, 1906-03-14
WARD
HILL
LAMON,
His Friend, Intimate and
- Bodyguard

not OF logs, but or poles, II was. there
fore, denominated a camp" to distin-
| guish 1t from a cabin" 1t was about
fourteen feet square and had no floor.
1t was no larger thai the first house he
lived in at Elizabethtown and on the
whole not as good a shelter. But Lin
coin was now under the influence of a
transient access of ambition, and the
camp was merely preliminary to some
thing better. He lived in it, however,
for u whole year before he attained to
the dignity of Il residence in a cabin.
"In the meantime he cleaned some land
and raised u small crop of corn and
vegetables"
In the fall of 1917 Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow came Il from Kentucky and
took up their abode in the old camp
which the Lincolns had just deserted
for the cabin. Betsy was the aunt who
had raised Nancy Hanks. She had done
the same In part for Dennis Hanks,
who was the offspring Of another SIS
ter, and she now brought him with her.
Dennis thus became the constant COM
panion of young Abraham.
Lincoln's second house was a trough,
rough log one. The timbers were not
hewed, and until after the arrival of
Sally Bush In 1919 it had neither floor,
door nor window. 1t stood about forty
yards from what Dennis Hanks called
4 that "darned little half faced camp"
which was now the dwelling of the
Sparrows. 1t was Fright in the BUSH
H. Al z..A - x,:..;. 1,1
There were only seven or eight older
settlers in the neighborhood of the two
Pigeon creeks.
The nearest town was Troy, situated
on the Ohio. about half a mile from the
mouth of Anderson creek. G~entryville
had as yet no existence. Travelling was
on horseback or on foot, and the only
resort of IN was to the pack
horse or the canoe. But a prodigious
immigration was now sweeping into
this inviting country. Harrison's yicto-
ries owe the Indians had opened it up
to the peaceful settler, and Indiana was
admitted into the Union In 1916. with
a population of $4,000. The county in
which Thomas Lincoln settled was
L CITY, Will lue tOully stat al IIOAs
but he soon found himself in the new
county of Spencer, with the courthouse
at Rockport. twenty miles south Of
him, and the thriving village of Gentry
vile within a mile and a half of his
door.
Abraham as a Hunter.
A postoiiice was established at Gen
tryville in 1924 or 1925. Dennis Hanks
helped to hew the logs used to build
the first storeroom. The following let
ter from Mr.. David Turnham presents
some interesting and perfectly anthem
tic information regarding the village
and the settlements around it In those
early times:
When my father came here in the
spring of 1919 he settled in Spencer coun-
ty. within one mile of Thomas Lincoln.
then a widower. The chance for schooling
was poor; but, such as it was, Abraham
and myself attended the same schools.
We first had to SO seven miles to mill,
and then 1t was a hand mill that would
grind from ten to fifteen bushels of corn
in a day. There was but little wheat
grown at that time, and when we did
have wheat we had to grind it on the
mill described and use it without boiling,
as there were no bolts in the country.
Abe and had to DO the milling on horse
back, frequently going twice to get one
grist.
The country was very rough, especially
In the lowlands, so thick with bush that
a mar could scarcely get through on foot,
and abounded in game. At that time
there were d great many deer ticks, and
Abe and myself would go to those ticks
sometimes and watch of nights to kill
deer, though Abe was not so fond of a
gun as l was. The people in the first
settling of this country were very So
cable, kind and accommodating, but
there was more drunkenness and stealing
on a small scale. more immortality, less
religion, less well placed confidence.
For two years Lincoln continued to
live along in the old way. He did not
like to farm, and he never got much of
his land under cultivation. His princi-
pal crop was corn, and this, with the
game which a rifeman so expert would
easily take from the woods around
him, supplied his table. 1t does not ap-
pear that he employed any of his me-
chanical skill in completing and fur
nishing his own cabin. 1t has already
been stated that the latter had no Win
dow, door or floor. But the furniture
If it may be called furniture-was even
worse than the house. Three legged