Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-02-09


tba words of cur Father, which art in heaven"
Abraham Lncoln's career began at the
knee of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, his mother. IL
was she who taught him to read from an old
Bible he came to know so well, who told him
the stories in Aesop's fables and helped him
to study the Kentucky Perceptor."
It was she who taught him the letters OF
the alphabet and first trained his hand to
scrawl them 1t was she who instilled in him
hatred of slavery and by her own gentle
loneliness inspired a regard and esteem for
women which lasted throughout his life.
Nancy Hanks Lincoln or the great
presidents historians declares, was "stoop-
shouldered thin-breasted, sad-at times mis-
erable" a gentle, kind, accomplishing wom-
an whose life had been one of hard labor,
with few enjoyments, and who died before her
prime This was Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who
lay on her deathbed tired and worn, her face
wan her thin bony hands clasping those of
nine-year-oId lad whose deepsunk eyes were
filed with tears and who, when he later be-
came "a liberator of race of men," declared
All that l am or ever hope to be I owe
to my mother Blessings on her memory
From his mother Lincoln once told his
friend and law partner. William H. Herndon'
he believed he inherited his power Of analy-
sis. his logic his mental activity and his am
bition Her memory remained with him, one
of the dearest things of his life-"a noble type
Of good heroic wOmanhood"
Nancy Hanks was i've years old when her
parents sold their farm in Virginia and went
pioneering westward toward Kentucky Nancy
was the youngest of a family of eight chill
dren Her father was Joseph Hanks and her
mother Nancy Shipiey, a daughter of Robert
Shirley. Nancy was born February 5, 1884.
The tourney westward was a perilous one,
and it is said Nancy was stolen by Indians
while her parents were on the way. Roads
we're bad: In fact there only a footpath
through the wilderness, where passed the long
procession of women and children on horse
back. men trudging behind driving the cara
vans.
Picture to yourself the procession, de-
scribed by Justice RobertsoL-"through prt-
vations incredible and perils thick, thousands
Of men, women and children came in success
sive caravans forming continuous streams OF
human beings horses, cattle and other domes-
tic animals, moving onward along a lonely
and homeless path to a wild and cherries
land
Cast your eyes back" he continues ION
that long procession of missionaries in the
cause of civilization; behold the men on foot,
with their trusty guns their shoulders dr1v-
Ing stock and leading pack horses; and the
women, some walking with pals on their
heads others riding with children in their
Iaps and other children swung in baskets on
horses. fastened to the tails of others going
before. see them encamped at night, expect
ing to be massacred by Indians; behold them
I'm the month of December in that memorable
season Of unprecedented cold called the hard
winter travelling two or three miles day
And imagine little Nancy Hanks, spindly-
legged and golden-haired, shivering as she
Struggled under blankets. pursuing the road
of the pioneers. In the child who was to
become the mother of Abraham Lincoln was
now developed a courage and perseverance
which was to be inherited and which after
ward marked one of the greatest of men.
The family settled in Washington county
XIV. in winter. Hard work confronted them,
even privation Trees had be be felled log
cabin built and shelter erected for the stock
Little Nancy. with her sisters, Elizabeth
and Polly. helped their mother, COOKING and
sewing and preparing the rude home, while
the brothers, Charles, Joshua William, Thorn
as and Joseph went about with the father
clearing the land for cultivation in the spring
They hunted animals and fshed in the cold