The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-11-10
THE LINEAGE OF LINCOLN.
Some New and Interesting Facts
in Forthcoming Biography.


The life of Abraham Lincoln. by John
g. Nicolay and John HAY, his Private
Secretaries, the publication of which il to
begin in the Century Naga-sae for No
yember. promises to be the first full and
authoritative biography of the time in
which he lived. All the manuscripts. of
whatever nature, belonging to the estate
Of Mr. Lincoln were placed in their hands
by Hon Robert t. Lincoln In addition
te this they obtained Access to the private
papers and correspondence of most Of Mr.
Lincoln's Cabinet: and through the kind
/ ness of four successive Secretaries Of War
+ they have had access to the vast accum-
ulation ofmilitary reports. from both Tn
ion and Confederate officers. in the War
/ department.
+ In tracing the lineage Of the President
the biographers say that in l7S0 Abra-
ham Lincoln, member of respectable
and well-to-do family in Rockingham
county, Virginia, started westward to e.
tabish himself with his wife and five
children in the newly explored country
of Kentucky. He was man of some
substance, possessing at one time large
and fertice tract Of land about eight miles
north of Harrisburg All that was
known ofthis emigrant Abraham Lincoln
by his Immediate descendants was that
his progenitors, who were Quakers, came
from Berls county. Pennsylvania, into
Virginia and there throye and pru,pered.
But the investigations Of several eager
genealogiSts have since established
strong probability that he was descend
ed from the Massachusetts, family of the
same name, who settled about the year
1888 at Hinghan, and who came original I
y from the county Of Norfolk in the old
country The first ancestor of this line Of
whom We have knowledge was Samuel
Lincoln. of Norwich. England He, dying
in bingham, Mass, left son. Mordecai
whose son. Of the same name. removed
10 Monmouth, y. j.. and thence to AInity
township, now part of Berks county
Pa, where he died about 1875, 80 years
old. From copy Of his viii, recorded in
the Office Of the Register in Philadelphia,
We gather that ne was man of consider
able property In the inventory of his
effects, made after his death, he is styled
by the Appraisers -'Mordecai Lincoln.
gentleman" His son John received by
his fathers viii "a certain piece of land
living in the Jerseys. containing 800 acres,
the other sons and daughters having been
literally provided for from the Pennsyl-
yania property This John Lincoln Is
tablished hilnselfin in Rockingham county,
Va, and had a family Of sons, to whom
he gave the names which continually
recur in the history Of the tribe, Abra
ham, the pioneer mentioned above, Isaac,
Jacob, Thomas and John
There is little doubt that the pioneer
Lincoln removed to the West on account
Of his association with the famous Daniel
Boone, the families having for a century
been closely allied. He took with him
funds enough to enter domain o. some
l7O0 acres. One morning in the year
1856 he was killed by Indians while
clearing a farm in the forest, his son
Thomas. afterward the father Of the Pres
ident, and then 4 boy year old, being
an eve witness of the tragedy. On the
18th Of June, 1906, while learning the
trade of carpenter with John Hanks, in
Elizabethtown. Washington county, Ky.
Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks.
a niece of his employer. She was a
handsome young woman of %, of appear
ance and intellect superior to her lowly
fortunes Thomas was ap easy-going
man. and two years after his marriage
removed to a little farm which he had
bought on the Big South Fork of Nolin
Creek, in what WAS then Hardin, and l.
now La Rue county, where Abraham
Iineoln was born on the 18th day of
February, 1909.
When the boy was years old his
flther moved with his family to Little
Pigeon Creek, in Indiana. In the autumn
Of 1915 the little community wa, almost
exterminated by a frightfu pestilence
called the milk sickness. Of which Nancy
Hanks Lincoln died Thomas soon
brought new wife to mis- bome-SarsTh
Bush. an acquaintance Of his before his
first marriage. Abraham Lincoln had
but little opportunity for education, but
he read everything he could lay his hands
upon. and he WAS certainly fortunate in
the few books Of which he became the
posseSsor 1t would hardly be possible
to select a better handful Of classics for
youth in his circumstances than the few
volumes he turned with a nightly and
daily hand-the Bible, .Esop's Fables
Robinson Crlsoe, the Pilgrims Progress.
History OF the United States and
Weems Life OF Washington. These were
the best. and these he read over and over
till he knew them almost by heart. But
his voracity for anything printed was
Unsuitable. He would sit in the twilight
and read dictionary a. long a be could
see. He used to 20 10 David Turnham's,
the Town Constable, and deyour the Re
vi>ed Statutes Of Indiana II boys in our
day do the Three Guardsmen. OF the
books he did not own he took voluninous
notes, filling his eopy-book with choice
extracts, and poripg over them until they
were fixed in his memory Hecould not /
afford to woste paper upon his own origi-
nal compositions. He wouii ST by the .
fire at night and cover the wooden shovel 4
with ESSAYS and arithmetic;ll exercises. .
which he would shave off and begin
again. II is touching to think of this .
great-spirited child. battling year after
year against his evil star, wasting his in
genuity upon devices and makeshifts, his
high intelligence starving forwant Of the .
simple appliances Of education which are
now offered gratis to the poorest and most .
Indifferent. He did mans work from I.
the time he left school his strength ami /
stature were already far beyond those of /
ordinary men He wrought his appoint +
ed tasks ungrudgingly. though without
enthusiasm but when his employers
day was over his own began John
Hanks says: when Abe and | returned
TO the house from work he would 90 to
the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn
bread, take down book, sit down. cock /