The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1921-04-21

He arrived nj New Salem in 1881 "a stranger,
friendless uneducated. penness hoy. working
u flatboat for so a month"; as he himself put 1t.
In 1857 he left New Salem to take up his law prac
tice IN Springfield.
In those momentous six years he had trans
formed himself from an ignorant and uncouth
yOuch of twenty-five Ia man OF acknowledged
promise and ability. with more than local popu-
lar.ty and ambition that spurred him TO travel
far
Those six years were crowded years. II at
New Salem that Lincoln earned his nickname of
Honest Abe"-and incidentally fastened upon
himself u burden of debt which, he was never able
fully TO wipe until his forieth year. after his
election To congress in lS49
II III New Salem that he was clerk and
storekeeper; that he studied grammar and Black
stone; that he was 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 IL at New Salem thar
ne loved and wooed and lost Ann Rutledge over
whose death he nearly lost his reason from grief.
New Salem was rounded in 1925 Soon after
Lincoln went 10 Springfield the little town began
10 decline Its people left for more accessible
places. BY 1915 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 II will be in every possible detail like the
New Salem which he knew. Old maps, old prints
old deeds-every record obtainable-have been
consulted 10 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
ny popular subscription. The work will he done
some time this summer, II is expected
Old Salem State Park.
Old Salem State park will be New Saem's new
name. It's purpose is to preserve for p0sterty the
environment and atmosphere that helped make
Lincoln, the man.
IA TO the photographs here reproduced: The
portralt of Honest Abe" is of the earliest
photographs he had taken and gives the best idea
nf his appearance young man. The numbered
plan is from the architects working model.
New Salem, first called Camerons Mill, was on
the Sangamon river (then spelled Sangamo and
pronounced Sangamaw) 20 miles northwest OF
Springfield In those days New Salem was In
SangaIn,n county with Springfield as the county
seat Springfield itself still mere village
having n population Of 1000, or perhaps LOO
The cnpitnl OF the state was yet at Nandalia, and
Whiting for the parliamentary tact of Abraham
Lincoln and the "long nine" 10 take 1t to Spring
field.
The historian of the restoration project says
that the first settlers of New Salem were John Nj.
Cameron and his uncle. James Rutledge. who en-
tered their claims OH July 20, 1898. Here they
erected their grst and saw mills, both housed
in one structure built out into the Sangamon river,
that fringed the town site. New Salem grew up
around this mill.
Sentiments existed already at Clarys Grove, at
n place now called Athens, Mt Sugar Grove ana at
Indian Point all within ten or twelve mics OF
New Salem With mill TO attract these settlers
Tho opportunity for business at the new settlement