Los Angeles herald., 1892-11-13

b DENNIS HANNS.
The eastern reader cannot realize as we
do the environment of the Lincolns, the
Hanks and the Sparrows in 1S20-30 We
see as in a vision the great dense forests
which had so much to do in deepening their
native superstition; the wild beasts in war
with which they acquired sort of destruc-
tive activity; the noXious insects swarming
in the air, and poisonous reptiles lurking
in the grass, which. unknown to them,
seriously affected their theology; the dread
full malaria, and the still more dreaded
milk sickness.
Dennis +. Hanks was born on the south
fork of Nolin's creek, three miles south
east of the present Hodgensville, Harden
county, KY, May. Is, 1899. 1t is scarcely
possible to exaggerate the rudeness of the
society of that time and locality or the
primitive character of the people, and
there is an overabundance OF testimony
that the two families so strangely con-
nected and eventually so famous were
below rather than above the average. If
there is any spirit of art or refinement in
people it is most apt to show in their re-
ligion, and if Peter Cartwright and others
of that day can be believed the popular
religion of that day and place was sort
of rude frenzy. In other respects there
was wild freedom which often resulted
in evil. OF one case of such unrestrained
social freedom Dennis Hanks was non.
legal result.
The Genoese, in their age of extreme
piety, erected a hospital especially for
those to whom. in their complicated Italian
phrase, had not been granted the bene-
diction of fathers SMILE" 1t is pain
fully certain that Dennis and his Cousin
Nancy, mother of Abraham Lincoln, were
of that class. Their mothers had been
known simply as ''the Hanks girls" and
were described as "uncommonly smart and
mighty fond of tending camp meetings
and SUCH" OF course both these waits
took their mothers family name. Lin
coins mother was born in Virginia. John
Hanks, another relative, was son of that
Thomas Hanks in whose shop, at Eliza
bethtown, KY, Thomas Lincoln learned
the carpenters trade.
All the testimony indicates that the
family were of the class known as poor
whites" 1t all emphasizes the great fact
that Abraham Lincoln was man apart
from his kind, an exception quite as re-
markable as Shakespeare, one not to be
numbered among his people, and it re-
quires no great power of religious imagi-
nation to believe that he was raised up
for the work he did 1t is fact worth
noting that in the only biography Lincoln
ever wrote he does not give the maiden or
Christian name of his mother, and gives
but three lines to her family. The genial
and communicative Dennis Hanks has
told us nearly all we know about his race.
The first dozen years or so of his life are
historic blank. His mother married
Thomas Sparrow, and her sister married
| Henry Sparrow, the result of these unions
being that Nancy Hanks, mother of the
president, at an early age went to live with
| Thomas Sparrow, and thus she and Dennis
| passed several years under the same roof
| The story that Dennis saved the life of
| Lincoln in Kentucky is an error The man
| who did the nation that kindness was Aus
| tin Gollaher, of Hodgensville, and he was
still living at last accounts Dennis next
appears in history at the age of eighteen,
when he reached the Lincoln home in In
diana, became a neighbor and in no long
time a champion of young Abraham. The
two families worked together, aided each
other and shared their little fortunes in q
| sort of frontier communism, and very nat
urally Dennis became the tutor Of his
younger relf tive in all sorts of woodcraft.
| In 1918 the great calamity fell on those
|
sickness in settling new country, but
that in Indiana was probably worse than
| in any other state.
According to all accounts, and confirmed
by our observations in later years, people
who got through the winter Gin any kind
of condition" usually enjoyed good health
| as long as the vegetation was growing,
but when "the turn of the season came
| on" in August the pioneers fell in all di-
rections Travellers through southern In
| diana at that time relate that they would
| often call in succession at half dozen
houses before finding one where any one
was able to even prepare good meal for a
chance conner. After three to five years OF
this sort of thing many constitutions were
SO weakened that the next winter brought
death. Dennis told us of an affiiction
known as the "cold plague" meaning
probably those dreadful congestive chills
which sometimes killed the victim in three
| hours.
On top of this came the dreaded milk
sickness and ''the tribe" as people good
naturedly called such family association,
was decimated. Thomas Sparrow and
wife died almost at the same time. Abra-
ham Lincoln's mother soon followed. In
fact the whole vicinity was terribly
ScOurReus "A year iaCor AHOl'oo A1AnSOAn
brought q second wife from Kentucky
With her came her three children, John
Sarah and Matilda Johnston. Denni
Hanks now fond the Lincoln cabin fa
more attractive. 1t was his home, SO fa
as he could be said to have one, and in du
time he married Sarah Johnston.
The story that Dennis had some time be
fore taught young Lincoln to read ant
write is in the language of that locality
"a little mixei." Abraham had ATTENDED