The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-30
BY JOHN MOAN DAVIS.
Copyright 1895. by S. S. Mcclure.
Limited.)

One day IN April, 1884, a fiatboat
fioated around the bend of the river
Sangamon above New Salem, an Illi-
nois village, founded two years before.
One Of the men on board was Denton
Offut. the owner OF the boat; another
was Abraham Lincoln, its builder.
The boat and its little crew, starting
at Sangamon Town, a few miles UP
the river, were bound for New Or
leans. They were detained at New
Salem only long enough to get their
boat over the Rutledge and Cameron
mill dam, on which it lodged. When
Lincoln walked into New Salem three
months later he was not altogether a
stranger, for the people remembered
him as the ingenious fiatboatman
who. a little while before had freed
his boat from water and thus enabled
II to set over the damn by resorting
10 the miraculous eXpedient of boring
a hole in its bottom. Before return
ing from New Orleans, Denton OfIut
had made up his mind to open a store
at New Salem, in addition to several
other similar establishments managed
by him at other places; and so de-
lighted was he with Lincoln, whom he
had found in the backwoods Of Macon
county a few months previously, that
he resolved to place him in charge of
the new store. The precise date of
the opening of Denton Offut'S store is
not known We only know that on
July Sth, 1881, the county commission
ers' court of SangamOn county grant
ed Offut a license to retail merchan-
disc at New Salem; that he paid s.
for this license-a fee which supposed
him to have 81 GOO worth of goods in
stoCE We know, too, if there IS any
truth II tradition, that there was
VeXatiouS delay in the arrival of the
goods; that while Lincoln was waiting
at New Salem he piloted down the
Sangamon and Illinois rivers as far
as BeardstOwn q. f1atbOat bearing the
family and goods Of DR.. Nelson, who
was starting for Texas; and that at
Reardstown he found Offuts goods
waiting to be taken to New Salem.
The men, then strangers to him, were
James GOuldsby and Ned Potter, and
OfeUt had sent them after his goods.
Offut had expected Lincoln to wait
at Beardstown until the oX-team ar
rived, and the teamsters, not having
any credentials, asked Lincoln to give
them an order for the goods. This,
sitting down by the roadside, he wrote
out: and Gouldsby used to relate that
it contained a misspelled word, which
he corrected, but as spelling around
New salem was largely matter of
individual taste, it is just as likely as
not that Lincoln correctly spelled that
word.
In Charge of Denton Onut's Store.
When the oxen and their drivers
returned with the goods, the store
was opened in a little log house, on
the brink of a hill, almost over the
river. Lincoln unpacked the goods,
put on the price mark, placed them o.
the shelves, and then sat down to
wait for customers.
Denton Offut, full of business en-
thusiasm. fancied that New Salem
had a great future, and to merely
own a store in the place fell far short
of gratifying his ambition. SO he
forthwith leased the Rutledge and
Cameron mill Returning to Kentucky
10 supervise some Of his many other
wideIy-scattered enterprises, he left
Lincoln in charge of the store and the
mill.
The frontier store filed a unique
place. Usually it was a general
store and on its shelves were found
most Of the articles needed in com
munity OF pioneers. But to be place
for the sale of dry goods and groceries
vas not its only function; 1t was a
kind of intellectual and social centre.
Such a store was that of Denton Of
flu Here began Lincoln's fame as
story teller, and he could hardly have
chosen Surroundings more favorable to
the highest development Of the art.
It was here, too, that Lincoln acquired
the title of Honest Abe"-a title
which. conferred upon him by Denton
Offut and adopted by common con-
sent, chung TO him ever afterward.
Through no fault of Lincoln, Denton
in opera ton less than ten months. a
constable one morning took possession
and the goods were sold to satisfy the
claims Of a legion Of creditors. The
store building was standing as late as
1885. and presumably stood until it
rotted down. A slight depression in
the earth, evidently once a cellar, is
all that remains of Offut's store. Out
of this hole in the ground have grown
three trees-a locust, an elm and
misunderstanding TO spring from the
same roots. and curiously twined to-
gether; and high up on the sycamore
some genius has chiseled the face of
Lincoln.
Lincoln Goes to War.
In March, 1882, we find Lincoln dis
lributing hand bills announcing his
candidacy for the legislature; and in
May ne was mustered into the mill
Iary service of the state to help drive
Black Hawk back across the Missis-
sippi. Lincoln was afterwards frank
enough to confess that he did not go
70 war aItogat for patriotic mo-
tives Offufs store had just closed,
end he had got little out of it except
experience and a reputation for in
teerity-two valuable acquisitions
but neither Of them Immediately con-
yertible into cash; and the fact that it
would rive him the means for the
time Of making a living, coupled pos
siblv with the enchantuient of adve1-
ture. was what made him an Indian
fighter. Lincoln, though at the time
proud of his election as captain Of his
company, never looked upon the Black
Hawk war as a serious affair; and to
speak of its heroes" always seemed
TO him a grotesque joke.
The war came to an end all too
soon. Lincoln returned home in
August. Just in time to get beaten for
the legislature. He now found him
self with nothing to do. 1t was at
this time that a New Salem friend
an sidinirer of his powerful frame and
eIeat strength-advised Lincoln to be-
come a Blacksmith; but the advice
was very indiGerently received.
IT was only natural that Lincoln
should 20 to tho stores in search of
work. for cIerking in a store was the
most agreeable EN-. loyment he lad yet
found. He applied successfully TO all
of the stores then doing business in
New Salem, but they were IN greater
need Of customers than clerks. The
.hns ness had been greatly OVerdOne