the county, making speeches at the public sales, in shady groves, now
and then in a log schoolhouse. In his speeches he soon distinguished
himself by the amazing candor with which he dealt with all questions,
and by his curious blending of audacity and humility. Wherever he saw a
crowd of men he joined them, and he never failed to adapt himself to
their point of view in asking for votes. If the degree of physical
strength was their test for a candidate, he was ready to lift a weight,
or wrestle with the countryside champion; if the amount of grain a man
could cradle would recommend him, he seized the cradle and showed the
swath he could cut. The campaign was well conducted, for in August he
was elected one of the four assemblymen from Sangamon. The vote at this
election stood: Dawson, 1390; Lincoln, 1376; Carpenter, 1170; Stuart,
1164.
[Illustration:
VIEW OF THE SANGAMON RIVER NEAR NEW SALEM.
Reproduced, by permission, from “Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album,”
Petersburg, Illinois, 1893.
]
With one exception, the biographers of Lincoln have given him the first
place on the ticket in 1834. He really stood second in order. Herndon
gives the correct vote, although he is in error in saying that the chief
authority he quotes, a document owned by Dr. A. W. French of
Springfield, Illinois, is an “official return.” It is a statement, made
out in Lincoln’s writing, and certified to by the county clerk, of the
total number of votes cast in the whole county for each of the several
candidates for the legislature. The official returns are on file in the
Springfield court-house.
CHAPTER XVII.
LINCOLN FINALLY DECIDES ON A LEGAL CAREER.—HIS FIRST SESSION IN THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF ILLINOIS.
[Illustration:
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
Born at Brandon, Vermont, April 23, 1813; died in Chicago, June 3,
1861. Douglas learned a trade when a boy, but abandoned it to study
law. Obliged to support himself, he went to Illinois in 1833, where
he taught school until admitted to the bar. In 1835 he was elected
State Attorney-General, but resigned at the end of the year, having
been elected to the General Assembly. In 1837 he was appointed
register of the land-office at Springfield; in 1838 was defeated in
a contest for Congress; in 1840 was appointed Secretary of State; in
1841 was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois. From 1843
to 1846 he was in Congress, and for fourteen years after was a
United States Senator. The Lincoln and Douglas debates took place in
his last senatorial canvass. In 1860 Mr. Douglas was the Democratic
candidate for President, and was defeated by Lincoln. He died in
1861.
]
The best thing which Lincoln did in the canvass of 1834 was not winning
votes; it was coming to a determination to read law, not for pleasure,
but as a business. In his autobiographical notes he says: “During the
canvass, in a private conversation, Major John T. Stuart (one of his
fellow-candidates) encouraged Abraham to study law. After the election
he borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in
good earnest. He never studied with anybody.” He seems to have thrown
himself into the work with an almost impatient ardor. As he tramped back
and forth from Springfield, twenty miles away, to get his law-books, he
read sometimes forty pages or more on the way. Often he was seen
wandering at random across the fields, repeating aloud the points in his
last reading. The subject seemed never to be out of his mind. It was the
great absorbing interest of his life. The rule he gave twenty years
later to a young man who wanted to know how to become a lawyer, was the
one he practised:
[Illustration:
REPORT OF A ROAD SURVEY BY LINCOLN.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
Photographed for this biography from the original, now on file in the
County Clerk’s office, Springfield, Illinois. The survey here
reported was made in pursuance of an order of the County
Commissioners’ Court, September 1, 1834, in which Lincoln was
designated as the surveyor.
]
[Illustration:
A MAP MADE BY LINCOLN OF A PIECE OF ROAD IN MENARD COUNTY,
ILLINOIS.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
Photographed from the original for this biography. This map, which, as
here reproduced, is about one-half the size of the original,
accompanied Lincoln’s report of the survey of a part of the road
between Athens and Sangamon town. For making this map, Lincoln
received fifty cents. He received three dollars for the day he spent
in relocating the road. (See report, page 198.) The road evidently
was located “on good ground,” and was “necessary and proper,” as the
report says, for it is still the main travelled highway leading into
the country south of Athens, Menard County.
]
“Get books, and read and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone’s
‘Commentaries,’ and after reading carefully through, say twice, take up
Chitty’s ‘Pleadings,’ Greenleaf’s ‘Evidence,’ and Story’s ‘Equity,’ in
succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing.”
Having secured a book of legal forms, he was soon able to write deeds,
contracts, and all sorts of legal instruments; and he was frequently
called upon by his neighbors to perform services of this kind. “In
1834,” says Daniel Green Burner, Berry and Lincoln’s clerk, “my father,
Isaac Burner, sold out to Henry Onstott, and he wanted a deed written. I
knew how handy Lincoln was that way, and suggested that we get him. We
found him sitting on a stump. ‘All right,’ said he, when informed what
we wanted. ‘If you will bring me a pen and ink and a piece of paper I
will write it here.’ I brought him these articles, and, picking up a
shingle and putting it on his knee for a desk, he wrote out the deed.”
As there was no practising lawyer nearer than Springfield, Lincoln was
often employed to act the part of advocate before the village squire, at
that time Bowling Green. He realized that this experience was valuable,
and never, so far as known, demanded or accepted a fee for his services
in these petty cases.
Justice was sometimes administered in a summary way in Squire Green’s
court. Precedents and the venerable rules of law had little weight. The
“Squire” took judicial notice of a great many facts, often going so far
as to fill, simultaneously, the two functions of witness and court. But
his decisions were generally just.
James McGrady Rutledge tells a story in which several of Lincoln’s old
friends figure, and which illustrates the legal practices of New Salem.
“Jack Kelso,” says Mr. Rutledge, “owned, or claimed to own, a white hog.
It was also claimed by John Ferguson. The hog had often wandered around
Bowling Green’s place, and he was somewhat acquainted with it. Ferguson
sued Kelso, and the case was tried before ‘Squire’ Green. The plaintiff
produced two witnesses who testified positively that the hog belonged to
him. Kelso had nothing to offer, save his own unsupported claim.
“‘Are there any more witnesses?’ inquired the court.
“He was informed that there were no more.
“‘Well,’ said ‘Squire’ Green, ‘the two witnesses we have heard have
sworn to a —— lie. I know this shoat, and I know it belongs to Jack
Kelso. I therefore decide this case in his favor.’”
An extract from the record of the County Commissioners’ Court
illustrates the nature of the cases that came before the justice of the
peace in Lincoln’s day. It also shows the price put upon the privilege
of working on Sunday, in 1832:
“JANUARY 29, 1832.—Alexander Gibson found guilty of
Sabbath-breaking, and fined 12½ cents. Fine paid into court.
“(Signed) EDWARD ROBINSON, J. P.”
THE ILLINOIS ASSEMBLY OF 1834.
The session of the ninth Assembly began December 1, 1834, and Lincoln
went to the capital, then Vandalia, seventy-five miles southeast of New
Salem, on the Kaskaskia River, in time for the opening. Vandalia was a
town which had been called into existence in 1820 especially to give the
State government an abiding-place. Its very name had been chosen, it is
said, because it “sounded well” for a State capital. As the tradition
goes, while the commissioners were debating what they should call the
town they were making, a wag suggested that it be named Vandalia, in
honor of the Vandals, a tribe of Indians which, said he, had once lived
on the borders of the Kaskaskia; this, he argued, would conserve a local
tradition while giving a euphonious title. The commissioners, pleased
with so good a suggestion, adopted the name. When Lincoln first went to
Vandalia it was a town of about eight hundred inhabitants; its
noteworthy features, according to Peck’s “Gazetteer” of Illinois for
1834, being a brick court-house, a two-story brick edifice “used by
State officers,” “a neat framed house of worship for the Presbyterian
Society, with a cupola and bell,” “a framed meeting-house for the
Methodist Society,” three taverns, several stores, five lawyers, four
physicians, a land-office, and two newspapers. It was a much larger town
than Lincoln had ever lived in before, though he was familiar with
Springfield, then twice as large as Vandalia, and he had seen the cities
of the Mississippi.
[Illustration:
SURVEY OF A SECTION OF LAND BY LINCOLN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From the original, in the possession of Z. A. Enos, Springfield,
Illinois. “The Sangamon River runs through this section,” says Mr.
Enos, himself a veteran surveyor, “and the section lines in the
government survey were not extended across, but closed on the river,
without any connection being made between the opposite marginal
corners or lines; and though shown on the government plats as being
continuous straight east or west lines across the river, they were,
in fact, surveyed by the government surveyor as represented by Mr.
Lincoln’s plat.” This plat is also interesting as “showing,” as Mr.
Enos says, “how Illinois lands were valued at that date, as
indicated by the value of the several lots in the school section, as
determined by the trustees, and marked by them on each tract, and at
those estimated values the lots were then subject to purchase.”
]
The Assembly which he entered was composed of eighty-one
members—twenty-six senators and fifty-five representatives. As a rule,
these men were of Kentucky, Tennessee, or Virginia origin, with here and
there a Frenchman. There were but few Eastern men, for there was still a
strong prejudice in the State against Yankees. The close bargains and
superior airs of the emigrants from New England contrasted so
unpleasantly with the open-handed hospitality and the easy ways of the
Southerners and French, that a pioneer’s prospects were blasted at the
start if he acted like a Yankee. A history of Illinois in 1837,
published, evidently, to “boom” the State, cautioned the emigrant that
if he began his life in Illinois by “affecting superior intelligence and
virtue, and catechizing the people for their habits of plainness and
simplicity, and their apparent want of those things which he imagines
indispensable to comfort,” he must expect to be forever, marked as “a
Yankee,” and to have his prospects correspondingly defeated. A
“hard-shell” Baptist preacher of this date showed the feeling of the
people when he said, in preaching of the richness of the grace of the
Lord: “It tuks in the isles of the sea and the uttermust part of the
yeth. It embraces the Esquimaux and the Hottentots, and some, my dear
brethering, go so far as to suppose that it tuks in the poor benighted
Yankees; but _I don’t go that fur_.” When it came to an election of
legislators, many of the people “didn’t go that fur” either.
There was a preponderance of jean suits like Lincoln’s in the Assembly,
and there were occasional coonskin caps and buckskin trousers.
Nevertheless, more than one member showed a studied garb and a courtly
manner. Some of the best blood of the South went into the making of
Illinois, and it showed itself from the first in the Assembly. The
surroundings of the legislators were quite as simple as the attire of
the plainest of them. The court-house, in good old Colonial style, with
square pillars and belfry, was finished with wooden desks and benches.
The State furnished her law-makers few perquisites beyond their three
dollars a day. A cork inkstand, a certain number of quills, and a
limited amount of stationery were all the extras an Illinois legislator
in 1834 got from his position. Scarcely more could be expected from a
State whose revenues from December 1, 1834, to December 1, 1836, were
only about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, with
expenditures during the same period amounting to less than one hundred
and sixty-five thousand dollars.
Lincoln thought little of these things, no doubt. To him the absorbing
interest was the men he met. To get acquainted with them, measure them,
compare himself with them, and discover wherein they were his superiors
and what he could do to make good his deficiency—this was his chief
occupation. The men he met were good subjects for such study. Among them
were William L. D. Ewing, Jesse K. Dubois, Stephen T. Logan, Thomas
Ford, and Governor Duncan—men destined to play large parts in the
history of the State. One whom he met that winter in Vandalia was
destined to play a great part in the history of the nation—the
Democratic candidate for the office of State attorney for the first
judicial district of Illinois—a man four years younger than Lincoln (he
was only twenty-one at the time); a new-comer, too, in the State, having
arrived about a year before, under no very promising auspices either,
for he had only thirty-seven cents in his pockets, and no position in
view; but a man of metal, it was easy to see, for already he had risen
so high in the district where he had settled, that he dared contest the
office of State attorney with John J. Hardin, one of the most successful
lawyers of the State. This young man was Stephen A. Douglas. He had come
to Vandalia from Morgan County to conduct his campaign, and Lincoln met
him first in the halls of the old court-house, where he and his friends
carried on with success their contest against Hardin.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1861.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From a photograph loaned by Mr. Frank A. Brown of Minneapolis,
Minnesota. This beautiful photograph was taken, probably early in
1861, by Alexander Hesler of Chicago. It was used by Leonard W.
Volk, the sculptor, in his studies of Lincoln.
]
The ninth Assembly gathered in a more hopeful and ambitious mood than
any of its predecessors. Illinois was feeling well. The State was free
from debt. The Black Hawk War had stimulated the people greatly, for it
had brought a large amount of money into circulation. In fact, the
greater portion of the eight to ten million dollars the war had cost,
had been circulated among the Illinois volunteers. Immigration, too, was
increasing at a bewildering rate. In 1835 the census showed a population
of 269,974. Between 1830 and 1835 two-fifths of this number had come in.
In the northeast, Chicago had begun to rise. “Even for Western towns”
its growth had been unusually rapid, declared Peck’s “Gazetteer” of
1834; the harbor building there, the proposed Michigan and Illinois
canal, the rise in town lots—all promised to the State a great
metropolis. To meet the rising tide of prosperity, the legislators of
1834 felt that they must devise some worthy scheme, so they chartered a
new State bank, with a capital of one million five hundred thousand
dollars, and revived a bank which had broken twelve years before,
granting it a charter of three hundred thousand dollars. There was no
surplus money in the State to supply the capital; there were no trained
bankers to guide the concern; there was no clear notion of how it was
all to be done; but a banking capital of one million eight hundred
thousand dollars would be a good thing in the State, they were sure; and
if the East could be made to believe in Illinois as much as her
legislators believed in her, the stocks would go; and so the banks were
chartered.
But even more important to the State than banks was a highway. For
thirteen years plans of the Illinois and Michigan canal had been
constantly before the Assembly. Surveys had been ordered, estimates
reported, the advantages extolled, but nothing had been done. Now,
however, the Assembly, flushed by the first thrill of the coming “boom,”
decided to authorize a loan of a half-million on the credit of the
State. Lincoln favored both these measures. He did not, however, do
anything especially noteworthy for either of the bills, nor was the
record he made in other directions at all remarkable. He was placed on
the committee of public accounts and expenditures, and attended meetings
with great fidelity. His first act as a member was to give notice that
he would ask leave to introduce a bill limiting the jurisdiction of
justices of the peace—a measure which he succeeded in carrying through.
He followed this by a motion to change the rules, so that it should not
be in order to offer amendments to any bill after the third reading,
which was not agreed to; though the same rule, in effect, was adopted
some years later, and is to this day in force in both branches of the
Illinois Assembly. He next made a motion to take from the table a report
which had been submitted by his committee, which met a like fate. His
first resolution, relating to a State revenue to be derived from the
sales of the public lands, was denied a reference, and laid upon the
table. Neither as a speaker nor as an organizer did he make any especial
impression on the body.
[Illustration:
MAP OF ALBANY, ILLINOIS. MADE BY LINCOLN.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
The original of this plat is owned by Mr. J. Davidson Burns of
Kalamazoo, Michigan, to whose courtesy we owe the right of
reproduction.
]
CHAPTER XVIII.
LINCOLN’S FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH ANN RUTLEDGE.—THE STORY OF THEIR LOVE.
In the spring of 1835 the young representative from Sangamon returned to
New Salem to take up his duties as postmaster and deputy surveyor, and
to resume his law studies. He exchanged his rather exalted position for
the humbler one, with a light heart. New Salem held all that was dearest
in the world to him at that moment, and he went back to the poor little
town with a hope, which he had once supposed honor forbade his
acknowledging even to himself, glowing warmly in his heart. He loved a
young girl of the village, and now for the first time, though he had
known her since he first came to New Salem, was he free to tell his
love.
One of the most prominent families of the settlement in 1831, when
Lincoln first appeared there, was that of James Rutledge. The head of
the house was one of the founders of New Salem, and at that time the
keeper of the village tavern. He was a high-minded man, of a warm and
generous nature, and had the universal respect of the community. He was
a South Carolinian by birth, but had lived many years in Kentucky before
coming to Illinois. Rutledge came of a distinguished family: one of his
ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence; another was Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by appointment of
Washington, and another was a conspicuous leader in the American
Congress.
[Illustration:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1858.
From an ambrotype owned by Miss Hattie Gilmer of Pittsfield, Illinois.
The Gilmer ambrotype was taken by C. Jackson, in Pittsfield, October
1, 1858, during the Lincoln and Douglas campaign, immediately after
Lincoln had made a speech in the public square. Lincoln was the
guest of his friend D. H. Gilmer, a lawyer. He sat for two pictures,
one of which was finished for Mr. Gilmer. The other picture is
supposed to have been destroyed.
]
The third of the nine children in the Rutledge household was a daughter,
Ann Mayes, born in Kentucky, January 7, 1813. When Lincoln first met her
she was nineteen years old, and as fresh as a flower. Many of those who
knew her at that time have left tributes to her beauty and gentleness,
and even to-day there are those living who talk of her with moistened
eyes and softened tones. “She was a beautiful girl,” says her cousin,
James McGrady Rutledge, “and as bright as she was pretty. She was well
educated for that early day, a good conversationalist, and always gentle
and cheerful; a girl whose company people liked.” So fair a maid was
not, of course, without suitors. The most determined of those who sought
her hand was one John McNeill, a young man who had arrived in New Salem
from New York soon after the founding of the town. Nothing was known of
his antecedents, and no questions were asked. He was understood to be
merely one of the thousands who had come West in search of fortune. That
he was intelligent, industrious, and frugal, with a good head for
business, was at once apparent; for he and Samuel Hill opened a general
store, and they soon doubled their capital, and their business continued
to grow remarkably. In four years from his first appearance in the
settlement, besides having a half-interest in the store, McNeill owned a
large farm a few miles north of New Salem. His neighbors believed him to
be worth about twelve thousand dollars.
[Illustration:
TWO NEW SALEM CHAIRS.
Now owned by Mrs. Samuel Hill, Petersburg, Illinois.
]
ANN RUTLEDGE’S ENGAGEMENT TO JOHN McNEILL.
John McNeill was an unmarried man—at least so he represented himself to
be—and very soon after becoming a resident of New Salem he formed the
acquaintance of Ann Rutledge, then a girl of seventeen. It was a case of
love at first sight, and the two soon became engaged, in spite of the
rivalry of Samuel Hill, McNeill’s partner. But Ann was as yet only a
young girl; and it was thought very sensible in her, and very gracious
and considerate in her lover, that both acquiesced in the wishes of
Ann’s parents that, for some time, at least, the marriage be postponed.
[Illustration:
MAJOR JOHN T. STUART, THE MAN WHO INDUCED LINCOLN TO STUDY LAW.
After a photograph owned by his widow, Mary Nash Stuart, Springfield,
Illinois. John T. Stuart was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, seven
miles east of Lexington, November 10, 1807. He was a son of Robert
Stuart, a Presbyterian minister, and professor of languages in
Transylvania University. His mother’s maiden name was Hannah Todd.
She was a daughter of General Levi Todd, and a sister of Robert S.
Todd, the father of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. John T. Stuart graduated
at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1826, and after studying
law in Richmond, Kentucky, he went to Springfield, Illinois. This
was in 1828. Here he at once began the practice of the law. In the
Black Hawk War he was major of the battalion in which Lincoln
commanded a company, and here his acquaintance with Lincoln seems to
have been formed. In 1832 he was elected a representative in the
State legislature, and was reëlected in 1834. In 1836 he was an
unsuccessful Whig candidate for Congress. Two years later he was
again a candidate, and this time was elected, defeating Stephen A.
Douglas. He was reëlected in 1840. Lincoln, upon his removal to
Springfield in the spring of 1837, became Major Stuart’s law
partner. The partnership continued until April 14, 1841, when
Lincoln became the partner of Judge Stephen T. Logan. For many years
Major Stuart was the senior member of the law firm of Stuart,
Edwards and Brown, the two other members being Benjamin S. Edwards
and Christopher C. Brown. In 1837, at Jacksonville, Illinois, he was
married to Mary V. Nash, who is still living. Major Stuart died in
1885.
]
Such was the situation when Lincoln appeared in New Salem. He naturally
soon became acquainted with the girl. She was a pupil in Mentor Graham’s
school, where he frequently visited, and rumor says that he first met
her there. However that may be, it is certain that in the latter part of
1832 he went to board at the Rutledge tavern, and there was thrown daily
into her company.
During the next year, 1833, John McNeill, in spite of his fair
prospects, became restless and discontented. He wanted to see his
people, he said, and before the end of the year he had decided to go
East for a visit. To secure perfect freedom from his business while
gone, he sold out his interest in the store. To Ann he said that he
hoped to bring back his father and mother, and to place them on his
farm. “This duty done,” was his farewell word, “you and I will be
married.” In the spring of 1834 McNeill started East. The journey
overland by foot and horse was in those days a trying one, and on the
way McNeill fell ill with chills and fever. It was late in the summer
before he reached his home and wrote back to Ann, explaining his
silence. The long wait had been a severe strain on the girl, and Lincoln
had watched her anxiety with softened heart. It was to him, the New
Salem postmaster, that she came to inquire for letters. It was to him
she entrusted those she sent. In a way the postmaster must have become
the girl’s confidant; and his tender heart, which never could resist
suffering, must have been deeply touched. After the long silence was
broken, and McNeill’s first letter of explanation came, the cause of
anxiety seemed removed; but, strangely enough, other letters followed
only at long intervals, and finally they ceased altogether. Then it was
that the young girl told her friends a secret which McNeill had confided
to her before leaving New Salem.
[Illustration:
A WAYSIDE WELL NEAR NEW SALEM, KNOWN AS “ANN RUTLEDGE’S WELL.”
]
He had told her what she had never even suspected before, that John
McNeill was not his real name, but that it was John McNamar. Shortly
before he came to New Salem, he explained, his father had suffered a
disastrous failure in business. He was the oldest son; and in the hope
of retrieving the lost fortune, he resolved to go West, expecting to
return in a few years and share his riches with the rest of the family.
Anticipating parental opposition, he ran away from home; and, being sure
that he could never accumulate anything with so numerous a family to
support, he endeavored to lose himself by a change of name. All this Ann
had believed and not repeated; but now, worn out by waiting, she took
her secret to her friends.
With few exceptions, they pronounced the story a fabrication and McNamar
an impostor. Why had he worn this mask? His excuse seemed flimsy. At
best, they declared, he was a mere adventurer; and was it not more
probable that he was a fugitive from justice—a thief, a swindler, or a
murderer? And who knew how many wives he might have? With all New Salem
declaring John McNamar false, Ann Rutledge could hardly be blamed for
imagining that he either was dead or that he had ceased to love her.
ANN’S ENGAGEMENT TO LINCOLN.
It was not until McNeill, or McNamar, had been gone many months, and
gossip had become offensive, that Lincoln ventured to show his love for
Ann, and then it was a long time before the girl would listen to his
suit. Convinced at last, however, that her former lover had deserted
her, she yielded to Lincoln’s wishes, and promised, in the spring of
1835, soon after Lincoln’s return from Vandalia, to become his wife. But
Lincoln had nothing on which to support a family—indeed, he found it no
trifling task to support himself. As for Ann, she was anxious to go to
school another year. It was decided that in the autumn she should go
with her brother to Jacksonville and spend the winter there in an
academy. Lincoln was to devote himself to his law studies; and the next
spring, when she returned from school and he was a member of the bar,
they were to be married.
A happy spring and summer followed. New Salem took a cordial interest in
the two lovers, and presaged a happy life for them; and all would
undoubtedly have gone well if the young girl could have dismissed the
haunting memory of her old lover. The possibility that she had wronged
him; that he might reappear; that he loved her still, though she now
loved another; that perhaps she had done wrong—a torturing conflict of
memory, love, conscience, doubt, and morbidness lay like a shadow across
her happiness, and wore upon her until she fell ill. Gradually her
condition became hopeless; and Lincoln, who had been shut from her, was
sent for. The lovers passed an hour alone in an anguished parting, and
soon after, on August 25, 1835, Ann died.
[Illustration:
LINCOLN IN 1858.
After a photograph owned by Mrs. Harriet Chapman of Charleston,
Illinois. Mrs. Chapman is a granddaughter of Sarah Bush Lincoln,
Lincoln’s step-mother. Her son, Mr. R. N. Chapman of Charleston,
Illinois, writes us: “In 1858 Lincoln and Douglas had a series of
joint debates in this State, and this city was one place of meeting.
Mr. Lincoln’s step-mother was making her home with my father and
mother at that time. Mr. Lincoln stopped at our house, and as he was
going away my mother said to him: ‘Uncle Abe, I want a picture of
you.’ He replied, ‘Well, Harriet, when I get home I will have one
taken for you and send it to you.’ Soon after, mother received the
photograph, which she still has, already framed, from Springfield,
Illinois, with a letter from Mr. Lincoln, in which he said, ‘This is
not a very good-looking picture, but it’s the best that could be
produced from the poor subject.’ He also said that he had it taken
solely for my mother. The photograph is still in its original frame,
and I am sure is the most perfect and best picture of Lincoln in
existence. We suppose it must have been taken in Springfield,
Illinois.”
]
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF A LEGAL OPINION BY LINCOLN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From the original, in the possession of Z. A. Enos, Springfield,
Illinois. In a convention of surveyors, held at Springfield in 1859,
the question was much discussed whether the act of Congress of
February 11, 1805, relating to surveys, was intended to control all
future surveys and subdivisions of the government lands. It was
decided to submit the question to a lawyer for an opinion. Mr.
Lincoln was selected, for the reason not only that he was a lawyer
of recognized ability, but also because he had been a practical
surveyor. A committee having waited upon him, he wrote out the
opinion of which a facsimile is here presented. Mr. Enos, who holds
the original document, was an active participant in the convention
to which this opinion was rendered.
]
[Illustration:
JAMES McGRADY RUTLEDGE, A COUSIN OF ANN RUTLEDGE.
James McGrady Rutledge, son of William Rutledge, is now past
eighty-one years of age, having been born in Kentucky, September 29,
1814. He is now a resident of Petersburg. He is active and
remarkably free from the infirmities of age. When a boy, with a yoke
of oxen, he hauled the logs for the construction of the mill and the
dam at New Salem and for some of the cabins of the village. “‘Rile’
Clary and I carried chain for Lincoln many a time,” he says; “‘Rile’
going foremost and I following. We became accustomed to it and
Lincoln preferred us.” Ann Rutledge and her cousin were nearly the
same age, and being thoroughly congenial, she made a confidant of
him. They were much in each other’s company, and Ann often talked to
him of Lincoln. “Everybody was happy with Ann,” says Mr. Rutledge.
“She was of a cheerful disposition, seeming to enjoy life, and
helping others enjoy it.”
]
The death of Ann Rutledge plunged Lincoln into the deepest gloom. That
abiding melancholy, that painful sense of the incompleteness of life,
which had been his mother’s dowry to him, asserted itself. It filled and
darkened his mind and his imagination, tortured him with its black
pictures. One stormy night he was sitting beside William Greene, his
head bowed on his hand, while tears trickled through his fingers; his
friend begged him to control his sorrow, to try to forget. “I cannot,”
moaned Lincoln; “the thought of the snow and rain on her grave fills me
with indescribable grief.”
He was found walking alone by the river and through the woods, muttering
strange things to himself. He seemed to his friends to be in the shadow
of madness. They kept a close watch over him; and at last Bowling Green,
one of the most devoted friends Lincoln then had, took him home to his
little log cabin, half a mile north of New Salem, under the brow of a
big bluff.
Here, under the loving care of Green and his good wife Nancy, Lincoln
remained until he was once more master of himself.
But though he had regained self-control, his grief was deep and bitter.
Ann Rutledge was buried in Concord cemetery, a country burying-ground
seven miles northwest of New Salem. To this lonely spot Lincoln
frequently journeyed to weep over her grave. “My heart is buried there,”
he said to one of his friends.
When McNamar returned (for McNamar’s story was true, and, two months
after Ann Rutledge died, he drove into New Salem, with his widowed
mother and his brothers and sisters in the “prairie schooner” beside
him) and learned of Ann’s death, he “saw Lincoln at the post-office,” as
he afterward said, and “he seemed desolate and sorely distressed.” On
himself, apparently, her death produced no deep impression. Within a
year he married another woman; and his conduct toward Ann Rutledge is to
this day a mystery.
Many years ago a sister of Ann Rutledge, Mrs. Jeane Berry, told what she
knew of Ann’s love affairs; and her statement has been preserved in a
diary kept by the Rev. R. D. Miller, now Superintendent of Schools of
Menard County, with whom she had the conversation. She declared that
Ann’s “whole soul seemed wrapped up in Lincoln,” and that they “would
have been married in the fall or early winter” if Ann had lived. “After
Ann died,” said Mrs. Berry, “I remember that it was common talk about
how sad Lincoln was; and I remember myself how sad he looked. They told
me that every time he was in the neighborhood after she died, he would
go alone to her grave and sit there in silence for hours.”
In later life, when his sorrow had become a memory, he told a friend who
questioned him: “I really and truly loved the girl and think often of
her now.” There was a pause, and then he added: “And I have loved the
name of Rutledge to this day.”
CHAPTER XIX.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AT TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF AGE.
When the death of Ann Rutledge came upon Lincoln, for a time threatening
to destroy his ambition and blast his life, he was in a most encouraging
position. Master of a profession in which he had an abundance of work
and earned fair wages; hopeful of being admitted in a few months to the
bar; a member of the State Assembly, with every reason to believe that,
if he desired it, his constituency would return him—few men are as far
advanced at twenty-six as was Abraham Lincoln.
[Illustration:
CONCORD CEMETERY.—WHERE ANN RUTLEDGE WAS BURIED.
From a photograph by C. S. McCullough, Petersburg, Illinois. Concord
cemetery lies seven miles northwest of the old town of New Salem, in
a secluded place, surrounded by woods and pastures, away from the
world. In this lonely spot Ann Rutledge was at first laid to rest.
Thither Lincoln is said often to have gone alone, and “sat in
silence for hours at a time;” and it was to Ann Rutledge’s grave
here that he pointed and said: “There my heart lies buried.” The old
cemetery suffered the melancholy fate of New Salem. It became a
neglected, deserted spot. The graves were lost in weeds, and a heavy
growth of trees kept out the sun and filled the place with gloom. A
dozen years ago this picture was taken. It was a blustery day in the
autumn, and the weeds and trees were swaying before a furious gale.
No other picture of the place, taken while Ann Rutledge was buried
there, is known to be in existence. A picture of a cemetery, with
the name of Ann Rutledge on a high, flat tombstone, has been
published in two or three books; but it is not genuine, the “stone”
being nothing more than a board improvised for the occasion. The
grave of Ann Rutledge was never honored with a stone until the body
was taken up in 1890 and removed to Oakland cemetery, a mile
southwest of Petersburg.
]
Intellectually he was far better equipped than he believed himself to
be, better than he has ordinarily been credited with being. True, he had
had no conventional college training, but he had by his own efforts
attained the chief result of all preparatory study, the ability to take
hold of a subject and assimilate it. The fact that in six weeks he had
acquired enough of the science of surveying to enable him to serve as
deputy surveyor shows how well trained his mind was. The power to grasp
a large subject quickly and fully is never an accident. The nights
Lincoln spent in Gentryville, lying on the floor in front of the fire,
figuring on the fire-shovel; the hours he passed in poring over the
Statutes of Indiana; the days he wrestled with Kirkham’s Grammar, alone
made the mastery of Flint and Gibson possible. His struggle with Flint
and Gibson made easier the volumes he borrowed from Major Stuart’s law
library.
[Illustration:
JOSEPH DUNCAN, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS DURING LINCOLN’S FIRST TERM IN THE
LEGISLATURE.
Joseph Duncan, Governor of Illinois from 1834 to 1838, was born in
Kentucky in 1794. The son of an officer of the regular army, he at
nineteen became a soldier in the war of 1812, and did gallant
service. He removed to Illinois in 1818, and soon became prominent
in the State, serving as a major-general of militia, a State
Senator, and from 1826 to 1834 as a member of Congress, resigning
from Congress to take the office of Governor. He was at first a
Democrat, but afterwards became a Whig. He was a man of the highest
character and public spirit. He died in 1844.
]
Lincoln had a mental trait which explains his rapid growth in mastering
subjects—seeing clearly was essential to him. He was unable to put a
question aside until he understood it. It pursued him, irritated him,
until solved. Even in his Gentryville days his comrades noted that he
was constantly searching for reasons and that he “explained so clearly.”
This characteristic became stronger with years. He was unwilling to
pronounce himself on any subject until he understood it, and he could
not let it alone until he had reached a conclusion which satisfied him.
This seeing clearly became a splendid force in Lincoln; because when he
once had reached a conclusion he had the honesty of soul to suit his
actions to it. No consideration could induce him to abandon the course
his reason told him was logical. Not that he was obstinate, and having
taken a position, would not change it if he saw on further study that he
was wrong. In his first circular to the people of Sangamon County is
this characteristic passage: “Upon the subjects I have treated, I have
spoken as I thought. I may be wrong in any or all of them; but, holding
it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at
all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be
erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.”
[Illustration:
DR. FRANCIS REGNIER.
From a painting owned by his daughter, Mrs. N. W. Branson, Petersburg,
Illinois. Dr. Regnier was one of the New Salem physicians. He lived
in the place until most of its inhabitants had deserted it, and then
removed to Petersburg. He was for many years a leading citizen in
the community. He died in 1858.
]
Joined to these strong mental and moral qualities was that power of
immediate action which so often explains why one man succeeds in life
while another of equal intelligence and uprightness fails. As soon as
Lincoln saw a thing to do he did it. He wants to know; here is a book—it
may be a biography, a volume of dry statutes, a collection of verse; no
matter, he reads and ponders it until he has absorbed all it has for
him. He is eager to see the world; a man offers him a position as a
“hand” on a Mississippi flatboat; he takes it without a moment’s
hesitation over the toil and exposure it demands. John Calhoun is
willing to make him a deputy surveyor; he knows nothing of the science;
in six weeks he has learned enough to begin his labors. Sangamon County
must have representatives; why not he? And his circular goes out.
Ambition alone will not explain this power of instantaneous action. It
comes largely from that active imagination which, when a new relation or
position opens, seizes on all its possibilities and from them creates a
situation so real that one enters with confidence upon what seems to the
unimaginative the rashest undertaking. Lincoln saw the possibilities in
things, and immediately appropriated them.
But the position he filled in Sangamon County in 1835 was not all due to
these qualities; much was due to his personal charm. By all accounts he
was big, awkward, ill-clad, shy; yet his sterling honor, his unselfish
nature, his heart of the true gentleman, inspired respect and
confidence. Men might laugh at his first appearance, but they were not
long in recognizing the real superiority of his nature.
[Illustration:
GRAVE OF ANN RUTLEDGE IN OAKLAND CEMETERY.
From a photograph made for this work by C. S. McCullough, Petersburg,
Illinois, in September, 1895. On the 15th of May, 1890, the remains
of Ann Rutledge were removed from the long-neglected grave in the
Concord graveyard to a new and picturesque burying-ground a mile
southwest of Petersburg, called Oakland cemetery. The old grave,
though marked by no stone, was easily identified from the fact that
Ann was buried by the side of her younger brother, David, who died
in 1842, upon the threshold of what promised to be a brilliant
career as a lawyer. The removal was made by Samuel Montgomery, a
prominent business man of Petersburg. He was accompanied to the
grave by James McGrady Rutledge and a few others, who located the
grave beyond a doubt. In the new cemetery, the grave occupies a
place somewhat apart from others. A young maple tree is growing
beside it, and it is marked by an unpolished granite stone bearing
the simple inscription, “Ann Rutledge.”
]
Such was Abraham Lincoln at twenty-six, when the tragic death of Ann
Rutledge made all that he had attained, all that he had planned, seem
fruitless and empty. He was too sincere and just, too brave a man, to
allow a great sorrow permanently to interfere with his activities. He
rallied his forces and returned to his law, his surveying, his politics.
He brought to his work a new power, that insight and patience which only
a great sorrow can give.
APPENDIX.
I.
MEMORANDA FOR LINCOLN’S GENEALOGY.
_Prepared especially for this volume by the Hon. L. E. Chittenden,
Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, and author of “President
Lincoln,” etc._
The Hon. SOLOMON LINCOLN of Hingham, Massachusetts, in an article on the
“Lincoln Families of Massachusetts,” in the “New England Historical and
Genealogical Register,” 1865, Volume XIX., page 357, says: “We now come
to the family of Samuel Lincoln, in which we find more names than in any
other, which leads to the belief that it is in this direction that we
must look for the ancestor of Abraham Lincoln. To this family belong the
honored names of Levi Lincoln, Attorney-General of the United States,
Lieutenant and acting Governor of Massachusetts after the death of
Governor Sullivan; also his two distinguished sons, Levi, 1802, who,
besides other offices, was by nine elections the popular Governor of
Massachusetts; and Enoch Lincoln, Governor of Maine; and many other able
men.
“In a correspondence with the late President, in 1848, when he was in
Congress, he stated: ‘My father’s name is Thomas, my grandfather’s was
Abraham, the same as my own. He went from Rockingham County, Virginia,
to Kentucky, about the year 1782, and two years afterwards was killed by
the Indians. We have a vague tradition that my great-grandfather was a
Quaker who went from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Further than this I have
not heard anything. It may do no harm to say that Abraham and Mordecai
are common names in our family.’
“In a subsequent letter in 1848, he wrote: ‘I have mentioned that my
grandfather’s name was Abraham; he had, as I think I have heard, four
brothers, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas, and John. He had three sons, Mordecai,
Josiah, and Thomas—the last my father. My uncle Mordecai had three sons,
Abraham, James, and Mordecai. My uncle Josiah had several daughters and
only one son, Thomas. This is all I know certainly on the subject of
names. It is, however, my father’s understanding that Abraham, Mordecai,
and Thomas are old family names of ours.’”
Mr. Solomon Lincoln continues: “We have already mentioned among the sons
of the first Samuel—Daniel, Mordecai, and Thomas; and among his
grandsons—Mordecai, Isaac, and Abraham.
“It has been stated ... that about the middle of the last century the
great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln removed from Berks County,
Pennsylvania, to Augusta County, Virginia. These facts, from ‘Rupp’s
History of Berks County,’ are furnished by William B. Trask, Esq., of
the Genealogical Society.”
From the “History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts,” four
volumes, 8vo, 1893, by a committee comprising Ex-Governor Long and
two members of the Lincoln family. See Volume I., page 271.
“The Lincolns fill the pages of local and Commonwealth history with the
story of their services in the field, the town, the halls of
legislation, and the council chamber, from the earliest day to the
present time. During the French wars we have seen Benjamin Lincoln, as
colonel of his regiment, the historical Third Suffolk, ... taking an
active part. Colonel Lincoln died in March, 1771, leaving, among others,
the son Benjamin who so worthily filled the place he long occupied in
public estimation and usefulness. The affection that is felt for the
great President _Abraham Lincoln, also a descendant from the Hingham
family_, has given a national fame to the name in later years.”
From “The Lineage of Abraham Lincoln traced from Samuel Lincoln.” By
Samuel Shackford, Esq., of Chicago, a descendant of Samuel Lincoln.
See New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1887, Volume
XLI., page 153.
“Samuel Lincoln came from Norfolk County, England—probably from the town
of Hingham—in 1637, at the age of eighteen years, ... first to Salem, as
an apprentice to a weaver; then to Hingham, where his brother Thomas ...
lived.... He had ten children.... Through his first son, Samuel, came
the Governors Levi Lincoln, father and son, and Enoch Lincoln, Governor
of Maine. Mordecai, fourth son of Samuel, born at Hingham, June 17,
1767, was a blacksmith; worked at his trade in Hull; married Sarah,
daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Whitman) Jones. From Hull the family
removed to the neighboring town of Scituate, about 1704, where Mordecai
established a furnace for smelting iron ore. The children of Mordecai
and Sarah (Jones) Lincoln were five in number: Mordecai, born April 1,
1686; Abraham, born January 13, 1689; Isaac, born October 21, 1691; and
Sarah, born July 29, 1691—all in Hingham. By a second wife he had
Elizabeth and Jacob, born in Scituate.
“The will of Mordecai, dated Scituate, March 3, 1727, is of an unusual
character. Isaac and Jacob, the younger sons—Jacob a lad of sixteen
years—were named executors; and to them are bequeathed all the
testator’s lands in Hingham and Scituate, with the saw and grist mill,
and all his interest in the iron works. To ‘son Mordecai’ is left one
hundred and ten pounds in money or bills of credit; to ‘son Abraham,’
sixty pounds in money or bills, ‘besides what he has already had.’ To
the oldest sons of Mordecai and Abraham, each ten pounds when they come
of age; and provision is made for sending three grandsons to college, if
they wish a liberal education.
“Shortly before this time the names of Mordecai and Abraham disappear
from, and are not after 1727 found on, the records of Massachusetts.
They were active men of property; and this fact, in connection with the
will, which gave them only money, and all the immovable property to
Isaac and Jacob, raises an almost irresistible inference that Mordecai
and Abraham no longer lived in Massachusetts.
“We now turn to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and find that, in the early
part of the last century, the Moores, Hales, Rolfs, Pikes, and other
families from eastern Massachusetts, came to Middlesex County, New
Jersey, and founded a town which they named, in honor of their old
pastor in Newbury, Massachusetts, Woodbridge. At a somewhat later date
the names of Mordecai and Abraham Lincoln appear on the records of
Monmouth, which adjoins Middlesex County.
“Mordecai Lincoln had married Hannah (Bowne) Salter of Freehold,
Monmouth County, New Jersey. Her uncle John Bowne’s will, dated
September 14, 1714, gives to Hannah Lincoln a bequest of two hundred and
fifty pounds. She was the daughter of Richard Salter, a leading lawyer,
member of the assembly, and judge. Captain John Bowne was also a leading
and influential citizen. The settlement of his estate involved several
lawsuits shown by the court records. The first in 1716, by Obadiah
Bowne, executor, against the other heirs, Mordecai Lincoln being a
defendant. In this a non-suit was entered, and the second suit ended in
the same way. The third, in 1719, also included Mordecai Lincoln as a
defendant, but the sheriff returns him _non est_, and in 1720 the suit
as to Mordecai was withdrawn.
“These facts are satisfactory proof that Mordecai Lincoln had, before
1720, left Monmouth County.”
As further proof of the identity of the New Jersey with the Hingham
Mordecai, there is a letter shown to Mr. Shackford by John C. Beekman,
Esq., of Monmouth, written by John Bowne, one of the heirs to his uncle
Obadiah, in which he calls Mordecai “brother.”
A deed on file in the office of the Secretary of State in Trenton, New
Jersey, dated February 29, 1720, from Richard Salter to Mordecai
Lincoln, both of Freehold, conveys four hundred acres of land, situate
on the Machaponix River and Grand Bank, Middlesex County. A like deed,
of May 25, 1726, conveys one hundred acres of land in the same locality,
and describes Mordecai Lincoln, the grantee, as of Chester County,
Pennsylvania.
It appears from these records that Mordecai was in New Jersey in 1720.
In 1876 there was unearthed in the old burying-ground near Allentown,
New Jersey, a tombstone, bearing this inscription: “To the memory of
Deborah Lincoln, who died May 15, 1720, aged three years and four
months.” As no other Lincolns have been found in the vicinity, it is
probable that she was the child of Mordecai and Hannah Lincoln.
A deed on file in the Department of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania,
dated December 24, 1725, from Mordecai Lincoln of Coventry, County of
Chester, Pennsylvania, conveys to William Branston, merchant, of
Philadelphia, one-third of one hundred and six acres of land, according
to an agreement between Samuel Nutt and Mordecai Lincoln, with “the
mynes, and minerals, _forges_, buildings, houses, and improvements.”
This is important, for it shows that Mordecai first resided in Chester
County, Pennsylvania, where he made iron, a trade learned at his
father’s establishment in Scituate.
It is through Mordecai that the pedigree of President Lincoln is traced
to Samuel Lincoln. But it is also essential that Abraham of Monmouth
County, New Jersey, should be identified as one of the missing sons of
Mordecai and Sarah (Jones) Lincoln of eastern Massachusetts.
Abraham, like his father, was a blacksmith, as the next deed shows. By
it, on the records of Monmouth County, New Jersey, February 20, 1727,
Abraham Lincoln, “blacksmith,” conveys to Thomas Williams two hundred
and forty acres of land near Creswick, in said county, and two hundred
acres conveyed to Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Van Horn. He was probably
preparing to follow his brother Mordecai to Pennsylvania.
The will of Abraham Lincoln is dated in Springfield, Chester County,
Pennsylvania, April 15, 1745, and was entered for probate on the 29th of
the same month. His estate, a plantation in Springfield and two houses
in Philadelphia, was divided among his children, viz.: Mordecai,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, John, Sarah, and Rebecca. Four of his sons bore
the same Old Testament names as the four sons of the first Mordecai of
Scituate.
Returning to Mordecai, we find in his will, proved June 7, 1736, that he
is described as of Amity, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. By it he
bequeaths to “my sons Mordecai and Thomas all my lands in Amity,” etc.;
to his daughters Hannah and Mary a piece of land in Machaponix, New
Jersey; and to “my son John three hundred acres of land in the same
town;” and to his daughters Ann and Sarah one hundred acres, also lying
in Machaponix, New Jersey.
His oldest son, John, was by his first wife, Hannah Salter, and went
with his father to Pennsylvania. A deed from John, on file in the
Secretary of State’s office in Trenton, New Jersey, describes him as the
“son and heir of Mordecai Lincoln, of the town of Carnaervon, County of
Lancaster,” and the deed conveys to William Dye “three hundred acres in
Middlesex County, New Jersey, part of the property conveyed October 20,
1720, by Richard Salter to Mordecai Lincoln, and by him bequeathed to
his said son John.”
John Lincoln, in 1758, owned a farm in Union township, adjoining Exeter
(Pennsylvania?), which he sold, and went to Virginia, settling in that
portion of Augusta County which was organized into Rockingham County in
1779. His will cannot now be found, part of the papers in the probate
office at Harrisonburgh having been destroyed by fire. But there is
ample proof that he had sons—John, Thomas, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and
daughters.
The son Abraham married Mary Shepley in North Carolina, just over the
Virginia boundary line, where their sons Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas
were born. In 1782, or about that time, the family removed to Kentucky,
where their daughters Mary and Nancy were born. The son THOMAS LINCOLN
married Nancy Hanks, September 23, 1806, near Springfield, Kentucky, and
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, their son, was born on the twelfth day of February,
1809.
Mr. Shackford continues: “The Lincolns through which the President’s
genealogy is traced were for six generations, with a single exception,
pioneers in the settlement of new countries. I. Samuel, an early settler
at Hingham, Massachusetts. II. Mordecai, of Scituate, who lived and died
near where he was born. III. Mordecai, settled in Pennsylvania, thirty
years before Berks County was organized. IV. John, went to the wilds of
Virginia. V. Abraham, went to Kentucky with Boone when it was infested
by savages. VI. Thomas, with his son Abraham, pioneers to Indiana.”
Mr. Shackford has traced the pedigrees of other members of the Lincoln
family, in which the persistence of Scripture names is very marked. We
content ourselves with the following, which bears directly on the
connection of the Pennsylvania and Virginia families:
“Abraham, the posthumous son of Mordecai and Mary Lincoln of Amity, born
in 1736, married Ann Boone, a cousin of Daniel, the Kentucky pioneer.
Their grandson, David J. Lincoln of Birdsboro’, Pennsylvania, informs me
that his father James, who died in 1860, at the age of ninety-four, and
his uncle Thomas, who died in 1864, told him that Daniel Boone often
visited his friends in Pennsylvania, and always spent part of his time
with his cousin Ann, and that his glowing accounts of the South and West
induced John Lincoln to remove to Virginia. After his removal he was
known as ‘Virginia John,’ to distinguish him from others of the same
name.”
A fact which will probably impress the reader is that among the numerous
Lincolns mentioned in the six generations from Samuel, the immigrant in
1637, to Abraham, the President, two centuries later, there is not one
that does not bear a scriptural name. A coincidence not less remarkable
is the identity of names in the successive families.
Among the children of the first Mordecai, 1686, were Mordecai, Abraham,
Isaac, Sarah.
Of the second Mordecai, 1727: Mordecai, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
Of Abraham, brother of second Mordecai, 1745: Mordecai, Abraham, Isaac,
Sarah—identical with the children of the first Mordecai; also John,
Jacob, and Rebecca.
Of John of Virginia, or “Virginia John,” 1758: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Thomas, John.
If there are any doubting Thomases who cannot see in this extraordinary
identity of names any blood relationship, no evidence would convince
them; neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.
Aside from this identity of names, the foregoing facts, taken from
original documents on file, and family papers, prove beyond any
reasonable doubt that Samuel Lincoln of Hingham was the ancestor of
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois by a line of descent through the first and
second Mordecai, “Virginia John,” Abraham, and Thomas Lincoln. In
genealogical studies it is seldom, indeed, that a pedigree is so clearly
established.
II.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS GRAHAM AND HIS REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN’S PARENTS.
The most important testimony we have in regard to the character of the
parents of Abraham Lincoln, and of the conditions under which they
lived, is that of Christopher Columbus Graham. Dr. Graham was born at
Worthington’s Station, near Danville, Kentucky, in 1784. He lived in the
State until his death at Louisville in 1885. This long period was to the
very end one of useful activity. A physician by profession, Dr. Graham
was, by his love of nature, botanist, geologist, naturalist; and his
observations on the flora, fauna, and strata of Kentucky are quoted on
both sides of the Atlantic by scientists. For many years Dr. Graham was
the owner of the famous Harrodsburg Springs. About 1852 he sold this
property to the War Department of the United States as a Retreat for
Invalid Military Officers. After the sale of the Springs he spent most
of this time in study and in arranging his fine cabinet of Kentucky
geology and natural history, before selling it to the Louisville Library
Association.
It was only by an accident that Dr. Graham’s knowledge of the history of
Thomas Lincoln was given to the public. Recluse and student, he heard
little or nothing of the stories about the worthlessness of Thomas
Lincoln and his wife which were circulated at the time of the election
of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. To what he did hear he paid little
or no attention. One day in the spring of 1882, however, he was visiting
at the home of Capt. J. W. Wartmann, Clerk of the United States Court at
Evansville, Indiana, and Mr. Wartmann overheard him say that he was
present at the marriage of Thomas Lincoln. Realizing at once the
historical importance of such a testimony, and thinking that it might
lead to the discovery of documentary proofs of the marriage, Mr.
Wartmann secured from Mr. Graham the following affidavit:
“I, Christopher C. Graham, now of Louisville, Kentucky, aged
ninety-eight years, on my oath say: That I was present at the
marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, in Washington County,
near the town of Springfield, Kentucky; that one Jesse Head, a
Methodist preacher of Springfield, Kentucky, performed the ceremony.
I knew the said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks well, and know the
said Nancy Hanks to have been virtuous and respectable, and of good
parentage. I do not remember the exact date of the marriage, but was
present at the marriage aforesaid; and I make this affidavit freely,
and at the request of J. W. Wartmann, to whom, for the first time, I
have this day incidentally stated the fact of my presence at the
said wedding of President Lincoln’s father and mother. I make this
affidavit to vindicate the character of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks, and to put to rest forever the legitimacy of Abraham
Lincoln’s birth. I was formerly proprietor of Harrodsburgh Springs;
I am a retired physician, and am now a resident of Louisville,
Kentucky. I think Felix Grundy was also present at the marriage of
said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the father and mother of
Abraham Lincoln. The said Jesse Head, the officiating minister at
the marriage aforesaid, afterward removed to Harrodsburgh, Kentucky,
and edited a paper there, and died at that place.
“CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS GRAHAM.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me, this March 20, A.D. 1882. N. C.
Butler, Clerk United States Circuit Court, First District, Indiana.
By J. W. Wartmann, Deputy Clerk.”
This affidavit attracted wide attention, and the “New York Christian
Advocate,” the leading organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in its
issue of April 13, 1882, raised several pertinent questions:
1. Was Christopher Columbus Graham, at ninety-eight years of age, in
full possession of his faculties?
2. Why had he not given his precious information before to the public?
3. Was there a Methodist preacher named Jesse Head?
These questions called out a large number of answers. The Rev. William
M. Grubbs, of the Southwest Indiana Conference, stationed at Castleton,
Marion County, in answer to the editor’s first point gave a brief
history of Dr. Graham, and explained why he “should never have been
heard of before as the possessor of this precious information”:
“The Doctor himself was a man of more than ordinary intelligence,
almost a Chesterfield in manners, and a leader for years of the Whig
party—a great friend of Henry Clay—and unless he has greatly
degenerated, he is now, at ninety-eight years, a good specimen of
‘the fine old Kentucky gentleman.’ Additional to the fact that he
has been quite deaf for many years, he is a great lover of nature in
its varied forms. As an evidence of this, at the time I was their
guest, in 1855, he had been absent six months in the mountains of
Kentucky, pursuing his favorite studies in natural history, geology,
etc. Thus, though on good terms with his family, his habits became
those of the student and the recluse. The family told us pleasantly
that such was his passion for nature in its wildest forms that they
did not know when he would think of paying them a visit. The last
time I saw him was in Louisville, Kentucky, arranging his large
cabinet of natural history, geology, etc., for the Library
Association of that city, to which he had sold the same for quite a
large sum. Since the death of his wife and the marriage of his
daughters, I think he has had no settled home—something of a
rover—with ample means and friends everywhere. It is not, therefore,
surprising that his habits of indifference to passing events and
themes kept him ignorant of the mooted point that he sets to rest by
his late statement.”
The Rev. John R. Eads, pastor of the Danville, Kentucky, Methodist
Episcopal Church, wrote of Dr. Graham: “I have never heard his veracity
or his integrity questioned.” Of Jesse Head he said: “He is remembered
by some of the old people of this community.” He added:
“You seem surprised that the testimony of Dr. Graham to the
‘precious information’ which he communicates should not have been
procured earlier. I frankly confess that, while I am a native of
central Kentucky, and have spent most of my life here, I never heard
before, so far as I can now remember, a question raised as to the
legal marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Thinking this
might be exceptional in my case, I have taken the pains to-day to
ask others if they ever heard such a question raised, and they tell
me they have not. I feel quite sure that there must be very few
people in central Kentucky who ever heard of a doubt expressed
concerning the legal marriage of Thomas Lincoln.”
Letters were received from the Rev. R. T. Stephenson of Shelbyville,
Kentucky, and others, supplying information as to who the Rev. Jesse
Head was and what were his relations to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The facts, however, are all given in condensed shape in the following:
“LAWRENCEBURG, KENTUCKY,
“ANDERSON COUNTY, _May 3, 1882_.
“TO THE REV. J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D.
“_Dear Sir and Brother_:—Your favor reached me on the eve of my
leaving Harrodsburg for this place, hence the delay in responding to
your request. The Rev. Jesse Head referred to was my grandfather. He
was born in Maryland, near Baltimore; was married to Miss Jane
Ramsey, of (what is now) Bedford County, Pennsylvania. He removed to
Kentucky, and settled at Springfield, Washington County. He was an
ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but was never
connected with the itinerancy in Kentucky, on account of feeble
health. He held several prominent civil offices while living in
Springfield, and was actively engaged preaching the gospel of God’s
grace. He celebrated the rites of matrimony between Thomas Lincoln
and Miss Nancy Hanks, father and mother of President Lincoln, in
1806, near Springfield. He afterwards moved to Harrodsburg, Mercer
County, where he lived until his death, which occurred in March,
1842. At Harrodsburg he engaged in merchandising, also owned and
edited the county paper for a term of years. He was largely
instrumental, if not wholly, in building the first church ever
erected in Harrodsburg; also organized and conducted the first
prayer-meeting. In gospel labors he was always abundant. His house
was the home for several years of Rev. H. B. Bascom, afterwards
Bishop; also of Bishop McKendree especially, as they were bosom
friends. Some time before his death he left the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and connected himself with the Radical Methodists, on
account of _slavery_, and also some dissatisfaction with the
Episcopacy. He then had charge of and preached for a church for
years at Lexington, Kentucky. His name at Harrodsburg and through
the surrounding country is as ointment poured forth. He was a man of
decided and positive character, bold and aggressive, and died loved
and honored by all. He died as he lived, in the triumph of the faith
of the Gospel of God’s Son.
“Fraternally yours,
“E. B. HEAD, P.E.,
“Lawrenceburg Circuit, Kentucky Conference.”
The “Christian Advocate,” upon receipt of the first letter, requested
the Rev. John R. Eads of Danville, Kentucky, to have the marriage record
examined, the following reply being returned:
“DANVILLE, KENTUCKY, _April 25, 1882_.
“DR. BUCKLEY.
“_My Dear Brother_:—Your postal card received. I have just received
the accompanying paper, which, though somewhat singular in form in
some of its parts, will be plain to you in its essential facts. You
have received my other two letters, which in connection with this
certificate will, I trust, set the whole matter to which they relate
in a satisfactory light.
“Fraternally,
“JOHN R. EADS.”
Here follows the certificate:
“Clerk’s Office, Washington County Court,
“W. F. Booker, Clerk.
“SPRINGFIELD, KENTUCKY, _April 24, 1882_.
“THE REV. JOHN R. EADS.
“_Dear Sir_:—Yours in regard to the marriage certificate of Thomas
Lincoln to Nancy Hanks reached here during my absence in Louisville.
I now send you a copy of the same:
“I do hereby certify that the following is a true list of the
marriage solemnized by me between Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks,
September 23, 1806.
“JESSE HEAD, D. N. E. C.
“(Copy attest.)
“W. F. Booker,
“Clerk, Washington County Court.
“Yours respectfully, W. F. B.”
The “Christian Advocate,” in publishing the letters, said:
“In summing up the whole the following points may be considered as
forever settled:
“1. There was such a man as Jesse Head, a local deacon in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1806.
“2. He married Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks on September 23,
1806,[20] of whom was born the venerated and never-to-be-forgotten
Abraham Lincoln.
Footnote 20:
The date here given is wrong; the marriage took place on June 12,
1806. The error arose in copying the record the first time, the
date of the marriage following that of Thomas Lincoln being taken
instead of the one before his name.
“3. The fact of the marriage was duly certified by Jesse Head, in
the clerk’s office of Washington County, Kentucky, where it may now
be seen.
“4. The Rev. E. B. Head has spoken of this fact in the family
history prior to the publication of this affidavit.
“5. Dr. Graham is a competent witness, and his testimony is
confirmed in every point.
“6. In view of these facts, that there should ever have been any
doubts raised about the marriage of the parents of Mr. Lincoln, and
that it should have been gravely discussed, and never explicitly
settled in the various biographies, is remarkable.”
Soon after the publication of the above facts a historian of Louisville,
Kentucky, Dr. Henry Whitney Cleveland, realizing the importance of Dr.
Graham’s reminiscences, secured from him, in his hundredth year, an
account of what he remembered of Thomas Lincoln. Mr. Cleveland took down
word for word what Dr. Graham told him, and we print it in full below.
We regard it as in many ways the most important unpublished document we
have been able to discover in regard to Thomas Lincoln. As to the mental
condition of Dr. Graham in 1884, we have the testimony of some of the
leading citizens of Louisville. In the paper read before the Southern
Historical Society in 1880, in commemoration of the one hundredth
anniversary of Louisville, Dr. Durrett said of Mr. Graham:
“Four years more will make him a centenarian, and yet he moves along the
streets every day with the elastic step of manhood’s prime, and the
eagle eye which made him in youth the finest rifle-shot in the world is
shorn but little of its unerring sight. He was a practising physician
three-quarters of a century ago, and is the author of several learned
books of a professional and philosophical character. His health is yet
good, his faculties well preserved, and he seems to-day more like a man
of sixty-nine than ninety-six.”
In 1884, when Dr. Graham had become a centenarian, a banquet was given
him at which all the leading citizens of Louisville were present.
Without exception, every one of the persons with whom we have talked of
Dr. Graham’s condition at this time affirms that he was mentally
vigorous and his memory trustworthy. In the face of such testimony the
statements in the following document must be accepted:
DR. GRAHAM’S STATEMENT.
_The original statement was written out, at Dr. Graham’s dictation, by
Dr. Henry Whitney Cleveland of Louisville, Kentucky, but was signed by
Dr. Graham’s own hand._
I, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS GRAHAM, now in my hundredth year, and visiting
the Southern Exposition in Louisville, where I live, tell this to please
my young friend Henry Cleveland, who is nearly half my age. He was often
at the Springs Hotel in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, then owned and kept by me
for invalids and pleasure-seekers. I am one of the two living men who
can prove that Abraham Lincoln, or Linkhorn, as the family was
miscalled, was born in lawful wedlock, for I saw Thomas Lincoln marry
Nancy Hanks on the twelfth day of June, 1806. He was born at what was
then known as the Rock Spring Farm—it is now called the Creal
Place—three miles south of Hodgensville, in Larue County, Kentucky.
Kentucky was first a county of Virginia after its settlement, and then
was divided into three counties; and these, again divided, are pretty
much the present State. The first historian was Filson, who made and
published the first map of the separate territory, with the names of
streams and stations as given by Daniel Boone and Squire Boone, James
Harrod, and others. I knew all of these, as well as President Lincoln’s
parents.
I think they lived on the farm four years after he was born. Another boy
was born in Hodgensville, or, I should say, buried there. The sister,
Sally, was older than Abe, I think. I think the paper now owned by Henry
Cleveland is the “marriage lines” written by Rev. Jesse Head, a
well-known Methodist preacher. I do not think the old Bible it was found
in was that of Tom Lincoln. It would cost too much for him. All of the
records in it were those of the father’s family—the John M. Hewetts—of
the wife of Dr. Theodore S. Bell. Dr. Bell was only about twenty years
younger than I am, and probably got the certificate in 1858 or 1860,
when assertions were made that Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were not
married when Abe was born.
He was reputed to have been born February 12, 1809, and I see no good
reason to dispute it. Sally, I am sure, was the first child, and Nancy
was a fresh and good-looking girl—I should say past twenty. Nancy lived
with the Sparrow family a good bit. It was likely Tom had the family
Bible from Virginia, through his father, called Abraham Linkhorn. His
brothers, however, were older—if they were brothers, and not uncles, as
some say. I was hunting roots for my medicines, and just went to the
wedding to get a good supper, and got it.
Bibles cost as much as the spinning-wheel, or loom, or rifle, and were
imported in the main. A favorite with the Methodists was Fletcher’s, or
one he wrote a preface for. Preachers used it, and had no commentaries.
A book dedicated to King James or any other king did not take well in
Revolutionary times. The Bibles I used to see had no printed records or
blanks, but a lot of fine linen hand-made paper would be bound in front
or back. On this, family history and land matters were written out fully
like a book. Some had fifty pages. The court-houses even were made of
logs, and the meeting-houses too, if they had any. No registers were
kept as in English parish churches, and are not yet. Before a license
could be had, a bond and security was taken of the bridegroom, and the
preacher had to return to the court all marriages of the year. This was
often a long list, and at times papers were lost or forgotten, but not
often. The “marriage lines” given by the preacher to the parties were
very important in case the records were burned up by accident. Such is
the paper that Henry Cleveland has shown to me. The ring was not often
used, as so few had one to use. The Methodist Church discipline forbid
“the putting on of gold or costly apparel,” and I think a preacher with
a gold watch—if not an inherited one—would have been dismissed. A
preacher that married was “located,” and that ended his itinerancy in
the Methodist Church. The Presbyterians were educated and married;
Baptists not educated.
Tom Lincoln was a carpenter, and a good one for those days, when a cabin
was built mainly with the axe, and not a nail or bolt or hinge in it,
only leathers and pins to the door, and no glass, except in watches and
spectacles and bottles. Tom had the best set of tools in what was then
and now Washington County. Larue County, where the farm was settled, was
then Hardin.
Jesse Head, the good Methodist preacher that married them, was also a
carpenter or cabinet-maker by trade, and as he was then a neighbor, they
were good friends. He had a quarrel with the bishops, and was not an
itinerant for several years, but an editor, and county judge afterwards,
in Harrodsburg. Mr. Henry Cleveland has his commission from Governor
Isaac Shelby.
Many great men of the South and North were then opposed to slavery,
mainly because the new negroes were as wild as the Indians, and might
prove as dangerous. Few of the whites could read, and yet Pope and
Dryden and Shakespeare were as well known as Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s
Progress” and Baxter’s “Saints’ Rest.” Some were educated in Virginia
and North Carolina before they came, and these, when they became
teachers, wrote out their school-books entirely by hand.
Thomas Lincoln, like his son after him, had a notion that fortunes could
be made by trips to New Orleans by flatboat. This was dangerous, from
snags and whirlpools in the rivers, from Indians, and even worse—pirates
of the French, Canadians, and half-breeds. Steam was unknown, and the
flats had to be sold in New Orleans, as they could not be rowed back
against the currents. The neighbors joked Tom for building his boat too
high and narrow, from an idea he had about speed, that has since been
adopted by ocean steamships. But he lacked in ballast. He loaded her up
with deer and bear hams and buffalo, which last was then not so plenty
for meat or hides as when the Boone brothers came in. Besides, he had
wax, for bees seemed to follow the white people, and he had wolf and
coon and mink and beaver skins, gentian root (that folks then called
“gensang” or “‘sang”), nuts, honey, peach-brandy and whiskey, and jeans
woven by his wife and Sally Bush, that he married after Nancy died. Some
said she died of heart trouble, from slanders about her and old Abe
Enloe, called Inlow, while her Abe, named for the pioneer Abraham
Linkhorn, was still little. But I am ahead of my story, for Nancy had
just got married where I was telling it, and the flatboat and Sally Bush
Lincoln come in before he goes over to what people called “Indiany.” I
will finish that, and then go back.
He started down Knob Creek when it was flush with rains; but the leaves
held water like a sponge, and the ground was shaded with big trees and
papaw and sassafras thickets and “cain,” as Bible-read folks spelt the
cane, and streams didn’t dry up in summer like they do now. When he got
to the Ohio it was flush, too, and full of whirlpools and snags. He had
his tool-chest along, intending to stop and work in Indiana and take
down another boat. But he never got to the Mississippi with that, for it
upset, and he only saved his chest and part of his load because he was
near to the Indiana shore. He stored what he saved under bark, and came
home a-foot, and in debt to neighbors who had helped him. But people
never pressed a man that lost by Indians or water.
Now I go back for a spell. Thomas and Nancy both could read and write,
and little Abe went to school about a year. He was eight years old at
the time of the accident to Tom Lincoln’s down-the-river venture. Thomas
and Nancy were good common people, not above nor below their neighbors,
and I did not take much notice of them, because there was no likelihood
that their wedding would mean more than other people’s did.
The preacher Jesse Head often talked to me on religion and politics, for
I always liked the Methodists. I have thought it might have been as much
from his free-spoken opinions as from Henry Clay’s American-African
colonization scheme in 1817, that I lost a likely negro man, who was
leader of my musicians. It is said that Tom Corwin met him in Ohio on
his way to Canada, and asked if I was along. The boy said no, he was
going for his freedom. Governor Corwin said he was a fool; he had never
been whipped or abused, but dressed like a white man, with the best to
eat, and that hundreds of white people would be glad of such a good
place, with no care, but cared for.
The boy drew himself up and said: “Marse Tom, that situation with all
its advantages is open to you, if you want ter go an’ fill it.”
But Judge Head never encouraged any runaway, nor had any “underground
railroad.” He only talked freely and boldly, and had plenty of true
Southern men with him, such as Clay. The Eli Whitney cotton-gin had now
made slavery so valuable that preachers looked in Hebrew and Greek
Testaments for scripture for it.
Tom Lincoln and Nancy, and Sally Bush were just steeped full of Jesse
Head’s notions about the wrong of slavery and the rights of man as
explained by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. Abe Lincoln the
Liberator was made in his mother’s womb and father’s brain and in the
prayers of Sally Bush; by the talks and sermons of Jesse Head, the
Methodist circuit rider, assistant county judge, printer-editor, and
cabinet-maker. Little Abe grew up to serve as a cabinet-maker himself
two Presidential terms.
It was in my trip to Canada after my negro that I met the younger
brother of the great chief Tecumseh. A mob wanted to kill me because I
was after my property that had legs and a level head. The Indian was one
of the finest looking men I ever saw, and in the full uniform of a
British officer. He protected me, and we had a talk after the danger was
over. He said that history was right about the death of his great
brother Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames in 1813. But the story of
his skin being taken off by soldiers to make razor-straps was all a lie,
as they never had the chance. He was not even slain at the point in the
battle indicated by Colonel Richard M. Johnson, whose accession to the
Vice-Presidency in 1836 was largely due to the credit which he gained
for this supposed exploit. My Indian protector said he was a lad at the
time, but [was] there; and that the red men never abandoned their
chiefs, dead nor alive.
I come back again to the Lincoln-Hanks wedding of 1806. Rev. or Judge
Jesse Head was one of the most prominent men there, as he was able to
own slaves, but did not on principle. Next, I reckon, came Mordecai
Lincoln, at one time member of the Kentucky legislature. He was a good
Indian fighter; and although some say he was the elder brother of Tom
Lincoln, I understood he was his uncle, or father’s brother. The story
of his killing the Indian who killed old Abraham Linkhorn is all “my eye
and Betty Martin.”
My acceptance of this whole pedigree is on hearsay, and none of it from
the locality of Tom Lincoln’s home. There is a Virginia land warrant,
No. 3,334, of March 4, 1780, for four hundred acres of land, cost one
hundred and sixty pounds, located in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on Long
Run; and [there is a report of survey for the same tract (see pages 22
and 23)] signed by William Shanon, D. S. J. C., and William May, S. J.
C., witnessed by Ananiah Lincoln and Josiah Lincoln, C. C.
(chain-carriers), and Abraham Linkhorn, Marker, dated May 7, 1785, five
years later. “Mordecai Lincoln, Gentleman,” is the title given one who
died in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1735, and his will is recorded in
the Register’s office in Philadelphia. New Jersey, Virginia, and
Tennessee also have the name correctly, in the last century. The fame of
General Benjamin Lincoln of the Revolution was on every tongue at that
time. In the field-book of Daniel Boone, owned by Lyman C. Draper, five
hundred acres of land was entered for Abraham Lincoln on treasury
warrant No. 5,994, December 11, 1782. The officers of the land-office of
Virginia could spell, and so could the surveyor and deputy surveyor
(Record “B,” p. 60 of Jefferson County in 1785). The two chain-carriers
spelled the name correctly. Why not also think that the third man
spelled his correctly? A very illiterate man could pronounce what he
could not spell, and Abraham Linkhorn, who had money and could write,
knew his own name. President Lincoln told James Speed: “I don’t know who
my grandfather was, and am more concerned to know what his grandson will
be.” I am not sure that we know, either, perfectly yet.[21]
Footnote 21:
The memoranda for Lincoln’s genealogy (page 223), and the introduction
to this work, as well as the first chapter, show that we do know now,
beyond a doubt, who and what Lincoln’s ancestors were.
While you pin me down to facts I will say that I saw Nancy Hanks Lincoln
at her wedding, a fresh-looking girl, I should say over twenty. Tom was
a respectable mechanic and could choose, and she was treated with
respect....
I was at the infare, too, given by John H. Parrott, her guardian, and
only girls with money had guardians appointed by the court. We had
bear-meat (that you can eat the grease of, and it not rise like other
fats); venison; wild turkey and ducks; eggs, wild and tame (so common
that you could buy them at two bits a bushel); maple sugar, swung on a
string, to bite off for coffee or whiskey; syrup in big gourds;
peach-and-honey; a sheep that the two families barbecued whole over
coals of wood burned in a pit, and covered with green boughs to keep the
juices in; and a race for the whiskey bottle. The sheep cost the most,
and corn was early raised in what is now Boyle County, at the Isaac
Shelby place. I don’t know who stamped in the first peach-seed, but they
grew before the apples. Our table was of the puncheons cut from solid
logs, and on the next day they were the floor of the new cabin.
It is all stuff about Tom Lincoln keeping his wife in an open shed in a
winter when the wild animals left the woods and stood in the corners
next the stick-and-clay chimneys, so as not to freeze to death; or, if
climbers, got on the roof. The Lincolns had a cow and calf, milk and
butter, a good feather bed, for I have slept in it (while they took the
buffalo robes on the floor, because I was a doctor). They had home-woven
“kiverlids,” big and little pots, a loom and wheel; and William
Hardesty, who was there too, can say with me that Tom Lincoln was a man
and took care of his wife.
I have been in bark camps with Daniel and Squire Boone and James Harrod.
We have had to wade in the “crick,” as Daniel spelt it, to get our scent
lost in the water, and the Indian dogs off our trail. When trailed and
there was no water handy, I have seen Daniel cut a big grapevine loose
at the bottom, with his tomahawk, from the ground. Then, with a run and
swing from the tree it hung to, swing and jump forty feet clear, to
break the scent on the ground. I have done it too, but not so far. He
could beat any man on the run and jump, but it took more than two
Indians or one bear to make him do it. If no dog barked in the silent
woods, we could run backward very fast, and make Mr. Indian think we had
gone the way we came. They went that way, and we the other for dear
scalps and hair. Squirrels barking or chattering at Indians, or dogs,
often told us of our danger. I wanted to have a pioneer exhibit at the
great Louisville Southern Expositions of 1883 and 1884. I wanted the
dense laurel and the papaw thickets planted in rich soil; the bear
climbing the bee-tree, and beaten by the swinging log hung by the hunter
in his way; the creeping Indian with his tomahawk, and the hunter with
the old flint-and-steel rifle, just as I had seen them. Then I wanted to
have women from the mountains and the counties that railroads and
turnpikes have not opened, and have them in real life, to spin and
weave, or bead and fringe the moccasin and hunting-shirt and leggings as
they did when I was a boy. This, by the side of the industries and arts
of the new era, and the wool and cotton machinery in its present
perfection, would indeed tell to the eyes of the changes seen by an old
man who has lived a hundred years. As they did not listen to me, I have
asked Henry Cleveland, who was a boy and played with my little children
at the Harrodsburg Springs in the forties, to write it as I talked to
him. I am very deaf, but can see and talk, and will now write my
autograph to what he has written and copied off, and will take up James
Harrod at another time.
[Illustration: Christopher Columbus Graham in my 100th year]
III.
A LEAF FROM LINCOLN’S EXERCISE-BOOK, USED IN 1824. HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
(See page 78.)
_From the Collection of Mr. William H. Lambert of Philadelphia._
Mr. Lambert’s collection of Lincolniana has been made most
intelligently. Primarily it consists of the literature directly relating
to Lincoln, and includes a large number of books and pamphlets, the list
of biographies and eulogies being very full. It also comprises a large
number of engravings of Lincoln, and a number of autograph letters and
documents, chief among which are a leaf from Lincoln’s sum-book, 1824;
the precipe in his first lawsuit; letter to William H. Herndon, relative
to General Taylor and the Mexican War; letter to his step-brother, John
D. Johnston, refusing assent to the latter’s proposition to dispose of
the mother’s interest in property; printed copy of the Emancipation
Proclamation, signed by Lincoln, attested by Mr. Seward, and certified
by Mr. Nicolay, being one of the twenty copies made for the great
Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia, 1864; and a series of autograph letters
of William H. Herndon, written in 1866 and 1867, relative to his
lectures on Lincoln and the biography which he proposed writing. Among
the books are a copy of Paley’s works, from Lincoln’s private library;
“Angel on Limitations,” from his law library; and “Webster’s
Dictionary,” used by Lincoln at the White House.
The office table, bookcase, revolving chair, and wooden inkstand owned
and used by Lincoln in his law office at Springfield, with certificates
from Mr. Herndon and others as to the genuineness of these articles, are
in the collection. From the inkstand, Mr. Herndon states, the
“house-divided-against-itself” speech was written.
The Volk life-mask and casts of hands, the Clark-Mills life-mask, and an
original ambrotype of Lincoln, made in August, 1860, are also owned by
Mr. Lambert.
IV.
THE OLDROYD LINCOLN COLLECTION.
The oldest and probably the largest collection of Lincolniana which has
been made is known as the Oldroyd collection, and is at present in the
house in Washington, D. C., where Lincoln died, April 15, 1865. The
collection takes its name from its owner, Colonel O. H. Oldroyd. The
germ of the collection was a campaign badge which excited the
possessor’s desire to have others. In the days of 1860 in Ohio—Mr.
Oldroyd lived in Ohio—it was easy to get badges adorned with Mr.
Lincoln’s face, or with a section of the rail fence and the flatboat
which had been adopted by the people as his armorial bearings. The
campaign badges which young Oldroyd saved naturally drew other things to
them; pictures off tomato cans, tobacco pouches, soap and chewing-gum
wrappers, and what not; cuts from the newspapers, campaign pictures.
If Mr. Oldroyd had not been born with the collecting spirit all this
would probably have amounted to nothing. It would have been relegated to
the garret and one day have been burned. But he had that itching for
possession, and the more he had the more he wanted. He spent all he
could earn in buying new treasures, and he began a general exchange with
other collectors, until by the close of the war he probably had the
finest lot of Lincolniana in the United States.
It was the possession of this collection which induced Mr. Oldroyd to go
to Springfield, Ill. Here he hoped to add easily to what he had already
gathered, much concerning Lincoln’s early life, and to find a permanent
home for his whole collection. Few people appreciated the value of
Lincoln souvenirs in those days, and many curious pieces came into Mr.
Oldroyd’s hands for the asking. As the collection became larger and the
public began to show interest in it, Mr. Oldroyd determined to put it in
a place where he could exhibit it freely. The old Lincoln homestead,
bought by Mr. Lincoln in 1846, the house where he was living when
elected to the Presidency, was standing. It had been sadly neglected for
many years, and now was vacant. Mr. Oldroyd rented it, and put his
collection into the double parlors of the house. The place became soon
one of the “monuments” of Springfield, and visitors went out of their
way to see it. It became the headquarters for old soldiers and the
starting point for all kinds of patriotic gatherings. Mr. Robert
Lincoln, seeing the interest which the public took in his father’s old
home, and appreciating the efforts of Mr. Oldroyd to make a complete
collection, turned over the Lincoln homestead in 1887 to the State as a
perpetual memorial to Abraham Lincoln. The legislature of Illinois
formally accepted the gift, and installed Mr. Oldroyd as guardian of the
house, it being understood that his collection was to remain with him.
The undertaking proved a success, and matters went well until in 1893
the administration changed. For some reason which only those initiated
into the mysteries of party government can understand, it was deemed
unwise by the party rulers to allow Mr. Oldroyd, who happened to be of
the opposing faith, to remain in charge of the Lincoln Home; so he was
relieved of his functions as guardian, and a new incumbent selected. One
result of the change, which the new administration had probably not
counted on, was that, as the collection in the house belonged to Mr.
Oldroyd, and not to the State, when he went out that went out too. The
intelligent people of Springfield of both parties regretted exceedingly
this ludicrous application of party principles to so non-partisan a
subject as a collection of Lincoln relics; but nothing was done to save
the museum, and Mr. Oldroyd was obliged to leave the town where he had
struggled with pathetic patience for so many years to get a permanent
home for his Lincolniana.
After some casting about he finally determined to remove to Washington,
and he was encouraged to this step by several men of the city and
government—prominent among whom were Chief Justice Fuller, Dr. Hamlin, a
leading clergyman, General Schofield, and the Hon. G. G. Hubbard. These
gentlemen had founded a Lincoln Memorial Association; and, renting the
house on Tenth Street where Lincoln had died on April 15, 1865, they
installed Mr. Oldroyd in it. Their plan was to petition Congress to buy
the house and collection, and to appropriate enough for the guardian’s
salary. Considerable interest was awakened in the enterprise, and the
association, on the strength of this, felt justified in keeping the
house open for several months. The appropriation did not come, however,
and the gentlemen decided that the expenses could not be kept up
indefinitely, and that it would be necessary to close up the exhibit
until the heart of Congress could be converted.
The situation was a difficult one for Mr. Oldroyd. He had made the
change from Springfield to Washington at large expense to himself, and
now he could ill afford to carry on the enterprise alone. But with a
pluck and a devotion to his cause which has characterized all his
movements he decided to take the burden on himself, rent the house, keep
open the museum, and trust to the public to support it. To aid in the
undertaking, he compiled and published a small volume—“The Words of
Lincoln.” The profits from the sale of this book, together with the
small fee charged to enter the museum, are all that now support the
undertaking.
The collection whose history has been here sketched is full of curious
and interesting articles. Among the personal effects of Mr. Lincoln
which Mr. Oldroyd has collected, the most valuable is undoubtedly the
tall silk hat which was worn by Lincoln on the night of his
assassination. There are several specimens of the plain and homely
garments used by Mr. Lincoln in his early days in Illinois. Of household
furniture there are many examples. The most touching is, undoubtedly,
the simple, old-fashioned cradle in which Mrs. Lincoln, and, if
tradition is correct, Mr. Lincoln also, rocked “Tad” and Willie. A
wooden settee which stood for years on the veranda of the Springfield
house, is exhibited, as well as the cooking-stove which stood in the
Lincoln kitchen at the time when the family moved to Washington. Mr.
Oldroyd says that he has been offered extravagant sums by stove dealers
for this stove, they wanting it presumably to use as an advertisement.
Another valuable piece of furniture is the wooden office chair which Mr.
Lincoln used when he first began to practise law in 1837. A chair of
still greater interest is an old-fashioned haircloth rocker in which he
sat in Ford’s Theatre on the night on which he received his death-wound.
Several autograph letters from Mr. Lincoln are owned by Mr. Oldroyd. By
far the most interesting specimen of his writing is the short
autobiography which he prepared for his friend Jesse Fell before the
campaign of 1860. This autobiography was the foundation of all the
histories which were issued in such great numbers just before and after
his first election.
In Lincoln portraiture the collection is very full, though it is rather
from a historical point of view than from an artistic that it is
valuable. Mr. Oldroyd has copies of nearly all of the engravings and
lithographs issued in Mr. Lincoln’s lifetime. He has also a splendid lot
of wood-cuts gathered from newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets. In this
collection of prints there are numbers of views of the Lincoln family
and of various scenes connected with Mr. Lincoln’s public career. From
the spring of 1860 until after the funeral, in 1865, there were few
issues of the illustrated papers in this country which did not contain
something on the President. Mr. Oldroyd has succeeded in getting nearly
all of these prints, among them a great many caricatures. He has a full
set of “Vanity Fair,” and many of the Currier and Ives lithographs, now
so rare. An interesting feature of the collection is the number of
curios it contains—campaign documents of various kinds, such as badges,
medals, pins, letter paper and envelopes, flags, etc.
The use that was made by advertisers of Lincoln’s face during his
Presidency is shown by a case of common articles; there are tomato cans,
soap, washing fluid, tobacco pouches, cigarette cases, spruce gum, and
many other trivial articles, all enclosed in highly-colored papers
bearing portraits of Mr. Lincoln, surrounded by a rail fence or some
popular campaign legend.
The only complete collection of the portraits of Lincoln issued by the
government which we have ever seen, Mr. Oldroyd owns. Among them is a
revenue stamp calling for five pounds of tobacco; another is good for
seventy gallons of distilled spirits, a third for four ounces of snuff,
and a fourth calls for cigarettes. Lincoln’s head appears on a variety
of postage stamps; the four, six, fifteen, and ninety-cent stamps all
bear his face. The six-cent stamp of each of the Departments has a head
of Lincoln. The old fifty-cent “shin plaster” is exhibited. It was the
only one of our scrip issue which bore a head of Lincoln. His picture is
also to be found on a ten-dollar greenback, a one-hundred-dollar United
States note, and a one-hundred-dollar government bond.
The most valuable portion of the Oldroyd collection is undoubtedly its
books, pamphlets, and clippings. The library contains almost all of the
biographies which have been issued, a large number of memoirs by
contemporaries of Lincoln, and many war records. There are copies of
some three hundred different sermons delivered at the time of Lincoln’s
death, as well as a great number of the pieces of music composed in his
honor.
A precious book in Mr. Oldroyd’s Lincoln library is the Bible owned by
Thomas Lincoln, the father of the President. This Bible bears the date
of 1798; it undoubtedly went with the Lincolns from Kentucky to Indiana,
and was carried from there by them when they moved into Illinois. It was
kept in the family of Thomas Lincoln’s step-children until 1892, when it
was sold to be exhibited at the World’s Fair. It afterward passed to Mr.
Oldroyd.
At present it is not known what will be done with the Oldroyd
collection. The owner has made heroic efforts to keep it together, and
it is to be hoped that some way will open by which he can realize his
ambition.
* * * * *
_A series of articles on the middle and later periods of Lincoln’s life
will be found in the_ MCCLURE’S MAGAZINE, _beginning with the number for
March, 1896. These articles are prepared by the authors of the present
volume, assisted by many persons who were in close personal association
with Lincoln, and possess important facts and reminiscences never before
published. The articles are very fully illustrated with numerous
portraits of Lincoln, his friends and associates, and with pictures,
specially drawn or photographed for the Magazine, of all important
places and scenes with which he was connected._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The early life of Abraham Lincoln: - containing many unpublished documents and unpublished - reminiscences of Lincoln's early friends" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.