Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1898 — LINCOLN AS A LABORER. [ARTICLE]

LINCOLN AS A LABORER.

He Did Farm Work in Indiana for 25 Cents a Day. By this time Abraham had become an important member of the family. He was remarkably strong for his years, and the work he could do in a day was a decided advantage to Thomas Lincoln, says McClure's Magazine. The ax which had been put into his hand to help in making the first clearing had never been allowed to drop; indeed, as he says himself, “from that till within his 23d year he was almost constantly handling that most useful instrument.” Besides, he drove the team, cut down the elm and linden brush with which the stock was often fed, learned to handle the old shovel plow, to wield the sickle, to thrash the wheat with a flail, to fan and clean it with a sheet, to go to mill and turn the hard-earned grist into flour; in short, he learned all the trades the settler’s boy must know, and well enough so that when his father did not need him he could hire him to the neighbors. Thomas Lincoln also taught him the rudiments of carpentry and cabinetmaking, and kept him busy some of the time as his assistant in his trade. There are houses still standing in and near Gentryville on which it is said ho worked. The families of Lamar, Jones, Crawford, Gentry, Turnham and Richardson all claim the honor of having employed him upon their cabins. As he grew older he became one of the strongest nnd most popular “hands” in the vicinity, and much of his time was spent ns a “hired boy” on some neighbor’s farm. For 25 cents a day—paid to his father—he was hostler, plowman, wood chopper and carpenter, besides helping the women with the “chores.” For them, so say the legends, he was ready to carry water, make the fire, even tend the baby. No wonder that a laborer who never refused to do anything asked of him, who could “strike with a mallet heavier blows” and “sink an ax deeper into the wood” than anybody else in the community, and who at the same time was general help for the women, never lacked a job in Gentryville.