Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-12-24
ABRAHAM LlNcoLNs ANCESTORS.

ABRAHAM llhcolNs ANCESTORS.
His Father An Essy-Going Msn-NAney
Hanks-A Life Of Poverty.
The life Of the pioneer Abraham Lin
coin soon came to disastrous close. He
had settled in Jefferson county on the
land he had bought from the govern
ment, and cleared q small farm in the
forest. One morning in the year l7S6
he started with HIS three sons-Mordecai,
Josiah and Thomas-to the edge of the
clearing and began the days work. A
shot from the brush killed the father;
Mordecai, the eldest son, ran instinct
lively to the house, Josiah to the neigh
boring fort Hughes station) for assist
ance, and Thomas, the youngest, achild
of z, was left with the corpse OF his
father. Mordecai, reaching the cabin,
seized the rifle, and saw through the
loophole an Indian in his war paint
STOPPING to raise the child from the
ground. He took deliberate aim at a
white ornament on the breast OF the saw
age and brought him down. The little
boy, thus released, ran to the cabin, and
Mordecai, from the loft, renewed his firc
upon the savages, who began to show
themselves from the thicket, until Jo-
siah returned with assistance from the
stockade, and the assailants fled. This
tragedy made an indelible impression on
the mind of Mordecai. Either spirit
Of revenge for his murdered father, or
a sportsmanlike pleasure in his success
full shot, made him determined Indian
hunter, and he rarely stopped to inquire
whether the red man who came in range
of his rifle was friendly or hostile.
The head of the family being gone, the
Widow Lincoln soon removed to more
thickly settled neighborhood in WASH
ington county. There her children grew
up. Mordecai and Josiah became repu-
table citizens; the two daughters married
two men named Crume and Bromfield.
Thomas, to whom were reserved the
honors of an illustrious paternity, learned
the trade of carpenter. He was an
easy-going man, entirely without ambi-
ton, but not without self-respect.
Though the friendliest and most jovial
of gossips, he was not insensible to af-
fronts; and when his slow anger was
aroused he was formidable adversary.
Several border bullies. at different times,
crowded him indiscreetly, and were
promptly and thoroughly whipped. He
was strong, well-knit, and sinewy, but
little over the medium hight, though in
other respects he seems to have resem-
bled his son in appearance.
On the 12tb Of June, 1906, while learn
ing his trade in the carpenter shop of
Joseph Hanks, in Elizabethtown, he
married Nancy Hanks, a niece of his
employer, near Beechland, in Washing
ton county. She was one Of a large
family who had emigrated from Vir.
ginia with the Lincolns and with an
other family called Sparrow. They had
endured together the trials Of pioneer
life and their close relations continued
for many years after and were cementel
by frequent inter-marriage.
There was no hint of future glory in
the wedding or bringing home of Nancy
Lincoln. All accounts represent her as
handsome young woman of %, of ap-
pearance and intellect superior to her
lowly fortunes. She could read and
write-a remarkable accomplishment in
her circle-and even taught her husband
to form the letters of his name. He had
no such valuable wedding gift to bestow
upon her; he brought her to little
house in Elizabethtown, where he and
she and want dwelt together in fourteen
feet square. The next year daughter
was born to them, and the next the
young carpenter. not finding his work
remunerate enough for his growing
budget, removed to little farm, which
he had bought on the easy terms then
prevalent in Kentucky on the Big South
fork of North creek, in what was then
Hardin and is now La Rue county. three
miles from Hodgenville. The ground
had nothing attractive about it but its
cheapness. 1t was hardly more CRATE
full than the rocky hill slopes of New
England. II required full as earnest
and intelligent industry to persuade
Ii ing out of those barren hillocks and
weedy hollows, covered with stunted
and scrubby underbrush, as it would
amid the rocks and sands of the north
ern coast. Thomas Lincoln settled down
in this dismal solitude to deeper pow
erty than any of his name had ever
known, and there, in the midst Of the
most unpromising circumstances that
ever witnessed the advent of hero into
this world, Abraham Lincoln WAS born
on the 12th day of February, 1so9.-The
Century.