Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1916 — LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE NOW NATIONAL PARK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE NOW NATIONAL PARK

The nation recently accepted from an associa-' tion of patriotic citizens the martyred president’s early home in Kentucky. Beautiful memorial hall houses log cabin in which he first saw light of day

HE farm where Abraham Lincoln —was —born Is—in Ta r u e county, Kentucky, near Hodgenville. Just a month ago September 4 —the place became a national par k, when President Wilson accepted it. on behalf of

the nation, from the Lincoln Farm association. The occasion was marked with elaborate ceremony, of course, and thousands of visitors were present from all parts of the country —many of them persons of real importance. This was the third time the people of Larue county have seen a president of the United States among them in seven years. The first exercises held in connection frith the Lincoln farm, after it was proposed to give it to the United States, were held February 12, 1909, when President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Lineoin Memorial hall. On November 9, 1911, President Taft presided at ceremonies incidental to the dedication of Memorial hall. And then President Wilson went there for the finishing touch. It is unlikely that another president will go to Larue county for a long, long time to come. The Stars and Stripes flew bravely and defiantly from the Lincoln statue In Hodgenville’s public square at the latest celebration. Just opposite, the courthouse was draped lavishly In red, white and blue. And yet, only .ten years ago in August the courthouse bore a decoration of another kind. It was a plain hand bill which advertised the fact that the Lincoln farm was to be sold to settle unpaid taxes. The Memorial hall, built at a cost of $250,000, is the center of this new national park. The hall houses the cabin in which Lincoln was born. This is the original structure rescued from a warehouse in New York after it had been carried around the country for exhibition purposes. Over the entrance doors to Memorial hall are inscribed these words:

Here over the log cabin where Abraham was born, destined to preserve the union and to free the slave., a graceful people have dedicated this memorial to unity, peace and brotherhood among these states. Within the hall, the cabin occupies the principal place. It is surrounded by a heavy bronze chain, for no one is permitted to enter or touch the cabin. The first owner of the farm which «• has passed into possession of the nation, was, so far as records tell, a man named Duckworth. Court records do not show how he -came to own it, but It is supposed he secured it in a distribution of public lands by the state or federal government. No land grant or deed has ever been found to prove his legal ownership. Local historians agree hr the- statement based on the declarations of old citizens of Larue county that when Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln moved to take up their residence shortly after their marriage they were “squatters” and moved into the log

cabiri which they found vacant. The couple never held a deed to a foot of ground in Larue county. The huge crowd at the farm took great Interest In that which probably caused Thomas Lincoln to select this spot for his home —the Lincoln spring. This never failing stream of water comes from the ground today-as it did in Lincoln’s time. The Lincolns lived on the farm where Abe was born for several years. Their eldest daughter, Snllie, was born there. When Abe was about four years old the family moved to a home on Knob creek. There—occurred the—incident which Lincoln remembered vividly all his life, where he was saved from drowning in a creek by Austin Gollaher. From this farm the Lincoln family mojyed to Indiana. The farm fell into the possession of Micajah Middleton who sold to Richard A. Creal, the Lincoln farm as it stands today. Greal built a new log home and for many years used the cabin In which Abraham Lincoln was born as a com crib. At the death of Creql the farm passed into the hands of his heirs. Many years after the death of Lincoln the farm began to grow in fame as “Lincoln’s birthplaee.” Many people came to see It and among them was Alfred W. Denett, a wealthy restaurant owner of New York city. Denett bought the farm, paying the Creal heirs $.3,000 and the deed to the property was made February 12, 1895, just S 0 years after the birth of Lincoln.

Denett had plans for the purchase of the farm by congress and conversion into a national park and spent considerable money In an attempt to get a successful hearing of his proposition at Washington, but failed. He was the first to attempt any real improvement of the property. He built a fence around it, cleared away the underbrush and made a driveway from the entrance to the famous spring. He was planning to build a house over the cabin to. protect it from the elements when business reverses forced him to make an assignment.

Just before this he had complied with the request of the officials of the exposition in Nashville, Tenn., and had shipped the Lincoln cabin to be placed on exhibition there. From Nashville the cabin went to New York, where it was exhibited several months. Later it was stored in a warehouse. n A few days before m'aking an assignment Denett deeded the farm and cabin to David R:„Crear, treasurer of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of New York, as payment on a note he had given them in a contribution. His creditors brought suit in Larue county to have this transfer set aside. This was done at the May terra of court 190 G and once more the Lincoln farm, with taxes in arrears, was on

the market for best prices obtainable. It was sold at the courthouse door in August and was bought by Richard Lloyd Jones, representing Robert J. Collier. He organized the Lincoln Farm Association which raised SBOO,000 by popular subscription, erected the Memorial hall, made the necessary improvements in the property and turned it over to the government as a .national park. In receiving the gift on behalf of the nation, President Wilson made a noteworthy address. He said in part: “No more significant memorial could have been presented to the nation than this. It expresses so much of what is singular and noteworthy in the history of the country; it suggests so many of the things that we prize most highly in our life and in our system of government. How eloquent this little house within this shrine is of the vigor of democracy!

“There is nowhere in the land any home so remote, so humble, that It may not contain the power of mind and heart and conscience to which nations yield add history submits its processes. Nature pays no tribute to aristocracy, subscribes to no creed of caste, renders fealty to no monarch or master of any name or kind. Genius is no snob. It does not run after titles or seek by preference the high circles of society. “It affects humble company as well as great. It pays no special tribute to universities or learned societies or conventional, standards of greatness, but serenely chooses its own comrades, its own haunts, its own cradle even, and its own life of adventure and of training. Here is proof of it. “This little hut was the cradle of one of the great sons of men, a man of singular, delightful, vital genius who presently emerged upon the great stage of the nation’s history, gaunt, shy, ungainly, but dominant and majestic, a natural ruler of men, himself inevitably the central figure of the great plot. “Here. no lcss, hiflos tne mystery of democracy. Who shall guess this secret of nature and providence and a free polity? Whatever the vigor and vitality of the stock from which he sprang, its mere vigor and soundness do not explain where this man got his great heart that seemed to comprehend all mankind'in Its catholic and benignant sympathy, the mind that sat enthroned behind those brooding, melancholy.eyes, whose vision swept many a horizon which those about him dreamed not of —that mind that comprehended what it had never seen, and understood the language of affairs ..with the ready ease of one to the manner born—sor that nature which seemed in Its varied richness to be the familiar of me»«oL,.every way of life.” *- „ : 1