The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-11
Cabin
Birth place of
Is Now
National Shrine
~ DR. WILLIAM z. BARTON.

III
nreatest Authority on Abraham
Lincoln.)
rittIe did Nancy Hanks mag
- al she lay in her rude bed
.-,,h her baby boy that one day q
.istial temple would cover the
80 the log cabin and all.
Nancy Hanks was a woman CT
.mssination, but she never "drempt
- dvelt in marble halls"
The Lincoln farm lies very near
10 due south from Hodgenville, the
aounty seat of La Rue county, KY.
+ is well enough to state the direc-
ion. because the books do not
sgree. and most of the writers have
not visited it.
the distance, also, as they give
varies. 1t is about three and a
haf miles from the courthouse to
ne farm. 1t is not very difficult to
zach. One may leave Louisville
Nv A very early train, change cars
a Cecilia OF at Elizabethtown, take
mixed train for Hodgenville
xhere he can hire a jitney for a
dollar, visit the Lincoln farm, re-
turn to HodgenviIle for his lunch,
and get back to Louisville or on
south to the Mammouth cave that
night or to Nashville next morn
ing.
II his journey is in the summer
time. when weather is pleasant and
roads are good, he can leave the
rain at Elizabethtown, hire a jit-
ney for SO and make the trip in the
open with a more intimate view of
the country.
No one need remain away from
the place of Abraham Lincoln's
birth because of the difficulty of
getting there. Hodgenville is on a
branch line of the Illinois Central,
with connections at Cecilia for the
main line south from Louisville,
and connection is made at Eliz-
sbethtown for the through trains of
the Louisville & Nashville for
Nashville, New Orleans and Flor
ida
The farm on which Abraham Lin
coin was born is not a very fer
tile farm, neither is it as sterile
as has been represented. Land in
the vicinity was selling a few
years ago at SIS an acre, and was
paying a fair return on that price.
Probably the price has dropped,
as prices of farm lands generally
have dropped. A portion of the
Lincoln farm is cultivated, and
under good care it yields crops
not large but remunerative.
The few acres Immediately ad-
jacent to the cabin are Handicapped,
and the lawn is well kept.
From the main highway, the road
branches to the right, and leads
between two solid stone gate
posts to the spring, which is the
single picturesque feature of the.
farm.
The cabin, I am reliably in
formed, originally stood near to
the spring. After its first re-
moyal, it was re-erected on the top
Of the slope leading up from che
spring.
When it was taken down for ex-
hibition purposes, this site was
marked by a post; and when the
cabin was purchased and rebuilt, it
was erected around this post,
which still stands in the middle Of
the cabin floor.
From the spring, one climbs a
long flight of stairs to a Greek
temple, built entirely around and
oFer the cabin The cabin is pro-
tected from the weather and from
the destructive hand of man.
The memorial contains no fur
niture, nothing but the cabin, in
closed within a chained-off area.
When no crowd is present, the Gus
tdian, courteous man, will lower
the chain and permit a visitor, or
avery small group of visitors, to
step inside the cabin.
On the walls are fine marble tab
lets with inscriptions by Jenkin
Lloyd Jones, to whom the coun-
" Is very largely indebted for the
rescue and restoration of this
shrine.
The tablets are not all strictly
accurate, which is to be re-
sfetted. Jenkin Lloyd Jones was
NOT precise historian, but he was
4great-hearted man who loved the
name OF Lincoln, and he did a
great deed when he started the
movement that resulted in the pur-
caase of this farm.
here, within these log walls, that
,SssckWoods madonna, Nancy Hanks
.Alcoin, gave to the world Amer
70 noblest American. Well may
very true American tread with rev
..eht step within the walls that
reserve to coming generations the
,aue log cabin where that life be-