This afternoon I visited the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln near Hodgenville, KY.  I suppose that what I know about Lincoln is mainly what I learned as a student, just briefly that he was born in a log cabin, but more about his time as president and his role in the Civil War and Emancipation.  But I’ve never heard the story of his family, and the early years he spent in Kentucky.

His grandfather, also named Abraham, was a true pioneer, it seems, bringing his family through the Cumberland Gap in 1782 into the Kentucky wilderness, where shortly afterwards he was killed in an Indian raid.  His son Thomas, father of President Lincoln, was nearly killed as well, but was saved when his brother shot another approaching Indian.  Thomas grew up, worked as a carpenter, and married Nancy Hanks.  I particularly like the look of Nancy in the pictures below, she looks so intelligent and as if she might have had a good sense of humor!  Perhaps you had to have to live on the frontier in those days.

Thomas and Nancy bought Sinking Spring Farm, where their first child Sarah was born, followed by Abraham, the future president, named after his grandfather.  They lived in a one room cabin there, of about 16 by 18 feet, with a dirt floor and a small fireplace.  Interestingly, the fact they owned their own farm and livestock meant that they were actually in the upper middle class in the area, in spite of their seemingly frugal living arrangements.

It seems that recordkeeping in those days was a bit loose, and property disputes were common.  When young Abe was two years old, a competing claim on the Sinking Spring Farm forced the family to move about 10 miles away to Knob Creek.  He grew up there, and although he only had about two years of formal schooling, Abe loved to write and was a natural story teller.  His teacher was an emancipationist, and his parents belonged to an anti-slavery church, so it’s likely that his views against slavery were formed at this early period.  Unfortunately, a second lawsuit over the ownership of this farm led the Lincolns to give up on Kentucky and move to the less settled Indiana.

The monument at Sinking Spring Farm was built about 100 years after Thomas Lincoln originally moved to the site, and encloses a log cabin that was originally thought to be the Lincoln cabin, but which the Park Service now says is most likely not original, but is representative of cabins that were used in the area at that time.  The monument itself has 56 steps leading up to it, representing the 56 years of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

And the cabin looks tiny, hardly adequate to shelter a family.

The name of the farm came from a spring at the bottom of the hill that was frequented by travellers and used by the family.  On the hot afternoon when I visited, there was a lovely cool breeze coming up from the crack in the limestone rock where the spring poured out, and I could imagine Nancy lingering there when getting water to do the washing up.