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


~ his birth they
are supposed to
have been married about three years.
Thomas LincOlnS ancestors were
among the early settlers of Rocking
ham county in Virginia, but exact
ly whence they came or the precise
time of their settlement there it is I'M
possible to tell They were manifestly
of English descent, but whether emf
grants directly from England to Vir-
ginia or an offshoot Of the historic Lin
coin family in Massachusetts or of the
highly respectable Lincoln family i'll
Pennsylvania is a question left en-
tirely to conjecture. Thomas Lincoln
himself stoutly denied that his progen-
itors were either Quakers or Puritans,
but he furnished nothing except his
own word to sustain his denial. On the
contrary, some of the family distant
relatives of Thomas Lincoln) who re-
main in Virginia believe themselves to
have sprung from the New England
stock. They found their opinion solely
Oh the fact that the Christian names
given to the sons of the two families
were the same, though only in a few
cases and at different times. The pro-
genitors of all the American Lincolns
We're Englishmcn, and they may have
been Puritans. There is, therefore,
nothing unreasonable in the supposition
that they began the practice of confer
ring such names before the emigration
of any of them, and the names, becom-
ing matters of family pride and family
tradition, have continued to be given
ever since.
DR.. Holland, who. of all Mr.. Lincoln's
tiographers, has entered most exten-
sively into the genealogy Of the family,
says that the father of Thomas was
named Abraham, but he gives no au-
thority for his statement. The Hankses
John and Dennis--who passed great
part of their lives in the company Of
Thomas Lincoln, tell us that the name
of his father was Mordecai, and SO also
does Colonel Chapman, who married
Thomas Lincoln's stepdaughter. The
rest of those who ought to know are
unable to assign him any name at all.
Dr. Holland says further that this
Abraham (or MordecaD had four broth
ers-Jacob, John, Isaac and Thomas;
that Isaac went to Tennessee, where
his descendants are now; that Thomas
went to Kentucky after his brother
Abraham, but that Jacob and John
"are supposed to have" remained in
Virginia
This is doubtless true, at least so far
as it relates to Jacob and John, for
there are numerous Lincolns in Rock
ingham county. the place from which
the Kentucky Lincoln emigrated. One
of their ancestors, Jacob, who seems to
be the brother referred to, was lieu
tenant in the army of the Revolution
and present 1T the siege of Yorktown.
His military services We're made the
ground of claim against the govern
ment and Abraham Lincoln, while
representative in congress from Illi-
nois, was applied to by the family to
assist them in prosecuting it.
Lincoln, the emigrant, had three sons
and two daughters. Thomas was the
third son and the fourth child. He was
born in 177S, and in 1880 or little
later his father removed with his en-
tire family to Kentucky.
The Borderers' Paradise.
Kentucky was then the paradise Of
the borderers' dreams. Fabulous tales
of its sylvan charms and pastoral beau
ties had for years been floating about.
For awhile it had been known as the
"ccne country" Many expeditions
We're undertaken to explore it, two or
three adventurerS and occasionally only
one at time passing down the Ohio in
canoes. But they all stopped short Of
the Kentucky river. The Indians We're
terrible. and it was known that they
would surrender any other spot of
earth in preference to Kentucky. The
canes that were supposed to indicate
the promised land-those canes of Won
drouS dimensions that shot up as thick
as they could stand from a soil of in
estimable fertility-were forever re-
ceding before those who sought them.
One party after another returned to
report that, after incredible dangers
and hardships, they had met with no
better fortune than that which had at
tended the efforts Of their predecessors,
and that they had utterly failed to find
the 'canes." At last they were actually
found By Simon. Ksnton. who steaithily
planted q little patch OF corn to see
how the stalk that bore the yellow
grain wonld grow beside its -spother'
OF the wilderness. Hs was one day
lseninG Agalnek ,sAN s1eH e. laak
.slasaY