Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1909-02-12
President Roosevelt Will
Deliver an Address.
Appropriate Exercises Will be Held TODAY
in the Little Old Log Cabin Where Lin
coin First Saw the Light of Ddy.
(By Associated Press }

HODGENVILLE (Ky.), Feb. IL
The centenary of Abraham Lincoln S
birth will be observed generally
throughout the United States, but
nowhere will the commemoration ex-
ercises command more interest than
those to be held inthis little town on
February II. Two miles from here,
ON the Lincoln farm, which has been
purchased by a national association,
formed for the purpose, President
Roosevelt will lay the corner stone
of memorial building now being
erected by popular subscription to
mark Lincoln's birthplace and to pro-
tect for all times the little log cabin
in which the martyr president was
born.
The centenary address on this oc-
casion will be delivered by President
Roosevelt. General Luke E. Wright,
the secretary of war, will speak on
behalf of the confederate soldiers.
General Grant Wilson will represent
the veterans of the union army, and
Lincoln's native state will be repre-
sented by Governor Augustus p.
Wilson of Kentucky. Other ad-
dresses will be made by Bishop Gal
loway of Mississippi ana Ex-Governor
Joseph w. Folk of Missouri.
Hodgenville, which is near the
geographical center of the state of
Kentucky, and not far from the cen
ter of population of the United
States, promises to become a new
Mecca in America, and the Lincoln
farm a second Mount Vernon. AL
though 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 called the
model little farm that raised man. !"
He went swimming in the nearby
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 Lin
coin brought his bride, Nancy Hanks,
and established the rude little home
that three years later was to well
oOoo into tbo morld tho f,f,,ra vraSi
dent Theirs was the rough life of
pioneers; the farm was then as it is
now sterile piece of land and to
make both ends meet the elder Lin
coin did odd jobs of carpentry in the
vicinity, besides working the farm.
The actual necessities of life were
seldom lacking, but it was life of
severe poverty. For some years
Thomas Lincoln served as a county
supervisor of public roads, an i'm
portant position at 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.
There are o1d-timers here now who
claim that there is not section of
the old pike within several miles of
his home along which Abraham Lin
coin has not played or on which he
ras not driven his OK team.
At thi slime Kentucky offered few
allurments to a poor man and in
1914 the Lincoln's sold the little
farm and moved to Indiana. Subse-
Quently Abraham Lincoln moved to
Illinois and the rest is history. 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
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