Friday, November 6, 2009 10:34 PM CST
USA's Yesterdays: Macon County welcomes the Lincoln clan
By Hal Malehorn
Very likely, Abraham Lincoln for years kept a warm spot in his heart for Macon County. After all, that was where the Thomas Lincoln family settled when they first arrived in Illinois from Indiana in the later winter of 1830.
And Decatur, Macon’s county seat, was the site of several of Abraham’s early court cases.
Then, too, in 1860, Decatur hosted the Illinois Republican Convention, which bestowed upon Abraham the nickname, “The Railsplitter,” and set him on the road that led to his nomination as the Republicans’ presidential candidate.
Thomas Lincoln’s decision to emigrate from Indiana had been a reasonable one. For one thing, cousin John Hanks had come alone to Macon County earlier, and had reported that the land there was superior to the soil in southern Indiana.
Beside that, the “milk sick” — that dreaded disease that had carried off Nancy Hanks back in 1818 — had broken out again in Indiana. In fact, cousin Dennis Hanks, who earlier had lived with the Thomas Lincolns, had come down with the ailment and had lost more than a dozen cattle, to boot.
And so, Thomas Lincoln sold his 80 acres along Pigeon Creek, as well as a lot in Elizabethtown, Ky., that belonged to Sarah Bush Lincoln.
Three wagonloads of kinfolk assembled for the westward trek: Thomas and his wife, and Sarah’s son, John D. Johnston; Dennis Hanks, Dennis’ wife “Betsy,” and their four offspring; and Squire Hall, Squire’s wife, “Tildy,” and their son.
Also included was Abraham, on the sunny side of 21, who drove one of the wagons.
According to stories told, Abraham stocked up on packets of pins and needles to sell in Illinois, doubling his money in the bargain. Also, at Vincennes, where they ferried the Wabash, Abraham reported seeing his first printing press.
Entering Macon County on the Springfield-to-Paris trace, the party found Decatur unprepossessing, to say the least. At the time Decatur consisted of perhaps a dozen log structures planted willy-nilly among a stand of oaks.
Stumps of felled trees still obstructed the road serving as the main street. A log courthouse tripled as a courthouse, church and school — and sheltered hogs in its shade.
After camping briefly in Decatur, the Lincoln caravan traveled to the home of John Hanks, who had purchased a place for himself in Harristown Township. There the Lincolns paused long enough for the menfolk to find a spot for permanent settlement.
After scouting the neighborhood several miles to the southwest of Decatur, the Lincolns fixed upon a small acreage near the Sangamon River. There the able-bodied males pitched in, felling trees, lopping branches, scoring the bark, and hewing smooth two sides of each log.
The first logs were placed upon stone foundations, and half-round planks were laid as a puncheon floor, held in position by pegs whittled to size and inserted into holes drilled with an auger.
As each subsequent log was dressed, ready for raising onto the rising wall, at each corner sat a man equipped with three tools: a hand axe, a hand saw and experience. Thus the ends of the logs were notched and eased into their places. The finished rectangle was 16 feet square.
A stone hearth was laid, a stick and clay chimney emplaced, rafters raised, and shingles rived from bolts of wood were held onto the roof by saplings laced with stout hemp rope. Finally, the cracks in the structure were “chinked and daubed.”
Abraham worked that summer as a farmhand, splitting out rails for fencing, and helping raise a smokehouse and a barn. He also plowed fields and cultivated crops. He reportedly split 400 rails per yard of hand-woven homespun jean fabric for a pair of trousers. By his own reckoning, Abraham accounted for some 3,000 split rails, total.
That summer Abraham also gave several speeches — all of them in favor of making the Sangamon River navigable. Upon one occasion a candidate for office came through the neighborhood, “politicking,” and although Abraham was not a candidate himself, he did debate the candidate, turning up a box to stand on, and in delivering his oration, “beat the other feller all hollow.”
Unfortunately for the Lincoln clan, their one-year stay in Macon County turned sour: in the first place, the “ague” (as malaria was then called) broke out at the end of the summer, and the Lincolns were hard-pressed to harvest the meager crops they had planted that spring.
The intensity of their suffering is reflected in the amounts of “Barks” that Thomas Lincoln bought at James Renshaw’s store. (“Barks” being a mixture of whiskey and Peruvian Bark — most likely quinine.)
And then, beginning about Christmastime, snow began to fall, accumulating several feet deep on the level, and piling much higher in the drifts. Temperatures plummeted accordingly, and settlers had to burn fence rails to stay warm.
Two incidents involving Abraham that winter were recorded: in crossing the iced-over Sangamon on his way to the Warnicks’ cabin, he broke through and got his feet wet. Mrs. Warnick rubbed snow to counter the frostbite, and applied rabbit fat to Abe’s toes.
A second incident occurred when Abraham and John Hanks traveled four difficult miles to the gristmill of Robert Smith, to borrow some grain. “We have used up all our corn,” Lincoln told Smith. “And now we have to go to our neighbors for assistance.”
With the arrival of spring came a sudden spell of sunny weather, which melted the snow cover so fast that the fields were flooded, delaying planting.
All things considered, Thomas Lincoln decided to return to Indiana: “I’d jest as soon take my chances with the milk sick in Indiany, as be froze to death in Illinoise,” he declared.
And so the extended family reluctantly left Macon County. For his part, Abraham, by then old enough to leave home, did so. He agreed to help build a flatboat for storekeeper Denton Offutt and escort it to New Orleans
Thomas Lincoln’s road, retraced out of Macon County, would carry him only as far as Coles County. But Abraham’s longer road would end up at the White House.
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