Fergus County argus., 1906-01-09
sOYHOOD OF A ESlDENT.
How Young Lincoln Made the Best
of Scanty Schooling.

OF Scanty Schooing
AS Abraham had been only seven
years old when he left Kentucky the
little beginnings he learned in the
schools kept by Riney and Hazel in
that state must have been slight,
probably only his alphabet, or at the
most only three or four pages Of Web
ster's Elementary Spelling book"
The multiplication table was still a
mystery to him. and he could read or
write only the words he spelled. His
first two years in Indiana seemed to
have passed without schooling of any
sort, and the school he attended short
ly after coming under the care of his
stepmother was of the simplest kind,
for the Pigeon creek settlement num-
bered only eight or 10 poor families,
and they lived deep in the forest,
where, even if they had the money
for such luXuries. it would have been
impossible to buy books, states. pens,
ink or paper. It is worthy of note.
however. that in our western country.
even under such difficulties, school
house was one Of the first buildings
to raise inevery frontier settlement.
Abraham's second school in Indiana
was held when he was ii years old
and the third in his 18th year.
! BY that time he had more books
and better teachers. but he had to
walk four or five miles to reach them.
We know that he learned to write,
ana was provided with pen, ink and
a copy bOok--a very small amount of
writing paper for copies have been
printed Of several scraps on which he
carefully wrote down tables of long
measure, land measure, and dry meas
ure, as well as examples in multiplica-
tiOn and compound division, from his
arithmetic. He was never able to
go to school again after this time, and
though the instructions he received
from his five teachers-two in Ken
tucky and three in Indiana-extended
; over period of nine years. 1t must
be remembered that it made up in all
less than one l2-month; that the ag
gregate of all his schooling did not
amount to one year" The fact that
he received his instructions, as he
himself said, "by Titles" was doubt
less an advantage. A lazy or indiffer
ent boy would of course have forgot
ten what was taught him at one time
before he had opportunity of another
but Abraham was neither indifferen
nor lazy, and these widely separated
fragments of instruction were prec
ious steps to self-help. He pursued
! his studies with very unusual purpose
and determination not only to under
, stand them at the moment, but to fl,
them firmly in his mind. His early
| companions all agree that he employed
every spare moment in keeping or
with some of his studies. His step
mother tells us that when he came
across passage that struck him. he
would write it down on boards, if he
had no paper. and keep it there unit
he did get paper. Then he would re
write it, look at it, repeat it. He had
a copy book, kind of scrap book, in
which he put down all things, and thus
preserved them He spent long even
ings doing sums on the firesnovel
Iron fireshovels were a rarity among
pioneers. Instead they used broad
thin clapboard with one end narrow
ed to handle, arranged with this
the piles of Goals upon the hearth, over
which they set their Skillet and
"Oven" to do their cooking. 1t was
on such a wooden shovel that Abra
ham worked his sums by the flicker
ing freight, making his figures with
a piece of charcoal, and when the
shovel was all covered, taking a draw
ing knife and shaving it off clean
again.
the hours that he was able to de
vote to his penmanship, his reading
and his arithmetic We're by no means
many; for save for the short time
that he was actually in school, he
was, during all these years, laborins
hard on his fathers farm, or hirin2
his youthful strength to neighbors wht
) had need of help in the field or for
est. In pursuit of his knowledge h
was on an uphill path; yet in spit,
of all obstacles he worked his wa.
: to such an education as placed him 70
| ahead of his school mates and quickl.
, abreast of his various teachers. HI
t borrowed every book in the neighbor
, hood. The list is a short one
l Robinson Crusoe." "Aesop's Fables,
: Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" Weems
9 Life of Washington" and "Histor
+ of the United States" When every
: thing else had been read. he resolute
a ly began on the Revised Statutes O
t Indiana which Dave Turnham, tn
/ constable. had in daily use, but pei
mitted him to come to his house an
a read.-St. Nicholas Magazine.