The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-01-05
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The Pathetic Childhood OF the Great
Emancipation.
From the Log Cabin and the Coun
try Store to the Presi-
dency.
George Alfred Townsend.


never had any education; could hardly read.
worked for days wages and hunted game.
When he married Nancy Hanks he had for
first child daughter named Sarah (whc left
no children), the son Abraham, and son who
died baby, named Thomas. Lincoln's father
was very amiable person, less than six feel
high, Of good nature, improvident and rowing
tendencies, but he was much loved. He al
ways considered he had made a failure in life
by not having any education Lincoln's mother
is said to have been slender, pale, sad and
sensitive woman, superior in nature to the
rough customers around her, and Lincoln al.
ways called her his angel mother They were
very miserable and poor, yet both parents
were religious The mother could just read,
and she read to her children. Lncoln's first
teacher was a Catholic named Zachariah
Riney, and the next bright youth named
Caleb Hazel Schools were barely known and
the preaching was by rovers. Lincoln never
saw church for years, and his parents had
the Baptist tendency The first lessons in
oratory Lincoln ever listened to were from
wandering Baptist preachers There is the
DRY that Lincoln's father moved away from
Kentucky because he saw no opportunity tc
educate his children in a society where slavery
was Of more consequence than schools. He
did not want his children to be as common az
the negroes. Another reason alleged for the
fathers removal was the bad land titles il
Kentucky, which had routed Daniel Boone
himself from his property.
The father at last sold his farm for ten bar.
rels Of whisky and $50 in money, the whole
representing $500 He built a fat-boat,
launched it on the Rolling Fork, put his whis-
ky on board of it, set his furniture by the
whisky and foated down to the Ohio river,
where the fat-boat was upset and two-thirds
of his whisky and stuff lost He then went on
to Thompsons Ferry, and had his goods
hauled about eighteen miles into Spencer
county, Ind, where he resolved to settle in
the woods This was in the autumn of 1916,
when Abe was under eight years old.
The father went right back to Kentucky, moi
having brought his family with him on the
fat-boat, and he put his effects on three horses,
surrounding them with packs containing the
bedding and wardrobe, and they were seven
days going across Kentucky to Indiana, and
there the free-state neighbors were assembled
to help build them a home Their house was
not far from town called Countrywide at the
present day. The little boy Abe shot some
wild turkeys, and, as soon as he could flourish
an ak, was put to cutting down brush and
trees ass
He went for brief periods to three different
teachers, one of whom was named Azel Dorcy,
but it is said that his entire school education
In both Kentucky and Indiana was limited to
one year. His bed was the protruding logs of
of the cabin and wooden crotch cut from the
forest, on which were laid hickory sticks.
This sort of bed was the fathers and mothers.
and the children slept on the ground, except
when it was very cold, and then they crawled
around their fathers and mothers feet
Lincoh's mother was seized with consump-
ton and died in 1918, two years after she re-
moved to Indiana when little Abe was only
ten years old They buried her under the
trees by the cabin and the boys sat down on
her grave and wept Her funeral service was
not held for several months, and little Abe
who could just form his letters, constructed
one to parson named Elkin in Kentucky,
asking him to come and preach the mothers
funeral sermon, which he did on a Sunday
morning, riding 100 miles through the wilder
ness to do it The neighbors for miles came
In rude carts, on horses riding double backed
In ox-wagons and on foot, and there were 200
persons present. sitting around the grave on
stumps and logs, and it was the first great
public ceremony in Lincoln's life. His moth
er's Christian sweetness and words of piety
sank around the roots of Lincoln's life and
sent up stream of tears to his eyes through
succeeding trials and triumphs. How poor
are they whose mothers are never poor! 1t is
the recollection of the tears, anxietes and toils
of poor mothers that have given such COM
pensatlon and sweetness to American human
nature. .
Little Abe was quick to learn to read. and
write, too, and the rude Indiana neighbors,
hearing of his smartness, came to have him
write their letters, and thus he learned from
original human nature the character strength
and necessities of his American felow-ciizens
There were few books, but the few there were
ne read well, like the bible, ~Esop's Fables"
The Pilgrims Progress" Weames' life of
Washington" ~The Life of Henry Clay" and
"Iife Of Franklin" There he got his 'beauti-
full, simple education, his skill to turn
phrase his difference "a o sentence-maker
from the stiff old chaps like Jefferson, Madi-
son, etc, who made the verbiage of the first
quarter of this century.
In 1919 Lincoln's father married again, and
the new wife, Sallie Johnson of Elizabeth
town, KY, had three children before she came.
but she was kind woman, and treated both
crops of children just the same She was
alive when Abraham Lincoln became president
of the United States Little Abe grew up tall
and strong, helpful to everybody, eonsiderate
to the weakness of everybody, even to old CON
6rmed drunkards He learned to use tools
and built tiatboat, and, as he was about to
start off, two passengers who wanted to be
taken out to n steamer gave him half a dollar
apiece, the first dollar he ever had He once
took his fathers grist on horse and rode fifty
miles to get 1t ground
When he was 10 years old neighbor asked
him to take 1atboat and cargo to the sugar
plantations near New Orleans, q distance of
1880 miles. AT that time it was said that Lin
coin was six feet four inches high. When he
was near Natchez band of predatory negroes
attacked the boat to steal, and Lincoln knocked
them down one after the other, with hand
spike, and then pursued them ashore and bat
tered tho rest He then cut his boat adrift
and hoated down the river in the night, and ar
irving at New Orleans disposed of his cargo
hllA VIC bOdt, 700, anu inc boys HOb Dack 10 In
diana as best they could.
Lincoln lived thiSeen years in Indiana. read
q whenever he could geta book, kept away from
liquor, learned to love stories, listening to them
closely, and it is said that his father was a
frst-rate story-teller Lincolns sister, it is
said, married when she was IA years old,
and died in 1922, just after she became a
bride The country where Lincoln lived
was unhealthy, and they began to be
restless to move to the better lands of
Illinois. A kinsnlan of Iincoln's mother went
out there to spy into the country, and, return
ing with a good account Lincoln's father
sold out his squatter's claim in March, 1880,
and started with his brood. Some of the
daughters had married, and Abraham drove
one Of the OK teams, and so they entered
Macon county. Illinois. and ten miles west of
Decatur, on the north side Of the Sangamon
river, where the timber and the prairie met
and where they built a log cabin, which prob
ably yet stands, Near it was a smokehouse
and stable. Abe was 81 years old, and he
hewed the oak timbers and drove nails brought
from Indiana, and they fenced in lot of ten
acres planted corn, and then Abe turned to
his father and said, ~Father, l am going to hire
ont These neighbors of ours have some
money and want help" stranger came
along one night and asked shelter, and they
put him to sleep with long Abe Lincoln.
The situation was bilious, and Iincoln's
father went to Coles county, and there he died
OF the age of 70, as late as 1851.
II l.