It was in August, 1831, that Abraham Lincoln appeared in the village of New Salem, Illinois. Neither Denton Offutt nor his merchandise had arrived as promised. While paying the penalty of the punctual man—by waiting for the tardy one—he seemed to the villagers to be loafing. But Abraham Lincoln was no loafer. He always found something useful and helpful to do. This time there was a local election, and one of the clerks had not appeared to perform his duties. A New Salem woman wrote of Lincoln's first act in the village:
"My father, Mentor Graham, was on that day, as usual, appointed to be a clerk, and Mr. McNamee, who was to be the other, was sick and failed to come. They were looking around for a man to fill his place when my father noticed Mr. Lincoln and asked if he could write. He answered that he could 'make a few rabbit tracks.'"
PILOTING A FAMILY FLATBOAT
A few days after the election the young stranger, who had become known by this time as the hero of the flatboat on Rutledge's dam four months before, found employment as a pilot. A citizen, Dr. Nelson, was about to emigrate to Texas. The easiest and best mode of travel in those days was by flatboat down the river. He had loaded all his household goods and movable property on his "private conveyance" and was looking about for a "driver." Young Lincoln, still waiting, unemployed, offered his services and took the Nelson family down the Sangamon River—a more difficult task in August than in April, when the water was high on account of the spring rains. But the young pilot proceeded cautiously down the shallow stream, and reached Beardstown, on the Illinois River, where he was "discharged" and walked back over the hills to New Salem.
ANNOYED BY THE HIGH PRAISES OF HIS EMPLOYER
Denton Offutt and his stock for the store arrived at last, and Lincoln soon had a little store opened for business. A country store seemed too small for a clerk of such astounding abilities, so the too enthusiastic employer bought Cameron's mill with the dam on which Lincoln had already distinguished himself, and made the clerk manager of the whole business.
This was not enough. Offutt sounded the praises of the new clerk to all comers. He claimed that Abraham Lincoln "knew more than any man in the United States." As Mr. Offutt had never shown that he knew enough himself to prove this statement, the neighbors began to resent such rash claims. In addition, Offutt boasted that Abe could "beat the county" running, jumping and wrestling. Here was something the new clerk could prove, if true, so his employer's statement was promptly challenged.
When a strange man came to the village to live, even though no one boasted of his prowess, he was likely to suffer at the hands of the rougher element of the place. It was a sort of rude initiation into their society. These ceremonies were conducted with a savage sense of humor by a gang of rowdies known as the "Clary's Grove Boys," of whom the "best fighter" was Jack Armstrong.
Sometimes "the Boys" nailed up a stranger in a hogshead and it was rolled down hill. Sometimes he was ingeniously insulted, or made to fight in self-defense, and beaten black and blue by the whole gang. They seemed not to be hampered by delicate notions of fair play in their actions toward a stranger. They "picked on him," as chickens, dogs and wolves do upon a newcomer among them.
So when young Lincoln heard his employer bragging about his brain and brawn he was sufficiently acquainted with backwoods nature to know that it boded no good to him. Even then "he knew how to bide his time," and turned it to good account, for he had a good chance, shortly to show the metal that was in him.