Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-12
RESCUE OF THE CABIN
How LincoIn's Birthplace Was
Saved for the World.
DISMANTLED AND REMOVED
Logs Found in Cellar at College
Point, L. I.
FARM BID IN BY R. J. COLLIER
Organization of National Associa-
ton That Will Put Up
Memorial Building.
FARM BID IN BY R. J. COLLIER

HODGENVILLE. Ky, February 12.-
Hodgenville, which Is near the geograph-
ical center of the state of Kentucky and
not far from the center of population of
the United States, promises to become
a new mecca In America and the Lincoln
farm a second Mount Vernon. Although
Abraham Lincoln had other homes, there
is sentiment about his birthplace that
does not attach to any of them. He lived
here for eight years. and before he left
knew very much of what Mark Twain
calls ''the model little farm that raised
a man. He went swimming In the near
by creek, and by the light from the huge
fireplace in the little one-room cabin he
learned his first lessons.
1t was in 1906 that Thomas Lincoln
brought his bride. Nancy Hanks. and
established the rude little home that three
years later was to welcome into the world
the future President. Theirs was the
rough life OF pioneers. The farm was
then as 1t is now. a sterile piece of land,
and to make both ends meet the elder
Lincoln did odd jobs of carpentry in the
vicinity. besides working the farm. The
actual necessities of life were seldom
lacking. but 1t was life of severe pow
erty. For some years Thomas Lincoln
roads, an important position in that time.
Land owners paid their poll tax with
pick and shovel then, and on road-mend-
ing days he used to take little Abe along,
both for company and for help. At this
time Kentucky offered few allurements
to poor man, and in 1914 the LincOlns
sold the little farm and moved to In
diana Subsequently Abraham Lincoln
moved into Illinois, and the rest is history.
His Old Kentucky Home.
But through all the years that followed
he never forgot his first home. He rarely
referred to it, but after he had become
President of the United States he is
known to have said: when the war is
over l would like very much to visit my
old kentucky home. l remember it WELL.
and the little log cabin had varied his
tory Thomas Lincoln sold the place to
a family named Creal and it remained
in their hands for over seventy years
Its beautiful rock spring was apparently
its one redeeming feature. and only re-
Gently has any one awakened to the
realization that those 40 acres had any
value beyond their yield in corn and sor-
ghum. From time to time newspapers
have announced that the Lincoln birth
place farm was to be sold, but as a mat
ter of fact it has only changed hands
twice since Thomas Llncoln'S original
transfer. A few years ago II was given
into the management of Rev. j. w. Bing
ham who removed the log cabin to the
exhibition at Nashville and later sold it
to some exhibitors. who took 1t about
the country as a travelling show. But a
year or two ago the logs were found in
a cellar at College Point. Long Island
where they were stored. and with cere-
money the cabin was restored to its orig
inal site.
The farm itself has been the subject of
litigation for several years and efforts