Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-05-01

and terminated just under the arms,
while the skirt was long and narrow.
'tCrimps and puckering frills. it had
none.
The coats of the men were home
made; the materials jeans or. linsey-
;woolsey. The waists were short, like
the frocks Of the women, and the long
'sclaw hammer tail was split up to the
waist.
The Pigeon Creek farmer s'ickled''
two acres of ground in day with his
old shovel plow and got but half a
crop. He cut one acre with his sickle.
With his fail and horse tramping he
thrashed out fifteen bushels of wheat
He tanned" and cleaned with a
Sheet
The minds of these people were filed
with superstitbns, which most persons
imagine to be at least as antiquated as
witch burning. They firmly believed in
witches and all kind of witch doings.
They sent for wizards to cure sick cat
tie. There were faith Doctors who
cured diseases by performing mysteri-
GUS ceremonies and muttering cabalis-
tic words. If a bird aighted in win
dow, one Of the family would speedily
die. If horse breathed on a child, the
child would have the whooping cough.
Everything must be done at certain
times and seasons, else it would be
attended with bad luck. They must
cut trees for rails in the early part of
the day and In ''the light of the MOON
They must make fence in ''the light of
the moon," otherwise the fence would
sink.
A Noble Stepmother.
Such were the people among whom
Abe grew to manhood With their sons
and daughters he went to school. Upon
their farms he earned his bread by
daily toll. From their conversation he
formed his earliest opinions of men
and things the world over. Many of
their peculiarities became his, and
many of their thoughts and feelings
concerning a multitude of subjects
were assimilated with his own and
helped to create that unique character
which, in the eyes Of great host Of the
American people, was only less curl
GUS and amusing than it was noble and
august.
His most intimate companions were
of course for long time the members
Of his own family. The reader already
knows something Of Thomas Lincoln
and that -eminently good woman,
Sally Bush. The latter, we know, wash
ed, clothed, loved and encouraged Abe
in well doing from the moment he fell
in her way. How much he owed to her
goodness and affection he was himself
never able to estimate. That it was a
great debt, fondly acknowledged and
cheerfully repaid as far as in him lay,
there can be no doubt.
His own sister, the child of Nancy
Hanks, was warmly attached to him.
Her face somewhat resembled his. In
repose it had the gravity which they
both, perhaps, inherited from their
mother, but it was capable of being
lighted almost into beauty by one Of
Abe's ridiculous stories or rapturouS
sallies of humor. She was a modest,
plain, Industrious girl and is kindly re-
membered by all who knew her. She
was married to Aaron Grigsby at eight
cen and year after died.
Like Abe, she occasionally worked
out at the houses Of the neighbors, and
at one time was employed in Mrs.
Crawford's kitchen, while her brother
was a laborer on the same farm. She
lies buried, not with her mother, but
in the yard of the old Pigeon Greek
meeting house. 1t is especially pleasing
to read the encomiums lavished upon
her memory by the Grigsbys, for be-
tween the Grigsbys on one side and
Abe and his stepbrother on the other
there once subsisted fierce feud.
As we have already learned from
Dennis Hanks, the two families-the
Johnstons and the Lincolns-"got along
finely together" The affectionate rela-
tions between Abe and his two stepsis-