The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-05-12
KNEW LINCOLN WE'LL.
UNCLE PHILIP CLAak'S RECOLLEC-
TONS OF HIS FRIEND ABE.
The First Meeting Was In the Flatboat-
ing Days--served Together Afterward
In the Black Hawk war-was Lincoln
IIumorist by Nature?

Humorist by Nature?
Uncle Philip Clark, who died In Mat
toon, Ills, on Feb. 49, 1897, was the last
person To die of those intimately associat-
ed with Abraham Lincoln in the enamel
pator's early experience in Sangamon and
Menard counties. The frosts of 80 winters
had whitened the old mans locks at the
time of his death, but they had not chilled
his enthusiasm OF weakened the interest
in the man he learned to love and admire
in his youth and whose memory he cher
ished until death.
/ had many conversations with Mr..
Clark about Lincoln. Shortly before Uncle
Philips death he told me that he first met
Lincoln in 1881 under circumstances which
were such as to live i'm his memory.
The scene of my first meeting with
him Is as vivid in memory as my walk
down town yesterday" said the old man,
whose eye twinkled with thu keen sense of
the grotesque aroused by some features of
the incident. This is the story as he told
IL to me:
"My father and i were living about
eight miles from Springfield and were en-
barking In the business of fiatboating,
which was sort of craze, as you now call
it, among the well to do old settlers who
sought a market for their flour and pork
on the lower Mississippi. We were loading
on the south fork of the Sangamon when
one day i'm the midst of our work we OBJ
served tall, lank, lean stranger coming
out of the woods and toward us.
'He had on a ragged coat, an old droop-
ing hat and pair of battered jean pants,
the half of one leg of which was then of
and the other extended down into rough,
coarse pair Of gaping shoes. His appear
ance made me laugh, and i winked at ia
ther, who soon began to converse with
him. was Is years old and the visitor
was then about 20. 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 letter to
my father from Denton Offut, an old ac-
quantance of ours who had flatboat on
the other fork of the river which had
caught on a 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
coin to Offut's boat He was to come on
later
"Lincoln and l walked together six
miles to where the boat was stuck. In n
few moments we dislodged 1t and sent it
floating down to the fork of the river.
Il have often heard Lincoln credited
with joking and merrymaking late in life
and some have called him humorist by
nature. With all due regard for the Opin-
ions of the great men who seem TO know
so much more of Lincoln IS heart and mind
than we who grew up with him, l must
deny the correctness of this, for he was the
saddest and most earnest man | ever knew
and had my acquaintance with him ter
minated and had l never heard of him
after that ilatboat event, | would never
have forgotten the impression of sorrow nc
made on me then. II 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 straning 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 SIS
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 McLease, with the boat steerer,
Sam Mckee, joined them. There was
danger of the snags, and we all tied up at
night and built a fire and enjoyed our
selves socially. Lincoln told me he thought
he could better his situation, as he had no
liking for the 1atboat business. He
thought seriously of settling at Walnut
Hills, place not far from Bcardstown.
But we did not agree as to the enterprise,
and Lincoln abandoned this idea.
trim I'm Ron rfStoxvn rpuIIirpd cpvp11
days We had a man of the name of Ward
who did the cooking, and had "a skiff TO
take us ashore when we wished to land at
any place. During this trip became as
well acquainted with Lincoln as one
young man well could with another. His
conversation was such as to draw out in
formation from his companions. He was
always, even in those cheerlcss times,
aspiring to better knowledge and better
position.
II returned to my home near Springfield
after parting with my new friend at
Beardstown. l did not go farther down
the river at that time, and he went to New
Orleans. Ncighborhoods then were not u
few miles across AS now, but they covered
immense spaces. People spoke of others
living 30 or 40 miles away as neighbours
though the country was beginning to fill
up.
II saw Lincoln occasionally, but was
not again associated with him until the
spring of 1892, when with number of
others, enlisted for the Black Hawk war;
ana by my own choice in Mr.. Lincoln's
company. l was surprised and glad to see
him an officer We went together to
Beardstown, where, on account of my
ability as boat steerer and my knowledge
of the waters, was transferred to another
company and went TO Fort Armstrong.
near Rock Island. Lincoln secured me
the position, and it was a great improve
ment on the duties of a private soldier on
the march. was given the choice of row.
boats and many other nice privileges.
Lincoln rejoined us at the fort, and the
army proceeded up the river. l was with
Lincoln every day now, and made the ac-
quaintance of several other men whom I
did not then think would figure in history.
There were JEFF Davis, a second lieutenant
in the Seventh infantry, and Joe John
ston, captain. l got to know them both.