[Illustration: The Lincoln family often attended services in the little Baptist Church that Abe helped his father to build, near Pigeon Creek, in Indiana.] [Illustration: This was the home of Josiah Crawford, a neighboring farmer, where Abe alternated working and learning. Mr. Crawford had several books which he lent Abe. When plowing, Abe read at the end of each furrow while he stopped to allow his horse to “breathe.”] [Illustration: In Gentryville, not far from Pigeon Creek, Mr. Gentry, a farmer and storekeeper lived in this two-story log mansion. At times, when his father didn’t need his help, Abe worked in Mr. Gentry’s store and on the farm. He helped Allen, Mr. Gentry’s son, build a flatboat, load it with store produce and float it down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.] [Illustration: It was early spring of 1830 when the Lincoln’s made the long dismal journey from Indiana to the promising prairies of Illinois. Their stout wagons were piled high with rough-hewn furniture, feather beds, personal belongings, iron pots and pans. There were plows for breaking the “prairie’s sleeping sod” and tools for building a new log cabin.] [Illustration: This rustic abode was the last home of Thomas and Sarah Lincoln. Abe, who was now past twenty-one, had left his parents to seek his fortune on the bustling Illinois frontier.] [Illustration: Timber lined the river’s banks and crowned the rolling hills.] [Illustration: Historical marker.] NEW SALEM In the fall of 1828, James Rutledge and John Camron erected homes on this hill. The following year they built a grist and sawmill on the Sangamon River just below the hill, laid out the town of New Salem and began to sell lots. The mill became so popular that the town grew rapidly and flourished for several years although it never included more than one hundred inhabitants. With the founding and growth of Petersburg, two miles to the north and more accessibly located, its decline began. When the seat of the new County of Menard was located at Petersburg in 1839, New Salem quickly passed out of existence. Abraham Lincoln resided at New Salem from the summer of 1831 until the spring of 1837, supporting himself successively as clerk and mill hand, soldier in the Black Hawk War, storekeeper, postmaster and deputy surveyor. In 1832 he entered politics. Although defeated in his first campaign for the Legislature, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1834 and again in 1836. Throughout his residence at New Salem, Lincoln strove to perfect his education, studying grammar, mathematics, and finally law. Upon his admission to the bar in March 1837, he sought greater opportunities than New Salem offered, and so removed to Springfield.