Going into the woods, Simmons found Lincoln engaged in his old occupation of making rails. The two sat down together on a log, and Simmons told Lincoln what Calhoun had said. It was a surprise to Lincoln. Calhoun was a “Jackson man;” he was for Clay. What did he know about surveying, and why should a Democratic official offer him a position of any kind? He immediately went to Springfield, and had a talk with Calhoun. He would not accept the appointment, he said, unless he had the assurance that it involved no political obligation, and that he might continue to express his political opinions as freely and frequently as he chose. This assurance was given. The only difficulty then in the way was the fact that he knew absolutely nothing of surveying. But Calhoun, of course, understood this, and agreed that he should have time to learn.
With the promptness of action with which he always undertook anything he had to do, he procured Flint and Gibson’s treatise on surveying, and sought Mentor Graham for help. At a sacrifice of some time, the school-master aided him to a partial mastery of the intricate subject. Lincoln worked literally day and night, sitting up night after night until the crowing of the cock warned him of the approaching dawn. So hard did he study that his friends were greatly concerned at his haggard face. But in six weeks he had mastered all the books within reach relating to the subject—a task which, under ordinary circumstances, would hardly have been achieved in as many months. Reporting to Calhoun for duty (greatly to the amazement of that gentleman), he was at once assigned to the territory in the northwest part of the county, and the first work he did of which there is any authentic record was in January, 1834. In that month he surveyed a piece of land for Russell Godby, dating the certificate January 14, 1834, and signing it “J. Calhoun, S. S. C., by A. Lincoln.”
Lincoln was frequently employed in laying out public roads, being selected for that purpose by the County Commissioners’ Court. So far as can be learned from the official records, the first road he surveyed was “from Musick’s Ferry, on Salt Creek, via New Salem, to the county line in the direction of Jacksonville.” For this he was allowed fifteen dollars for five days’ service, and two dollars and fifty cents for a plat of the new road. The next road he surveyed, according to the records, was that leading from Athens to Sangamon town. This was reported to the County Commissioners’ Court, November 4, 1834. But road surveying was only a small portion of his work. He was more frequently employed by private individuals.
SURVEYING WITH A GRAPEVINE.
According to tradition, when he first took up the business he was too poor to buy a chain, and, instead, used a long, straight grapevine. Probably this is a myth, though surveyors who had experience in the early days say it may be true. The chains commonly used at that time were made of iron. Constant use wore away and weakened the links, and it was no unusual thing for a chain to lengthen six inches after a year’s use. “And a good grapevine,” to use the words of a veteran surveyor, “would give quite as satisfactory results as one of those old-fashioned chains.”
THE STATE-HOUSE AT VANDALIA, ILLINOIS.—NOW USED AS A COURT-HOUSE.
Vandalia was the State capital of Illinois for twenty years, and three different State-houses were built and occupied there. The first, a two-story frame structure, was burned down December 9, 1823. The second was a brick building, and was erected at a cost of twelve thousand, three hundred and eighty-one dollars and fifty cents, of which the citizens of Vandalia contributed three thousand dollars. The agitation for the removal of the capital to Springfield began in 1833, and in the summer of 1836 the people of Vandalia, becoming alarmed at the prospect of their little city’s losing its prestige as the seat of the State government, tore down the old capitol (much complaint being made about its condition), and put up a new one at a cost of sixteen thousand dollars. The tide was too great to be checked; but after the “Long Nine” had secured the passage of the bill taking the capital to Springfield, the money which the Vandalia people had expended was refunded. The State-house shown in this picture was the third and last one. In it Lincoln served as a legislator. Ceasing to be a capitol July 4, 1839, it was converted into a court-house for Fayette County, and is still so used.
DANIEL GREEN BURNER, BERRY AND LINCOLN’S CLERK.
From a recent photograph. Mr. Burner lived at New Salem from 1829 to 1834. Lincoln for many months lodged with his father, Isaac Burner. He now lives on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois. Mr. Burner is over eighty years of age.
