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Show A IN LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE. fVomarv Living Ii New England Whose Father We.s Boriv -i the - Historic Log Cocbin Stories of the Ee.rly De-ys. Llnoola has boon dead thirty-eight years. - Most of thoso who personally know him fcato also passed on Into silence, nd, like Washington, ho has becomo Sn the popular mind a sort o( mystfcal figure, associated with a bygone ago of dramatic heroism a patron saint Although Now England loved Lincoln Lin-coln as much as any othor section of the country did, when It camo to know him, yot he was always regarded as a -characteristic product of the plonocr country, and, although efforts not altogether alto-gether successful have been mado to show that ho was of Hlngham ancestry, ances-try, never till now has Massachusetts been conscious of the presence in this locality of any living connection bo-twoen bo-twoen the Immortal rall-spllttcr and or own soil. Nevertheless for seventeen years onto of tho environs of Boston has harbored har-bored a woman who makes tho proud boast that her father and Abraham Uacola wero first cousins; that both tholr bill of faro the greater part of tho tlmo. "My grandparents, Levi Hall and Martha Hanks, both died of tho milk-sick, milk-sick, In Indiana, In ISIS, about the samo time that Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, and her undo and nunt Sparrow died. All wore burled together to-gether In rude coftlns construced by Thomas Lincoln, who was now a widower wid-ower with two small children. After Lincoln became President, someono erected a monument over his mother's grave In tho wilderness, but Aunt Roseanne told mo that the scluctlon of tho grave for tho monument must have been mero guosswork, slnco none of tho graves had ever been marked, and there was no means of Identifying any one of them." Coming to tho subject of tho migration migra-tion of tho survivors of tho throo families fami-lies from Indiana to Illinois Mrs. Mooro says: "Joseph Hanks, who taught Thomas Lincoln, Abe's father, tho carpenter's ll Aw s 9S!imwM.'f BBBBBuiyflBiai I -wero horn in tho samo rude log cabin 1n Kentucky, but threo months apart, in 1809, and that she herself Is a, , srandnlecc of Lincoln's mother, tho Nv famous Nancy Hanks. ; r She is Mrs. Nellie M. Mooro, who was born not many years before the outbreak of the civil war, In the then exceedingly primitive town of Frank-ford, Frank-ford, Mo., and has been for throe months past a resident of East Pop-peroll, Pop-peroll, MaBS., whoro her husband, Charles W. Moore, Is engineer In a mill. Miss Hall, for that was Mrs. Moore's tiatden name, spent only tho first thirteen thir-teen years of hor life in Missouri, hav .ig been sent to a Kentucky boarding tchool nt that age. She was married tnd lived In Louisville for some years, ater removed' to Cincinnati, and after the death of bor husband camo East, married Mr. Moore, a natlvo of Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, and they lived for seventeen f years In Atlantic, a part of Qulncy, un- ;' til thoy removed to Poppcrell. When asked to define her relation-; relation-; ehip to the martyred President, Mrs. ' Moore cold: ; "My father, William S. Hall, was a son of Martha Hanks, sister of Nancy Hanks, who married Thomas Lincoln i and became the mother of Abraham Lincoln. So, you see, my father was first cousin and I was second cousin to the President. i "My grandfather, who marrlod Mar tha Hanks, was Levi Hall, and they and Thomas and Nancy Lincoln wero living together In the little log cabin 6 In La Rue county, Ky., In 1809, when Otfcrf' Abraham Lincoln was bom there. My n"W father was born three months later In I' ' tho samo cabin." Whon questioned ns to tho antece- ' dents of tho Hanks, Lincoln and Hall families, Mrs. Mooro says It Is a tradl-' tradl-' tlon of all three families that they emigrated together from New England about 200 years ago to Pennsylvania, from thoro to Virginia and later to Kontucky, as thoy evontunlly did to Indiana and finally to Illinois and Mis- souri. She has been for somo time engaged in investigating tho possible early connection of the families with New England, and Intonds to prepare i j, goncalogy embodying tho results of her labor. Continuing her story of tho vldssl- tudos of tho Lincoln, Hanks and Hall V . families, Mrs. Mooro says: H "My aunt, Rosnnno Hall, who redo ' from her home In Maryland to Keu- 1 tucky behind her husband on his horso told mo that thoro wore Quakers among my ancestors, ns thoro aro said to linvo boon in tho Lln- 'amlly. Sho also -ill it m great f.tind- father was Knl ' 1 dim... at tho gamo tlmo tint Abraham Lincoln's grandfather wtu while thoy wero clearing tho round to plant corn, on tholr arrival in Kontucky. It was she J who told mo my father was born in L ,, tho Lincoln log cabin. mftL, "Aunt Rosanno said that Abo Lin- W " f t coin's mother used to walk five miles ' to will to have hor corn ground, or to buy a sldo of bacon, which, with corn- jnoal mush or lohnnvcnke, comprised trade, just 100 years ago, was ono of tho first settlers In Illinois, having gone there from Kentucky about 1820. It was his son, tho 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 achlovo that famo that gained for htm tho Presidency. "Having arrived In Macon county, III., the party, which numbered thirteen, thir-teen, settled for a while. My father and Abe Lincoln were in their 21st year, and they, with John Hanks, Abe's second cousin, built tho log cabin which some say was exhibited on Boston Bos-ton Common thirty years or more ago. They also split tho famous fence rails at that time, samples of which did much to arouse the enthusiasm in the Illinois convention In I860, which secured se-cured the Presidential nomination for Lincoln. "After serving as major in tho Dlack Hawk war, In which Abo Lincoln was captain, my father became ono of the earliest settlers in Missouri, and during dur-ing tho greater part of his life kept a tavern, first at Hannibal and later at Frankford. "Frankford used to bo vlsltod by Indians In-dians sometimes, and If they didn't find whisky beforo they arrived, they were harmless, and their presence caused no uneasiness. Dut if they wero drunk tho nows would quickly spread and school would be dismissed for the day. "After a while a brick schoolhouso was built ono and one-half miles from town, and to get thoro we had to fight our way through wild animals and snakes, for Missouri takes the bluo ribbon for snakes. At the brick school wo were furnished with a horn, and if wild animals or Indians wore seen prowling about wo blow tho horn and tho neighboring farmers got their guns and camo to our rescue. "When I was a llttlo girl Aunt Snlly, Abraham Lincoln's stepmother, used to visit us, nnil she frequently put mo to sloop In hor arms, but I never thought much about it till I was grown up and otbors reminded mo of tho distinction i had onjoyed. "I often visited around among tho Hunkses In my childhood, too, and my especial favorito was Grandma Hanks, as wo callod John Hanks' mother, who lived in what Is now known as Qulncy, III. I used to hold hor skein of yarn for her when she wound It Into a ball, and during the operation she would tell mo stories of her early life in the ploncor days in Illinois. "Ono story was in regard to n frosh-ct frosh-ct such as usod to como almost yearly to thoso who lived along tho river bottoms bot-toms eighty years or so ago. Grandma wont severnl miles down tho river on a rnft, ono day, to tho mill, to have somo corn ground, leaving tho children chil-dren In the log house Tho river had been threatening to rlso for several days, but tho children well know from former' experiences, that if tho river Invaded tho houso they wero to climb up on tho roof for safety. "Tho river rose while grandma was away and she tolled laboriously to got homo as soon as she could. When sho got nearly homo sho found everything afloat, and as sho passed a tree that was well submerged sho thought sho heard a cry from tho branches. Sho paddled to tho troo, and thoro found her baby, John Hanks, afloat In his cradle, which had been washed through the door of tho cabin, and had drlftod IBttlill. It Wbfflk?! IHHPwr&-iUgr -BBBBBBj?-''''''''''''! " -S.WlLasS' J&fcC SsP '& " jftrrwe fta v-- flS-r WtUMO about till It found lodgment In tho top of tho treo, whore his mother found it. "Another of her stories was about Guinea niggers. I suppose you don't know what Guinea niggers were, do you? Well, thoy wero not uncommon In the days whon slavos were brought from Africa. They wero very small In stature and very unprepossessing In appearance and they were said to bo cannibals. "Grandma said that in her youth sho know n young couple who bought a pair of Guinea niggors. Ono day their little child disappeared and It was never seen again. They afterward found that the cannibals bad eaten the child, and they wore hanged for It. "Grandma, ltko moet of the Hankscs and Llncolns, was an ardent Methodist. Metho-dist. In her old ago sho always knitted knit-ted just so much on a stocking ovory week day. One morning sho was Industriously In-dustriously engaged in tho performance perform-ance of her allotted stint, when somo of tho youngor folks came In with their best clothes on. " 'Why, grandma! What aro you doing?' do-ing?' somebody asked. 'Only knitting,' she replied, with somo surprise. 'What, knitting on Sunday, grandma?' 'Is this Sunday?' askod grandma, in amazement. Whon convinced that it was sho unraveled every stitch sho had dono that morning, in order to atono as far as possible for her desecration dese-cration of tho day." Mrs. Mooro describes having seen with some amusement Abraham Lincoln Lin-coln making a political speech In Missouri, Mis-souri, arrayed In a long and exceedingly exceeding-ly crumpled linen "duster," and a tall bat of ancient pattern. Sho says that when Lincoln was nominated for President Pres-ident lila humblo relatives among tho Hankses hold up their hands with amazed Incrodullty and oxclalmed with practical unanimity: "Abo Lincoln for President? I don't bellevo it!" "There was always something queer about tho Hankses," sho says; "for although al-though thoy wero among tho earliest settlers In Illinois and had their pick of tho land, and plonty of it, and somo of them had largo, productlvo farms, yet every ono of thorn turned out as poor as Job's cat "My mothor owned slavos beforo tho war, but my father never did, nor did any of tho Hankses, and for that reason rea-son thoy woro called 'poor whites' by their neighbors who had slaves. All tuo Hankses wero stanch supporters of tho union during tho civil war." Boston Bos-ton Globo. |