River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-02-09

thoughts and ideals and to lisp
the words of "Our Father, which art IN heaven.
Abraham Lincoln's career began at the
knee of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, his mother IL
was she who taught him to read from an olo
bible he came to know SO WE'LL who told him
the stories in Aesops fables and helped Hlln
to study the Kentucky Perceptor
If was she who taught him the letters OF
the alnhahet and first trained his hand to
scrawl them. It was she who instilled in him
a hatred of slavery and by her own gentle
loneliness inspired a regard and esteem 1or
women which lasted throughout his life
Nancy Hanks Lincoln, one or the great
presidents historians declares, was stoop-
shouldered thin-breasted sad-at times mis-
erable:" gentle, kind, accomplishing wom-
an. whose life had been one OF hard LABOR
with few enjoyments, and who died before ner
prime. This was Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who
Law on her deathbed, tired and worn, her face
wan. her thin, bony hands clasping those OF
nine-year-old lad, whose deep-sunk eyes were
filed with tears, and who, when he later De-
came "a lberator of a race OF men, declareo:
"All that 1 am or ever hope to be l 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 lfe-"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 family OF elsnC CHI
dren Her father was Joseph Hanks and her
mother Nancy Shipley, daughter OF Ropert
Shirley. Nancy was born February 5, 1854.
The Journey westward was perilous one,
while her parents we're on the way ROADS
were bad: in fact, there was only footpatn
through the wilderness, where passed the long
nrocession of women and children on horse
hack. men trudging behind driving the cara
vans
Picture to yourself the procession, de-
scribed by Justice Robertson" through prl-
yations 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 lonely
and homeless path to a wild and cherries
land.
Coast YOUR eyes back" he continues ION
that long procession of missionaries in the
csuse of civilization; behold the men on loot,
with their trusty guns on their shoulders, dr1v-
ing stock and leading pack horses and the
women some walking with pals on their
heads others riding with children In ther
laps 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
in the month of December, in that memorable
season of unprecedented cold called the nara
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 priyation. 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