The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-04-05
HONEST OLD ABE.
"reminiscences by His First Friend
and Boyhood Companion.
Dennis Hanks, Now Ninety Years Old,
Tells of the Great Emancipator's
Early Life-How Old Friends
Heard of the Tragedy.

Heard of the Tragedy.
Some day, not long distant, a mes
sage will flash over the wires from the
quiet city of Charleston, H., saying
that Dennis Hanks is dead. Then in
all the large papers throughout the
country it will be told simultaneously
that here lived and died a relative and
boyhood companion of Abraham Lin
coin.
Dennis Hanks is living now at the
age of ninety years in this little city
in Eastern Illinois. Every resident of
the place knows all about him, so l
had no difficulty in having the house,
where he lives with his oldest daugh-
ter. pointed out
/ found him sitting in a split-bot-
toned chair tipped back against the
wall, with his feet on the rungs, a
feeble. withered little figure of a man,
his clothes hanging loosely about him.
He leaned on a knotted thorn stick
polished by long use; a soft felt hat
covered his head and shaded his dim
eyes; long hair, silvery white, fell
about his collar, while his skin had
that peculiar soft pink hue seen only
in first and second childhood. 1t was
a gentle old face in which the vigor of
manhood had died ont, leaving only
childish interest and trust and inno-
cence with soft halo of memory over
it all. He lay asleep in the sunshine
that streamed over him through the
parted curtain at the window, and an
other that divided the present from
the past.
He started from his sleep upon our
entering the room. and his face Lit up
with pleasant anticipation when his
daughter told him the object of my
visit.
There are not MANI who come to
see old Dennis. !" he said. ..May be if
they knew all l could tell they would
come fast enough. used to tell Abe
Abe Lincoln, you know: Abe says
/, if you die first people will have to
come to Dennis Hanks to find out
what sort of boy you was We used
to laugh over that because it looked as if
Abe would live longer than me- then. l
was ten years the elder and Abe was
strong as horse in them days. Abe'd
a had his joke if he'd died the next
minute.
II reckin I knowed Abe Linkhorn,
as we called i'm, before anybody, less
it wur his mother. Nancy Hanks.
she was my cousin, and she married
Tom Lincoln, and they lived about
two mile from us. One day Tom
come over an says, kind O. slow like:
.Nancy's got a boy baby Mother,
she got excited and hurried up her
work to 60 over, but l couldn't wait.
i was about ten years old then, and
babies wasn't as common then as they
are now. l jist TUX and run two miles
to see my new cousin. That young
man had the longest legs you ever
see. When he growed up he was six
feet four and one-half inches high.
the ganglingest, awkwardest boy that
ever stepped over rail fences. Even
when boy he got ahead of every
thing. and growed out of his clothes
EASTERN Sarah could make EN-"
Il thought his mothers name was
Narcy?"
ut was. This is the way: Tom fell
in love with Sarah Bush. but her folks
discouraged her from a-havin' him,
sayin' Tom was shift less Teller, an /
reckin he was; so Tom he up and mar
ried Nancy Hanks. and Sairy. she
married a man by the name Of John
ston. After we all moved to Indiana,
in 1909 think, Nancy she up and
died, and Mrs. Johnston's man died; so
Tom he went back to Kentucky for
Sairy and brung her home. Sairy was
mighty good woman. She didn't
find much to come to but shanty and
couple of ragged children, but she
loved Tom and raised his children de-
cent She was Christian, and made
Abe a religious man.
Il remember the day we got to
Indiana Abe he killed a turkey hen
and was SO proud he couldn't stop
tellin' about i. till Tom told him to
shut up. 1t wasn't often he cared to
kill things less he took lots of pains
to do it He wanted books most of all,
and wild cats was good deal plentier
than books them days / taught him
his letters and we spelled clear
through Webster's spelling-book
twice before Abe got tired of it He
TUX to writin', practicin' on the rails
of the fence or his mothers puncheon
floor with a bit of charcoal Then we
got some wrappin' paper at the store,
and made ink out of blackberry,
brian root. and copperas that eat the
paper The pens / made out of turkey
.buzzard quilts. After he learned to
write he'd scrawl his name all over
every thing and make Tom mad Den
ny. he'd say. look at that will you.
Abraham Lincoln" that stands for
me. Don't look much like me, does
it? Ed cut that on tree banks to
mark the trees he wanted to cut down,
write it on the sand down by the
creek. and every rail on the place had
his name on it."
"Well, he wrote it on something
better than N tree barks and in sand"