Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1921-04-21
3 :

"a masterpiece OF God"
He arrived at New Salem in 1881 "a stranger,
friendless, uneducated penniless boy working on
Q flatboat for $40 a month" as he himself put it.
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 1t was at
New Salem that Lincoln earned his nickname Of
@Honest Abe"-and incidentally fastened upon
himself burden of debt which he never able
fully to wipe out untghis forteth year, after his
election to congress In 1S49.
1t at 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 1t 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 1929 Soon after
Lincoln went to Springfield the little town began
to decline. Its people left for more accessible
places. By 1s45 New Salem had. been abandoned
Today. under the auspices of the Old Salem Lin
coin League, an organization formed In 1917
~Honest Abe's" town is being restored In fac
smile II will be In every possible detail like the
New Salem which he knew. Old maps, old prints
Olu ueeuS-tNery TeCOTu COMMUNICATIVE been
consulted to make the new village an 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, 1t is expected.
Old Salem State Park.
Old Salem State park will be New Salem's new
name. Its purpose is to preserve for posterty the
environment and atmosphere that helped make
Lincoln, the man.
As to the photographs here reproduced: The
portrait Of Honest Abe" is one Of the earliest
photographs he had taken and gives the best idea
Of his appearance as young man. The numbered
plan is from the architects working model.
New Salem, first called Cameron's Mill, was on
the Sangamon river (then spelled Sangamo and
pronounced Sangamaw), 20 miles northwest of
Springfield. In those days New Salem was in
Sangamon county with Springfield as the county
seat. Springfield itself was still a mere village
having population of 1000, perhaps 1,10O
The capital of the state was yet at Vandalia. and
waiting for the parliamentary tact of Abraham
Lincoln and the ''lOng nine" to 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 on July 20, 1898. Here they
erected their grist and saw mills, both housed
In structure built out into the Sangamon river.
that fringed the town site. New Salem grew up
around this mill.
Sediments existed already at Cary's Grove. at
place now called Athens, at Sugar Grove and at
Indian Point all within ten or twelve miles Of
New Salem. With mill to attract these settlers
the opportunity for business at the new settlement