The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-06-03

We now come 70 ono OK the points in which
the present book must be deemed a decided
Improvement upon previous biographies. IN
| 1905 Thomas Lincoln married. The early his
| tory Of his wife, Nancy Hanks, has been, until
| recently, obscured by contradictory traditions.
| She has been described as an illegitimate child,
brought up by hand and densely nliterate.
and It has even been asserted that she was never
| married to Thomas Lincoln. The compilation
| Of the eenealogy Of the Hanks family In Amer
lea. which has | Q n completed by Mrs. Caroline
Hanks Hitchcock. has cleared up the mystery
Of her 18th. According to the records brought
! together by Mrs. Hitchcock. the progen!tor OF
| Thomas Lincoln's wife came TO this country
| in 1900 and settled in Plymouth. Mass. This
| first emigrant OF the name, BENJAMIN Hanks.
| had eleven children, one OF whom. William.
went TO Virginia. and settled near the mouth
| Of the Rappahannock River. William anks
had five sons, four Of whom, about the middle
| Of the eighteenth century, moved to Amelia
| county Va, where, according to deeds I'M
earthed by Mrs. Hitchcock. they owned nearly
a thousand acres Of land. Joseph Hanks, the
youngest Of these sons, married Nancy Shipley.
This Miss Shipley was a daughter OF Robert and
| Rachel Shipley and n sister Of Mary Shipley. who
| IUh fltu y VI hIldlu lillNOlHo 'ouhty'
| and who was the mother OF Thomas Lincoln.
About 1880 Joseph Hanks and a number OF his
relatives in Amelia county moved to Kentucky.
where he settled near to what is now Eliza
BEETHOVEN. Here he remained until his death
in l793. He left to each OF his son a horse
and TO each Of his daughters a heifer ~yearllng
though these requests, as well a, the whole
estate" OF $50 acres OF land. was to be the prop
artp ~ hiu uifa duripD har lfa uhan ~ una ~
be divide equally among all the children.
A little after Joseph Hanks death his wife died
and his family was scattered.
The youngest Of the eight children thus left
| orphans was a little girl called Nancy. She
was but 2 years old at the time. and a home
was found for her with her aunt. Lucy Shipley.
wife Of Richard Berry, who had a farm in Wash
ington county near Springfield. Here. We are
| told. the little girl grew up into a sweet-tem-
| pered and beautiful young woman. whom tradi-
ton represents not only as the centre OF all the
| country m~erry-making but as a famous spinner
and housewife" The author Of this book deems
II probable that Thomas Lincoln met his first
cousin. Nancy Hanks. at Richard Berry g house,
| for he doubtless spent more or less time with
| his oldest brother, Mordecai Lincoln. who was
a neiRhbor Of the Berrys. He may have seen
her, too. al the home OF her brother, Joseph
Hanks. in Elizabethtown. This Joseph Hanks
, was n carpenter. and had inherited the old home
| Of the family. and il was with him that Thomas
Lincoln learned his trade. Al all events, the
two cousins became engaged. and. on June
~, 1904, their marriage bond was issued accord
ing TO the law Of the time. Two days later,
| according 10 the marriage returns Of the Rev.
| Jesse Head. they were married, a fact duly
attested by the marriage certificate made
out by the officiating minister. The marriage
bond and the marriage return are extant. and
facsimiles thereof are published In the book
before us. The marriage took place at Richard
Berry's nome near Beechland in Washington
county. Ky. Thither came all the neigh
bors, and, according to a Kentucky gentleman
ian. DR., Christopher Columbus Graham, even
those who CHANGED 10 be In the vicinity were made
welcome. DR.. Graham recounts how he heard
OF the wedding while out hunting for roots"
and went Just to get Geood supper" 4 saw
Nancy Hanks Lincoln at her wedding" he con-
tinues. "A fresh-looking girl. ! should say over
twenty. ] was at the Unfair. too, given by
John II. Parrot, her guantanamo only girls
with money had guardians appointed by the
court. We had bear meat, venison. wild turkey
and ducks; eggs. wild and tame, so common
that you could buy them at two bits a bushel:
maple sugar, strung on a string to bite on for
coffee or whiskey; strip in big gourds, peach
and-honey: a sheep that the two families bar
becued whole over Goals OF wood burned In a
pit, and covered with green boughs to keep the
juice In and a race for the whiskey bottle"
After his marriage Thomas Lincoln settled In
Elizabethtown. His home was a log cabin,
but, at that date, few people In Kentucky had
anything else. Here the FIRST child Of the
Lincolns. a daughter. was born. Soon after
this event Thomas Lincoln decided to COM
bine farming with his trade, and moved TO the
tract he had bought In Hardin county. Here he
was living when. on Feb. u, 1909, his second
child. a boy. was born. The little newcomer
vas called Abraham after his grandfather, a
lame which had persisted for several generation
In both the Lincoln and Hanks families. It
Is well known that. In 1915. Thomas Lincoln
emigrated to Spencer county. Ind, not far
from the village OF G~entryville. Two years
later Nancy Lincoln died. and, after a time,
the widower went back to Kentucky and brought
home a new wife. Sallie Bush Johnston. a widow
with three children. In the spring OF 1880.
when Abraham was 81 years old, hi.
father. Thomas Lincoln. resolved to leave
Indiana. The reason given for the removal was
a disease called the milk -sick." Abraham
Llncoln's mother. Nancy Hanks Lincoln. and
several Of their relatives who had followed
them from Kentucky had died Of 1t. Cattle had
been carried Of by II. Neither brute nor
human life ceemed to be safe. The place
chosen for a new homo was the sansamon
country In Central Illinois. II was at that day
a country OF great renown In the West, the name
meaning the land where there Ia plenty to
eat"