The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-29
THE ABODE OF LINCOLN.
An Old Log Cabin in Which the
Martyr President Spent
His Youth.
1t Will Be Removed to Chicago
During the Worlds Fair
in 1893.
AT Present 1t Stands at Farmington, a
Country Hamlet in Illinois
Lincoln's Life There.

CHARLESTON, ILL.,. July GA special cor
respondent of the st. Louis Republic says
that one of the most interesting of all the
sights to be seen at the Worlds fair in Chi
oaso, at least to Americans, will be a dilap-
idated log cabin which now stands neal
Pennington. a country hamlet ton or twelve
miles southeast of this place. This hut was
once the place of abode of Abraham Lin
coin, the martyr president of the United
States.
It was in the oallcwest days of his life
that the emancipation laid his head to rest
under the old roof which once covered this
building. That roof has been succeeded by
many others of the o%lapboard variety, but
the logs are identically those of half a Gen.
fury ago. They are chinked together in
the old-fashioned way which marked the
pioneer residences then and now. The
house is in no way different from the
hundreds of other log cabins to be
found in the Ambram bottoms, but it
has a history which is unique and sets it
apart from others of its kind. 1t is safe to
say that among all the articles to be seen
in the Columbian exposition none will
excite greater interest and curiosity among
Americans, and particularly Illinoisans,
than this.
The logs of the old building are to he
taken apart and moved to Chicago within a
few weeks. There they will be re-erected
on the ground to be occupied by the Illinois
exhibit and remain standing there until the
exposition is closed. The log house will
not be slightly, but it will have an historical
value and Importance which will compen-
safe for its want of grace and comeliness.
In the years Lincoln spent in this house
he was at his worst-tall. angular and awk-
ward, loose-iointed and stoop%-shouldered, a
type of that dyspeptic looking youth SO
often to be met in the ~backwoods in tho
DAYS before the war. Those were the days
of rail splitting and fatboating. He had
not vet gone to Sangamon county, had not
risen to the dignity of clerk in that country
store at Salem, and had never dreamed of
becoming a lawyer. If he had, no one had
ever heard him declare his ambition. This
cabin. humble and unpretentious as it was,
was then a proper part of his life-neither
better nor worse than he was himself. In a
drive of a day through the Ambram timbers
you can find a score OF young men who are
doubtless physical prototypes of the Lin
splitting rails. If fiatboating was not out
of date some of them would doubtless
go fatboating. But few of them, Judging
them from their looks and conversation,
would ever become presidents. And if a
stranger. passing through this section dur
ing the sos. had been asked to pick out
presidential timber, Abraham Lincoln
would probably have been his last choice.
According to the testimony of Uncle Den,
mis- Hanks, a near relative of the ex-presi-
dent, Lincoln WAS as bashful as he was
awkward. He was a good hand at log
~~1lipr 90 h,,t d v,onp ~ OF oIrrir, r-oohNr,1
corn-shuckings or other festal or social
occasions where he would be brought in
contact with the other sex. He outgrew
this timidity in later years, however, and
after he had reached the dignity of store
keeper at Salem became one of the beaux
became a rival, and a successful
n of such gallant gentlemen as
Shields and Douglas. It was about
a woman that Lincoln n Shields came go
near fighting the broadsword duel on Alton
island. All of these events came in the
years after a comparative success had in
creased Lincoln's confidence in himself and
given him an opinion Of his own claims and
merits which was not opposed to the ad-
vancement of his suit.
At Pennington, however, he was shy and
retiring in the presence of what was then
and still is called IN Ambram bottom dialect
''the gals" Anyone who has ever seen a
strapping country boy suffering all the tort
ures Of the damned while pinned to a chair
in some bucolic company which includes
one or more of the fair sex, and whose lob
stored face and sprawling hands betray his
agonies, can have a pretty good idea of
what Lincoln was in his Pennington days,
''the bashfullest boy that ever lived,''
said Uncle Dennis Hanks. And he knew
him we'll.
1t is not likely the building will ever be
returned to the spot where it was first
erected and where it has stood during more
than half a century of storms or sunshine.
Indeed, it is said to be understood that the
purchasers are to continue in possession af-
ter the exposition is over. Somebody,
doubtless. will realize a small fortune out
of the relic by placing it Oh exhibition in
the cities of the country, or even reducing
the logs to chips and selling the chips as
souvenirs. All Lincoln relics have a value
far in excess of that of any other, and their
value is augmented year by year as the
fame OF the dead increases and new floods
of light are being thrown into the dark
places of that Tremendous period of history
in which he bore such a great part.
Nearly all of the chroniciers skip over
that part of Lincoln's life which was spent
at Pennington, or. at best, give it but
passing notice. 1t is true that it was no
until after his removal to Sangamon count,