The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-14

Fifty years ago Mrs. Amanda Poor
man, of Nation H. was the favorita
niece and intimate friend OF Abrah 4m
Lincoln To-day, charming old lady OF
sNty-elght, Mrs. Poorman is obliged 10
work for her own support says the New
4 York Press, and is in great ne d Of the
Iund now beng accumulated unaer the
| direction of Judge James z. IIUgles. OF
Mattoon to provide for the wants O.
/ the remainder Of her life.
/ The best description of the friend
ship between Abraham Lincoln and Mrs
norman, then Amanda Hanks, is given
I IN the following series OF anecdotes
/ which have never been made pubic
| until Mrs. Poorman was interviewed for
the first time a few weeks ago
The relationship between them was a
! double one. Amanda Hanks father.
/ Dennis Hanks was cousin of Lin ON s
mother, and her mother was a daughter
or Lincoih's stepmother by her nrsJ
| husband
Lincoln's favorite niece tells of Uncle
Abe's' visit to her childhood home as
follows:
When Uncle Abe was in the Charles
ton neighborhood he made our house his
regular stopping place. My father
thought Abe was the finest fellow in the
world, and kept telling us to keep an
| eye on him; that he was going up. My
father was very poor; as poor as people
could be and still have a home Our
cabin had three rooms, all on one floor.
and was daubed weather-tigh with
! mud. When Uncle Abe came we had to
make arrangements to give him room
| was the youngest child. and generally
! went to the floor to sleep while Uncle
Abe occupied my bed. In the morning
| when my mother would get breakfast
and I would De in the way she would
p ok me up and carry me into Uncle
Abes room and cover me up at the foot
of his bed. l slept there many times
when l was a little girl
At night we would gather around
him in front of the fireplace and he
would tell US stories until far into the
night. He was to us children the Won
derful story teller. knowing more than
any other person ana knowing just now
to tell things so everybody could under
stand. have often since his death
thought I could see him again in our lit
tie home, his expressive face beam,ng
forth his joy, now seeming almost to
laugh outright in it's grimaccs of fun,
and now as solemn and sorrowful as a
tomb. We would watch his every eX-
preston through whole evenings and ne
could make us laugh or cry as he willed
There was no other such week In our
Charleston home as that which Uncle
Abe spent with US. We laid in an ad-
olt4Oiioil supply o. pIONtSlOHSt Tor ne was
great eater. He liked everything. lie
came to us just his plan, simple self
His trousers were almost always
patched, and my father used to call
them 'Abe's spectacle pants He went
around in his shirt sleeves when he was
in the house, and never wore a neclltie.
His clothes were always a poor tit, his
trousers being too short and his coat
always short enough to show the patch
es on his spectacle pants. Sometimes
Uncle Abe would take our horse and
wagon and drive over to his fathers
place l remember one trip 1 made
when Uncle Abe stopped the horse in
Kickapoo creek to give it a drink
stood up in the rear of the rig. and
Uncle Abe gave the horse a little cut
and started out of the creek with
rush 1 plunged out into the water at
the first jump, and in a moment l was
doing just what any little girl would do
floating and sinking and choking with
water as 1 tried to scream. 1 shall
never forget how Uncle Abe jumped
from the buggy and came back after me.
He ran with such great, long strides,
and came plunging into the creek with