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

OA 49, AoVos
Civil war. 1t was first photographed.
apparently. for 1.-THE Campaign Docu.
ment." in which William M. Thayer. in
1864. told of the Character and Public
Services of Abraham Lincoln" But
Thomas Lincoln did not build this cabin.
and Abraham was not born there and
never lived there. The last vestige Of
this cabin has disappeared.
The actual birthplace Of Abraham Lin
coin was log cabin which. after many
removals. now stands not far from its
original site on Rock Spring farm on
Nolin creek. 2la miles south from where
the village of Hodgenville now is, in what
was then Hardin and now is Larue
county. Kentucky,
A Romantic History.
This cabin, which was the true
birthplace of Lincoln, has roman
tic history. It stood on tract of
300 acres, known as the Sinking
Spring farm, which Thomas Lincoln
bought in December, 1908, for 6625
cents per acre. Here little Abe Lin
coin lived until he was four years
old. Then his father abandoned the
place because of litigation involving
a flaw in the title and moved his
family 10 miles northeastward to
another farm of 30 acres on Knob
creek, which he had previously pur-
chased.
Several years later 1.-TWO different
dates, 1927 and 1885, are given for
this event) a certain Henry Brother
bought the Sinking Spring farm and
lived in the Lincoln birthplace cabin
for several years. Then, according
to Beveridge, who quotes J. T. Hob
sons Footprints of Abraham Lin
coin" as his authority for the state
ment, Brother tore down the cabin
and used the logs for firewood. The
accuracy of this statement, however,
is doubtful and, as will be seen later
in this article, it has been refuted.
There seems to be good reason to
believe that the cabin was still stand
ing on its original site in 1860 when
Lincoln was elected President. Soon
afterwards it was purchased from
the man who then owned the farm
by George Rodman who moved it
to another farm about a mile and a
half from the Sinking Spring farm.
There it remained during the tur-
MOL of the Civil war and after being
used number of years as shelter
for Negro families and as tenant
house, it was used as school house
in 1872 and 1873.
A certain John Davenport mar
ried the school-teacher and they
lived in the cabin from 1875 to 1894,
when it was bought by A. w. Den
nett and moved back to its original
site on the Sinking Spring farm.
The cabin was not destined to re-
main on its original site long, how
ever. Soon afterwards it was bought
by Rev. ]. w. Bingham who took it
down and shipped the 143 logs in it
to Nashville, Tenn, for centennial
celebration there. Next it was
moved to Central park in New York
city where it was on exhibition for
time and in 1901 it was exhibited
at the Buffalo exposition. The next
owner was David Greer, who stored
it in the old Poffenhausen mansion
in Long Island City, N. Y.
Bought by Collier.
In 1906 Robert j. Collier bought
the Sinking Spring farm and pre-
scented it to the Lincoln Farm asso-
citation, "a patriotic organization
formed by American citizens for the
purpose of preserving as national
park the farm on which Abraham
Lincoln was born" The president of
this association was Joseph w. Folk,
governor of Missouri, and its
trustees were a group of distin-
guished citizens, including Mr.. Col
lier, who also bought the Lincoln
cabin. The logs were shipped to
Kentucky, accompanied by guard
of honor sent by the state, for a
homecoming celebration in Louis
vile and then taken to the Lincoln
farm.
1.-THE cabin, l am reliably in
formed, originally stood near to the
spring." writes Barton. AFTER its
first removal, it was regretted on
the top of the slope leading up from
the spring. When it was taken down
for exhibition purposes, this site was
i