The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1908-06-10
HIS FIRST BAWL
IN LARUE COUNTY
Say SOme---Others Think
To the Contrary.
WHAT THE "OLD TIMERS" SAY
LincOln'S Birthplace Yet a
Matter of Dispute Be-
tween Counties.

on LaRue county, Kentucky, as the
birthplace of Abraham Lincoln by APP
propriaing $4,000 to the Lincoln
Farm association fund, Washington
county is mad at her neighbor.
Each county claims that Abraham
Lincoln was born within its own
confines on February -, 1903, and
that If the centennial is held in the
other on February u, 1909, "his-
tory will be outraged and grave in
justice done to generations of flu
ture Americans which will come to
worship at the shrine of the First
American
From the revered McGuffy's read
er to the more elaborate textbooks
of the present day, school children
are taught that in Hardin (what Is
now LaRue county, Kentucky, the
great Lincoln first saw the light
through the Tapping canvas and
rags that sheltered the half faced
camp" from the winds of Rolling
Fork. The student reads that at
the age Of seven the emancipation
that was to be, journeyed with his
father, "Shiftless Tom" lincoln and
his family, 20 the Indiana wilder
ness, where a few years later he
left for good to settle in the coun-
try OF Illinois, where he practlced
law, read books by freight, kept
store, fought, bled and came
away" In the Blackhawk war, was
sent to the legislature. to congress,
and made Of his defeat for United
States Senator the stepping-stone to
a chair in the White House.
II one tells this story in Wash
ington county A., Kentucky, there are
many old women and old men who
will look askance during the early
part OF the narrative and say that
It is we'll enough during the later
portions. They will not deny that
Abraham" went from Hardin to
Indiana, and from Indiana to ILL
mods; nor will they deny that he
made a ladder Of his defeats TO
mount to the Presidency.
But from w. F. Booker, county
clerk of Washington, who lives at
Springfield, KY, to w. +. Neikirk,
state fire marshal, they will declare
that Abraham Lincoln was born just
outside of Springfield, and that he
spent his baby days in the boun-
daries OF Washington county, a
quarter OF the way across the State
from the usurplng LaRue and
Hodgenville, which, they say, has
monuments, farm associations and
graveled boulevards through its
false claim.
Dead but few years, there
lived an old man named Hardesty;
just out of Springfield, who was at
the wedding OF Abraham Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks in Washington
county, and who, his friends and
his children say, told often how he
went over to see the infant Lincoln
as he lay in the cabin Of his father.
One old woman still lives in Wash
ington county who has sworn that
she saw the Lincolns married, and
remembered perfectly when their
child was born. Whether or not
this was Abraham she is not sure,
and there IS the only flaw in the
reasoning of Washington county. If
there was another child, boy, this
was the one whom the patriarchS OF
Washington county remember as an
infant in the cabin near Springfield.
II there was no older son, H. was
the future President whom they
saw on the raw winter morning in
1905.
And en- miles out of Springfield,
near the old home of "Shftless Tom"
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln,
Is a little grave with the wooden
headstone and lhe letters carved
nearly a hundred years ago by rude
bacllwoods fingers. Whdher Ibis is
the resting place Of the older bro
ther of Abraham Lincoln or not, is
the disputed question, but the old
people of Washington swear tha,
they remember that the inzcrip-
ton told that a girl was beuried
there, aud that this girl was a sister
of Abraham Lincoln, who had died
aftn he was born and before his
family struck out across the early
nineteenth century Kentucky wilder
ness 10 Hardin county in that por-
ton which is now LaRue.
One thing is certain: Old Squire
+. w. Thompson, now dead, had
the license OF "Shiftless Tom Lin
coin and Nancy Hanks framed and
hanging is his residence, and he