The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-02-18

ana welghty words will be gathered
IKE those OF Washington, and your
children and your children's cbildren
snail be taught to ponder the simpli.
city and deep wisdom of u,terances
which, in their time, passed, in party
/ heat, Us idle words"
Much has been said and written Of
Lincoln.s early life, aud his humble
origin. His birth was certainly oh
scure and his surroundings humble and.
primitive. during his infancy and boy.
hood. His life certainly demonstrates
the great possibilities open to the youth
OF this great democratic country, il he
Is OF the right stock aud mas the proper
grit and ambition. Though Lincoln's
parents were poor it does not follow
and Is not charged so far as know.
That they were com mon in the sense of
inferiority. They belonged to the class
OF hardy pioneers that subdued the
wilderness OF the Mississippi Valley
And humbleness OF birth in the Miss.
issippi Valley and on the frontier in
1909, has another meaning than peas.
ant birth in the old world Lincoln 5
parents may have been lured further
into the wilderness than others by the
''call OF the wild,' and thereby endured
more OF the common share of hard.
ships, but they were of that same hardy
stock, English and Scotch-Irish, that
settled the blue grass region Of Ken.
lucky, and which in the course of half
a century. built up through the intlu.
epce OF Slavery, sort Of landed aristo-
cracy in that common wealth.
abraham Lincolu's grandfather
whose name was also Abraham, like
many others, about the year l-s0, left
! Virginia and joined the followers Of
Daniel Boone in the settlement OF Ken
lucky. 1t seems he sold his holdings in
Virginia for the sum of five thousand
pounds, current money OF Virginia, and
so was a man OF considerable wealth, as
wealth was reckoned in those days
Those were the troublous days in Ken
lucky, aud on hapless day, about the
year l1ss, this grandfather OF Lincoln
was shot and killed by an indian in am
bush, while working in his field. He
left several children, among them,
boy then OF six years. 10 seems the
family was broken up at this time, and
Thomas grew up without an education.
When he grew to manhood, imbued
with that restless spirit that is always
encroaching upon the wilderness, he
pushed further to the west, and married
and settled down in Hardin county,
Kentucky, where the immortal Aora-
ham Lincoln was born. That his father
never made success, as success, IS
reckoned today, in dollars lis patent
hut his honesty has never been quer-
toned He seemed TO have beel OF
that free and easy sort with not nuch
thought of the morrow, and provided
bome little better than hunter
shack Lincolns mother died III
cor,herp Indiana, where they had
moved when be was but seven year
old and amid such surroundings anu
discomforts as TO sadden the hearc u
her boy. His father married asa'"'
and /, is said that Lincoln 5 stepmo'ne'
had moro influence on his after lie
,hon his own mother What might
have been Lincoln's career hau ''e
no,her lived is Improbable conjecture
To his step.mother, however IL 'o0A+
,auod much through her encourage
mont and sympathy in his ambitious
rhns vas ABRAHAM Lincoln's early eh'
vironment;
nTbe unbleared forest, the unoroN
en- soil,
"Tbe iron bark that turns The '"'""
erer's axe,
"The rapid that DER bears 'ne oo"'
mans toll,
"The prairie hiding the ''''"''
wanderers track -,
oThe ambu,hed Indian anu '"'
proving bear ,..t belpef
his Youth TO train