FOREWORD

We know it is no longer possible to add anything new to the written word about Lincoln. The hundreds of historians who have attempted to write the life of the Great Emancipator have covered every facet of it. Therefore, we have chosen to present our story of a by-gone day in a series of camera impressions, hoping to arouse in our readers an emotional sense of “present being.”

We have done this for two reasons: first, because Lincoln’s early frontier has achieved a factual and imaginative rebirth through loving care and painstaking efforts after having fallen into ruin for many years. Secondly, we believe as many historians do, that America owes much of the credit for its national character and institutions to the atmosphere of the early frontier. It was the appreciation of the role it played on the character of Lincoln that brought about the restoration of New Salem, Illinois, and those objects which were so closely associated with him. These objects are of special interest because it was among them that he moved slowly forward through a cycle of failures and successes before reaching the high place which destiny had reserved for him. No man in American history has started with so little and achieved so much.

With a certain temerity then, we present our pictorial history of the environment in which Lincoln spent the most formative years of his life. It was from this frontier atmosphere and these frontier people that Lincoln acquired his uncanny understanding of how common folk think and the wisdom that enabled him to hold in his hands the ties that bound a people and made a nation.

A Brief Chronology of Abraham Lincoln

Feb. 12, 1809 Born on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
1811 to 1816 The family, which included Abe’s sister, Sarah, lived on Knob Creek near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Nov. 1816 The family moved to Pigeon Creek in Indiana.
Oct. 5, 1818 Abe’s mother died of “milk sickness.”
Dec. 2, 1819 Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children, from Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Jan. 20, 1828 Sister Sarah died.
Mar. 1830 The Lincoln family moved from Indiana to Illinois.
Apr. 19, 1831 Offut’s flatboat piloted by Lincoln got stuck on the dam at New Salem, Illinois.
Mar. 9, 1832 Announced candidacy for the Illinois Legislature.
May 8, 1832 Mustered into U.S. Army for service in Black Hawk War.
July 16, 1832 Mustered out of military service.
Aug. 6, 1832 Defeated for the Legislature.
May 7, 1833 Appointed postmaster at New Salem, Illinois.
Aug. 4, 1834 Elected to the Legislature.
Mar. 24, 1836 Sworn in as a lawyer of the Circuit Court of Sangamon County.
Aug. 1, 1836 Reelected to the Legislature for a second term.
Sept. 9, 1836 Licensed to practice law.
Mar. 1, 1837 Admitted to the bar in Illinois.
Mar. 15, 1837 Moved from New Salem to Springfield, Illinois.
Aug. 1, 1838 Reelected to the Legislature for a third term.
Dec. 3, 1839 Admitted to practice law in the Circuit Court of the United States.
Aug. 1, 1840 Reelected to the Legislature for a fourth term.
Nov. 4, 1842 Married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky.
Aug. 1, 1843 First child, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born.
Jan. 7, 1844 Bought home in Springfield.
Mar. 10, 1846 Second child, Edward Baker Lincoln, was born.
Aug. 3, 1846 Elected to Congress.
Dec. 6, 1847 Took seat in Congress.
Mar. 7, 1849 Admitted to practice law before United States Supreme Court.
Feb. 1, 1850 Second child, Edward Baker Lincoln, died.
Dec. 21, 1850 Third child, William Wallace Lincoln, was born.
Jan. 17, 1851 Lincoln’s father, Thomas, died.
Apr. 4, 1853 Fourth child, Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, was born.
June 16, 1858 Delivered “house divided” speech at Springfield.
Aug. 21, 1858 First debate, with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois.
Aug. 27, 1858 Second debate, at Freeport, Illinois.
Sept. 15, 1858 Third debate, at Jonesboro, Illinois.
Sept. 18, 1858 Fourth debate, at Charleston, Illinois.
Oct. 7, 1858 Fifth debate, at Galesburg, Illinois.
Oct. 13, 1858 Sixth debate, at Quincy, Illinois.
Oct. 15, 1858 Seventh and last debate, at Alton, Illinois.
Nov. 2, 1858 Defeated by Douglas for the United States Senate.
Nov. 5, 1858 First mentioned in press for President.
May 18, 1860 Nominated for the Presidency.
Nov. 6, 1860 Elected President.
Jan. 31, 1861 Visited for the last time with his stepmother.
Mar. 4, 1861 Inaugurated as President.
Nov. 8, 1864 Reelected as President.
Mar. 4, 1865 Reinaugurated as President.
Apr. 14, 1865 Shot by Booth.
Apr. 15, 1865 Died in Washington.
May 4, 1865 Buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.

It was from the faithful Sinking Spring, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, that the farm of Lincoln’s nativity got its name.

The branches of the Boundary Oak, a landmark for early frontiersmen, still shelter the hallowed birthplace of the man who went to school for perhaps a year, split rails in frontier clearings, traveled the Eighth Circuit as a lawyer, became President of the United States, freed the slaves, spoke the First and Second Inaugurals and the Gettysburg Address.

On February 12, 1809, a blizzard raged at Sinking Spring Farm, near Hodgenville, Kentucky. The wind howled down the chimney and through the cracks of the humble log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. The proud parents named the boy Abraham after his grandfather.

When Abe was two years old, his father moved the family to Knob Creek Farm where they lived until Abe was seven. The cabin lay nestled in a valley surrounded by rolling hills and deep gorges. Here Abe played with his friend, Austin Gollaher, gathered firewood from the forest, wild berries from the vales, and for a short time attended Mrs. Hodgen’s “blab” school. Thomas Lincoln decided to move his family across the Ohio River to live on Pigeon Creek in Indiana where the soil was richer and there were no slaves.

The Lincoln’s erected a new log cabin on Pigeon Creek in Indiana. For the next fourteen years they struggled with the almost impossible odds of a bitter and treacherous wilderness. It was here that Abe’s mother died, and he helped his father lay her to rest in the forest.

In the little Log Schoolhouse near Pigeon Creek, in Indiana, Abe managed to get a few scattered weeks of sporadic schooling in readin’ writin’ and cipherin’ to the rule of three.

Abe did his homework by the light of the smouldering fireplace. He would scrape his charcoal cipherin’ from wooden boards so as to use them over and over again.

The Lincoln family often attended services in the little Baptist Church that Abe helped his father to build, near Pigeon Creek, in Indiana.

This was the home of Josiah Crawford, a neighboring farmer, where Abe alternated working and learning. Mr. Crawford had several books which he lent Abe. When plowing, Abe read at the end of each furrow while he stopped to allow his horse to “breathe.”

In Gentryville, not far from Pigeon Creek, Mr. Gentry, a farmer and storekeeper lived in this two-story log mansion. At times, when his father didn’t need his help, Abe worked in Mr. Gentry’s store and on the farm. He helped Allen, Mr. Gentry’s son, build a flatboat, load it with store produce and float it down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.

It was early spring of 1830 when the Lincoln’s made the long dismal journey from Indiana to the promising prairies of Illinois. Their stout wagons were piled high with rough-hewn furniture, feather beds, personal belongings, iron pots and pans. There were plows for breaking the “prairie’s sleeping sod” and tools for building a new log cabin.

This rustic abode was the last home of Thomas and Sarah Lincoln. Abe, who was now past twenty-one, had left his parents to seek his fortune on the bustling Illinois frontier.

Timber lined the river’s banks and crowned the rolling hills.