Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-02-18

cabin was purchased and rebuilt, it
was erected around the post which
still stands in the middle of the cabin
floor"
The Lincoln Farm association, by
popular subscription, not only raised
an endowment of $500 to maintain
the homestead but provided an i'm
presSive memorial at a cost of near
ly $225,000 to house the little log
cabin. In 1916 the title to the farm
was transferred to the United States
government which, in accepting the
property and the administration of
the endowment, agreed to maintain
the farm, preserve the cabin and
never charge an entrance fee to
the public. Thus the farm became
national park.
In September, 1916, President
Woodrow Wilson journeyed to Hodg-
enville to accept the new national
shrine on behalf Of the nation and on
that occasion declared that it was
IAN altar upon which we may for
ever keep alive the vestal fire Of
democracy as upon a shrine at
which some of the deepest and most
sacred hopes of mankind may from
age to age be rekindled." Unfortu-
nately, however, the government did
not keep its promise so far as main
tanning the farm properly was con-
cerned. During the next 10 years
the place was permitted to fall into
disrepair, owing to lack of mainte-
nance funds. Then in 1923 Rep. M.
H. Thatcher of Kentucky reported
as national disgrace" the fact
that "the Lincoln memorial farm is
now grown up in bushes and briars,
gullies are being washed across the
land and at times the approach to
the memorial is covered with sew
eral inches of silt. The spring where
Lincoln drank as boy and which
supplied water for the household is
flooded in rainy weather so as to
foul the water Yet, this is one
of the greatest shrines in the coun-
try, and the government of the Unit
ed States, having taken over this
property, is under at least a moral
obligation to provide for its mainte-
NANCE
AS result of this disclosure con-
gress passed bill providing $780,
900 for the rehabilitation of the farm
and authorizing future appropria-
tons as may become necessary for
its preservation. One of President
Coolidge's last official acts before
leaving the White House was to sign
this bill.
The Legend Lives On.
In the meantime the legend that
the logs in the rebuilt cabin in the
stately memorial were not the origi-
nal logs, would not die down. In
1920 the Kansas City Star published
a story about the Lincoln memorial
at Hodgenville which brought from
Judson S. West, justice of the Su-
preme court of Kansas, this state
ment:
In August. 1879, visited the scene OF
Lincons birthplace a few miles from
Hodgenville. KY. and drank from the
beautiful stream which flows off the
ledge of rocks. The cabin in which Mr..
Lincoln was born had then been burned
for some time and from the ashes of the
CeDflS where lne Tre occurred. 1 gam
cred up some relics to take home. No
one has seen and no one will ever see
the original cabin in which Abraham
Lincoln was born.
In reply the Star declared it has
no correction to offer on the story
published. The log cabin in which
Lincoln was born stands on the spot
where it was originally built, en-
shrined in an imposing building of
granite" 1t then tells of the work of
the Lincoln Farm association, men,
tons some of the men who were
trustees and declares ut is hardly
possible that citizens of their stand
ing would allow an imposition in
the matter of Lincoln's birthplace"
The statements of such a careful
and conscientious historian as Rev.
William E. Barton seem +" hc ~''f