Footprints of Abraham Lincoln: Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before published — John Shaqi
Footprints of Abraham Lincoln: Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before publishedHobson, J. T. (Jonathan Todd)
History
Footprints of Abraham Lincoln: Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before published
Hobson, J. T. (Jonathan Todd)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Anecdotes
After residing in Indiana fourteen years, and having rather a rough
experience, Thomas Lincoln, through the inducements of others,
concluded to move to Illinois. Abraham was now twenty-one years old.
The farm products were sold to David Turnham. The family started March
1, 1830. Other families accompanied them.
Expressions made to me, and written at the time by different persons
who remembered the departure of the Lincolns, are here given:
Allen Brooner said: "I remember when the Lincoln family left for
Illinois. Abraham and his step-brother, John Johnston, came to my
father's to trade a young horse for a yoke of oxen. The trade was made.
John Johnston did most of the talking."
Redmond D. Grigsby said: "I was twelve years old when the Lincolns left
for Illinois. I helped to hitch the two yokes of oxen to the wagon, and
went with them half a mile."
James Gentry said: "I was eleven years old when the Lincoln family
started to Illinois. They stayed at my father's the night before they
started."
Mrs. Lamar said: "I remember when the Lincolns left for Illinois. All
the neighbors went to see them start. All the surroundings, to my
mind, are as plain as things are now in my kitchen."
The old Indiana house, built by Thomas Lincoln, in 1817, was torn
down, and the logs shipped away, many years ago, except one log.
Isaac Houghland, a reliable man and merchant of Lincoln City, was in
possession of this log, and stated to me that a man by the name of
Skelton said he would make oath that it was one of the logs of the old
Lincoln house. Mr. Houghland kindly gave me two blocks, which I saw his
son chop from the log.
A cedar-tree stands near where the Lincoln house stood. A number of
unreliable stories concerning this tree have been told in various
Lincoln biographies, magazine and newspaper articles. Some state that
the tree was planted by Abraham Lincoln; others, that James Gentry
planted the tree the day the Lincolns started to Illinois, in honor of
his friend, Abraham. James Gentry, many years ago, purchased several
hundred acres of land around and including the Lincoln farm. He told
me, in the interview before mentioned, that he planted the cedar-tree
in 1858. I wrote that fact in his presence, and have preserved
the original paper on which it is written. The tree was planted
twenty-eight years after the Lincolns vacated the premises. Some of the
citizens of Lincoln City do not know the true history of the tree. Some
yet believe Lincoln planted it, and hundreds of visitors have almost
stripped the tree of its twigs and branches with the same delusive
idea. Here is more "tangled history untangled."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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