LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER New Salem As I Knew It BY IDA L. BALE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/newsalemasiknewiOObale Copyright 1939 by Ida L. Bale Petersburg, Illinois PRINTED BY THE PETERSBURG OBSERVER CO NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT By Ida L. Bale FOREWORD The different names applied to Abraham Lincoln's old home near Petersburg, Illinois have been very confusing to strangers, but "New Salem" and "Old Salem" designate the same place at a different period of time. Probably the proper appellation was used by Wm. E. Barton who called the place Old (New) Salem, but common usage would never accept such a seeming incongruity. New Salem was the village that stood about ten years, then disappeared. Later the name "Old Salem" came to be used naturally and by common consent to designate the site of the old vil- lage and vicinity. It has been known by this name for al- most ninety years, extending between the two periods — the disappearing and the restoring of the village. It was appropriate that the restored village take its or- iginal name, and in 1932 the place was officially renamed the New Salem State Park. Note: In this article the proper name, except where quoted, has been used throughout to prevent confusion. NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT Photo By the Author OLD ROAD AND RETAINING WALL Near site of second New Salem Mill shown by X Six NEW SALEM HILL On the hill for many years lay the impress of a village that had disappeared — the Town of New Salem. The blue grass that grew so luxuriously here had gone creeping everywhere and held the depressions of several old roads and a number of partly filled cellar-pits, but the crowning object that focused attention was a dilapidated log house, the last one of twenty or more houses that once had formed this primitive village. It stood not far from the intersection of the two main streets, and very near the last unfilled well left on the hill. The main street 1 of the village had been almost one- half mile long. It lay like a ribbon along the hilltop toward the west and this grass grown imprint of the old road, worn lower than the adjacent ground, was the most interesting object on the hill. The street toward the east had been cut by a ravine, and the old stage road, known as the "Spring- field road", coming up the hill from the south, was always more or less rutted by the rivulets that the rainfall sent down the hillside. Northeast of the site of the Lincoln-Berry store, on the break of the hill, lay the old barbecue pit, a sunken place a few feet long. Here meat was prepared for a picnic celebra- tion held in New Salem on our Independence Day, the year unknown. Along Main Street were a number of cellar-pits, but those of the Offutt store and Clary's grocery above the riv- er were better known. Of the several wells in the village the best producing one was said to have been west of the Offut store, and we may be sure that most of these wells had been located by that old-time "water-wizard" with his forked stick that be- came a divining rod in his hands. This was the custom of the southern people continued many years later. Several apple trees once grew on the south and not far from the west end of Main Street. Three trees, a sy^a- Seven NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT more, a locust and an elm stood like sentinels in the cellar- pit of the Off utt store ; and two grew in that of Clary's gro- cery a short distance north. The Off ut lot had been situated on the east line of the village in an angle formed by two roads, a branch of Main Street that turned north and a continuation of the same street going down the bluff. This bluff road 2 has been called little more than a bridle-path, but it showed plainly that wagons had traveled this way. It connected the old town site on the hill with the most picturesque part of New Salem, the mill. This second New Salem mill stood weath- er beaten but stately on the lower road that wound around the bluff. Standing high above the river with the deep mill-pond on the south and east, the water roaring through the millrace, and the high bluff throwing it in shadow a part of the afternoon, it was, indeed, a picture. Adding to the scene, where tho river made the bend to the south, was the "big sandbar" that has long since disappeared. The traditional fisherman was not left out of the pic- ture for during certain seasons the anglers formed a statu- esque and notched top on the old milldam, often carrying home a "good string" for catfish were plentiful in the river at that time. Many came and enjoyed fishfries and picnics at the river. There were also baptizings when the people assem- bled as those of olden times had met on the banks of that Biblical river. A History of Menard County savs that Abram Bale (often called Abraham), the "Baptist revivalist" had im- mersed as many as forty and fifty converts in an afternoon in the river just below the first New Salem mill. No more ideal place could have been found for this religious rite. Preaching on the hillside in summer, meeting in the log- school house in winter, he conducted several of his "great revivals" at New Salem beginning in 1839. It was late in the autumn of this year that Abram Bale had pulled up the long hill of the "Springfield road" in a covered wagon with his family, coming directly from Green County, Kentucky and camped in a vacant storehouse of the deserted village of New Salem for a few weeks. His son, Fielding, claimed that this wa^ the Hill store. Eight NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT My father, James L. Bale, son of Abram, was eight years of age when the family camped here. He said that no one was living here at the time but his Uncle Jacob Bale, but there were a few empty houses. Jacob Bale had preceded his brother Abram to Illinois about nine years, living at first on his farm edging into the present city of Petersburg, northwest of the "square". At this time (1839) he was operating the first New Salem mill and living in that log house that was to be the last one to stand on "Salem Hill". I have stood beneath its old roof after the partition was gone and the br'ck chimneys had al- most crumbled down. For forty years the impress of the old town had lain in its most romantic appeal as only nature can give a deserted place. Then the devastating hand of time was laid heavily on New Salem again, for during the years from 1880 to 1883 inclusive, the old house fell to the ground, the blue grass died on the hill, and the second New Salem mill "burn- ed to the water's edge". As the "weeds grew as high as a horse's back" on the old site, it became necessary to plow the ground to reset the place in grass. Thus it was smoothed over and much of the natural impress of the old village was now gone for- ever. THE MILLS The first New Salem mill built by Rutledge and Camer- on had been rented by Denton Offutt who had "Abe Lin- coln look after it", while Lincoln clerked for him in the store at the top of the bluff. An article by McGrady Rutledge recently published in The Illinois State Historical Journal says that one of James Rutledge's boys ran the mill. Neither Cameron nor James Rutledge operated the mill, but seemed ever anxious to "get it off their hands", renting it to Denton Offutt, then relinquishing it to Jacob Bale. It was Jacob Bale who was the real New Salem miller. He had been brought up working in his father's mill in Nine NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT Kentucky and no doubt took over this mill when Offutt's lease expired, for Cameron had advertised the New Salem mill for sale in 1832. 3 The Purkapile bill shows that Jacob Bale was operating this mill in 1834. By 1841 he had purchased the town cite for by this time the town of New Salem had vanished. It was, no doubt, the ability of John Taylor as a promoter that erased New Salem from the map. With a partner he took over the em- bryo town of Petersburg, ; two miles north of New Salem, and had Lincoln re-survey it. This survey went only to the north side of the ''Public Square" in Petersburg, and the little "jog" in a street northeast in Taylor's Addition, "made by Lincoln to save the widow's house from being moved" was in fact surveyed the next year by John B. Wat- son, a deputy surveyor of Sangamon County, after Lincoln had opened his law office in Springfield. There is a map of this survey "jog" and all, signed by Watson. Then Taylor succeeding with a "boom" had Petersburg made the county seat of the new County of Menard in 1839. This was the death knell for New Salem and many of the inhabitants went to the new place, some of thsm moving their houses, but Jacob Bale remained because the little mill had a deep root, an excellent milldam that could not well be moved. In time he conceived the ambitious project of erecting a three thousand dollar flour-mill at this dam. It was built slightly farther north and west than the first mill and the milldam had a slight curve because of this change. He began the buiding of the second New Salem mill, but had made little progress when his death occurred near 1850. The property was sold that year (the deed made in 1852) to his brother, Abram Bale, who proceeded with the work. Abram's death occurred in 1853 and he left by will this still unfinished mill to his four sons : Edward Lewis, Jacob, James Lewis and Fielding Vaughn. They finished the building under great difficulty, paying at, one time 25 per cent interest on borrowed money because of a "money panic" at the time. When the brothers came to take possession of this property in 1853 the first mill had been taken down and the material lay upon the high river bank above the millpond. As my father said, there was very little of it. There was Ten NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT SECOND NEW SALEM MILL Eleven NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT only one pair of millstones, but they were never used in the second mill. They lay near it for almost thirty years and had been moved to the north side of the mill where they formed a favorite play-place for the miller's children. New French burrs for the grinding of wheat, also corn burrs, were purchased in St. Louis and installed in the sec- ond mill when the building was finished. About ten years later (1864) the mill was remodelled by Benjamin Smith; that is — the machinery was reset, the millers not having had the services of an expert at the beginning. As time goes on new errors are made in regard to these mills. The last mistake was that the second mill did not manufacture flour until it was remodelled in 1864. I am positive that it made flour from the time that it was built. I know by a story that my father told that they manufact- ured large quantities of flour before the Civil War. One by one the brothers retired from the mill, the last one to operate it being Fielding V. Bale. The only living grandchild of Jacob Bale writes from the far west that he remembers but one thing that his moth- er, Mrs. Susan Sampson, told about New Salem. She said that fish would become entangled in the wheel and stop the first little mill and that it could not be started again until someone went down into the water and removed them. THE PICTURE ON THE TREE About the year 1875 a strange incident happened. A stranger stopped at our cottage (near the first park en- trance) and asked to be directed to the place where Lincoln had clerked in a store. Then two or three people came the next year, and from that time there was a gradual but ever increasing number of visitors to New Salem Hill. When the place was made a state park the number increased to thousands annually. At first most of the visitors went no farther than the Offutt store site. The idea came to a young girl to designate this place so that it could be found without inquiry. Borrowing, sur- reptitiously, her brother's twenty five cent Barlow knife, Twelve NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT Vv ¥ £K2&' :^Jt *5i '..: i :,„ ! ' ,:,.,!' \i*. .r^i". <:J . ' ^ ', ; . .- THE PICTURE ON THE TREE [SEE ARROW] The three trees at the Offut Store-site Thirteen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT she cut at intervals a name low on the Sycamore tree that stood here. In time the word "Lincoln" grew out in beau- tiful round-relief. Then when visitors came and saw the name they began to cut their names or initials until the tree was covered to the very top. All the while relic fiends were cutting off the limbs. Shortly afterward an artist of Petersburg, Illinois, a Mr. Phillips, cut a bust portrait of Abraham Lincoln high up on the same tree and painted it in oils. It was a good likeness, and the tree soon grew a natural frame around it. The artist retouched it every spring until it was ruined by boys using it for a target when shooting revolvers. Many people came to see the "Picture on the Tree" and the van- dalism was much regretted. At last one spring the old sycamore stood only a dead stub, but it had made a brave effort to heal its wounds for part of the word "Lincoln" had become obliterated by its growth. A peculiarity of the trees here was that the sycamore and the elm had grown together at the base, emblematic, as was often said, of the uniting of the North and South. THE ROADS OF NEW SALEM We like to think that some of the old roads that led to the top of New Salem hill had been made along Indian trails. Many arrow heads and a few "axes" have been found here indicating that Indians hunted and no doubt camped along these wooded bluffs of the Sangamon. Chief Shick Shack and his braves were known to have been in this vicinity. No one could have been more familiar with the topo- graphy of New Salem than my father who owned the place for almost sixty years. He came here to live thirteen or fourteen years after the village was gone and saw but two roads that ran north from the village site. They were used in a pasture where there was little travel for almost forty years. One road seemed to be a continuation of the ''Spring- field road" passing the Lincoln-Berry store site on the west, then turning northeast and going down the hill at what we Fourteen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT called "the Point", west and adjacent to the north end of the "Ravine". The other road turned from near the east end of Main Street, passing the Offutt store site, then went diagonally down the hillside on the west. These two roads had to converge before crossing the small wooden culvert on the north of New Salem hill some little distance west of the first entrance to the state park, but each new bridge (several of them wooden) was built farther east, and when one had come almost opposite the high bluff, Fielding V. Bale built a road so that rock could be taken out on top of the hill. There was a small out-crop of stone here that may have extended to the river at some former time. It was this old temporary road that was thought to have been the New Salem road and was followed in making the first en- trance road to the park. While taking rock from this thigh bluff a human skele- ton was found and thought to have been that of an Indian. When my father came the "Ravine" had made (the shortest part of the turn westward. He saw no indication of a road having run along this ravine or along the branch — east and west — on the north side of New Salem hill, but later a single track was made at both places. A road led down the bank to the ford of the river neari the mill on the north at one time, but in later years the ford was farther north near the stream ("pale branch") that flows to the river from the west. In 1839 Jacob Bale was granted a license to keep a fer- ry here, >He and his sons were the last ferrymen of New Salem. Others had previously kept the ferry, but later the millers often ''set across" people in boats when high water did not permit travel by way of the ford. Fifteen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT THE LAST HOUSE OF NEW SALEM It is not definitely known who built the home that stood so long after the village was gone. The site is now occu- pied by the "restored Rutledge Tavern", but I am convinc- ed that the New Salem tavern stood adjacent to Main Street on Lot 5, across from the Lincoln-Berry store on the south. Five people who had either lived or been in New Salem put the tavern on Main Street. 4 It is a certainty that this last house stood on both half lots of Lot 6, south of Main Street, first survey. Nelson Alley acquired the west part of Lot 6 in 1832 when he purchased 66 feet of the front of Lot 5 on Main Street (where ,the tavern stood) , running back the length of these two lots, for the sum of two hundred dollars. He later mortgaged this property, but the records are incom- plete and show no further transactions. In 1837 Alley made a deed to Jacob Bale for the east! half of Lot 6 for the consideration of seven dollars. The most reasonable inference is that Jacob Bale built the house. The only redeeming feature of this house was the brick fireplaces that stood on the east and west of , the building. It was said to have been very enjoyable, when there were roaring fires, to be near . one and look beyond the "middle door" in the center of the partition to the other fireplace al- most forty feet away. The yard fence of palings made on the order of clap- board shingles, split by hand and ,uneven, appeared some- what aged in the early fifties. It passed as close as possible on the east side of the cel- lar and stood only a few feet from the house on the north, no doubt, following the lot lines. Here a small gate opened directly opposite the north door of the east room from where a well-worn foot path ran across the hill connecting with the "bridle path" that went down to the mill. For many years this place was always the home of the miller. Jacob Bale was living in this house in 1839 when his brother Abram came from Kentucky. Jacob or some of his Sixteen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW; IT r THE LAST HOUSE OF NEW SALEM family occupied it until 1850 when, after his death, it was sold with the mill to Abram Bale. Abram lived here until his death occurred in 1853, some of his family residing here as late as 1865. The eldest son, Edward Lewis, was the last to leave it. The house was rented two or three years longer to dif- ferent tenants ; among them were John Griffin, Jacob Wise- man and David Fletcher. Then uninhabited for ten or twelve years it stood seeming to house all the ghosts of New Salem. 5 THE COAL MINE The claim that Peter 0. Phillips mined coal on the south side of New Salem Hill while the village stood here is a mis- take. He began to take out coal at this place in 1868 for the Bale brothers, but fortunately the splendid spring of water on this hillside stopped the mining. At the time they built a shanty for Phillips in the southeast corner of the pasture. When it was later rented to Ferdinan Hicks his several daughters planted flowers near the house. For years an old-fashioned flower, com- monly called ''butter and eggs" ran riot in this corner of the pasture, a few still growing here when the place was made the state park. For years this was known as the "Hicks corner". Seventeen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT After this time the Shuberts lived in a shanty on the east and near the bottom of the cemetery hill, and took out coal near the present coal shaft across the road. There was no indication that coal had been mined when the village stood here. The pioneers burned wood. THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND CEMETERY On an adjoining high hill southwest of the village stood the "school house and Baptist Church with the cemetery alongside". No doubt but this schoolhouse became known as a Baptist church when the Regular Baptists who had a church at Clary's Grove held "meetings and revivals" here (1840-43) soon after the village disappeared. About this time they organized churches at several schoolhouses, in- cluding those of Rock Creek and Farmers Point, and formed an association. While that of New Salem may not have be- come an organized church at least a delegate was appointed from this place. This schoolhouse and the "Hardshell" or Primitive church of the Green (e) neighborhood that stood a mile southwest are often confused, but the Primitive church was not connected with New Salem, having been erected (1824) several years before the village was located here. It was used for "school and preaching" a number of years after New Salem disappeared. The Primitive church never held revivals ; their mem- bers were the "elect" converted silently at any time or place. The late Judge Milton B. Harrison who was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue by Lincoln in 1864, attended his first school in the log schoolhouse of New Salem. He of- ten told his daughter that he went down one big hill and up another, indicating that there was a path, if not a road, go- ing south from the schoolhouse. In Miller's Past and Present of Menard County there is a biographical sketch of Judge Harrison giving a descrip- tion of this building: The little temple of learning had slab seats upon wooden pegs, oil paper taking the place of win- dow glass, and the room was heated by an immense fire- place. The teacher was Mentor Graham. Eighteen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT It was during the early fifties that my mother was a pupil of Graham for one term at the Primitive church. She remembered that there was a wooden pulpit that was re- moved to a corner of the room during the days of school, that the seats were thick boards without backs, supported by round pegs. Mentor Graham later taught at the brick schoolhouse, a building that replaced the Primitive church for school purposes, built a short distance further north than the church, and one-half mile south on a direct line with the Graham homestead. Near it lay the Green (e) Cemetery. The late Albert Hartley, County Clerk of Menard Coun- ty a number of years, told of having been a pupil of Graham for one day. He started as a primary pupil to the Liberty School after the beginning of the term. At the time Gra- ham was having trouble with his pupil? because he had re- quested the boys to play on one side of the school building, and the girls to take the opposite side. But the place select- ed for the boys had a growth of timber preventing them from playing ball, therefore they objected strenuously to the arrangement. That evening the difficulty was termi- nated by the directors of the school district dismissing Gra- ham as teacher. It is not known how many of the citizens of New Sa- lem were laid to rest in the cemetery by the schoolhouse. There were interments made here after the village was gone, but a number have been removed to other cemeteries. Jacob Bale and several members of his family were bur- ied in the "old town graveyard" in a lot that was once en- closed by a low white paling fence. It lay a number of feet north and a little west of some graves that are now on the east line of the old cemetery. The wild growth obtained such a hold in this place that many of the graves became obliterated in clearing it away. It is apparent that the sehoolhouse and cemetery had been located on one of the main roads in this part of the county at that time ; a wagon track coming past the Primi- tive Church and running to a ford of the Sangamon River. Along this road would have been the very nearest way from Clary's Grove to Fishtrap Ford where Cameron secur- ~Nin?teen NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT ed a license to build the first New Salem mill, connecting the earlier settlement with those east of the river. SURROUNDING TERRITORY New Salem stood in a "clearing", and when the pioneer made a clearing it was usually what the name implied; therefore the family of my father saw but very few scat- tered trees on top of New Salem hill. The little village was surrounded on three sides, and perhaps four, by heavy tim- ber that extended far to the north. It was well protected from cold winds. My father had the timber cut on the ad- joining hill north, but when he came to New Salem to live in 1853, there was no timber on the field directly west of the town site. In the early fifties my mother had lived when a young girl at what was called the "Vance place", a frame house standing west and near the town site, on the north side of the road that was an extension of Main Street. On the north across the branch had stood two houses near New Salem, one on a line with the west limit of the village, and the oth- er one just west of the cut in the north hill. They both stood at the top of the incline and near the one farthest west were two graves very near the stream. A half mile or more west of New Salem was the Ment- or Graham homestead, a one-story brick house facing the north. The public road had been changed and passed on the south side of the house in later years. It was occupied by tenants many years, and burned sometime in the nineties. The Grahams were of Irish descent. Mentor was a first cousin of W. G. Greene, also a relative of Mary Owen and the Abies. Almost a half-mile north of New Salem stood the Bowling Green (e) cabin, a single log room with a half-story above and a board lean-to on the north. On the east were outside steps leading to the "up-stairs room". This cabin had been built in an early day, for the wife of Bowling Green (e) told of several Indians coming to the house one day and asking in sign language for some pumpkins that they saw in the yard. Twenty NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT — Photo by Author. BOWLING GREEN(E) CABIN ON ORIGINAL SITE, WITH FLAGPOLE Later moved to west bank of Sangamon River near Old Salem Chautauqua Grounds. Twenty-One NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT Bowling Green (e) was buried in a family burial lot a short distance northwest of his cabin-home where some of the Abies had also been interred. From this place the in- terments were later removed to Oakland Cemetery near Petersburg, Illinois. Several weeks after his death a Ma- sonic order of which he was a member came from Spring- field, Illinois and held services at his grave. This was told to my mother by Mrs. Green (e) who was a near neighbor for several years before her death in 1867. The Able home was northwest of the Green (e) resi- dence on a hill. It is quite a high hill and the old road is still there with the wash of a hundred years. That Lincoln did not offer to help Mrs. Bowling Green (e) carry her heavy baby up this hill when he and Mary Owen accompanied her was not the only time that he failed to come up to the ideal standards of Miss Owen. The Able home was replaced by a house built at the foot of the hill and this one by a new house not many years ago. It stands a mile north of New Salem on the Peters- burg road. Almost two miles southwest of New Salem was the home of "Uncle Billy" and "Aunt Lizzie" Green (e), parents of William Graham Green (e), Lincoln's friend. While their home was not pretentious it was in a way a very "fine house" for it was built entirely of walnut with large fire- places. After the cooking-stove was invented the daugh- ters installed one in the Green (e) home, but when "Aunt Lizzie" prepared the meals she went into the old kitchen and cooked by the open fireplace. Here was the scene of a trivial but true story : William G. had brought "Dick" Yates home with him from Jackson- ville College to meet Lincoln, and "Aunt Lizzie" had the three young men to supper. Lincoln, in putting his feet under the table, pushed out a chip of wood that had been placed under one of the table legs, causing it to tilt, and over went a bowl of milk on Richard Yates' new suit of "store clothes". Lincoln apologized, saying that it was his awkwardness, but "Aunt Lizzie would take all the blame up- on herself" and said that the accident was caused by having set the table upon the uneven puncheon floor. Twenty-Two SOME LINCOLN RELICS THE OLD MILL-STONES There is no more interesting relic than the old "upper and nether" mill-stones of the first New Salem mill. When in use, at intervals, the points of the stones had to be made sharper with steel instruments, used by hand. This was called "dressing the buhrs", and was done by the millers themselves. These stones are the ones that were discarded when the second mill was built, and lay near it for thirty years. It was sometime near 1880 that the mill-stones of the first New Salem mill were sold by Fielding V. Bale to Rich- ard Batterton, Daniel Pelham and "Pete" Jackson who op- erated a saw-mill in Rock Creek near the Hickory Grove school-house, and wished to connect with it a small grain mill. A number of years later, the stones were in the posses- sion of Richard Batterton and Tilman Hornbuckle. Later Mr. Hornbuckle became sole owner, and after his death the stones were sold by his son William to Mr. C. W. Houghton who placed them near the museum in New Salem State Park. THE WADDLE KETTLE The old Waddle kettle! It was always known to the Bale families by this name. It is one relic that has been used every year from the time of the passing of the village to the finishing of the New Salem museum. It was used after the time of New Salem days to heat water for butchering, and in making soap. Mrs. Bowling Green (e) taught my mother to make "home-made" soap in this kettle, and while they stirred the bubbling caldron "Aunt Nancy" would tell stories of New Salem. She said that Waddle had used this kettle for dyeing in the manufacture of hats made of pressed wool, something I suppoze, like the famous hat of Horace Greely, the long- er they were worn the fuzzier they became. Twenty- Three NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT ■<*m0&>«x°»~ N i ^ .- ... n \ ^i%^ v: ^ %) $ \ A- i 1 ^ -. i " %J < V >>-A \ v a ^" I s \ J % si* \rf ^ . « V \ i % ~V< «* •j\^ \ ' H\j 1 s K ^ i' .'•*; X \4 ^ 1 \ 4 M^ \ : \ s) \ Q <>•, ' N^ i . % "X. .■ : ■- v 4 V. v v \i "■%i ^ ... > \s** "' Xs <> V ; ~nS> ' N? ^ x > ~:-^ x X> v s ^\ >$ Xi ,v s \ ^ >s > < \; X \ Photographed By Guy F. Bergen PHOTO OF LINCOLN LETTER BY COURTESY OF IDA M. TARBEIL Twenty-Four NEW SALEM AS I KNEW 1 IT When Waddle moved away from New Salem he sold two tanner kettles to Jacob Bals who, being the last resident of the village, was no doubt the recipient of most of the "plunder". When Jacob Bale's real estate was sold to his brother Abram, one of the:e kettles was also purchased, the other one going to someone residing in Sandridge. Abram willed his personal property to his sons who kept this kettle in partnership until one of the sons (Jacob) sold all his inter- est in the estate to his three brothers. At the death of E. Lewis Bale it was left in the hands of James L. and Field- ing Bale and descended 'to their children. This kettle had but one "eye'' to which a chain could be fastened to move it, but after one hundred years it has been given another "eye" and suspended for the first time in the New Salem State Park. LINCOLN LETTER TO ABRAM BALE The "thank you to boot" letter lay for thirty years in an old trunk tied with other letters in a neat packet, among innumerable packets. Never but once during this time did it come near being discovered. That was when a small girl had permission to delve in the contents, and had tried to read this letter, but being unable to decipher all the words and not having seen the signature before, she was some- what puzzled. She decided that he must be a miller as he was writing something about wheat; and it was not until several years later that her father, James L. Bale, when looking in the old trunk for a business paper, found the Lin- coln letter. It was said that the Mr. Hickox;mentioned in the letter was connected with a mill in or near Springfield, Illinois and had purchased wheat of Abram Bale who resided on New Salem Hill when he received the letter. The difficulty mentioned in the letter was settled as suggested by Lincoln. Note: The right to reproduce this letter was acquired by Miss Ida M. Tarbell sometime before 1905. Twenty-Five NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT THE ABRAM BALE AX Somewhere there is a much prized ax said to have been owned by Lincoln at one time and to have come into the pos- session of Abram Bale. Seeing this ax, also a bill of sale that went with it I mentioned it to my father, James L. Bale. He said that if his father, Abram Bale, had ever own- ed an ax once belonging to Abraham Lincoln, he did not know of it. Also that there was never a bill of sale for any of Abram's property. The personal property came to the sons by will and they used the things in partnership. THE BETROTHAL STONE During the first years of the Old Salem Chautauqua there was a ''feed-yard" near New Salem hill where people wishing to visit the grounds could leave their horses and go by boat. A young man by the same name, but a very distant re- lative of Wm. G. Green (e), Lincoln's friend, operated a lemonade stand at the "feed-yard" and one of the attrac- tions on his counter was the "betrothal stone". This> stone has the date of betrothal and also the names of Lincoln and Ann Rutledge. We were impressed with the excellence of the carving. Mr. Greene said that he had, found it near the Offutt store site. Later, one of his relatives sold it to a collector. THE LONG LOST MATTOCK Three times a member of our family had gone to look for a lost mattock that was later found, or one exactly like it, near the Offutt store site. My mother prized this old-fashioned tool very much as it had once belonged to her parents. One day she reluct- antly let the men take the mattock to use in rebuilding the rail fence that ran over New Salem hill near the bluff, and because of the great beds of leaves that always lay along the fence, the mattock was lost. Only a few years before I had noticed the carved let- ters, A L, on the mattock as it lay upon the porch one day, Twenty-Six NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT and began an investigation. It had been originally purchas- ed at a sale (I think MaKby was the name of the man hav- ing the isale) and these letters were on it when purchased. That the mattock had been the property of other peo- ple does not detract from the possibility that it may have been owned by Lincoln at one time, for these people men- tioned lived in the vicinity of his early home. The mattock had been lost almost twenty years, when found by Mr. A. A. Bradley of Petersburg, Illinois and plac- ed in the New Salem museum. Twenty-Seven NOTES Twenty-Eight NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT The final e was not used in the Greene name until aft- er the time of New Salem. (1) This Main Street of the village lay south of the present (1938) "restored Onstott house". The old road could be seen a number of years after the place was first plowed. It made the turn southward then straightened westerly some distance after passing the site of the Hill buildings. C. B. McGrew, grandson of Daniel Green Burner, says that the Burner log house stood in the turn of the road. (2) This bluff road has been the cause of two fatal ac- cidents at New Salem, within a few feet, but widely separ- ated as to time. Many years ago a Mr. Purvines, after driv- ing down the "bridle path" tried to make the short turn to go by the west door of the second mill, and went off the high bank above the mill pond. The driver was thrown clear of the wagon but died a short time later. The horses and wag- on went into the deep millpond where the horses were drowned. A few years ago while a party from an orphanage was visiting the state park one of the small girls disobeyed her guide and ran ahead down the "bridle path". She was un- able to stop at the cut-off at the bottom of the hill and fell upon the "hard road", causing her death a few days later. (3) From the research work of Mr. Eugene Boeker. THE TAVERN ON MAIN STREET (4) Mrs. Rachel Clarke was the widow of Judge C. J. F. Clarke who had boarded with James Rutledge during the winter of 1833-34 while Lincoln was a boarder there. Mrs. Clarke located the New Salem Tavern (hotel) as having stood against Main Street in the angle of the two roads, across from the Lincoln-Berry store on the south. She said that there was no "yard" between the house and the roads. She knew that it had been published differently in the Men- ard County Atlas of 1874, but said that "it was not right", and that she did not see how those compiling the Atlas had come to make that mistake. (Herndon coming to Peters- burg just before he published his history very likely ob- tained his information for the tavern from the Atlas. This Tn 'ents- Nine NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT description in the Atlas was only a sketch backed by no re- cords.) Mrs. Clarke had been in the village when a grown girl, and married Judge Clarke in 1841 while some of the empty houses of the village were still standing on the hill. They made their home three miles southwest of New Salem for the remainder of their lives, the Judge passing away in 1870. Their son, Charles, said that his parents had often vis- ited the old village site together. Mr. McClain Watkins, father of the late Russell Wat- kins, corroborated Mrs. Clarke in regard to the Atlas and tavern on Main Street, except that he put the tavern "slightly farther east" than the Lincoln-Berry store. Mr. James Armstrong was emphatic in saying the ;avern stood farther north than the Bale house. (Both Mr. Watkins and Mr. Armstrong lived near New Salem, and as long as Mrs. Clarke had.) Mrs. Hill, wife of the New Salem merchant, put the iavern on Main Street in the map she drew. T. G. Onstott ''staked out" the village one year for the benefit of the local Chautauqua and the "Tavern" marker was put by the tract in the washed out road near Main Street, and that of the Bale house farther south near the well. All these people had either lived \or been in the village of New Salem. My brother took out a rock 'wall on the south side of a depression against Main Street about where these people had located the tavern. A recent excavation showed that this depression had been dug out twice, no doubi the first time for the tavern cellar, then again when the first care- taker of the State Park removed the locust tree that grew here and found stones at the roots. About thirty feet east were indications of a fireplace chimney — ''rock, brick, ashes and filled in earth", also charcoal. DESCRIPTION OF NEW SALEM TAVERN Mrs. Clarke gave this description of the tavern (hotel) that stood on Main Street : A story and a half five room log Thirty NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT house facing the north. There were two rooms on the front with an ell on the south, and a small room built in the an- gle on the east. The second floor was one large room. There was a platform on the north or front of the house. She did not say where the two fireplace chimneys were. She thought that there had been two "front" doors, but she knew noth- ing of the placing of the windows. THE BALE OR LAST HOUSE OF NEW SALEM (5) It was a one story four room house when there had been a shed on the south side, built of boards set perpendi- cular and divided into two rooms. None of the Bale families used the loft for a room. My father said that it was too low to be thus used. He said al- so that the roof that was on this old home when it fell was the one that had been put on it when built. After the shed was removed it stood many years as a two room log house 20x40 feet. During the last years, when occupied by Lewis Bale, he put a partition in the west room to make a ?mall bedroom when a sister came to keep house for him. The east room was the living room and the west one used for a kitchen. There was a small opening in the ceil- ing of the west room for storing things in the loft. My parents said that there was no indication of any stairway, porch or platform having been attached to the house. "The cellar was in the northeast corner of the yard." The house was not on a line with it, but must have been parallel with the lot lines. The northeast corner of the house came near the cellar steps. "It was a little difficult to pass this corner of the house/' There was a small vegetable garden west of the house in the yard, and a gate opened in the west fence to the road. On the southwest was the stable. The foundation of the house was not more than a foot in depth which may account for the very low loft, thus tak- ing off weight. My brother and a hired man took out the rock founda- Thirty-One NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT tion several years after the building 1 had fallen down. There was a kind of pattern for the chimneys built of brick in the rock foundation. Jacob Bale could have moved this house from one of his farms. It was less work and expense to take down a log house than to make new logs. A number of the houses of New Salem were moved away, two going to the Jonathan Colby farm, one to the Hugh Armstrong farm and several to Petersburg. At one time there stood on the site of the new Peters- burg Postoffice, a log house that was bought and brought down from New Salem by Col. Cornelius Rourke. He lived in it until he built his two-story brick house which was re- cently demolished for the Postoffice building. Remark : The writer of this article has lived all her life in the immediate vicinity of New Salem and was one of the heirs that sold the village site to Hon. W. R. Hearst. Mill Stone of the old Bale mill in Green County, Ky., built thirty years before the seeend New Salem mill. Thirty Two -}■'■:-.?■": " '" • "■■ -'■ - ■■' ■'■ ■■-■■■■ '•••" --■ ' : ■■': '■■ -~ UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 973.7L63EB19N C001 NEW SALEM AS I KNEW IT PETERSBURG 3 0112 03 811166