Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1921-04-22


He arrived at New Salem in 1881 "a stranger,
friendless, uneducated, penniess boy, working on
flatboat for $40 month";" as he himself put 1t.
In 1887 he left New Salem to take up his law prac-
tice IN Springfield.
IN those momentous six years he had trans
formed himself from ignorant and uncouth
youth of twenty-five to a man of acknowledged
promise and ability, with more than local pOpu-
larity and an ambition that spurred him to travel
far.
Those six years were crowded years II was at
New Salem that Lincoln earned his nickname of
Honest Abe"-and incidentally fastened upon
himself burden of debt which he was never able
fully to wipe out until his fortieth year. after his
election to congress In 1849.
1t at New Salem that he was clerk and
storekeeper; that he studied grammar and Black
stone; that he a captain in the Black Hawk
war, that he was deputy surveyor that he was
postmaster, that he was defeated and then elected
for the legislature. And It was at New Salem that
he loved and wOoed and lost Ann Rutledge over
whose death he nearly lost his reason from grief
New Salem was rounded in 1928 Soon after
Lincoln went to Springfield the little town began
to decline. Its people left for more accessible
places. BY 1845 New Salem had been abandoned.
Today, under the auspices OF the Old Salem Lin
coin League organization formed In 1917,
Honest Abe's' town Is being restored In fac
simIle 1t will be in every possible detail like the
New Salem which he knew. Old maps, old prints
old deeds--eyery record obtainabIe-have been
consulted to make the new village exact repro
duction Of the old. The only new building Is the
Lincoln museum. William Randolph Hearst gave
the property. The cost of rebuilding Is being met
by popular subscription. The work will be done
some time this summer, It is expected.
Old Salem state Park
Old Salem State park will be New Salem's
name. Its purpose Is to preserve for posterity the
environment and atmosphere that helped make
Lincoln, the man.
As to the photographs here reproduced: The
of Il 81 fha aplfa
photographs he had taken and gives the best idea
of his appearance young man. The numbered
plan Is from the architects working model.
New Salem, first called Camerons hill. was on
the Sangamon river tthen spelled Sangamo and
pronounced SangamawD, 20 miles northwest Of
Springfield. In those days New Salem was IN
SangamOn county, with Springfield as the county
seat Springfield itself still a mere village.
having a population Of 1000, perhaps 1,100.
The capital Of the state yet az Vandalia. and
waiting for the parliamentary tact Of Abraham
Lincoln and the 'lOng nine" TO take Il to Spring
field.
The historian Of the restoration project says
that the first settlers Of New Salem were John II.
Cameron and his uncle James Rutledge. who en-
tered their claims on July 20, 1928. Here they
erected their grist and mills, both housed
in one structure built out Into the Sangamon river.
that frfnged the town site. New Salem grew up
around this mill.
Sediments existed already at CIary's Grove at
| q place now called Athens At Sugar Grove and Al
I Indian Point, al within ten or twelve miles Of
/ New Salem With a mill to attract these settlers.
the opportunity for business at the new settlement