The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-08-20
LINCOLN'S PARENTS.
ABE A BRIGHT BOY.
Studied at Night by Spruce Wood
Light.


The following is from review in the
New York Sun of ''The Early Life OF
Abraham Lincoln" published in Nc
Clure's Magazine:
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were
married near Beechland, III Washing
ton county, KY, the date being, as we
have sasd, June II, 1906. The we'd
ding was celebrated by an "infare," or
festival given by the brides guardian,
to which came all the neighbors, and
according to DR.. Graham, all those
who happened to be in the neighbor-
hood were made welcome. He tells
how he heard of the wedding while
sout hunting for roots" and went
"just to get good supper" IL saw
Nancy Hanks Lincoln at her wedding"
he continues, IA fresh looking girl, I
should say over twenty. I was at the
infare, too, given by her guardian, and
only girls with money had guardians
appointed by the court. We had bear
meat Chat you can eat the grease OF,
and it not rise like other fats); veni-
son wild turkey and duck eggs, wild
and tame go common that you could
buy them at two bits busheD maple
sugar swung on a string, to bite Off for
coffee OF whiskey syrup in big gourds;
peach and honey sheep that the
two families barbecued whole over Goals
. of wood burned in a pit and covered
with green boughs to keep the juices
in race for the whiskey bottle. Our
table was of the puncheons cut from
solid logs, and, on the next day, they
were the floor OF the cabin" DR.. Gra-
ham adds at is all stuff about Tom
Lincoln's keepikg his wife in an open
shed in the winter when the wild AMI
mails left the woods, and stood in the
corners next the stick-and-clay Chin
MES, so as not to freeze to death or, if
climbers, got on the roof. The Lin
coins had 4 COW and /; calf, milk and
butter, good feather bed, for l have
slept in it (while they took the buffalo
robes on the floor, because was doc
tori. They had home-woven 'kiverlids,'
big and little pots, a loom and wheel
and William Hardesty, who was there,
too, can say with me that Tom Lin
coin was man, and took care of his |
WIFE"
After his marriage, Thomas Lincoln
settled in Elizabethtown, and 1t is true
that his home there was log cabin:
hut the authors of this volume remind
US that, at that date, few people in
Kentucky had anything else. The
great majority Of the population still
lived in log cabins, so that the home
Of Thomas Lincoln was as good as the
homes of most OF his neighbors. Little
is known of his position IN Elizabeth
town, but there Is proof that he had
credit in the community, for the de-
scendants of two of the early store-keep-
ers of the place still remember seeing
Oh their grandfather's account book,
sundry items charged to T. Lincoln
Tools and groceries were the chief pur-
chases he made. though, On one of the
ledgers, a pair of <|silk suspenders,'
worth dollar and half, was entered.
He was sufficiently respected by the
public authorities to be appointed, in
1916, road surveyor or as the office is
known in some localities, supervisor.
In word, all of the documents men,
tloning Thomas Lincoln, which the
authors Of this book have beeen able
to discover, show him to have had
much better social and financial status
in Hardin county than he has been
credited with.
It was at Elizabethtown that the first
child of the Lincolns was born,
daughter. Soon after this event Thorn
as Lincoln decided to combine farming
with his carpenters trade and moved
to the farm he had bought in 1903, in
Hardin county. Here he was living,
when, On February II, 1909, his sec
ond child, a boy. was born. The little
newcomer was called Abraham, after
his grandfather, a name which, like
other Biblical appellations, had per-
sisted through many generations of de-
scendants from the first English emf
grant to Massachusetts,. Mrs. Lincoln,
who, as we have seen, was better edu-
Gated than her husband, was at great
pains to teach her children what she
knew, and at her knee they learned all
the Bible lore, fairy tales, and country
legends that she had been able to gath
- liz, 1,fo Ac