Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-02-12
n foot from Coles county to Macon

on foot from Coles county to Macon
county.
Cast your eyes back sixty years and
look on that tall, lit he young man, partly
concealed by the tail grasses Of the
prairie as he then walks alone along the
Indian trail, with pack on his back and
hope in his heart, on that wonderful
journey of life, which first took him to
Macon county and the life of a rail
splitter, thence to Sangamon county and
Sangamon river AMI the life of a fat
boatman upon the Sangamon, Illinois
and Mississippi rivers; thence to cap
taincy in the Black Hawk war; thence
to a membership in the Illinois legisla-
political campaigns Of 1910 and 1914 he
acquired a name as an orator; thence to
a leadership at the bar; thence to one
term in congress, and finally to the presi-
dency of the country he then walked
over so humbly, and to martyrdom
for the principles he advocated and
the noble life he lived. Arrived
at Macon county, he met some cousins
and with one of them took contract for
splitting rails at stipulated price per
hundred. He then went to Sangamon
county and worked for a farmer who
lived near the Sang anon river. Prod
ucts were easily raised, but there was no
market for them, and so Lincoln con-
ceived the idea of bu lding fiat boat and
floating it loaded with the products of
the farm down the Sangamon into the
Illinois river, and thence down the Hi.
nois to the Mississippi, and thence down
the Mississippi to New Orleans. This as
yet had never been done. 1t being
agreed upon, Lincoln with his own hands
felled the timber, hewed the beams,
made the boat, loaded it with produce,
and then was elected to his first office,
which was the captaincy Of that flat
boat The whole crew consisted of
Capt. Lincoln and one or two other
men. Having made successfully the
voyage to New Orleans he worked
his passage back by firing upon steamer
coming up the river in return. Upon one
of these trips down the river an occur
renee took place which very nearly pre-
vented him from ever being president or
from ever making the slave free. His
boat on a downward trip was one night
hauled up to the shore near Natchez, in
Mississippi. Capt. Lincoln and his crew
were asleep below when the steps of some
one was heard on deck. Lincoln came
up to hear who was there. AS his head
reached up through the hatchway of the
boat, a negro who was pilfering struck
him blow with large stick, which at
the same time struck Lincoln's head and
the floor beyond it, and stunned him,
and left upon his head large scar which
he carried through life.
After this he was clerk and partner
in a small store near New Salem. After
this again the Blackhawk war broke out,
and Lincoln was elected captain of a
company raised at New Salem. After
that war he was elected four times to the
legislature, to which he walked from
Sangamon county Oh foot a part of the
time. There, for the first time, he came
in contact with the prominent men of
the state, and distingu ished himself as a
speaker. He then moved to Springfield,
and commenced about the same time to
study and practice law, and soon rose to
distinction and eminence in that profess
sion.
When he was nomir ated for the presi-
dency In 1860 some campaign bookmaker
called upon him to get the prominent
features of his life, and well he replied,
in the language of Gray's elegy, that
his life presented nothing but
THE short and simple annals of the poor"
This is the record Of his life.