, 1906-03-07
(Continued)
Linsoln's Birthplace

His vagraut caroor had supplied him
with an ineXhaustiDle fund of anec-
dotes, which he tod claverly and well.
He loved to sit about at ''stores" or
under shade trees and spin yarns" Il
propensity which atoned for many sins
and made him extremely popular. In
politics he was a Democrat-a Jackson
Democrat. In religion he was nothing
at times and a member of various de-
nominations by turns-a Free VIII
Baptist in Kentucky, o Presbyterian in
Indiana and a Disciple-yulgarly 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 1t then only mechanically, 1t
was never spelled one way or the other
unless by a storekeeper here and there
who had a 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-
quired a very limited knowledge of the
IN .o a.,, 49,, % a,,J .o+ 800 - It, 1890
account, but his achievements in this
line were no better han 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
BEETHOVEN, 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 not live with her uncle, but
the Hankses were all very clannish,
and she was doubtless a welcome and
frequent guest at his house. 1t is adj
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 neighborhood 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 a proud
body" who held her head above com
mon folks. But she had a will as well
as principles of her own, and she lived
to make them both serviceable to the
neglected and destitute son of Nancy
Hanks. Thomas Lincoln took another
wife, but he always loved Sally Bush,
and years afterward, when her hus-
band and his wife were both dead, he
returned suddenly from the wilds Of
Indiana and, representing himself as a
thriving and prosperous farmer, In
duced her to marry him.
Lincoln's Mother.
Nancy Hanks, who accepted the hon
or which Sally Bush first refused, was
a slender, symmetrical woman of me-
dunn stature, a brunette, with dark
hair, regular features and soft, spar
king hazel eyes. Tenderly bred, she
might have been beautiful: but hard
labor and hard usage bent her hand
some form and impaired an unnatural
coarseness to her features long before
the period of her death. Toward the
close her life and her face were equally
sad, and the latter habitually wore the
woeful expression which afterward dis
tinguished the c~ountenance of her son
4. ronaan