News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-12-09
EARLY LIFE OF LINCOLN.
THE STORY TOLD BY THE EN-PREsI-
DENTS SECRETARIES.
LincOIn's Ancestry, His Birth and Early
Days.
from the New York SUM-


from the New York SUM-
1t is questionable whether any sue
ceeding portion of the biography OF
Abraham Lincoln, undertaken by MIR. j,
G. Nicolay and Mr.. John Hay in the
Century Magazine, will surpass in inter
est its opening installment i'll the curreLt
number. Here we have the few facts
known of his ancestry, his birth the
humblest of kentucky cabins on Nolan
Creek, and his cherries boyhOod in
rough border and backwoods life.
1t is made clear that the grandfather
and father of Abraham Lincoln were
both Virginians, born in the Shenan-
| doah Valley, as was also his mother,
| Nancy Hanks. "All that | am or hope
to be" said her famous son, II owe to
her." The biog1aphers find that at her
marriage in kentucky with Thomas Lin
coin, the son of the pioneer Abraham,
for whom the future President was
named, she was a handsome young wo-
man of %, of appearance and intellect
superior to her lowly fortunes" who
surpassed her neighbors by her ability
| to read and write, land even taught
| her husband to form the letters of his
name" That the pioneer Abraham Lin
coin went to the wilds of Kentucky in
1880 with his five young children, in
| Guiding Thomas chiefly on account of
| his intimate personal acquaintance with
Daniel Boone, the explorer, is very
| probable. He was able to acquire seven
teen hundred acres of forest land in
Kentucky, for a quantity of almost
| worthless Continental currency, but it
profited him little; and on the small
farm he had cleared he was killed by
an Indian lurking in the brush. Thorn
as, his third son, learned the trade of a
carpenter, and was a well-knit and
sinewy man.
OF the childhood of Lincoln remark
ably little is known. One Austin Col
loher, who is still living near Knob
Creek, in Kentucky, says that nc fused
to play with Abe Lincoln in the shavings
of his fathers shop and on one occa-
sion ished him out of the creek, into
which he had fallen, with the aid of a
sycamore branch. But authentic Incl
dents of these early years are few.
He lived solitary life in the woods,
re urning from his lonesome little games
to his cherries home. He never talked
of these days to his most intimate
friends. Once when asked what he
remembered about the war with Great
Britain, he replied, Nothing but this:
| had been fishing one day and caught
little fish which 1 was taking home.
met a soldier in the road, and, having
been always told at home that we must
be good to the soldiers, gave him my
fish }"
When the lad was years old, Thomas
Lincoln, concluding that Kentucky was
no place for a poor man," built a raft,
loaded it with his most valuable posses
sions, including his kit of tools and 400
gallons of whiskey, and, following down
the creek, crossed the Ohio into Indiana.
Hr chose a spot in the timber to live in,
and then returned for his family:
mo humber calvacade ever invaded
the Indiana timber Besides his wife
and two children, his earthly possessions
were OF the slightest, for the backs of
two borrowed horses sufficed for the
load. Insufficient bedding and clothing,
a few pans and kettles, were their so. e
movable wealth. They relied on Lin
coins kit of tools for their furniture and
on his rifle for their food. At PoSey's
they hired a wagon and literally hewed
a path through the wilderness to their
new habitation, near Lit lie Pigeon
Creek"
He built, with the aid of his wife and
the two children, shed of poles, which
sheltered the inmates on three sides |
from bad weather, and let it come in
from the front:
''F'or whole year his family lived in |
this wretched fold, while he was clear
ing little IJTrrc1r of ground for planting |
corn and building a rough cabin for a
permanent residence. The rude cabin
seemed so spacious and comfortable
after the squalor of the camp that !
Thomas Lincoln did no further work on
it fer long time. He left it for a year
or two without doors, or windows, or
floor. The battle for existence allowed
him no time for superfiuities like these.
He raised enough corn 10 support life;
the dense forest around him abounded |
in every form of feathered game; little
way from his cabin an open glade was
full of deer ticks, and an hour or two of
idle waiting was generally rewarded by
a shot at a fine deer, which would fur
nish meat for a week, and material for
brooches or shoes. His cabin was like
that of other pioneers. A few three
legged stools, a bedstead made of poles
stuck between the logs in the angle of
the cabin, the outside corner supported
by a crotched stick driven into the
ground; the table, a huge hewed log
standing on four legs; pot, kettle and
skillet, few tin and pewter dishes,
were all the furniture. The boy Abra-
IL, - Of ,Sc-1,E l.. Id e
leaves in the loft bv ladder of wooden
pins driven into the logs"
The rank woods were swept with
fever, and to this the lads mother very
soon succumbed Her husband buried
her without funeral rites in coffin
which he made out of green lumber cut
with whip saw. A year later he went
back to Kentucky, called upon an Old
Sarah Bush johnson, the
widow of the Elizabethtown jailer, who
had been left with three children, pro-
posed marriage to her, and they were
married the next morning. To her thrift
and industry were due greater comforts
for the children in Thomas Lincoln's
cabin. Young Abraham had had little
schooling IN Kentucky, and got more in
Indiana. Indeed, he went to school
more or less until he was II years old
Then he went to work as farm hand,
but kept at reading and other tasks.
He had the Bible, Hsop, Robinson
Crusoe, Pilgrims Progress, a History of
the United States, and Weems's Life of
Washington, and got access to the Re-
vised Statutes of Indiana:
ale would sit by the fire at night and
cover the wooden shovel with essays and
exercises, which he would
shave off and begin again. John Hanks
says: When Abe and l returned to the
house from work. he would 90 to the
snatch piece of corn bread,
take down book, sit down, cock his
legs up as high as his head, and read"
OF his kindly traits as youth and of
his great strength and sturdy courage
there are many authentic proofs. Indeed
the story of his life after he arrived at
The age of 10 is fairly well known. he
great interest is at which attaches to
the hardships of his childhood, and
thoae the later Investigations seem to
throw into stronger light than ever.
Salt, by the Acre. ;