The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-02-10
ARTICLE I.
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH.

Kentucky. He was the son OF
Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
They were very poor. Thomas Lin
coin did not even know how to
read. In 1916 they moved to In
diana, and staked off claim on
Pigeon creek in Spencer county,
near Gentryville, and built what,
in the backwoods, was called a
half faced camp. 1t had three sides
of logs; the front was open, pro-
tected only by skins. The Lincolns
lived here for a year; then Thomas
Lincoln built log cabin. Little
Abraham had an older sister,
Sarah, and cousin, Dennis Hanks,
and they all played together. Some
times Dennis took Abraham hunt
ing. but Abraham was too kind
hearted to kill anything. and after
shooting a wild turkey he never
afterward pulled trigger on any
larger game" In 1918 the settle
ment was swept by disease called
the milk sick" and Abraham's
mother died of it. They buried her
in the woods, Thomas Lincoln max
ing the coffin with his own hands,
That winter they were all very
sad; the children shivered in the
log cabin that had no floor. Then
in 1919 Thomas Lincoln went back
to Kentucky and married Sarah
Bush Johnston, a widow. who had
once been his sweetheart. When
she got to the cabin on Pigeon
creek she made the home happier
for the little Lincolns.
Thomas Lincoln did not value an
education, probably because he had
none himself and did not know
what it meant, and so had little pa
thence with Abraham's going to
school. But the boy was eager to
learn; he went to school when he
could, though that was very little,
for the schools were few and poor,
and his father was always hiring
him out to the neighbors. But his
stepmother, whom he loved so we'll
that he never thought of her as
stepmother, helped him to study at
home. He read all the books he
could find, such as Murray's Eng
fish reader. the bible. Aesop's
fables, Robinson Crusoe, The Pill
grim's Progress, history of the
United States and Weem's Life of
Washington. This last book he Dor
rOwed of man named Josiah
Crawford, and he was so careless
that 1t was spoiled in a rainstorm
to pay for it, Crawford made him
pull fodder for three days at 20
cents day. For this Abraham dis
liked Crawford, as any boy would,
and called him "Old Blue Nose"
by which name he was ever after
ward known. Abraham had no pens
and very little paper, so he made
himself pen from buzzard's
quill and wrote with it in brier roat
ink; then he would figure with
charcoal on the wooden fire shovel
and afterward shave it off nice and
clean. Every night he read by the
freight. and he wrote little essays,
and even some verses
He said his father taught him to
work, but never taught him to love
1t, and some farmers complained
because he interfered with their
hands by mounting stumps in the
fields and making speeches. He
could tell funny stories then and
always; he liked the sports of
those days-running and wrestling,
and besides. he had many fights.
But he worked hard, blowing, NOW
ing and splitting rails. When he
was 10 years old he was six feet
two inches tall, and he must have
made Il strange figure in his coon
skin cap, linsey woolsey shirt and
buckskin breeches so short that
they exposed his shins.
In 1928 he got a job on a flatboat
and went down the Ohio and the
Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.
where he had his first sight of
slave markets. In 1880 the Lincolns
set out for Illinois in a wagon
drawn by oxen, which Abraham
drove. In two weeks they reached
Macon county, Illinois, and on the
hanks of the Snnpompn pDnr na.
catur. they built n cabin. Abraham
was Il years old. He stayed in
Macon coutny that winter, split
ting rails. In the spring he was
hired by Denton Olfutt to take a
boat to New Orleans. At New
Salem. a little village on the San
CANON, the boat grounded on a
dam and Lincoln. hya clever con
trivance, got it off. He went to
New Orleans and by August was
back at New Salem, Here circuit
opened little store and hired Lin
coin as clerk. circuit liked Lincoln
and Dragged OF him a good deal
He said that Lincoln could whip or
throw or outrun any man in Sanga-
PPn county. 1t was not long before
-home rough fellows. called the
Clary's Grove boys, took up the
challenge and put forward their
leader, Jack Armstrong. AZ cham
pion Lincoln said he did not like
IN "tussle and scuffle" and de-