973.7L63 C2C31L cop . 3 Gavins, William F. M3418 The Lincoln Family-Neighbors of Our Fathers LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER THE LINCOLN FAMILY- NEIGHBORS OF OUR FATHERS / 'O '-^A^ y /"' " (j*.- PRICE TEN CENTS MATTOON'S 80TH ANNIVERSARY AND HOMECOMING Lincoln Day Committee H. R. Checkley, Chairman H. P. KendaU Clarence Bell Bert B. Cole Dr. O. W. Ferguson Judge C. H. Douglas H. B. Black Rev. Horace Batchelor Mrs. Louise Neal Mrs. Mary Casey Mi-s. Nellie Freeman Mrs. John R. Hamilton Judge Craig Van Meter C. H. Fletcher Dr. J. G. Baker Dan Harrington Ralph Rodgers Fred Joseph W. F. Cavins, Author The Lincoln Family^Nelghbors of Our Fathers By William F. Cavins p-jl^^jE APPROACH the task of presenting a brief sketch of local Lincoln his- tory, fully conscious that volumes have been written about Abraham and his people by historians more worthy and more widely informed. We justify the undertaking, however, believing that any celebration of the founding of Mattoon, whose early history, together with that of its sur- rounding territory, is so interwoven with that of the Lincoln family, through their relatives and friends, that an omission of these annals would be regarded as a slight to the Lincoln memoirs, as well as a serious loss to the pride of the city we cherish. Limited space and a zealous fondness for his memory will necessarily keep our treatise near at home. Therefore, we trust that others with memories and shrines equally sacred to themselves will not find reason for offense because of any omissions. Of the states that claim his citizen- ship, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, ours is the one to present him as a gift to the na- tion, and our own Coles County is richer in ideals and patriotism for such portion of his life as fell to our good fortune. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a traveler and a builder. He must have built and lived in more than a dozen cabins, all of poles or logs. Some were erected on squatter claims, others on land to which he iield legal title. There were at least five in Kentucky, three in Indiana and five that we know of in Illinois. The one in LaRue County, Kentucky, where Abraham was born, in 1809, three miles south of Hodgenville, has been pre- served for the ages in a beautiful and per- manent structure of stone, and it is vis- ited annually by many thousands of pilgrims from all quarters of the globe. This recognition of his greatness, started most fittingly at the place of his entry into life, let us hope, may follow his career from thence to all places tliat have felt the touch of this great personality. Abraham Lincoln. Page 2 The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers From his autobiography by Stephenson, Abraham Lincoln, says, they left Ken- tucky in 1816 when he was a lad of seven, partly because of slavery but chiefly be- cau&3 of difficulty as to land titles. The move from the Kentucky home to Indiana was a hectic experience fraught with exposure, occasioned by the wrecking of their raft in the Ohio River and the journey on with what of their salvaged possessions they could convey on foot and on borrowed horses, for the remaining ninety miles. (From Gridley.) They constructed a most primitive shelter of poles on Pigeon Creek, now Spen- cer County. During their fourteen years residence in Indiana they dwelt on this same tract in three consecutive abodes, enjoying no modern conveniences, and dreading no bills from plumbers or public utilities. During this time Abraham's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, succumbed to sickness, hardships and deprivations, and was succeeded a year later as wife and mother in the family, by widow Johnston, previously Sarah Bush, and an early sweet- heart of Thomas Lincoln. Dennis Hanks. Abe"s cousin, left an orphan about this time til rough the death of David and Betsy Sparrow, added another member to the Lincoln family, the aggregate of children now being Abe and his sister, Sarah, Dennis Hanks and three Johnston step-children, Elizabeth. Matilda and John D. The new stepmother brought with her ideas that stim- ulated the father and Hanks to some effort to make the home more habitable; and ap- plying her own initiative to the same pur- pose, a very colorless situation was greatly brightened. Even at best they made but a scant living, one they could scarcely have made at all, except for the forest, which was generous witli its fruits, nuts and game, the greatest asset of its very wildness. Here they lived until 1830 when the feet of Thomas Lincoln began to itch for the tread of other soil. Stories had come to him from relatives who had moved to Illinois that gave promise of better davs ahead. So resolving to cast his lot in this direction he sold his farm and other pos- sessions, and to prepare for flight from his poverty, invested most of the proceeds in rolling stock to the extent of a horse, two yoke of oxen and a wagon. The party which embarked with this equipment, being about a dozen perhaps, was comprised of the Lincolns, stepson, stepdaughters, sons-in-law. Hanks and Hall, and their children. Mrs. Lincoln said, "We were like the children of Israel seeking a promised land." But no Red Sea ever opened for them to pass. They had to wade the sloughs and ford the swollen streams. (From Gridley.) Dennis Hanks, cousin of Abraham Lincoln, who lived with the Lincolns and who said that he taught Abe to cipher. The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers Page 3 They traveled to Vincennes and doubtless tarried there to satisfy their wonder at the greatest town in the state. They crossed the Wabash River info Illinois. Their exact course from there to their destination in Macon County, near Decatur, has been extensively investigated and loudly argued in recent years and remains largely speculative to the present time. Regardless of where they may have crossed the Embarrass River, they must have stopped with some of their relatives in Coles County before proceeding on to Macon County, since Ichabod Radley and his family, coming from Kentucky in 1828, were living on Brush Creek about 40 rods east of the present Dry Grove School. He was a brother-in-law of Thomas Lincoln, having married a sister of Sarah Bush. Hannah, a daughter of Ichabod Radley, and the wife of John Sawyer, was living at Wabash Point near what is called Magnet. Their journey terminated at a spot about 8 miles southwest of Decatur where John Hanks and John Radley had already been preparing logs. Here they erected the first Lincoln cabin in Illinois and cleared and fenced a small tract of ground, with those Abe Lincoln rails, which during the Lincoln Presidential campaign became famous throughout the nation. But they were disappointed in this promised land. Chills and fever plagued them during the summer, and the following winter made a mark in history for its deep snows and severe temperature, almost exterminating the wild game by freezing and starvation. Thomas was disguested with Illinois and, declaring that one brief year was enough of it, resolved to return to Indiana. When spring had melted the deep snow, they took the back track, stopping at John Sawyer's for a time. Here, it is said by descendants of Mr. Sawyer, now living in this neighborhood, that the Lincolns were dissuaded from their purpose by relatives and friends and instead of going on to Indiana, squatted in Buck Grove in Sec. 5, Tp. 11. The land is now owned by C. W. Stephenson. Abraham says in his autobiography, "I drove one of the teams all the way from Indiana to Illinois," and John Hall says to Eleanor Gridley that Abe drove back from Macon County. If the latter is true, he must not have remained here long for he left Sangamon shortly for New Orleans with a boat load of goods for Denton Offut. However, on returning from New Orleans to St. Louis, says Herndon. a law partner of Lincoln. "John Hanks. John D. Johnston and Lincoln started across Illinois on foot. At Edwardsville, Hanks separated from them, going to Springfield, while Lincoln and Johnston went to Coles County where their parents had recently gone." "Abe remained here perhaps not more than a month," says Herndon, "but long enough effectually to dispose of one Daniel Needham, a famous wrestler wTio had challenged the returned boatman for a test of strength. The contest took place at a locality known as Wabash Point. Abe threw his antagonist twice with com- parative ease and thereby demonstrated such marked strength and agility as to render him forever popular with the boys of the neighborhood." The place just referred to was a store and post office operated by George M. Hanson, who came here in 1828. was appointed postmaster two vears later and named the place Paradise, after a town from whence Page 4 The Lincoln F amily — Neighbors of Our Fathers he came in Virginia. This place was located near Magnet about a quarter of a mile south of where Mrs. Edwin Arterburn now lives. This was the first post office in Coles County, and Thomas Lincoln got his mail here, when he got mail at all. Richmond was established and became the post office in 1836 on the Old State road near the present site of Nathan Linder's liome. It stood within the memory of many living now. In our reminiscent wandering in this locality let us not overlook Old Langs- ton just west of the Little Wabash School. This was a stage coach relay station and tavern. It was operated later by Wm. G. Waddill. An interesting statement is found in a clipping from a local paper which appeared several years ago. The statement from Mrs. H. P. Smith follows: "I saw Mr. Lincoln a great many times. My father, Wm. G. Waddill, kept a stage house on the Old State road near Little Wabash Church, and I cooked for Lincoln many times. I have some dishes now from the old stage house, a plate from which Mr. Lincoln ate." Mrs. Ed Waltrip. daughter of Mrs. Smith, now living on Western avenue near the city, is in possession of this plate, and recently honored the writer by permitting him to eat from it a piece of goosberry pie. The next move of Thomas Lincoln was into a log cabin he had builded on a 40 acre tract in Sec. 10, Tp. 11, which he bought for seventy-five dollars from John D. Johnston in 1834. The location of this cabin was about a half mile south west of Lerna and is now the property of J. Will Walker. Several persons now living well remember when this house was standing. Among them are John Riley, George Balcii and Thomas Allison. Mrs. Susan D. Baker, narrated to the writer and others, that when she was nine years old, two well dressed men came to their home and asked her father, Isaac Rod- gers, if he knew where they could find some rails split by Abe Lincoln. He took them to a fence and said to them that the rails in this fence were split by Dennis Hanks and Abe Lincoln. "I cannot tell the ones split by Lincoln from those split by Hanks. They are all mixed together." She says the men got some of the rails and took them away. Since this was the year of 1860, they were likely used in some pol- itical rally. She described the place as being about a mile northwest from the corner near where Mark Wortham now lives, which would closely approximate the Walker 40. Tlie Thomas Lincoln family moved again in 1837 to an 80 acre tract in Sec- tion 16 cornering on Section 10 on the southwest. The place has often been referred to as the Plummer place. The land belongs now — 40 acres to Dr. George W. Riley of New York City, and 40 to the heirs of the late James Hackley. Edgar Riley is now living on the place. George Balch states that Abrham Lincoln was seen by his cousin, George Balch, the poet, making his way, walking in the woods to his father's, when living here. The poet was living in a nearby cabin at the time on the above stated Hackley forty. Tiie Lincolns remained here until their final move in 1840 into a cabin which they built on Goose Nest Prairie, south of Farmington. The Lincoln Familv — Neighbors of Our Fathers Pas This, the last abode of Thomas Lincoln until his death in 1851 and of Mrs. Lin- coln during the remainder of her days until 1869. was more familiarly known and more revered than any of the Lincoln cabins in the County. It was taken down by The Lincoln Log Cabin Association, which purchased it to be exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. Its mysterious disappearance occasioned an ir- reparable loss to the Lincoln memorials. If our foresight and interest in 1890 had been commensurate with our regrets today regarding its destiny, this cabin might now be standing where it should have continued to stand, proclaiming the eloquence of its own right to a venerable recognition. How much time Abraham may have spent at this place during his father's resi- dence has been the source of much conflict in opinion. John Hall, a grandson of Sarah Bush Lincoln, has him splitting the boards for the gable of this house while others have him at the same time engrossed in politics and courting Mary Todd in Spring- field. Many claim he made some occasional visits to this place both before and after his father's death, when practicing law on the circuit. It is well known that in Februarv. 1861. before his inauguration as President, he visited his step- Annis House in Farmington where Lincoln visited his step- mother, had dinner and met his old neighbors, in 1861. mother and stepsister, temporarily living in Farmington. Here he met many of his old friends, who could think of him only as Abe, and not as President. He ate dinner here and made a talk to the assembled countryside. It was an occasion to which those in attendance have since referred with tender emotion and no little pride. George Balch. Jasper Miller, Thomas Allison and Mrs. Emma Allison Miner, living today, cherish the occasion as a fond memory. The latter received a kiss from Mr. Lincoln, a partiality to be excused because she was nursing a wounded hand. The old house in which he received his countrymen is owned and occupied Pase 6 The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers by Mr. and Mrs. Lando Annis. It stands today the last material habitation to be seen and touched and literally comprehended of all the Lincoln Shrines. in the County. We wonder that it has stood so long, yet still it stands, weak and iiumble, as if in helpless supplication to our civic indifference to be rescued from the ravages of time and permitted to perpetuate a sacred memory. If it shall be al- lowed to go the way of all the other cabins of the County, whose floors, like its, have known our hero's tread, and whose roofs, like its, have furnished for his head a shelter, though only for a day, the ghosts of our regrets will pursue us in rebuke for our neglect to honor this draft upon our gratitude for a debt of recognition now already overdue. Perhaps no more conspicuous event has occurred in Coles County than tliat in 1858 when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas debated the issues of their campaign in Charleston for a seat in the U. S. Senate. Both candidates spent the night before in Mattoon. Douglas entertained his political friends at the Essex House while Lincoln received his at the Old Pennsylvania House, located where the Sawin-Jones Conipanv store now stands. There was much visiting, much caucusing and much planning that eve- ning for the parades of the next day. Mr. Lincoln stepped to the edge of the porch to honor a lineup of some ten or a dozen curi- ous lads with a handshake, among whom were such familiar names as Dar James, Lute McKee, Dan O'Bannon and Jasper Mill?r. The last named states that Mr. Lincoln said to him as he put his hand on Mr. Miller's bare head and noted his bare feet, "Young man, I wish I could go barefooted." These were the days when parades were in flower, and these two parades that formed on this occasion were of the Sunflower variety. Mr. Miller says that he went with his father out to the Lone Elm and north to Boyds to get in the Democratic line, and he knows not how many were behind. He said the Republican procession, though not so long, excelled in the number and resplendency of its floats. He said that on one float from Paradise was mounted a wooden lathe turning out canes from old rails — half jestingly declared to have been split by "Honest Abe." Mr. Miller calls attention to anotlier float conveying 32 girls representing the 32 states in the Union. S. E. Thomas, Professor of History in the Teachers' College, gives us more specific details of this float, stating that it was in the Charleston delegation which met the one from Mattoon, the delegations returning as one proces- sion to the scene of the debate at the fair grounds. Mr. Thomas said the float was drawn by six or eight horses, and on one side of the float was a banner inscribed "Westward the Star of Empire Takes its Way Our Girls Link-on to Lincoln. Their Mothers Were For Clav." Mernorial stone marking the site of the Lincoln-Douglas debate at the Charleston fair grounds. The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers Page 7 J'-CO' On the other side was a banner with the inscription, "Lincoln, Oglesby, Marshall and Craddock." He states also that the girls were dressed in white and on their blue velvet caps, wore wreaths of green and a silver star, and each carried a banner on wiiich was inscribed the name of the state represented. Mr. Lincoln rode in a carriage from Mattoon with Deck Dole, James T. Cun- ningham and J. W. True. The carriage was drawn by a splendid span of cream colored horses. Another float attracted much attention as it was drawn by half a dozen yoke of oxen and carried a large rail cut, and two or three stalwart men who were en- gaged with the old fashioned maul and glut, splitting rails. An attached banner bore the inscription "Vote for Honest Abe, the Rail- Splitter, the Ox-Driver and the Giant-Killer." The oxen were driven by Matt Glassco, a man near Lincoln's height: and when they passed Lincoln at the northwest corner of the square, he remarked to Mr. Glassco "You, too, are up in the world some." This ox team and rail-split- ting idea made quite a political appeal and was greatly expanded in the presidential cam- paign of 1860. This same Matt Glassco and others drove a team of 32 yoke of oxen hitched to an immense wagon in a Republican rally in Mattoon. For the description of the ox- team-rail-splitting incidents and that of the car- riage in which Mr. Lincoln rode, we are also indebted to Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas lias treated the Lincoln-Doug- las event quite extensively and authentically, having made his investigations in 1908 when there were many living who could give well remembered information concerning it. The article published in pamphlet form, "The Teachers' College Bulletin," will especially in- terest Coles County readers. Just how many now living witnessed this occasion I do not know, but, like the Civil War veterans, their numbers are getting few. Mrs. Sarah Hendrix, living in Champaign, and formerly of Paradise Township, was there with her fatlier, Wm. Love, who knew intimately both Lincoln and Douglas, and he made it a point to introduce his daugh- ter, Sarah, a miss of 12 years, to both of them. Meeting near the speakers stand, Mr. Lincoln greeted them heartily. They had to hunt for Mr. Douglas, and found him in his room after the speaking at the hotel. Quite singularly, said Mrs. Hendrix, both Douglas and Lincoln asked her if she played the violin, and when s-aJ^ New Memorial Stone at graves of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln erected by the Lions Clubs of the State of Illinois. Page 8 Tlie Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers she inquired the reason for this strange question each offered as explanation that he knew her father to be quite a fiddler. Mrs. Hendrix was at the surveying of the land for the site of Mattoon. She "tagged along" while her father carried a surveyor's chain, which distinction puts her in an enviable position at this par- ticular time. Though 87 years of age she hopes to attend the celebration. Many incidents, though of small moment in Mr. Lincoln's great career, when coming from the observations of our friends, readily command our interest and cause us to hold him closer in the warmth of our affections. James M. Bresee, a well known veteran of the Civil War, states that when liv- ing near Farniingtoii with his parents before enlisting, a young woman named Ida Couch came with her children from Kentucky in an ox cart to live near them. Her husband was a soldier in the Union Army. He had sent her $5.00 which she never received and which she very much needed. Being unable to read or write she asked a neighbor to write a letter to the President explaining her plight, and called on Mr. Bresee's mother to read for her the President's reply. Mr. Lincoln stated that due to the confusion of war tlie mail service was somewhat inefficient and that let- ters when lost were not easily traced. Fearing that she might not get the money and lest she might suffer for the need of it, he was therefore enclosing money to the amount that had miscarried. Mrs. Susan Baker savs that her father had a lawsuit with anotlier man to establish the ownership of a colt which was claimed by both parties, and that her father, Isaac Rodgers, secured Lincoln for his attorney. Rogers' colt got mixed with the other man's horses and followed them away, he refusing to yield the colt to Mr. Rodgers, sincerely believing it to be his. Mr. Lincoln instructed the disputing parties to tie the supposed mothers of the colt a given distance apart and the colt midway between. Then release the colt and observe its conduct. As the colt cast its lot with the Rodgers equine, so the judge cast his decision in favor of Rodgers. David Dryden and his sisters. Mrs. Allison and Mrs. Bovell, acting true to form in childhood tradition, were loitering around the Lincoln watermelon patch near Lerna. Thomas Lincoln observing them came over to them and gave them a melon. After Thomas Lincoln died. Sarah Bush Lincoln stayed for a year or so with John Sawyer, then a widower, and helped care for his children, it is said. She gave to Charles Sawyer, Thomas Lincoln's cane, which is now in the hands of Clarence Bell of Mattoon. 111., a great grandson of John Sawyer. On the occasion of the debate, Mr. Lincoln took supper at tlie home of A. H. Chapman in Charleston and he stayed over night at the home of Thomas Marshall in the same city when he made the visit in 1861 to his stepmother in Farmington. The bed in which he slept that night is now in the home of Mrs. John H. Marshall of Charleston, a daughter-in-law of Thomas Marshall, and is in excellent condition. In the Joseph W. Shrader collections in the Mattoon Public Library is an old hatchel. an instrument for carding flax, which was made by Thomas Lincoln. It was given to Mr. Shrader by James Crume of Muddy Point. Thomas Lincoln's The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers Page 9 sister, Mary, married a man named Ralph Crume in Indiana, and we may conclude the hatchel came to him through family lines, and that James was a relative of Ralph. F'. 0. Finfrock has in the circuit clerk's office a bill in chancery written in Lincoln's hand, drawn in favor of Dennis Hanks versus William White; dated 185L Signed, Lincoln & Linder. D. L. Shoaff, of Shelbyville, a great grandson of Dennis Hanks, has an old brass snuff box which Lincoln gave to him, bringing it from New Orleans when he made the trip with Denton Offut's boat of goods in 183L Uncle Ben Berry, a well known Mattoon citizen who lived to near the hundred mark, was tending the Thomas Lincoln farm near Farmington in 1860. This in- formation has come to us from his daughter, Mrs. Lillie Stevens, living in Chicago. To give you a tip as to the effort by which Lincoln came into possession of what meagre luxuries he may have had, it is said he bargained with Nancy Miller to split four hundred rails for every yard of jeans cloth that she would weave for him and dye with walnut bark. Eleanor Gridley, author of "From the Log Cabin to the White House," who sojourned for six weeks at the Thomas Lincoln Log Cabin near Farmington when gatliering material for her book in 1891, boasts CORFECTTON Mr So 'ileanor G-ridley says she is the only person liv- ing who was present at the birth of tha Republican Part v/hich occurred July 6th l85^f at Jackson, Michigan, her native town* only three persons attended, Lincoln, Herndon and one whom Herndon describes as a courage- ous man named John Payne. Lincoln spoke. Tlie meeting was larger than he "knew" it would be. He knew his partner, Herndon, and himself would be there but he was not sure that anyone else would, and yet another man was brave enough to come out. "While all seems dead,'' he exhorted Herndon and Payne, "tlie a^e itself is not dead. Be Eleanor Gridley — who resided for six weeks in the Thomas Lin- coln cabin near Farmington when gathering information for her book "From the Log Cabin to the White hopeful, and now let us adjourn and appeal House." to the people. ' This so called "courageous" John Payne has a daughter, lone Parsons, who is at the present time living in Charleston with her daughter, Mrs. E. C. Cavins. Page 10 The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers Mrs. Parsons has seen Mr. Lincoln in her father's home in Springfield on several occasions. As to any residential periods of Mr. Lincoln in Coles County we are unable to give definite assertion. That he visited on occasions at the home of Elislia Linder when practicing on the circuit with Ursha Linder, a cousin of Elisha, the Linder relatives will affirm. What other visits that liave, and have not, been mentioned in Charleston, Farmington. Lerna and Paradise vicinities were sufficient to inspire in tlie early settlers an admiration and affection for him which they have passed on with undiminished fervor to their children. A fitting marble stone was erected at the grave of Abraham's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, by P. E. Studebaker, who purchased the Lincoln farm where she was buried on Pigeon Creek in Spencer County, Indiana. Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln rest in Gordon Cemetery, ten miles southeast of Mattoon, near Janesville. among those with whom they neighbored when the blue- stem billowed the prairies; when they shared the earth's increase with wolves, foxes, and panthers; and when the sight of a rattler in the foot paths was more frequent than that of a horse today on the public highway. A granite memorial, suitable but not over pretentious, marks their graves, and bears the inscription: Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, Father and Stepmother of Our Martyred Presi- dent, whom Their Humble but Worthy Home Gave to the World." The memorial was erected by the Lions Clubs of Illinois, an action growing out of a suggestion at the Mattoon Lions Club by a vis- iting member, District Governor Townley, which matured at a caucus of all the Illinois delegates at the Atlantic City National conven- tion in which Mattoon was represented by Harry I. Hannah. The Mattoon Lions Club assumed responsibility for laying the memorial founda- tion. Tlie crowd which assembled at the ceme- tery for the dedication ceremony was estimated to be six thousand. Markers at the feet of the graves were placed tliere by the Kiwanis Club of Danville, Illinois. The stone that originally identified these graves now stands near the entrance to the cemetery. Though not so rich or so imposing as the new one, there seems to linger about it a halo, which those who long accustomed to visiting the old stone, are as loath to abandon, as is a little girl to forsake entirely her old rag doll for a new one much more splendid. Old tomb stone of Thomas Lin- coln at entrance to Gordon Ceme- tery, marred by seekers of sou- venirs. The Lincoln Family — Neighbors of Our Fathers Page 11 It is not known how many people journey annually to give reverence at the graves of the parents of the nation's idol. In the Shiloh Church at the cemetery is a book where all visitors may register their names. During the period of one year picked at random in the 20's there was a registration of 1800; and many visitors do not register, or even know that there is a hook in the church house for that purpose. While most visitors are from Illinois, twenty-five states were represented during the year just mentioned, and if all of the old registers were consulted, I doubt not that names might be found on their pages from every state in the union. In poverty and obscurity, Lincoln entered the contest for recognition in life at the foot of the class and rose to the highest position of honor that was in the power of his country to bestow. The execution of such a possibility might be offered as evidence to bolster up any de- clining faith in the doctrine of miracles. Yet with a deeper understanding of his heart, it seems less strange, for the earliest ideals of his life were the arrows that marked the "Lincoln Way." His soul panted after knowledge as the hart after watery brooks. The lessons of Aesop's Fables, planted in his young mind, yielded a crop of principles which he applied with telling force in sus- taining the nation's honor. He hitched his wagon to the stars of Washington and Jefferson. His course was most naturally upward since he traveled with ideals that went in that direction. As citizens of Coles County endowed by the wealth of such enviable honor, let us not content ourselves merely to rejoice that his parents lived and died as of our number, and that he himself walked the pioneer paths of our woodlands, but at these altars, let us dedicate ourselves to a keener hunger for integrity, a deeper passion for truth and a warmer sympathy for our fellowman. Sarah Bush Lincoln, stepmother of our martyred president, who en- couraged his zest for knowledge and gave him a mother's love. Goose Nest Prairie cabin near Farmington. the last home of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln. Tne man sitting near the left door is John J. Hall, the woman sitting in the door is his daughter, Harriett Hall. The man standing in front of the window is Squire Hall, the one sitting is A, L. Hall and the man standing at the right of the door is Joseph A. Hall. All three are sons of John J. Hall, In mute but wondrous eloquence it stands, Inspiring lofty hope and noble aim, For these rude logs were fastened by the hand That from a race in bondage broke the chain, And caused tlie sun of liberty to shine On lands made dark by slavery's cruel strife, A noble nation issued from his hand. — A nation's glory issued from his life. The above tribute was written by a confederate soldier, Colonel F. R. South - worth. Disarmed of all prejudice, surrendered of all malice, as he stood beside this humble cabin, the author recited these words in the presence of the officers of the Lincoln Log Cabin Association and a party of Goose Nest Prairie neighbors a short time before the cabin was taken to Chicago World's Fair. (From Gridley, I Published by Mattoon, Illinois, 80th Anniversary Lincoln Day Committee, 1934 LINCOLN DAY PROGRAM Friday, July 6, 1934 AT LINCOLN EXHIBIT 10:00 — Eleanor Gridley, President, Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Association, Chicago, Illinois. 11:00 — Herbert Wells Fay. Lincoln's Tomb Custodian, Springfield, Illinois. Exhibit supplied by Herbert Wells Fay of Springfield, Illinois, and Lincoln National Life Foundation of Fort Wayne, Ind. AT HOTEL U. S. GRANT 12:00 — Lincoln Luncheon, entertaining Governor Horner and out of town guests. 1:30 — Motorcade to 80th Anniversary and Homecoming grounds. 2:00 — Introduction of Governor Henry Horner by Logan Hay, President, The Abraham Lincoln Association. 2:15 — Address by Governor Henry Horner of Illinois. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOISURBANA 973 7L63C2C31L COOS THE LINCOLN FAMILY -NEIGHBORS OF OUR FAT 3 0112 031801936