The Indianapolis journal., 1885-05-03
ABE LINCOLN'S COMRADE.
Talk with Dennis Hanks, the Cousin
of Americas Greatest President.
Early Life and Characteristics Of the Lad, Af-
terward the Chief Executive-Deeply
Interesting Details and Incidents.
Written for the Journal by Robert Mcintyre.

Written for the Journal by Robert Mcintyre.
Few know that the boyhood partner of Lin
coin still lives, at the age of eigty six years, in
an Illinois town. This man is kin to the great
liberator, was his backwoods teacher and guide
and knows more of Honest Abe" than any man
alive or dead. His "reminiscences Of the boy Lin
coin never having been published to my know
ledge will be of interest to readers of the Jour
nal, and worth much to the future historian.
found him hale and erect, ready to recount
for the benefit of younger generation the Incl
dents which marked the youth of the martyred
President. His name is Dennis Hanks, and he
is cousin to Lincoln. Uncle Dennis as he is
called, is typical Kentuckian, born in Hardin
county, ITO His face is sun bronzed and
plowed with burrows of time; o resolute mouth
with firm grip of the jaws, broad forehead above
a pair of unweariable eyes. The eyes seem out
of place, in theweary, faded face; they glow and
fash like two diamond sparks, set in ridges of
dull gold The face is serious one, but the
play of light in the eyes, unquenchable by time,
betray the nature full of sunshine and elate life
A sidewise glance at the profile shows face
strikingly Lincoln-like, prominent cheek bones,
temples, nose and chin; but best of all that
twinkling drollery in the eye that flashed in the
White House during the dark days of the civil
war. To our query he replied cheerily:
Certainly, certainly, sir I'll talk to you about
Abe kin talk too, bein' as I am the only livin'
man that knows all about him"
'How old was Mr.. Lincoln when you first met
him9'
"About twenty-four hours-hardly that. ]
rekkilect run all the way, over two miles, to
see Nancy Hankss boy baby. Twas common
then for connexion to gether in them days to see
new babies. Her name was Nancy Hanks before
she married Thomas Lincoln. / held the wee
one minnit. was ten years old, and it tickled
me to hold the pulpy, red. little Lincoln
''When did you move to Indianal"
''When Abe was about nine Mr.. Lincoln
moved first. and built camp of brush in Spen-
GER county. We came out q year later, and he
then had cabin up, and he gave us the shanty
On this spot Abe grew to manhood"
How far apart were your cabinsl"
about fifteen rods. Abe killed turkey the
day we got there, an couldn't git thro' tellin'
about it. The name was pronounced LinEhorn
by the folks then. We was all unedducated
After spell we learned better
'In the life of Lincoln, published after his
nomination, it is stated that you taught him to
read"
''Yes sir, did. taught him to SPELL read
and cipher. He knew his letters pretty wellish;
but no more His mother taught him his letters
If ever there was good woman on earth she was
one, O. true Christian Of the Baptist Church, but
she died soon after we arrived, and left him
without teacher; his father couldn't read a
word"
''Is it possible he had no schoolingfs
"Only about one quarter scarcely that /
then set in to help him; didn't know much, but
1 did tho best could"
What books did ne read irstq'
''Webster's speller. When got him through
that, I only had copy of Indiana statutes
Then he got hold of a book I can't rikkolect the
name: maybe you kin If tell you somethin ct
was in it. 1t told yarn about q fellar, niger
or suthin, that sailed fatboat up to rock, and
the rock was magnetised and drawed the nails
out of his boat, and he got duckin', or drownded
or suthin, / forget now"
Nights
''Thats it, that's the book. Abe would lay on
the floor with a chair under his head and laugh
over them Rabian Nights by the hour told
him it was likely lies from end to end, but he
learned to read right we'll in it,"
Had he any other booksg"
''Yes; borrowed for him Life of Washing
tom and the Speeches of Henry Clay They
had powerful influence on him. He told me
afterward, in the White House. he wanted to
live like Washington His speeches show that
but the other book did the most amazing work
He was Democrat, like his father and all of u.s.
when he began to read it. When he closed it he
was Whig, heart and soul, and he went step by
step till he became leader of the Republicans"
meditated amoment here on the old mans
story. Was ever anything so strange, so sug-
gestive9 This rude backwoodsman blindlv had
mightiest life in modern times What sand
blind creatures we are How we juggle with
destiny. How God uses us, with bandaged eyes,
to work out his high bohests When Hanks
laid that Whig book in that boys hand he
buiIded better than he knew. He laid the first
stone in the base course Of the structure this
boy was destined to build and baptize with his
own blood. What would history be now. had he
grown up unlearned by this volumel It makes
one muse hushed in thought.
s'Will you describe him when a boy9,,
swell, he was at this time not grown. only 6
feet inches high. He was feet al when
grown-tall, lathy and gangling-not much ap-
pearance, rot handsome, not ugly, but peculiar.
This kind of fellow: If man rode up horse
back, Abe would be the first one out, up on the
fence asking questions, till his father would
give him knock side O the head then he'd go
and throw at snowbirds or suthin', but ponderin'
all the while"
''Was he active and strong?"
''He was that l was ten years older, but
couldn't rassle him down. His legs was too
long for me to throw him. He would fling one
foot upon my shoulder and make me swing cor
ners swift, and his arms so ing and strong! My!
how he could chop! His ak would fash and
bite into sugar tree or sycamore, and down it
would come. If you heard him fallin' trees in a
clearin' you would say thar was three men at
work by the way trees fell But he never was
sassy or quarrelsome I've seen him walk into
a crowd Of sawin' rowdies, and tell some droll
yarn, and burst the row all up. 1t was the
same when he was lawyer; all eyes, whenever
he riz, were on him; thar was suthin' pecu-
larsome about him."
What did you teach him to write with'7