The herald., 1895-09-08
HE HELPED
LINCOLN BUILD HIS
FLATBOAT

John E. Roll 10 celebrated, among other
things, as having assisted Abraham Lin
coin in the construction of the fatboat
with which the tall Kentuckian made his
first trip from Salem, ILL.,, to. New Or
leans, in 1881.
al knew him when he was % years old, !"
said Mr.. Roll. HE came down here to
Sangamontown and worked in the tim ber
building fatboat for Orfutt & Greene,
who " ere merchants and shippers. San.
gamontown was then quite place. There
we're two stores, a steam sawmill and
grst mill, tavern and a carding mill.
1 have seen fifty horses hitched there of
a Saturday AFTERNOON. Now there is not
stick to mark the place. The roads are
cut out, so you can't get TO 1t without 60
ing across the fields.
They built the boat up there because
there was better timber, and were going
to take it down and load at Petersburg.
Charles Broadwsll had sawmill at San
gamontown and Lincoln was there boss
ing the job. came along and wanted
work, and he hired me, and L made the
pins for the boat. We launched he.
there, and she got good deal OF water in
her. and we got her GOWN as far as Salem
dam, and there she stuck. with her bow
over the dam. And Lincoln bored a hole
in the bottom of the boat, and let the wa.
ter out. Looks like a funny way to get
water out of boat, to bore a hole in the
bottom, but il the bottom is sticking out
in the air. it is all right, / guess.
Lincoln was an awful clumsy looking
man at that time. He wore q homespun
suit of clothes and big pair of cowhide
boots, with his trousers strapped down
under them, az was tine custom of that
DAY, TO keep them from crawling up his
legs. And his coat was a roundabout,
and when he stopped over his work We
could see about four inches of his suspen-
ders. He had on an old SLOUGH wool hat.
He was getting SIS a month from Orfutt
Il Greene at that time.
AFTER we got the fiatboat launched
wo went out in the timber and found a
good tree, and made canoe. John Sea-
man and Walter Carman were along. and
they wanted to have the first ride in the
canoe, and they jumped in, and the
water was up very high and swift, and
they tipped over and were in danger of
drowning. The whole bottom was over
flowed, and there was big elm tree stand
ing about hundred feet from the shore,
with its branches in the water, and Lin
and hold on there t ill we could get them.
so they caught the branches and got up
in the tree. 1t was in March and the
water was very cold. So we got log and
tieo a rope to 1T, and James Doyle tried
to get on the log and get to them, but
the logituined over with him and he had
to get into the tree with the other two.
Then we pulled the log ashore and
Lincoln got astride of it, and the
the rest Of us paid out the rope and let
him down toward the tree, and he got to
them and took them off and brought
them ashore.
After that he went on and loaded his
down the river to New Orleans. 1 don't
know how he got back. but l have an
idea he walked back though he may have
come back by steam boat. He worked for
awhile for Orfutt d Greene. in their store
at Salem. and then he bought it out, and
afterwards he sold it and came here to
Springfield and went to practicing law.
"All the time he was running the store
he had been studing law. He would
walk up here to Springfield, twenty
miles, and borrow books from Major
Stuart, and read them and bring them
back. He didn't seem to be much OF
a speaker, but it seemed he could do
whatever he started to do.
IL had come up here to Springfield as
soon as | got through the job OH the fat
boat and was working at the plastering
trade when he moved up here. One time
l remem Der l saw him out here on the
Salem road walking along and reading
one book. with another under his arm.
He got tired and sat down on log to
rest. And while he rested be went on
reading.
II put my money in land as fast as
made it and was worth a good deal of
money. Lincoln and I we're always good
friends. One time Tom Lewis and l were
standing and talking on the stree: and
Tom said: John; why don't you run
for some office? You've got so many
tenants you could make them elect you.'
And | said l didn't want no office till
Abe Lincoln was elected president of the
United States. and then l would expect
him to give me an Office because l had
worked with him ON the tistboat. And
Lincoln. came along just then-it was
long before he had ever been mentioned
for president and Tom told him what
had SAID. And Lincoln Laughed and said
when he got to be president he would
give me an Office.
$50 | was the first man he ever prom
Used an Office to, but never got r.. Oh
yes, | guess he wouid have given 1t to
me, but | was making more money then
than any Office didn't want any.
g remember one time in a speech he
made at the courthouse, that time he said
the country could not live half slave and
half free, he said we were all slaves one
time or another but that white men
could make themselves free and the
negroes could not. He said: There is
my old friend John Roll. He used to be
a slave out he has made himself q free.
and used to be slave, and now am
so free that they let me practice law l
remember that. Chicago Times Herald.