New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-02-09


armies the master of statesmen and the peer OF
kings.
The first Lincoln of whom anything Is
known came from Norwich, England TO Massa-
chusetts in 1888. His son wandered to New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, and nearly century
later grandson settled in Virginia. In $50 Abra-
ham. the eldest of this Virginian Lincoln ana
the grandfather of our Abraham, melted by the al
ventures of Daniel Boone the greatest OF pioneers
and mightiest Of hunters, moved TO hentucKy'
bought land rot far from where LOUISVILLE no"
stands and began TO clear and cultivate IL. Ohe
mornino in tbe wear 1884 he started with his three
sons Mordecai. Josiah and Thomas, TO the edge
of the clearing and began the days worh'
shot from the brush killed the father; Mordeca
the eldest son, ran instinctively 10 the house.
Josiah TO the neighboring fort for assistance, ana
Thomas the Youngest a child of SIX was left WIN
tho corpsc of his father. Mordecai, reaching the
cabin seized the rife. and saw through the loop
hole an Indian in his war paint stopping 10 raise
the child from the ground. lie TOOK dehocia"
aim at a white ornament on the breast Oh 'ne
savage and brought him down. The ht'ie ooS,
tins released ran TO the caolh' anu
Mordecai. from the loft, renewed the hie uPon ."'
sayapes. who began to show themselves i-on V'o
tbicket. until Josiah returned WIN asslSv'i0o
from StOckaue,
tho SCENE of the tragedy the widow moved 10
Washington County; there the son lhoh"'
cro,v nm learned the carpenters trade ana mar
riod Nancy Hanks his masters niece. Then negan
. scries Of wanderngs of pulling up, OF selllns
ont what there was to sell, and OF tramplhg VI
foot after the wagon through Kentucky ana
Southern Indiana ending at last in lllhols' Inc
first halt. as it may be called was near hooeehs-
vile in la Rue County, Kentucky, and there Oh
Eehrnarv ~. 1909, was born Abraham Lhcoih~
Iro was in his seventh year when the mlgra'
+ions rested in the Indiana forest near "ehuS
,iuo There the little family built ana LOT
year lived in an open shed of poles. presently le
nlaced by n rough cabin which SCENT" ~
spacious and comfortable after the squalor ol IN
camn, that Thomas Lincoln did no further WORK
on IL for a long time. He left 1t Tor year VI
two without DOORS windows or floors. He
ied onourh corn to support life; the dense foreSt
around him abounded in every form OF fea'hereu
coro. n little way from his cabin an open glaue
,oS full of dcer-licks and an hour or TWO OF Iuie
! waiting was generally rewarded by shot al
fne deer which would furnish meat LOT d "eeN
and material for trousers and shoes. Ills c"'i"
was like that of other pioneers 1e" .iiee-
,od s+ools n beds.ead made of poles stuck De-
tvocn tbe logs in the angle of the cabin. the OUT
side corner supported by crotched SUCK urNen
into the ground the table huge hewed log s'anu-
| ing on four legs: pot, kettle and skIlec' anu
few tin and pewter dishes were all the furniture
The boy Abraham climbed at night to his pea OF
leaves in the loft. by q huuer Vi "o0''" r
driven into the logs"
uoro +yo wears later. n pestilence carried oil
| Nono,. Iinco1n and two old friends and fellow
wanderers the successors of the Lincons IN tAe
Damn and Thomas Lincoln made the collins lor
oil tbreo ont of the green timber of the forest ana
hurled them in the clearing. Fifteen months la'e'
he went back 10 Kentucky after Sarah Bnsh' then
the widow Johnston, offered himself marrleu ne'
the next morning and returned 10 inc cie"'niH
with his wife and her dOwry in four-hor.e wagon
T-n1,l,e tbp stepmother of tradition, from her co
inc things began to mend. Soon there were dOor9
and floors warm clothing and comfortable oeds
The children began to 90 to chnrch and TO school
| Had Abraham Lincoln not been born with the
! uncomfortable thirst of knowledge and a vast
mower of taking it in at the pores. surely his whole
| coreer must have followed in the course marked
| ont by lis fathers With greater energy ana
steader application, he might have thriven Win
tho land and the increase of the land, but he could
| ncver have become a leader Of men, and the
| world must have lost some of the best examples
| Of exalted craftsmanship, and some OF the hneSt
messages to he found even in the rich literature OF
| the English tongue. His whole schooling, such
| nc II was. amounted to less than year. lie was
eo,,entoon wien he walked for the last time the
nine miles n day to and from the abandoned lo5
| cabin that stood for a schoOlhouse. Al ABOUT
the same age his son was going to Harvard, from
the White House. AS for the schools Lincoln
has left this record: q" 1t was wild region, Wl'n
many bears and other wild animals still in the
woods There were some schools so-calen' Out
| no qualification was ever required of teacher
otnho ~ 70 fhn ru1p
of three If a straggler supposed to understand
Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood,
| he was looked upon as a wizard" The boy read,
| wrote and ciphered incessantly read the Bible,
| Aesop Robinson CruyOe" the dictionary, " P1'-
orim's Progress" Weems's Life of Washington,
the Revised Statutes OF Indiana, anything he could
Law his hands on. Paper scarce, so " he would
sit by the fire at night and cover the wooden
shovel with essays and arithmetical eXerc se'.
which he would shave off and then begin. when
writing or reading he liked 10 sit on his shou der
blades" with his legs as high as his head, and III
this protesque fashion, say the authors, some Of
his greatest work cone in later years. Even
after he had quilted the paternal roof and struck
ont into the world for himself he thought nothing
of walking twelve miles after an English gram
mar and he mastered Euclid while in full practice
at the Springfield bar.
1t was in the depth Of the HARD winter OF 1890
81 that Thomas Lincoln packed into one wagon
his family and all his belongings and crossed over
into Illinois; not, indeed, TO end his wanderings,
for he made two moves after this one, yet
thi, is the last that concerns us. For his son
Abraham four desutory years followed, in the
course of which he successfully helped TO build,
! load and navigate fat-boat from Springfield to
New-Orleans; kept a country store with ne'er-
do-weIl partner, and between-whes cowed or
thrashed the local DULLES at the transtory town
of New-Salem: served brief and bloodless term
as captain of mounted volunteers in the Black
Hawk war, winding up with still brefer enlist
ment as private; ran for the Illinois Legislature
as a Wing IAN avowcd Clay man. and was de-
feated though in his own precinct he got all but