New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-10

AN ASSOCIATION WHICH WILL BEAUTIFY
THE SPOT.

Indianapolis, June (Special.-The arrangements
which now being perfected by the Nancy Hanks
Lincoln Monument Association for clearing away
the underground and beautifying the site OF the
grave the mother of Abraham Lincoln have
awakened interest in romantic spot in Indiana,
and led pleasant we'll sorrow
full reColCcons in connection with the residence OF
the Lincoln family in Indiana. The site OF Mrs.
Lincoln's grave is the top OF steep hill a short
distance from Lincoln City, Spencer County, and a
few hundred feet from the spot where stood
the Lincoln cabin. rude log structure which
Thomas Lincoln and his Abraham. assisted by
earlier emigrants. erected in 1916. The association
which has undertaken the work OF redeeming the
site of the grave and converting the sixteen acre
tract which surrounds 1t into slightly park is
composed of members of the Grand Army OF the
Republic the Sons OF Veterans. the Loyal Legion
and the Lincoln League. while Governor Mount is
PRESIDENT.
Thomas Lincoln hts wife. Nancy Hanks Lin
coin. and his Abraham found Indiana a YER
liable wilderness when they here from Ken
lucky. The father was a carpenter by trade. and
the rude domtcile was soon completed. The family
was even poorer than usual in those days. and
tradition says that they brought with them praci-
cally nothing from their home In Kentucky and
that their neghbors supplied them at first with
some things that were absolutely necessary TO
bodily comfort They had been in their home
only a short time when the wife and mother fell
sick, and after lingering n while died Her
disease was probably malariaI fever but was
called at the time the milk SICK for want of a
better name The father and rived the boards
out OF which the rude coffin made, and less
than a half dozen persons attended the burial
There was no one present who qualified to de-
dispensed with but several months later, when an
itnerant minister came along the father and son
attended him 10 the grave, where a short prayer
was offered for the repOse of the dead and a
homely lesson drawn from the life she had lived.
THE GRAVE CLEARED OF UNDERBRUSH
Thomas Lincoln went back to Kentucky some
eighteen months later and returned with
another wife, the angel mother" the martyred
President was wont to call her in after years. He
had not prospered we'll here, and In a years he
sold his small possessions and Illinois
The site of the grave neglected. The bramble
and the brier grew over II and hid II from view,
but more than forty years after, when the eyes Of
the Nation were turned upon the son, one re-
membered that his mother buried top of
the hill short distance from the old Lincoln cabin
Then some one cleared away the bushes and let
the sun shine in on the neglected grave. The war
came, and then the tragedy in Ford's Theatre, but
the bushes had grown the grave again. and
years went by before any thought attempt
growth which covered II. Glen" Studebaker the
wagon manufacturer OF South Bend visited the
spot day and blushed that Il should have been
neglected all those He caused the briers and
brambles to be cleared away and then ordered a
stone TO be placed at the head of the grave and a
neat iron fence erected around IT,. on the
stone placed this inscription: