The National tribune., 1899-11-23
EVERYDAY LIFE OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
CONTINUED from first page. }

do i remember when there were DUE tWc
families settled west of the Whitewater
Valley-one at Flat Rock, above where
Rushville now stands, and the other on
Brandywine, near where Greenfield was
afterward located. When first visited the
ground on which Indianapolis now stands,
the whole country, east to Whitewater and
west to the Wabash, was a dense and I'M
broken forest. There were no public roads,
no bridges over any of the streams. The
traveller had literally 10 swim his way.
No cultivated farms, no houses to shelter
or feed the weary traveller or his jaded
horse. The courts, years afterward, were
held in log huts, and the juries sat under
the shade of the forest trees. / was Circuit
Prosecuting Attorney at the time of the
trials at the falls of Fall Creek, where
Pendleton now stands. -Four of the pris-
oners We're convicted of murder and three Of
them hung, for killing Indians. The court
was held in double log cabin, the grand
jury sat upon a log in the woods, and the
foreman signed the bill of Indictment which
1had prepared, upon his knee; there was not
a petit juror that had shoes on-all Wore
moccasins, and We're belted around the
waist, and carried side knives used by the
hunter. The products of the country con-
sisted of peltries, the wild game killed in
the forest by the Indian hunters, the fish
caught in the interior lakes, rivers and
creeks, the pawpaw, wild plum, haws, and
small berries gathered by the squaws in the
woods. The travel was confined to the
single horse and his rider, the commerce to
the pack-saddle, and the navigation to the
Indian canoe. Many time and oft have l
crossed our swollen streams, by day and by
night, sometimes swimming my horse, and
at others padding the rude bark canoe of the
Indian. Such is a mere sketch of our State
when traversed its wilds, and l am not one
of its first settlers"
THE FIRST LOG CABIN.
The immediate duty of the emigrants,
after reaching their final camping ground,
was TO provide structure which should pro-
tect them from the weather. A shanty was
quickly built of poles, and inclosed on three
sides, the fourth remaining open. This
served for home during the first year, when
a more comfortable cabin was built on a
pleasant site. 1T was on the top of an
eminence which sloped gently away on
the soil rich, and in a short time some land
was cleared and a crop of corn and vege-
tables raised. The struggle for life and its
few comforts was in this wilderness a very
hard one, and none but those of the most
vigorous constitution could succeed. The
trials, privations and hardships incident 10
clearing, breaking up and subduing the soil
and establishing home, so far away from
all the necessaries Of life, taxed the strength
and endurance Of all to the utmost. Bears,
deer. and other sorts of wild game were
abundant, and contributed largely to the
support of the family"
From an official record, it appears that on
the 18th of October, 1917, Thomas Lincoln
entered quarter-section of Government
land. This probably includes the place
where he originally settled, which was 1S
miles north of the Ohio River and within a
mile and half of the present village of
Gentryviile.
UNCLE DENNIS HANKS.
Now that the Lincolns We're settled Sc
curely in the wilderness of Indiana, they
were followed by the family of Thomas
and Betsey Sparrow, relatives of Mrs. Lin
Spring Farm" in Kentucky. Dennis
Hanks, one Of the members Of the Sparrow
household, and a cousin of Abraham Lin
coin, is still living G8S6), hale and hearty,
in spite of his advanced age, at Paris, Ill.
He mas lately furnished some entertaining
recollections OF the boy-life Of the President,
which are richly worth recording. Uncle
Dennis" as the old man is famiiiarly called.
is himself a striking character. exciting
OF OF nv is ,rip
and racy conversation. An impressive
portrait of him, as he appears in his later
days, is thus given: "Uncle Dennis is a
typical Kentuckian, born in Hardin County
in 1893. His face is sun-bronzed and
plowed with flIrrows of time; he has a reso-
a broad forehead above a pair of piercing
eyes. The eyes seem out of place in the
weary, faded face; they glow and flash like
two diamond sparks, set in ridges of dull
gold. The face is a serious one; but the
play Of light in the eyes, unquenchable by
time, betrays the nature full of sunshine
and elate with life. A side glance at the
profile shows face strikingly Lincoln
DISAPPOINTMENT cheek-bones, temple, nose
and chin; but best Of all is that tWinkline
drollery in the eye that flashed in the White
House during the dark days of the civil
war"
Uncle Dennis's recollections 90 back to
the birth of Abraham Lincoln, who was
about "a hours old, hardly that" when his
cousin first saw him. To repeat the words
Of the old man: 81 rikkilect / run all the
way, over two miles, to see Nancy Hanks's
boy baby. Her name was Nancy Hanks
before she married Thomas Lincoln. Twas
common for connections to gather in them
days to see new babies. ] held the wee one
a minute. Twas 10 years old, and it tickled
me to hold the pulpy, red, little Lincoln"
IINCOI Ms ROyUOoD DAyc
The Hanks family moved to Indiana.
according to Uncle Dennis's recollection,
when Abe was about nine. Mr.. Lincoln
moved first, and built camp of brush in
Spencer County. We came out year later,
and he then had n cabin up, and he gave us
the shanty. Abe killed turkey the day
we got there, and couldn't get through
tellin' about it. The name was pronounced
Linkhorn by the folks then. We was all
uneducated. After spell we learned
better" The cabins occupied by the two
families were about 15 rods apart and their
children grew up together on the intimate
terms of kinsshiP. q was the only boy in
the place, all them years, and we were
always together"
LEARNING TO "READ, WRITE AND
CIPHER"
Uncle Dennis claims to have taught his
young cousin 10 read, write and cipher.
He knew his letters pretty wellish; but no
more. His mother taught him his letters.
If ever there was n good woman on earth,
she was one, n true Christian of the Baptist
church; but she died soon after we arrived.
and left him without a teacher; his father