Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-04-17

through fne seiueIiienrs In Urur1 70 81
surreptitious shots at them, and it was
no secret that he had killed more than
one in that way.
Immediately after the death Of her
husband the widow abandoned the
scene of her misfortuneS and removed
to Washington county, near the town of
Springfield, where she lived until the
youngest of her children had grown up.
Mordecai and Josiah remained there
until late in life and were always num-
bered among the best people in the
neighborhood.
Thomas seems to have been the only
member of the family whose character
was not entirely respectable. He was
idle, thriftless, poor, hunter and a
rover One year he wandered away off
to his uncle, on the Holston, near the
confines of Tennessee. Another year
he wandered into Breckinridge county,
where his easy good nature was over
come by a huge bully, and he perform
ed the only remarkable achievement of
Ills ll1e ny whipping hIlh. LII 1COO We
, find him in Hardin county trying to
learn the carpenters trade.
Thomas Lincoln was not tall and
thin, like Abraham, but comparatively
short and stout, standing about five
feet ten inches in his shoes. His hair
was dark and coarse, his complexion
brown, his face round and full, his
eyes gray and his nose large and prom
1nent. He weighed, at different times,
from 40 to 1876. He was built so
eight and compact that Dennis
Hanks declares he never could find the
points of separation between his ribs,
though he felt for them often. He was
a little stoop shouldered and walked
with slow, halting step. But he was
sinewy and brave and, his habitually
peaceable disposition once fairly over
borne, was tremendous man in a
rough and tumble fight. He thrashed
the monstrous bully Of Breckenridge
county in three minutes and came off
without scratch.
'Linckhorn" and 'Iinckhern."
His vagrant career had supplied him
with an ineXhaustibIe fund Of anec-
dotes, which he told cleverly and well.
He loved to sit about at ''stores" or
under shade trees and "spin yarns" a
propensity which atoned for many sins
and made him extremely popular. In
politics he was a Democratic Jackson
Democrat. In religion he was nothing
at times and a member Of various de-
nominations by turns-a Free Will
Baptist in Kentucky, Presbyterian in
Indiana and Disciple-vulgarlyc called
Campbellite-in Illinois. In this latter
communion he seems to have died.
1t ought, perhaps, to be mentioned
that both in Virginia and Kentucky
his name was commonly pronounced
''Linckhorn'' and in Indiana "Linck-
hern." The usage was so general that
Thomas Lincoln came very near losing
his real name altogether. AS he never
wrote it at all until after his marriage,
and wrote it then only mechanically, it
was never spelled one way or the other
unless by storekeeper here and there
who had small account against him.
Whether it was properly Lincoln"
"Linckhorn'' or "Linckhern'' was not
definitely settled until after Abraham
began to write, when, as one Of the
neighbors has it, ''he remodeled the
spelling and corrected the pronuncia
tion.''
By the middle of 1906 Lincoln had ac-
auired 4 very limited knowledge of the
carpenters trade and set up on his own
account, but his achievements in this
line were no better than those Of his
previous life. He was employed Occa-
sionally to do rough work that requires
neither science nor skill, but nobody
alleges that he ever built a house or
pretended to do more than a few little
odd jobs connected with such an under.
taking.
Some time in the year 1906 he mar
ried Nancy Hanks. 1t was in the shop
of her uncle, Joseph Hanks, at Eliza
bethtown, in Hardin county, that he
essayed to learn the trade. We have no
record of the courtship, but any one
can readily imagine the numberless oc-
casions that would bring together the
niece and apprentice. 1t is true that
Nancy did net live with her uncle, but
the Hankses were all very clannish,
and she was doubtless welcome and
frequent guest at his house. 1t is ad-
mitted by all the old residents Of the
place that they were honestly married,
but precisely when or how no one can
tell. Diligent and thorough searches by
the most competent persons have failed
to discover any trace of the fact in the
public records Of Hardin and the ad-
joining counties. At the time of their
union Thomas was twenty eight years
of age and Nancy about twenty three.
Lincoln had previously courted a girl
named Sally [Sarahl Bush, who lived
in the neigEborhood of Elizabethtown,
but his suit was unsuccessful, and she
became the wife of Johnston, the jailer
Sally Bush was a modest and pious
girl, in all things pure and decent She
was very neat in her personal appear
ance, and because she was particular
in the selection of her gowns and COM
pany had long been accounted proud
body" who held her head above COM
mon folks. But she had a will as well