In the latter part of the 'twenties, Abraham Lincoln and Henry Brooner walked to Vincennes, Indiana, a distance of more than fifty miles, and while there they purchased a rifle gun in partnership for fifteen dollars. They hunted for game on their way back home. When the Lincolns moved to Illinois in 1830, Mr. Brooner purchased Mr. Lincoln's interest in the gun. He kept it until 1872, when he presented it to his adopted son Samuel, on the day of his marriage. I purchased the gun of Samuel Brooner, September 7, 1903. Of course, the gun was originally a "flint-lock." It was changed to shoot with percussion caps. John F. Martin, now living at Dale, in his seventy-eighth year, and a son-in-law of Henry Brooner; John W. Kemp, now sixty-three, a justice of the peace, born and reared on a farm adjoining Henry Brooner, and Samuel Brooner, each made oath as to their knowledge of the gun. I have known all these persons for more than twenty years, and know their testimony to be first class. The gun is now in possession of John E. Burton, of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Nearly all the Lincoln biographies mention the fact that Lincoln often read and studied the "Revised Statutes of Indiana," which he borrowed of David Turnham, a constable, who lived near the Lincolns in Indiana. Mr. Turnham's father and family came to Indiana and settled in Spencer County, in 1819. Turnham and Lincoln went hunting together and attended the same school, although Turnham was six years older, as he was born August 2, 1803. "The Revised Statutes," besides containing the constitution and laws of Indiana, contained the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. No doubt it was in this book that Lincoln first read those important documents. Mr. Turnham gave the book to Mr. Herndon in 1865, when he was gathering material for the "Life of Lincoln." After being in several hands, the book is now said to be in possession of W. H. Winters, librarian of the New York Law Institute. Twenty years ago I visited the home of David Turnham's widow, now deceased, who knew Mr. Lincoln, and I was well acquainted with the two sons, John J. and George W., who then resided at Dale. David Turnham died August 2, 1884, at the age of eighty-one. I am under obligation to my esteemed friend, George W. Turnham, now of Evansville, Indiana, for information concerning his father, for a copy of Lincoln's letter to his father, found elsewhere in this book, and for his father's and mother's pictures, which have never before appeared in any publication. CHAPTER IV. The Emigration to Illinois Preparations for Removal—Recollections of Old Acquaintances—The Old Indiana Home—Blocks from the Old House—The Cedar Tree—More Tangled History Untangled—Mr. Jones' Store—Various Experiences in Illinois—Recollections of an Old Friend.