The herald., 1895-03-24
Nancy Hanks Passes
Over the Dark River
LITTLE ABE'S DISMAL EXPERIENCES
Thomas Lincoln's Brief Widowhood
He Marries Sally Bush Johnston
Two Sets of Children i'm
the HOOusehOld=-Abe
at Dorsey's
Ill

fered a visitation of that dread disease
common in the west in early days and
known in the vernaeular of the frontier as
1.-The milk sick" 1t t'hoveTed like a specter
over the Rigeon creek settlement for over
ten years, and its fatal visitation and in
roads among the Lincolns, Hankses and
6parrows finally drove that contingent
into Illinois. To this day the medical
profession have neveragreed upon any def
mite cause for the malady, nor have they
in all their scientific w-rangaing determin-
ed exactly what the disease itself is
Early in October of the year 1918 Thorn
as and Betsy Sparrow fellil of the disease
and died within few days of each other.
Thomas Lincoln performed the services of
undertaken With his whipsaw he cut out
the lumber and with commendable
ness nailed together the rudest of coffns
to tnclose the forms of tho dead. The bod.
les were borne toSa scantily cleared knoll
in the midst of the forest, and there, with
out ceremony, quietly let down into the
grave MeanwhiieA be's mother had also
fallen victim to the insidious disease
Her sufferings, however, were destined to
be of brief duration. Within week she,
too, rested from her ,labors.
She struggled on day by day." says
.nS,Sf the household, "a good Christian
woman, and died on the seventh day after
she wS9 taken sick. Abe and his sister
Sarah waited on their mother and did the
little jobs AVID errgnds reqUired of them.
There was no physician nearer than 80
miles The mctheriknew she was going to
die and called the children to her bedside.
She was very weak, and the children lean
ed over whtae she gave her last message.
+ IL l,@t-
head, she told him to Ibe kind and good to
his father and sister. To both she said,
BE good to one another, expressing a
hope that they might live, as they had
been taught by her, to love their kindred
and worship God. - Amid the miserable
surroundings of home in the wilderness
Nancy Hanks passed ACROSS the dark river.
Though Of lowly birth, the victim of pov.
erty and hard usage, she takes place in
history as the mother of son who lib
Grated race of men. At her side stands
another mother whose Son performed a
similar service for all mankind 1900 years
before.
After the death of their mother little
Abe and his sister Sarah began dreary
lfe-indeed one more oheerless and less
inviting seldom falls to the lot of any
child. In a log cabin without a floor
scantily protected from the seventies of
the weather deprived of the comfort of a
mothers love, they passed through win
ter the most dismal either one ever ex
perienced.
A Matter of Fact Courtship.
Thomas Lincoln's widowerhood was
brief. He had scarcely mourned the death
of his first wife year until he reappeared
in Kentucky at Elizabethtown in search
of another His admiration had centered
for second time on Sally Bush, the wild
ow of Daniel Johnston, the jailer of Har
din county, who had died several years
before of a disease known as the ''cold
plague" Tho tradition still kept alive in
the Kentucky neighborhood is that Lin
coin had been a sutor for the hand of the
lady before his marriage to Nancy Hanks,
but that she had rejected him for the hand
of the more fortunate. Johnston. However
that may have been, it is certain that he
began his campaign in earnest this time,
and after a brief siege won her heart. "He
made avery short courtship, wrote Sam
uel Haycraft to me in letter on Dec. z,
1866. He came to see her on the 1st day
of December, 1919, and in a straightfor
ward manner told her that they had
known each other from childhood. Miss
Johnston, said he, i have no wife and
you no husband. I came purpose to
marry you l knowed you from a gal, and
you knowed me from boy I've no time
to lose, and if your willin let it be done
straight off. She replied that she could
not marry him right off, as she haa scme
little debts which she wanted to pay first.
He replied, Give me list of thenl.' He
got the list and paid them that evening
Next morning l issued the license, and
they were married within 90 yards of my
house"
In the eyes of her spouse she could not
be regarded as a poor widow. She was
the owner of goodly stock of furniture
and household goods, bringing with her
among ether things a walnut bureau val
ued at $40. What effect the new family,
their collection Of furniture, cooking uten-
sils and comfortable bedding must have
had on the astonished and motherless pair
who from the door of Thomas Lincon's
forlorn cabin watched the well filled wag-
on as it came creaking through the woods
can better be imagined than described.
Surely Sarah and Abe, as the stores of
supplies were rolled in through the door
less doorways, must have believed that
golden future awaited them. The pres
ence ana smile Oh mOJnorly lace IN the
cherries cabin radiated sunshine into
every neglected corner IF the Lincoln
mansion did not in every respect CORE
spond to the representations made by its
owner to the new Mrs. Lincoln before
marriage, the latter gave no expression
of disappointment or even surprise With
true womanly courage and zeal she set
resolutey TO work to make right that
which seemed wrong Her husband was
made to put floor in the cabin, as well
as to supply doors and windows. The
cracks between the logs were plastered up
A clotheepress filed the space between
the chimney iamb and the wall, and the
mat of corn husks and leaves on which
the children had slept gave way to the
comfortable luxuriance of "a feather bed
She washed the two orphans and fitred
them out in clothes taken from the stores
Of her own. The work of renovation in
and around the cabin continued until even
Thomas Lincoln himself, under the gen
eral stimulus of the new wife's presence
caught the inspiration and developed signs
of intense activity. The advent of Sarah
Bush was certainly red letter day for the
LincOlns. She was not only industrious
and thrifty, but gentle and affectionate,
and her newly adopted children, for the
first time perhaps realized the benign in
1uence of mothers love. OF young Abe