, 1906-03-14

W##$ #|H|W
SALLY BUSH LINCOLN, ABRAHAM's STEP.
MOTHER
and on the boards a "~shakedown' of
leaves covered with skins and old pet
t~icoats. The table was n hewed punch
con, supported by four legs. They
had a few pewter and tin dishes to eat
from, but the most minute inventory
of their effects makes no mention of
knives or forks. Their cooking utensils
were a Dutch wen and a skillet, Abra.
ham slept in the loft. to which he as.
cended by means of pins driven into
holes in the wall.
THE Milk Sickness"
In the summer of 1918 the Pigeon
creek settlements were visited by q
fearful disease called in common par.
lance 1.-THE milk sickness" 1t swept of
the cattle which gave the milk, as well
as the human beings who drank 1t. 1t
seems to have prevailed in the neigh
borhood from 1918 to 1929, for 1t is
BlNcu us Olt VI tlC l0uoOho " iAOhh
as Lincoln's removal to Illinois at the
latter date. But in the year first men.
toned it's ravages were especially
awful. Its most immediate effects were
severe retchings and vomitings and,
while the deaths from it were not nee
e~ssarily sudden, the proportion Of those
who finally died was uncommonly
large.
Among the number who were attack
ed by it and fingered on for some time
In the midst of great sufferlngs were
Thomas and Betsy Sparrow and Mrs.
Nancy Lincoln. 1t was now found ex'
pedient to remove the Sparrc S. from
the wretched half faces =
through which the cold autumn. wfAds
could sweep almost unobstructed, to
the cabin of the Lincolns, which In
truth was then very little better. Many
In the neighborhood had already died,
and Thomas Lincoln had made all their
collins out of green lumber cut with a
whip saw In the meantime the Spar.
rows and Nancy were growing alarm
ingly worse. There was no physician
in the county, not even a pretender to
the science of medicine, and the near
est regular practitioner was located at
Yellow Banks, Ky, owe thirty miles
distant. 1t is not probable that they
ever secured his services.
Atlength, in the first days of October,
the Sparrows died. and Thomas Lin.
coin sawed up his green lumber and
made rough boxes to inclose the morta-
remains of his wife's two best and old
est friends. \ day or two after, on the
5th Of October, 1918, Nancy Hanks
Lincoln rested from her troubles
Thomas Lincoln took to his green wood
again and made a box for the mother
of the future president. There were
about twenty persons at her funera
They took her to the summit Of a deep
" wooded knoll about half a mile
southeast of the cabin and laid her be
side the Sparrows. If there were any
burial ceremonies they were of the
briefest.
But 1t happened that a few months
later an itinerant preacher named Da.
vid .Elkin, whom the Lincolns had
known in Kentucky, wandered into the
settlement, and he either volunteered
or was employed to preach a sermon
which should commemorate the many
virtues and pass in silence the few
frailties of the poor woman who slept
in the forest.
Thirteen months after the burial OF
Nancy Hanks and nine or ten months
after the solemnities conducted by Ell.
kin, Thomas Lincoln appeared at Eliza
BEETHOVEN, Ky, in search of another
wife. Sally Bush had married John,
ston, the jailer, but was now a widow
Both parties being free again. Lincoln
came back, very unexpectedly to Mrs.
Johnston. and opened his suit in an eX
ceedingly abrupt manner.
"Well. Miss Johnston" said he, 81
have no wife, and you have no hus.
band. | came a purpose to marry you.
| knowed you from a gal, and you
knowed me from a boy. | have no time
to lose. and. if you are willin', let it be
done straight off"
TO this she replea, Tommy, l know
you well and have no objection to mar
rying you, but | cannot do it straight
T.. as | owe some debts that must first
- paid"
Thomas Lincoln Manies Again.
"The next morning" says Hon. Sam
mel Havcraff. the clerk of the courts