Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-04-20
WARD
HILL
LAMON,
His Friend.
Partner
and
Bodysaard

y
when only three days old. After leav-
ing Kentucky she had no more chill
dren.
This time Lincoln loaded what little
he had left upon two horses and pack
ed through to Poseys.n Besides cloth
ing and bedding, they carried such
cooking utensils as would be needed by
the way and would be Indispensable
when they reached their destination.
The stock was not large. 1t consisted
of lone oven and lid, one skillet and lid
and some tinware." They camped out
during the nights and of course cooked
their own food Lincoln's skill as
hunter must now have stood him in
good stead. Where he got the horses
used upon this occasion it is impossible
to say, but they were likely borrowed
from his brother-in-1aw, Krume of
Breckenridge county, who owned such
stock
When they got to Poseys, Lincoln
hired a wagon and, loading on it the
whisky and other things he had stored
there, went on toward the place which
has since become famous as the "Lin-
coin farm" He was now making his
way through an almost untrodden will
derness. There was no road and for a
part of the distance not even a foot
trail. He was slightly assisted by a
path of "a few miles in length which
had been ''blazed OUT by an earlier
settler. But he was obliged to suffer
long delays and cut out a passage for
the wagon with his ak.
At length, after many detentions and
difficulties, he reached the point where
he intended to make his future home.
1t was situated between the forks of
Big Pigeon and Little Pigeon creeks, a
mile and half east of Gentryville
Everything but Water.
Lincoln laid off his curtilage on a
gentle hillock having a slope on every
side. The spot was very beautiful, and
the soil was excellent. The selection
was wise in every respect but one.
There was no water near except what
was collected in holes in the ground
after rain, but it was very foul and
had to be strained before using. At a
later period we find Abraham and his
steps1ster carrying water from spring
situated a mile away. Dennis Hanks
asserts that Thomas Lincoln "riddled
his land like a honeycomb" in search
Of good water.
Here Lincoln built "a half faced
camp" a cabin inclosed on three sides
not of logs, but Of poles, and was, there
fore, denominated scamp" to distin-
guish it from "cabin." 1t was about
fourteen feet square and had no floor.
1t was no larger than the first house he
lived in at Elizabethtown and on the
whole not as good a shelter. But Lin
coin was now under the influence Of a
transient access of ambition, and the
camp was merely preliminary to some
thing better. He lived in it, however,
for u whole year before he attained to
the dignity Of residence in a cabin.
''In the meantime he cleaned some land
and raised a small crop Of corn and
vegetables"
In the fall Of 1917 Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow came out from Kentucky and
took up their abode in the old camp
which the Lincolns had just deserted
for the cabin. Betsy was the aunt who
had raised Nancy Hanks. She had done
the same in part for Dennis Hanks.
ter, and she now brought him with her.
Dennis thus became the constant COM
panion of young Abraham.
Lincoln's second house was a trough,
rough log one. The timbers were not
hewed, and until after the arrival of
Sally Bush in 1919 it had neither floor,
door nor window 1t stood about forty
yards from what Dennis Hanks called
that "darned little half faced camp"
which was now the dwelling of the
Sparrows. 1t was fright in the bush"
in the heart of a virgin wilderness.
There We're only seven or eight older
settlers in the neighborhood Of the two
Pigeon creeks.
The nearest town was Troy, situated
on the Ohio about half a mile from the
mouth Of Anderson creek. Gentryville
had as yet no existence. Travelling was
on horseback or on foot, and the only
resort Of commerce was to the pack
horse or the canoe. But a prodigious
immigration was now sweeping into
this inviting country. Harrison's victo-
ries over the Indians had opened it up
to the peaceful settler, and Indiana was
admitted into the Union in 1916, with
a population OF $1,000. The county in
which Thomas Lincoln settled was
Perry, with the county seat at Troy,
but he soon found himself in the new
county Of Spencer, with the courthouse
at Rockport, twenty miles south Of
him, and the thriving village of Gentry
vile within a mile and a half Of his
door.
TO be Conunned.)