The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-02-03
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

I. !.
E&T5az23zEHSESIN SCORES OF cltleS ana villages
81 throughout the United States and
I~TkWI in several foreign countries stand
Ik& EEI statues and other memorials to the
IkES KL1I great American whose birthday
iEECGgH#I will celebrate on February IL. Most
81 ~ of them, having been erected to
lLzzzz1a1kzx8J commemorate his services as Presi-
dent during critical period in the
nations history and his worldwide renown as r.
great humanitarian, portray him as the bearded
man Of mature years and benign cOuntenance,
the Great Emancipation, the MAN of Sorrows,
the martyr.
In recent years, however, there has been
tendency to perpetuate in bronze and stone GER
tain incidents in his earlier life which will men,
Orialze those formative years when the charac-
ter of the future American immortal was be-
ing shaped and nodded So have the Rail-
Splitter" statue in Garfield park in Chicago. the
"Back Hawk War Captain" statue in Dixon, Ill.,
the candidate" statue in Cincinnati, Ohio, and
the Young Statesman" statue in Louisville Ky.
The newest of these youthful Lincoln" sta
tues is the one which erected last year on
the plaza of the Lincoln National Life Insurance
company at Fort Wayne. Ind, and which por-
trays Lincoln the HOOsier Youth" II is the
work of the famous sculptor. Paul Manship.
The main facts of Lncolns earlier years are
well known to most Americans, thanks to the
painstaking labor of such biographers Rev.
and Carl Sandburg and others who seem to
have brought to light every single fact which
was significant in making Lincoln the man that
he became But it is doubtful If anything more
interesting has ever been written about that pc
Rod of LincOln's life than the report of an
Overlooked interview" with Dennis F. Hanks
a cousin and close companion of Lincoln. which
was set down by Robert Mcintyre an attorney
of Mattoon, H., in May, 1892, copy Of which
has recently come into the hands of the author
of this article. The interview in part follows:
I found him hale and erect ready to recount
for the benefit of younger generation, the in
cidents which marked the youth of the martyred
President. His name is Dennis f. Hanks, and
he is cousin to Lincoln. Uncle Dennis, as he
is called is a typical Kentuckian, born in Har-
din county 1899. His face is sun-bronzed and
plowed with burrows of time; resolute mouth
with firm grip of the jaw broad forehead above
a pair OF unweariable eyes. The eyes seem out
of place. in the weary. faded face; they glow
and flash like two diamond sparks set in ridges
of dull gold. The face Is a serious one, but
the play of light in the eyes, unquenchable by
time, betrays the nature full of sunshine and
elate life. sidewise glance at the profile shows
a face strikingly Lincoln-like. prominent cheek
bones. temples nose and chin; but best of all
that twnkling drollery In the eye that flashed
in the White House during the dark days Of
the Civil war. To our query he replied cheerily:
Certainly certainly, sir. I'll talk to you about
Abe. kin talk, too bein' as am the only Twin
man that knows all about him."
'How old was Mr.. Lincoln when you first
met him?"
about "a hours, hardly that; rekolect ran
all the way, two miles, to see Nancy Hanks
boy baby. Twas common then for connexion to
gether in them days to see new babies Her
name Nancy Hanks before she married
Thomas Lincoln held the wee one a mnnit
was ten years DID, and it tickled me to hold the
pulpy. red little Lincoln"
"When did you move to Indiana?"
"When Abe was about nine. Mr.. Lincoln moved
first and built camp of brush in Spencer coun-
ty. We came out year later. and he then had
cabin up, and he gave us the shanty. On this
spot Abe grew to manhood"
SLOW far apart were your cabins?"
About fifteen rods. Abe killed a turkey the
day we got there, an couldn't get thro tellin'
about it. The name was pronounced Linkhorn
by the folks then. We was all unedducated. Aft
er spell we learned BETTER
"Tn the Life of Lincoln published after his
nomination, it is stated that you taught him to
read"
''Yes, sir, 1 did. taught him to spell, read
and cipher. He knew his letters pretty welish;
but no more Els mother taught him his let
tiers. If ever there good woman earth
she was one true Christian of the Baptist
church; but she died soon after arrived. and
left him without a teacher; his father couldn't
read word"
us ii possible he had no schoongT
"only about onequarter; scarcely that. then