The Life of Abraham Lincoln, from His Birth to His Inauguration as PresidentLamon, Ward Hill
History
The Life of Abraham Lincoln, from His Birth to His Inauguration as President
Lamon, Ward Hill
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
This interview took place shortly after the Black Hawk War; but it was
not until the next year (1833), the period at which we have now arrived,
that Lincoln and Ellis became "intimate." At that time Ellis went there
to keep a store, and boarded "at the same log-tavern" where Lincoln was.
Lincoln, being "engaged in no particular business," merely endeavoring
to make a lawyer, a surveyor, and a politician of himself, gave a great
deal of his time to Ellis and Ellis's business. "He also used to assist
me in the store," says this new friend, "on busy days, but he always
disliked to wait on the ladies: he preferred trading with the men and
boys, as he used to say. I also remember that he used to sleep in the
store, on the counter, when they had too much company at the tavern.
"I well remember how he was dressed: he wore flax and tow linen
pantaloons,--I thought about five inches too short in the legs,--and
frequently he had but one suspender, no vest or coat. He wore a calico
shirt, such as he had in the Black Hawk War; coarse brogans, tan color;
blue yarn socks, and straw hat, old style, and without a band.
"Mr. Lincoln was in those days a very shy man of ladies. On one
occasion, while we boarded at this tavern, there came a family,
containing an old lady and her son and three stylish daughters, from the
State of Virginia, and stopped there for two or three weeks; and, during
their stay, I do not remember of Mr. Lincoln ever eating at the same
table when they did. I then thought it was on account of his awkward
appearance and his wearing apparel."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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