The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1909-02-12
ST AN ACRE FOR
LINCOLN farm.
That's the Price Fixed by
a Jury in Court.
Interesting Story Of the Birthplace
of Great Emancipation and Pub
Public Road Through 1t.

Hodgnville KY, Feb. S.-Eleven dol
That was jury'sj valuation of a strip
of land off the old homestead in a
suit just ended in the Circuit Court
here In which it was sought TO open
up public passway through the farm
Behind this suit is a story which
connects Thomas Lincoln with the orr
gin OF the narrow roadway which is
now 10 be given to the public for
the paltry sum of eleven dollars an
acre. 1t is a story which recalls also
The circumstances surrounding the birth
of Abraham Lincoln.
All that is generally known about
the twenty-foot roadway which cuts
off a portion of the Lincoln homestead
is that it has been here as far back
as the memory of the present genera
ton runs. But few there are who
know that 1t was Thomas Lincoln him
self who contributed of his few acres
of barren land to blaze a way for
the early settlers who had taken up
homesteads on richer soil, but farther
back into the wilderness.
1t was on the night of February II,
1S09,as the story goes as it was hand
ed down to the present generation of
Creals Davenports Cassnas and Enlow
by their ancestors, who were neigh
bors of the Linooln's as the name was
then spelled that Thomas Lincoln
sought the home of a neighbor Abra-
ham Enlow living back of the old
Lincoln homestead and asked the use
of a horse to come to Hodgenville for
a doctor. Ascertaining the mature of
the call and learning that Mrs. Lin
coin was at home alone, Mr.. Enlow
rendered his services as we'll as those
of his horse for the errand. Avid
night and a long route over the pub
lie highway, Thomas Lincoln suggest
ed to Mr. Emlow that the latter have
the distance by taking shorter route
through the Lincoln farm, lincoln TAX
ing the lead and lowering the fen
ces. Mr.. Enlow hurried TO Hodgen-
vile procured the service of a ply
stefan and on his return home stop
ped long enough TO learn that boy
who was afterward named Abe, was
born to Mrs. Lincoln.
1t is said that as a token of his
by Mr.. Enlow on that night, Thomas
Lincoln allowed the gaps to remain
open and permitted Mr.. Enlow to
traverse his land in going to and
from Hodgenville. Others soon follow
ed the trail blazed by Abraham En-
low and the private passway soon be-
came a public outlet.
Another story is that Thomas Lin
coin was too shiftless to close the
gaps after they ware once down and
that the neighbors took advantage of
his stiffness in using his farm as a
shortcut to HodgenviNe, but this lat
ter story is not generally created.
And, by way of parenthesis' IT can be
stated that the story OF Thomas Lin
coins shiftlessness has few believers
among the present generation, who
cite the fact that Thomas Lincoln
has been the only man who has ever
provided for his family with the yield
from the soil of the Lincoln farm.
Recently a tenant, Bin Burton desert
ed the old farm, which was his for
the paying of the taxes becaues, as he
said 1t was too poor to yield enough
to satisfy the claims of the State
and county each year. Just across
the way Mr.. Burton is now living and
is one of the neighborhood's most pros
porous farmers. The neighborhood
folks will tell you that the history
of the old farm does not bear out the
stigma of shiftlessness applied ITO
Thomas Lincoln and say that If
Thomas Lincoln was shiftless some Of
the present day farmers who have
tried to earn their living by the
sweat of their brow on the old Lin
coin homestead are worse than SHIFT
less, and the success of these latter
tillers OF the soil on productive