Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1902 — ABE’S HOOSIER HOME. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ABE’S HOOSIER HOME.

IT WAS ALMOST AS PRIMITIVE AS AN INDIAN HUT. Tm It Not for HU “Second Mother” the Immortal President Would No hrabt Have Lived and Died an Illiterate Ball-Splitter. Tke birthday anniversary of Abraham Lincoln famishes occasion to K. I. Lewis, writing in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, to discuss the Lincoln family in their Serly home in Lincoln City, Ind. Ihe picture he draws is far from pleasing in many particulars. “There are many histories of Lincoln,” he writes, “many stories of his boyhood fad tales of his privation in early life, *«t still, sfter reading all of them, when «ne enters this little village and stands norrounded by the landmarks of his early lays, another and more interesting story than any that has been published comes te a visitor. Lincoln City is lost away among the hills of Bpencer County—inaccessible almost to the traveler. It did not hoast of a name until after the poos boy who spent his boyhood—from 7 to HI years —here had become President of the Mtlon and took his place in the brightest pages of the world’s history. Then people down *t the county seat’ began to infer to the settlement as Lincoln City, sad now It has a recognition on most paps of Indiana. Here, on a knoll, lie* buried Nancy Hanks, Lincoln’s mother. Over there in a forgotten grave lies Sally Bosh, his step-mother and guiding angel, and all around are the landmarks of interest, each referring to a story of his boyhood days. “It was along In the early part of the Er 1816—a few months before the te was admitted to the Union—that Thomas Lincoln, Nancy Hanks Lincoln

and their children, Nancy Hanks, aged 9, and Abraham, aged 7, appeared at the mouth of Anderson creek, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio river. Nancy and Nancy, Jr., sat in the rude frontier wagon, in which were packed all of their earthly

mmmmlods, except an old cow, which Thomas and the son drove along behind. They crossed into the wilderness of Indiana and drove north into the Indian land. Fifteen miles back from the Ohio, *key found a knoll, and there they stoprl and made their home. This ground Lincoln City of to-day. Thomas was a carpenter, and he managed to build a lag cabin. lie did not take the trouble, however, to cut In windows. lie ■ade three three-legged stools and a tahla by turning a broad slab, flat surface •p, and putting in four sticks as legs. There was a bed made by poking poles Into cracks in the logs, and supporting the other ends in forked sticks. Over these poles were laid whip-sawed boards, and over these leaves, and then bear and deer skins and old clothes. This, with the exception of a Dutch oven and a •killet, was the entire household equipment. “As he Is remembered here, Thomas Lincoln was anything but exemplary. He was laxy to a very great degree, and spent all of his time fishing and huntifig. He •eiy cultivated a half dozen acres of land and his wife and children did all of the work. He was too lazy, or indisposed, to provide his house with necessities, and Abe, who slept in the loft, had to monnt to his perch by pegs driven in the walls, because his father was too shiftless to make him a ladder. And with all due credit to Nancy Hanks, it must be ad-

Bitted that she was little better than the father. They ruled their children by harsh methods, they were not cleanly and they had never cared for better thin?*. Therefore, Abraham, when he was 9 years of age, had not learned to read or ’figger,’ and hia sister, two years hts senior, had not fared better. It was poaalbly a good thing for the nation, as wall as the boy. that, when he was 8 rears old, his mother sickened and died. TTie father and son whip-sawed lumber and made a crude box into which the corpse was placed. Twenty settlers gathered at the Lincoln cabin and carried the aaflln to a hillock in the virgin forest and kswered her to her lasi resting place. There was no one present who w as capable of 'saying a few words,’ and that was deferred for some months, and then performed by an itinerant preacher. Woman Who Made Ills Character. TThomas had been a widower thirteen months, when he took a notion to go over ta Kentucky and see the folks where he had lived. There be found a widow, •ally Bash Johnston, an old sweethrart, who had married Johnston, bis hated rival. He again pßposcd and was accepted. Thomas waa not only the greatest story teller of hia aectlon of southern Indiana, but he had a poor regard for the truth, at times, and he won hia aecis4 wife by exaggerating bia estate in Indiana to palatial proportions. Sally was • woman of sterling qualities. Sinhad been surrounded with the utensils of dtoUisatlon—a bureau, a clothes cheat, a labia, chairs with backs, white table and had clothes, knives, forks, and cooking equipment. Thomas -usiated that she sell Chase aud get the money, telling her he had all that was necessary. But she saw Afferent and loaded them into a wagon aad they started for Indiana. When she arrived at Lincoln City and saw her future norne the waa heartbroken, and whan aha saw 111-kempt and 111-fed Abe * and Nancy she cried. Her own three ffidldren were in atriking contrast'. When

Abe saw the chairs, the knives and forks and other furniture unloaded, his eyes stood wide open, for he had never seen anything like it before. Sally Bush was a natural enemy of all chaos and disorder. She tossed the old dirty household effects out, made Thomas cut windows into the walls and put a floor in the cabin. She washed the walls and put the five children to cleaning up the premises. She took charge of Abe and Nancy, and taught them the first principles of cleanliness and care, and love took the place of harsh words, and ill treatment. The great soul of the awkw&rd, ignorant' boy opened to her and the friendship which followed filled his whole life. He has said of her: ‘She was the woman who first made me feel like n human being.’ “Sally clothed Abe and Nancy cleanly, and ns well as her limited finances would permit, and out them in school. They

went four miles to school and had to walk. The boy readily grasped the instruction given, and within him were born the ambitions which made dWm President. After all the Influences of those high in political authority, after all of the acquirements of the man himself, after all that might be considered are weighed, it becomes evident that it was this woman, with her ruling by love,

her great fund of organising end managing powers, that gave to the world one of its greatest men. Had it «not been for her there is little doul>t that Lincoln would not have risen higher than the illiterate wood chopper. “Abe was within two months of being 21 years old when he accompanied his father to Illinois and became a rail splitter by force of his poverty, and later a lawyer by constant night study. Thomas, the father, had showed improvement under the management of Sally. It was here that Lincoln built his flat boat and went down the Mississippi to New Orleans and first beheld slavery, and it was Lere, when he returned h6me, that he gave utterance to ‘lf I ever get a chance to hit that (slavery),' I will hit It hard.’ It was here he clerked in a general store; it was here that he first told his stories, and it was here that the Lincoln of history was molded. Here and there are the de-

eaying landmarks of his boyhood life. The last time he was here was when en route to Washington to occupy the place which the people of the nation had elected him to. He came to see Sally Bush, and she would have gone with him if she would, have listened to him. The eyes of the nation were on him at that moment as they were never upon a President before or since, but still his heart was centered in the little cabin. He had paid off the mortgage with the first money he had ever saved, and he sent her money as long as he lived.”

SABAH LINCOLN.

LINCOLN'S INDIANA HOME.

LINCOLN'S GRAVE.