Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-13
The HISTORY OF The MOVEMENT
THAT SECURED LINCOLhPS farm
The Place Where the Centenary Celebration
Was Held Today and the Plans of the
Founders of the Memorial Association to
Improve 1t.

Hodgenville, KY, Feb. 1.-THE
centenary of Abraham Lincoln's birth
will be observed generally through
put the United States but nowhere will
the commemoration exercises COM
mand more interest than those held in
this little town. Two miles from here
on the Lincoln farm. which has been
purchased by a national association
formed for the purpose, President
Roosevelt laid the corner stone OF
memorial building now being erect
ed by popular subscription to mark
Lincoln's birthplace and to protect
for all times the little log cabin In
which the martyr president was born.
: Hodgenville which is near the geo
graphical center of the state of Ken
lucky and not far from the center OF
population of the United States prom
Uses to become new Mecca in Amer
lea and the Lincoln farm second
Mount Vernon Although Abraham
Lincoln had other homes there is q
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 man." He went
swimming in the nearby creek and by
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
no f,,t,1
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 older Lincoln did odd jobs
of carpentry in the vicinity, besides
working the farm. The actual neces-
saties Of life were seldom lacking, but
1t was life of severe poverty, For
some years Thomas Lincoln served as
county supervisor Of public roads, an
Important position in that time. Land
owners paid their polltaX with pick
and shovel then, and on road mending
days he used to take little Abe along
both for company and for help. There
are ld-timers here now who claim
that there is not section of the old
pike within several miles of his home
along which Abraham Lincoln has not
played and on which he has not driv-
en- his OK team.
At this time Kentucky offered few
allurments to poor man and in 1914
the Lincolns sold the little farm and
moved to Indiana. Subsequently Abra-
ham Lincoln moved into 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
would like very much to visit my old
Kentucky home. I remember it we'll"
But he never did return and the
farm and the little log cabin had a
varied history. Thomas Lincoln sold
the place to family named Creal and
it remained in their hands for over
seventy years. Its beautiful rock
spring was apparently it's one redeem
ing feature and only recently has any
one awakened to the realization that
these one hundred and ten acres had
any value beyond their yield in corn
and sorghum. From time to time
newspapers have announced that the
Lincoln birthplace farm was to be sold
but as a matter of fact it has only
changed hands twice since Thomas
Lincoln's original transfer. A few
years ago it was given into the man
agement of Rev. ]. w. Bingham who
removed the log cabin to the exhibi-
ton at Nashville, and later sold it to
some exhibitors who took it 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 it was stored and with
ceremony was restored to its original
site.
The farm itself has been the sub.
ject of litigation for several years and
efforts have been made by various in
terests to use it for one purpose or an
other. Many schemes have been sug
gested from time to- time but none OF
them have borne any large national