ABRAHAM LINCOLN
CHAPTER II.
The Lincolns Move to Indiana
Early Hardships—"Milk Sickness"—Death of Lincoln's Mother—Henry and Allen Brooner's Recollections—Second Marriage of Thomas Lincoln—Marriage of Sarah Lincoln—Redmond P. Grigsby's Recollections—Death of Sarah Grigsby—Mrs. Lamar's Recollections—Captain Lamar's Interesting Reminiscences—Honorable James Gentry Interviewed.
Thomas Lincoln moved with his family to southern Indiana in the fall of 1816. There were two children, Sarah and Abraham, the former nine, and the latter seven years old. The family located in what was then Perry County. By a change in boundary made in 1818, that part of the county was made a part of the new county of Spencer. The location was one mile and a half east of where Gentryville now stands, and fifteen miles north of the Ohio River. The town of Lincoln City is now located on the farm, and is quite a railroad connecting point. Here the family lived fourteen years. The county was new, and the land was not of the best quality. The family was subject to the toils and privations incident to pioneer life. Lincoln, long afterward, in referring to his early days in Indiana, said they were "pretty pinching times."
Peter Brooner came with his family to the same community two years before, and Thomas and Betsy Sparrow, who reared Mrs. Lincoln and her cousin, Dennis Hanks, came one year later than the Lincolns.
A peculiar disease, called "the milk sickness," prevailed in the community in 1818. Thomas and Betsy Sparrow, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Brooner, and others died of this disease near the same time. Thomas Lincoln, having learned the carpenter and cabinet-maker's trade in Kentucky, made all their coffins from green lumber sawed with a whip-saw. Their bodies were laid to rest on the little hill a few hundred yards south of the Lincoln home.