Cheyenne record., 1921-04-28


He arrived at New Salem In 1881 "a stranger,
friendless uneducated. penniless boy, working on
q flatboat for SO 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 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 a burden Of debt which he was never able
fully to wipe out until his fortieth year. after his
election to congress In 1840.
1t was 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 founded in 1923. 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.
aimile 1t will be in every possible detail like the
New Salem which he knew. Old maps old prints
old deeds-every' record obtalnable-have been
consulted to make the new village an exact repro.
duction of the old. The only 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 posterity the
environment and atmosphere that helped make
Lincoln the man.
As to the photographs here reproduced: The
portrait of Honest Abe" is of the earliest
photographs he had taken and gives the best idea
Of his appearance as a 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 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 '1ong nine" to take 1t 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
tered their claims ON July %. 1928. Here they
erected their grist 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.
Sediments existed already at Clary's Grove at
q place now called Athens, at Sugar Grove and at
Indian Point all within ten or .twelve miles Of
New Salem. With q mill to attract these settlers.
the opportunity for business at the new settlement