Show the the First American President Q By ELMO SCOTT scon WATSON LINCOLN the first American President a Yes he was wast v 1 that doesn't mean that an attempt is being made madet madeen r t t commonly accepted history nor to deny to George en who was First in War Var First in Peace and First Hearts of Ills His Countrymen the further honor usually P at id d him of being the first chief executive of this t the fact is that Lincoln not Washington was the flo President a and d for this reason In n a child is born its ov tit lity is that of its party par- par ty of its birth- birth The parents of all aU the Ints from Washington jo Buchanan were born rJ the Declaration of In In- r lence ence was signed and 1 therefore British sub sub- ven vest though they were America Lincoln's TO land and mother were the arents gents of a II President liter fter eter July 4 1776 So fc the first chief N brn rn in the United States ERIC AN parents and andre bre re he was the first American President It t characterization of n however is not based on n a mere mese technicality lard and to the nationality 1 parents More Yin I the fact that there was Id d in him the strains of 1 o cultures which were I vital force in the mak- mak p America One was was Jew ew England and the therom wt irom rom Virginia I is s just years ago that P t of the came for rica Samuel Lincoln was wase wast t ne e a and he was born at ati atin lop i in Norfolk England in inIn inn AG In n 1637 he emigrated to ton n Bay colony led ed there until his death ham Mass in 1690 From sia immigrant seven ps s scan can can be traced in direct the man who became nt Migratory l Family e a years passed successive lions lions' of of the felt 7 rge for a westward ml- ml which was was such a of the pioneer M hat conquered the wilder wilder- MA t f North America and did didich ch ich to build in it a new Not one of the seven seven died is same town in which he oll lorn orn and only one died in it d me state The westward ds o of the took them crop Massachusetts to New Jer Jer- I. I Pennsylvania to Virginia to Indiana They finally to Illinois from frome e they sent one of their theira amir a back East again there to F nd in the dying as well his living to achieve im- im I lity e a is the record of those oaf uel Lincoln was born in into inam to st am iam England in 1619 and andl l lass Bm Hingham Bingham Mass in 1690 on son Mordecai Lincoln Sr Its born in Bingham Hingham Mass Jito Id 57 and died in Scituate in 1727 His Isis son decal Lincoln was born Mass April 24 ry and after a residence in innee nee Jersey died in n Berks coun coun- Ir t in 1736 His son sonn n Lincoln was born in county Pa in 1716 and andI I It 9 b std eel r ol lr OS 1 T Ij ft ABRAHAM 1 LINCOLN In Virginia in 1788 1786 His son li pt Abraham Abranam Lincoln was in Virginia in 1744 and died HJ I in 1786 1758 His son F omas mas Lincoln was born in rOO 00 I inia aia ja in to 1778 and died in III II II- I s sin in 1851 Isis His eon son r. r raham Lincoln was born inI in I tucky In m 1809 and died in r bM hington in 1865 much for the moment for England's contribution to 14 Man Man of the Ages o I R years after the first e Lincoln Bay flay colony there arrived ar Dr rived in Virginia a little group of ot 27 persons They had been de deported deported ported from England as a punishment punish ment meat that was being in inflicted upon up on Cromwell's men who were captured by the Royalists now back in power Among them was wasa a man named Thomas Hanks Banks whose origin is unknown except that the were were Malmesbury bury men In the American colony colony col col- col ony Thomas Hanks through Various various va Va- rious purchases became an important im port ant landowner In what is now Gloucester county In the Virginia land office at Richmond are preserved some of the patents granted to Hanks Banks and they show that he held several several sev sev- sev eral hundred acres of land adjoining ad joining the estate of a B certain Col Richard Lee who had established established established es es- es- es his home in Virginia 12 years before Hanks' Hanks arrival Lee was a Royalist one of the foremost in Virginia in support of Charles I I. I and one of the first I to hail Charles II as the lawful sovereign of England And now he found himself plantation next-plantation neighbor to Thomas Hanks the Rebel who had been deported from England because he had I ridden with the of Oliver Cromwell I Lincoln and Lee How amicably the two men lived as neighbors we have no means of knowing But we do know that the Lees and the in the years that followed followed followed fol fol- fol- fol lowed intermarried Two centuries centuries centuries cen cen- later two men who claimed Col Richard Lee as a common ancestor found themselves themselves them them- selves arrayed against each other oth er in a greater civil war than their forefathers had known in Memorial which marks the birthplace of Nancy Hanks In ID Mineral county W. W V. V Va Vs I you used it to split rails with which to fence the land you had won from those same red devils devils devils dev dev- ils it meant that this land was going to be yours to have and to hold and to hand down to your children So they elected the Rail Splitter President and who knows how much that election election elec elec- tion was due to the fact that in 1860 America was still frontier frontier- minded Nearly a hundred years before that time there had been another Abraham Lincoln who might have been an even greater frontier frontier fron fron- tier hero hero if if the red devils had spared his life He was Capt Abraham Lincoln the grandfather er of the Rail Splitter Rail Splitter who sold his Ws comfortable home in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1780 Then he started west with his wife and their five children children Mordecai Mordecai aged eleven Josiah nine Mary six Thomas Thom Thom- as four and Nancy a baby in inthe inthe Inthe the strong arms of her mother Bathsheba Lincoln Capt Abraham Lincoln carried with him three treasury warrants war rants each acknowledging receipt of pounds in Virginia money and each calling for acres of land to be located in any county in Virginia Kentucky I z f TJ oJ t. it fir Vi f tI q u Ir tJi J tt 7 rr t l i It ci 4 i. i tf I- I fry 11 i Jt rC t h S 'S e I Gk k f th j k J f AC J. J h iI WJ Jt J 1 11 OJ c i t fl I If f f 7 o t L. ta 1 t J b p v w. w I. n rt WAr i 4 aLj t L I Thomas Hanks Hank's patent for acres adjoining land of Colonel Lee in Virginia England They were President Abraham Linc Lincoln ln of the United States of America and Gen Robert Rob Rob- Ro Robert ert E. E Lee in commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Confederate Confederate Confederate Con Con- federate States of America During those two centuries the Virginia like the Massachusetts Massachusetts Mass Mass- had also begun begun begun be be- gun to move westward although not traveling so far as the New Englanders Some time after the Indian uprising of 1675 and Bacons Bacon's Bacons Bacon's Bacons Bacon's Ba Ba- cons con's rebellion of 1676 Thomas Hanks Ranks disappeared from history but not until he be had started theline the theline theline line which would come to its greatest glory in the little boy who was born in a Kentucky log cabin years ago this month That line was as follows Thomas Hanks His son was William Hanks Born probably in Gloucester county Virginia about 1655 Died in Richmond county in 1704 1 Isis Kis I is son was John Hanks Banks Born in North Farnham parish in Richmond county date unknown and died in 1740 His son was Joseph Hanks Born in North Farnham parish December 20 1725 Died in Nelson county Kentucky Ken Ken- tucky lucky in 1793 Ills His daughter was Lucy Hanks Born probably in 1766 in Richmond county Virginia Vir ginia and died in 1825 Her daughter was Nancy Hanks Born in Mineral county West Virginia in 1783 Died in Spencer county Indiana October 5 1818 Her son was Abraham Lincoln o e 0 In 1860 the America which had once hailed those frontier heroes heroes he he- roes Old Hickory Jackson and Old Tippecanoe Harrison was ready now to hail hall another fron iron frontiersman frontiersman Old Abe Lincoln his his True as an Indian fighter record in the Black HL war wasn't much shakes s when compared to Jacksons Jackson's conquest of the Creeks and Harrisons Harrison's vies victories vic tories over The Prophet and Tecumseh and their Shawnees The Splitter Rail Elected But the ax was as potent a symbol as the rifle Of or course it wasn't as useful to defend your cabin against the onslaughts of the red devils But without it you couldn't have built t tn your ca cab cabin in n in the first place And when r K then being such a county Thus I it was that an Abraham Lincoln crossed over the mountains into what was then the West and became the first Frontiersman Lincoln Late in the spring he entered acres of land on Floyds Floyd's Forkin Fork Forkin in what later became Jefferson county Kentucky and a little later acres below Green River River River Riv Riv- er Licks in Lincoln county Two years later an official survey was made and his patents were issued in due course of time But he did not live long to enjoy his new domain A Frontier Tragedy One morning in May 1786 1788 while Capt Abraham Lincoln was at work on his farm near Hughes Station on Floyds Floyd's Fork Mordecal Mordecai dropped the red raider raid er in his Ws tracks Despite this tragedy the widow Bathsheba continued to toive live ive on their new farm That autumn when George Rogers Clark organized a company to fight the Indians the settlers made contribution of arms and provisions to the extent of their ability Highest in appraisal on the he list was a fine rifle credited to the widow Lincoln One wonders wonders won won- ders if it ft t was the rifle notched with the knife of young Mordecai Mordecai Mordecal Morde Morde- cai cal after he had avenged the death of the first Frontiersman Abraham Lincoln Later the Widow Lincoln moved with her brood to a home on Beech Fork in that part of Nelson county r which later became became became be be- came Washington county a and n d there she lived until they were grown One of them young Tom Lincoln was serving in the militia mili mill militia tia ct lit the age of seventeen In 1798 he went to work as a hired hand for an uncle who lived on the Wautauga in Tennessee and returning from there he stopped in Cumberland county a and n d bought some land In 1802 he was made a constable in that county but he evidently didn't linger there long He moved to Hardin county and in 1803 bought a farm farmon on Mill Creek Most of the young folks of ot Kentucky in those days married early But Tom Lincoln didn't seem to be in any hurry burry to get himself a wife and settle down That is he didn't until his eyes finally rested one day dayon on a year ty-three-year-old girl who h had a d come with her family from Hampshire county Virginia later Mineral county West Virginia Virginia Vir Vir- ginia back in hi she was only a year old Nancy Yanks Hanks was her name and she was the natural daughter of Lucy Hanks Honks But folks also called her Nancy Sparrow because Lucy Hanks Ranks changing from the ways of her wild girlhood had become the faithful wife of Henry Sparrow A Old Century-Old Mystery Who Nancy Hanks honks father was wasis wasis wasis is still as much a mystery today as it was that day more than three quarters of a century ago when Abraham Lincoln told one of his friends that his unknown grandfather was a Virginia gentleman gentleman gentleman gen gen- from whom he had bad Inherited inherited in In- whatever fine qualities he had It was probably a mystery mystery mystery mys mys- tery also when the came cameto cameto cameto to Kentucky But evidently Tom Lincoln wasn't troubled by the fact that there was a taint on the name of Nancy Hanks In June 1806 he went back to Beech Fork and there on June 12 in the big double log house of ofa a family named Berry Rev Hev Jes- Jes f r j i v Byrd l eA IJA fJ u r a 1 Go ott L i M Z J 4 N if 5 r w J l Z f A- A 9 V Vf f 1 V. V J. J j D N j 4 1 9 C Jt tItor r M a. a I J N wA T r d dr r rf j 44 AN d i i 1 t o D u rf wI r P A yA i 4 M z Y AIt i il t J fl r L. L w wI U y J A F Jf rt L. L E r ri r Z J AH r d. d 1 1 fA f v. v V A A v v i t fV i l- l If f fm CA 11 R v yf TI v K J I Survey of Capt Abraham Lincoln's acre SOO-acre farm on OD Green River Ky I a skulking Indian shot him down Sending his younger brother Josiah Josiah Josiah Jo Jo- siah to the station for help sev sev- old year Mordecai Mordecal sprang into the cabin and selz seized d the thelong thelong long rifle which rested on two wooden pegs set in the logs over the fireplace Then as os the painted hideously-painted red man darted darted darted dart dart- ed from his ambush toward the place w where ere little Tom Lincoln sat crying beside the body body of of his dead father a shot from irom thelong thelong the thelong long rifle poked through the un- un chinked longs of the cabin by se Head married Thomas Lincoln Lin Lin- Lincoln coln coin and Nancy Hanks Banks He took his bride first to Elizabethtown and there their first child was born born a a girl A year before his marriage Tom Lincoln h had a d bought a farm near Sinking Spring in Hardin county and there he took his family next There on February 12 1809 1800 was brn b n rn the boy who was given the Ue name of oi his grandfather a a name which Americans have en en- in their hearts 0 c Service |