Show IN birthplace ALOF ik 1 H L a C el om am living in new now england whose falther father wes was born in tho historic log cebin stories of the early 1 deys lincoln has been dead thirty eight years most of those who personally knew him have also pas paso d on into silence and like washington he has become in the popular mind a sort of mystical cal figure associated with a bygone age of dramatic heroism a patron saint although new england loved lin coin as much as any other section of the country did when it came to I 1 now him yet he was always regarded as a characteristic product of the p aneer country and although efforts not alto gether successful have been made to show that he was of hingham bingham ances try never till now has massachusetts been conscious of the presence in this locality of any living connection be tween the immortal rail splitter and oar own soil nevertheless for seventeen years one of the environs of boston has bar bored a woman who makes the proud boast that her father and abraham lincoln were first cousins that both teen years of her life in missouri hav eg ong been sent to a kentucky school at that age she was vas married ind lived in louisville for some years ears ater removed to cincinnati and after the death of her husband came east married mr moore a native of massa chu and they lived for seventeen years vears in atlantic a part of quincy un til they removed to pepperell when asked to define her relation ship to the martyred president mrs moore said my father william S hall was a son of martha hanks sister of nancy hanks who married thomas lincoln and became the mother of abraham lincoln so you see my father was first cousin and I 1 was second cousin to the president my grandfather who married mar tha hanks was lev levi hall and they and thomas and nancy lincoln were living together in the little log cabin in la rue county ky in 1809 when abraham lincoln was born there MY M father was born three months later in the same cabin when questioned as to the aniece dents of the hanks lincoln and hall families mrs moore says it is a liadi tion of all three families that they emigrated together from new england englana about years ago to pennsylvania from there to virginia and later to kentucky as they eventually did to indiana and finally to illinois and mis bourl she has been for some time engaged in investigating the possible early connection of the families with new england and intends to prepare a genealogy embodying the results of her labor continuing her story of the tudes audes of the lincoln hanks and hall families mrs moore says my aunt rosanne hall who rode from her home in maryland to ken tucky behind her husband on his horse told me that there were quakers among my ano ancestors estors as there are said to have been in the lincoln family she also said that my great grand father was killed by the indians at the same time that abraham lincoln LIncol ns s grandfather was while they were clearing the ground to plant corn on their arrival in kentucky it was she who told me my father was born in the lincoln log cabin aunt rosanne said that abe lin coin coln s mother used to walk five miles to mill to have her corn ground or to buy a side of bacon which with corn meal mush or I 1 comprised their bill of fare the greater part of the time my grandparents lev levi hall and martha hanks both died of the milk s ck in indiana in 1818 about the same time that lincoln s mother nancy hanks and her uncle and aunt sparrow died all were buried together in rude coffins constructed by thomas lincoln who ho was now a wid ower with two small children after lincoln became president someone erected a mon ament over his mother s grave in the wilderness but aunt roseanne told me that the selection of the grave for the monument must have been mere guesswork since none of the graves had ever been marked and there was no of identifying any one of them coming to the subject of the migra tion of the survivors of the three cami lies from ind ana to illinois mrs moore says joseph hanks who taught thomas lincoln abe s father the carpenters trade just years ago was one of 0 the first settlers in illinois having gone there from kentucky about 1820 it was h s son the famous john hanks still living in missouri who in 1830 induced thomas lincoln dennis hanks and my father to pull up stakes and also remove to illinois where abe was destined to achie e that fame that gained for him the presidency having arrived in macon county III the party which numbered thir teen settled tor for a while my father and abe lincoln were in their year and they with john hanks abe s second cousin built the log cabin which some say was exhibited on bos dos ton common thirty years or more ago they also split the famous fence rails at that time samples of which did much to arouse the enthusiasm in the illinois convention in 1860 which se cured the presidential nomination for lincoln lincon after serving as major in the black hawk war in which abe lincoln was captain my father became one of the earliest settlers in Misso missouri url and dur ing the greater part of his life jept kept a tavern first at hannibal and later at frankford frankford used to be visited by in deans sometimes and if they didn t find whisky before they arrived they were harmless and their presence caused no uneasiness but if it they were drunk the news would quickly spread and school would be dismissed for the day after a while a brick schoolhouse was built one and one half miles from town and to get there we had to fight our way through wild animals and snakes for missouri takes the blue ribbon for snakes at the brick school we were furnished with a horn and if wild animals or indians were seen prowling about we blew the horn and the neighboring farmers got their guns and came to our rescue when I 1 was a little girl aunt sally abraham lincoln Lincol sis s stepmother used to visit us and she frequently put me to sleep in her arms but I 1 never thought much about it till I 1 was grown up and others reminded me of the distinction I 1 had enjoyed I 1 often visited around among the in my childhood too and my especial favorite was grandma hanks as we called john hanks mother wha who lived in what is now known as quincy III I 1 used to hold her skein of yarn for her when she wound it into a ball and during the operation she would tell me stories of her heir early life in the pioneer days in illinois one story was in regard to a fresh et such as used to come almost yearly to those who lived along the river bot hot toms eighty bears or so ago grandma went several miles down the river on a raft one day to the mill to have some corn ground leaving the chil dren in the log house I 1 the river had been threatening to rise for or sescial days but the children well I 1 nev rew from 14 former experiences that if the river r invaded the house they were to climb I 1 up on the roof tor for safety 4 the river rose while grandma was a away anay nay and she toiled tolled laboriously to get home as soon as she could when she got nearly home she found ever everything thing 0 afloat and as she passed a tree that was well submerged she thought she heard a cry from the branches she paddled to the tree and there found her baby john hanks afloat in hia his cradle which had been washed through the door of the cabin and had drifted ak 1 I 0 we J 0 e gaienn ant R v a adelf 40 1 Z A were born in the same rude log cabin in kentucky but three months apart jn 1809 and that she herself Is a grandniece of mother the famous nancy hanks she is mrs nellie M moore who a was born not many years before the olt apar 1 outbreak of the civil war in the then exceedingly primitive town of frank ford mo and has been for three months past a resident of last pep perell mass where her husband charles W moore is engineer in a mill miss hall for that was mrs moore s naiden name spent only the first thir about till it found lodgment in the top tol of the tree where his mother found it another of her stories was about guinea biggers I 1 suppose you don t know what guinea biggers were do youa well they were not uncommon in the days when slaves were brought from africa they were very small in stature and very unprepossessing in appearance and they were said to be cannibals grandma said that in her youth she knew a young couple who bought a pair of guinea biggers one day their little child disappeared and it was never seen again they afterward found that the cannibals had eaten the child and they v were ere hanged for it grandma like most of the and Lincol ns was an ardent metho dist in her old age she always knit ted just so much on a stocking every week day one morning she was in engaged in the perform ance of her allotted stint when some of the younger folks came in with their best clothes on why grandma what are you do inga somebody asked only knitting she replied with some surprise what knitting on sunday grandma Is 1 this sunday asked grandma in amazement when convinced that it was she unraveled every stitch she had done that morning in order to atone as far as possible for her dese oration cration of thip th day mrs moore describes having seen with some amusement abraham lin coin coln making a political speech in mis ails bourl arrayed in a long and exceeding f ly crumpled linen duster and a tall hat of ancient pattern she says that when lincoln was nominated for pres ident hia his humble relatives among the held up their hands with amazed incredulity and exclaimed with practical unanimity abe lincoln for president I 1 don t t believe it there was always something queer about the she says for al though they were among the earl earliest lest settlers in illinois and had their pick of the land and plenty of it and some of them had large productive farms yet every one of them turned out as pool poor as job s cat my mother owned slaves before the war but my father never did nor did my any of the and for that rea son they were called poor whites by heir their neighbors who had slaves all tue were stanch supporters of he the union during the civil war bos ton on globe |