The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-04-24
KNEW LINCOLN WE'LL.
sUNclE PHILIP clARK'S REcoLLEc-
/ TONS OF HIS FRIEND ABE.

NE Ftryt Meeting Was In the Eistooat-
s.~ Days-served Together Aftsrward
In ene Black Hawk wAr-was Lincoln
. Humorist by Nsturef
Ib,cie Philip Clark, who died IN Mat
ttssn, Ills, on Feb. 1s, 1897, was the last
Scrson TO die Of those intimately associat-
"a with Abraham Lincoln In the emanci-
enSsr's early experience in Sangamon and
Menard counties. The frosts OF SO winters
had whitened the old mans locks at the
eizne OF his death, but they had not chilled
Ais enthusiasm or weakened the interest
m the man he learned to love and admire
hn his youth and whose memory he cher
hshed until death.
had many conversations with Mr.
CLARK about Lincoln. Shortly before Uncle
Philips death he told me that he first met
hinooln in 1881 under circumstances which
were such Gs to live in his memory.
Tho scene of my first meeting with
him Ia as vivid in memory az my walk
down town yesterday" said the old man,
nwhsse eye twinkled with tho keen sense OF
abe grotesque aroused by some features OF
the inuident. This is the story as he told
ut to me:
my father and were living about
eight miles from Springfield and were en-
barking In the business of flatboating,
whiof, was a sort'of craze, as you now call
at among the well to do old settlers who
sought market for their flour and pork
on the lower Mississippi. We were loading
on the south fork Of the SangaInon when
one day in the midst of our work we OBJ
served tall, lank, lean stranger coming
out Of the woods and toward US.
T.. 4 sx<,xy nId dvSNn
sng hat and pair of tattered jean pants,
the half of one leg of which was then off
and the other extended down into a rough,
coarse pair of gaping shoes. His appear
1noe made me laugh, and winked at ia
ther, who soon began to converse with
him. was Is years old and the visitor
was then about 90. He soon told us his
mission. He did not smile He was so
earnest all the while that his very earnest
ness impressed me. He bore a letter to
nv father from Denton Offut, an old ac-
quaintance of ours who had a hatboat on
the other fork of the river which had
caught on snag in the stream and defied
the efforts of the men to remove it. The
visitor was Abe Lincoln, and the letter he
brought was one asking my father for
help Father told me to accompany Lin
coln to Offut's boat. He was to come on
later.
Lincoln and / walked together six
miles to where the boat was stuck. In
few moments we dislodged it and sent 1t
floating down to the fork Of the river.
II have often heard Lincoln credited
with joking and merrymaking late in life,
and some have called him a humorist by
nature With oil due regard for the opin-
ions Of the great men who seem to know
so much more of Lincoln 8 heart and mind
than we who grew up with him, must
deny the correctness of this, for he was the
sadtest and most earnest man 1 ever knew,
and had my acquaintance with him ter.
minated and had L never heard of him
after that fatboat event, would never
have forgotten the impression of sorrow he
made on me then. IL Abe Lincoln learned
anything, he learned how TO joke, for the
art was not bred with him, but came to
him in after years To oil the great machine
of mind straining under the burdens that
God chose to put upon him.
"He told me in my conversation at that
first meeting that he was working for SS
month. He talked freely, but deliberately,
and had faculty of impressing those
around him. You would call it mesmcr
ism nowadays.
MIR. Lincoln and Offut waited for us
two days at the fork of the river, and at
the end of that time my father, myself and
William McLcase, with the boat steerer,
Sam Mckee, joined them. There was
danger OF the snags, and we all tied up at
night and built IA fire and enjoyed our
selves socially. Lincoln told me he thought
he could better his situation, as he had no
liking for the fiatboat business. He
thought seriously Of settling at Walnut
Hills, q place not far from Beardstown.
but we did not agree as to the enterprise,
and Lincoln abandoned this idea.
1.-The trip To Beardstown required seven
days. We had man of the name of Ward
who did the cooking, and had skin To
take us ashore when we wished 10 land at
any place. During this trip became as
well acquainted with Lincoln ~ one
young man we'll could with another. His
conversation was such as To draw out in
formation from his companions. He WAS
always. even i'm those checrless times,
aspiring to better knowledge and better
position.
81 returned TO my home near Springfield
after parting with my new friend AT
Beardstown. did not go farther down
the river attbat time, and he went to New
Orleans Neighborhoods then were not II
few miles across as now, but they covered
tmmense spaces. People spoke Of Others
Giving 80 or 40 miles away as nclghbors,
though the country was beginning to Oil
up
81 saw lincoln occasionally, but was
not again assocfated>with him until the
spring Of 1881, when, with . number of
others, / enlisted for the Black Hawk war,
and 10y my own choice in Mr.. Lincoln g
company! l was surprised and glad to see
him an officer. We went together 10
Beardstown, where, on account Of my
ability as boat steerer and my knowledge
Of the waters, 1 was transferred To another
company and went 10 Fort Armstrong.
near Rock Island. Lincoln secured ne
the position, and il was ~ great improve.
,nent on tho duties of n private soldier on
the march. was given the choice ot row
boats and many other nice privileges
Lincoln rcioined us ut the fort. and the
Nrmy proceeded up the river. ! was with
Iinooln every day now, and made the nc.
quaintance of several other men whom |
did not then think would figure i'm history.