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

Jolly Dennis Hanks.
But the most constant of his compan
ions was his jolly cousin, Dennis
Hanks. OF all the contributors to Mr..
Herndon's store of information. good.
bad and Indifferent. concerning this pc
fiod Of Mr.. Lincoln's life Dennis is the
most amusing, insinuating and prolific.
He would have it distinctly understood
that the well of his memory is the only
proper source whence anything like
truth may be drawn. He has covered
countless sheets of paper devoted to in
discriminate laudations of Abe and all
his kindred
When Thomas and Betsy Sparrow
died in the fall of 1918, Dennis was
taken from the little half faced camp"
and became one of the Lincoln family.
Until Thomas Lincoln's second mar
riage Dennis, Abe and Sarah were all
! three poor, ragged and miserable to-
gether. After that Dennis got along
better, as well as the rest. He was
lively, volatile, sympathetic fellow, and
Abe liked him well from the beginning,
They fished, hunted and worked in
company; loafed at the grocery, where
Dennis got drunk and Abe told stories,
talked politics with Colonel Jones,
swapped jokes with Baldwin, the
blacksmith, and faithfully attended the
sittings Of the nearest justice Of the
peace, where both had opportunities to
correct and annotate the law they
thought they had learned from the
Statutes of Indiana"
Dennis was kind, genial, lazy, brim-
ming over with humor and full of
amusing anecdotes. He reveled in
song, from the vulgarest ballad to the
loftiest hymn Of devotion, from "The
turbaned Turk that scorns the world"
to the holiest lines Of DIR. Watts. These
qualities marked him wherever he
went, and in excessive good nature and
in the ease with which he passed from
the extreme Of rigor to the extreme of
laxity he was distinguished above the
others of lis name.
There was one Hanks, however, who
was not like Dennis OF any other
Hanks we know anything about. This
was "old JOHN" as he is familiarly call
ed in Illinois, sober, honest, truthful
man, with none Of the wit and none of
the questionable accomplishments of
Dennis. He was the son of Joseph, the
carpenter with whom Thomas Lincoln
learned the trade. He went to Indiana
to live with the Lincolns when Abe
was fourteen years Of age and remain
ed there four years. He then returned
to Kentucky and subsequently went to
Illinois, where he was speedily joined
by the old friends he had left in In
diana.
The Rail Splitter.
When Abe separated from the family
and went in search of individual for
tune it was in company with 'old
john" Together they split the rails
that did SO much to make Abe presi
dent, and ''old john set the ball in
motion by carrying part Of them into
the Decatur convention on his own
broad shoulders. John had no educa-
ton whatever except that Of the mus
cles and the heart. He could neither
read nor write, but his character was
pure and respectable, and Lincoln es-
teemed him as man and loved him as
friend anG relative.
In 1925 Abraham was employed by
James Taylor, who lived at the mouth
of Anderson's creek. He was paid Sc
a month and remained for nine months.
His principal business was the man.
agement of ferryboat which Mr.. Tay-
ior had plying across the Ohio, as well
as Anderson's creek. But in addition to
this he was required to do all sorts of
farm work and even to perform some
menial services about the house. He
was hostler, plowman, ferryman, out
of doors, and man of all work within
doors. He ground corn with hand
mill or grated it when too young to
be ground; rose early, built fires, put
on the water in the kitchen, "fxed
around generally" and had things pre-
pared for cooking before the mistress
of the house was stirring.
He slept upstairs with young Green
Taylor, who says that he usually read
till near midnight, Notwithstanding
the necessity for being out of his bed
before day. Green was somewhat dis
posed to ill use the poor hired boy and
once struck him with an ear of hard
corn and cut deep cash over his eye.
He makes no comment upon this gen.
erous act except that "Abe got mad"
but did not thrash him.
Abe was a hand much in demand in
'shog killing time" He butchered not
only for Mr.. Taylor, but for John
Woods, John Duthan, Stephen McDan-
iels and others. At this he earned 81
cents a day. as 1T was considered
rough work.
For a long time there was only one
person in the neighborhood for whom
Abe felt decided dislike, and that
was Josiah Crawford, who had made
him pull fodder to pay for the Weems
Washington" On that score he was
hurt and mad and often declared he
would have revenge. But, being poor
boy, circumstance of which Crawford
had already taken shameful advantage
to eXtort three days labor, he was glad
to get work any place and frequently