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Show , iftr? i! Ili a , JfU;.'! pi l t T jlM. t ffreffirk ItJvt- ttiopojjcd Lrrcouf rrgrroRiAL 'jn SPSf(T'fl COUHTY.JlfD 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON "V "r4k. 0URTEEN states ln the Union and some J5ev thirty cities have 2?Ji Lincoln memorials Jj(jjPl3h3$h of one sort or an- Ftjjj -JFt, W other. Kentucky, Wi! PL Jf which gave him AXXJ'H'M birth, has one of tt&&Z "ie most Imposing YWM ttle magnificent I l( temple at Hodgen- vllle, where Is en- hnned the rude log cabin In which j- he was born on I'ebiuarv 12. 1S09. Illinois, which first sent him into public pub-lic life and gave him to the nation as Its President at one of the most critical crit-ical periods ln Its history, has a score or more reminders of his greatness. But It Is a curious fact that the state ln which he lived during fourteen of the formative years of his life for a long time did not have a single memorial me-morial erected In honor of Abraham Lincoln. That state Is Indiana, to which he came at the age of seven. It was ln Indiana that he got most of his little schooling ; It was there that be earned his first dollar; It was there that he first met with the neighboring youth In a country cross-roads store, first read the newspapers and got in touch with the outside world, first began to discuss politics, first tools part In public pub-lic debates and first read law. The toil of the Hoosier state was particularly particu-larly dear to him because It holds the body of the mother who bore him and that of his only sister who was married, mar-ried, lived and died there. The only exception to the statement that Indiana was strangely laggard ln honoring a man whom she could properly prop-erly claim as one of her greatest sons Is the fact that more than fifty years ago, after vandal hands had cut to pieces the first marker erected by cltl-rens cltl-rens ln Spencer county over the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, another and . more Imposing marker wus erected there by Clement Studebaker of South Iiend. So It Is especially appropriate that his daughter, Mrs. Anne Studebaker Stude-baker Carlisle, should be the president of the Indiana Lincoln Union, which Is now engaged ln the work of raising a fund of more than a million dollars to erect on Indiana soil a national shrine to commemorate the lives of Lincoln and his mother. Three years ago, on Mother's day, the executive committee of the union held memorial services at the grave Vv of Nancy Hanks Lincoln and pledged Itself to the patriotic task. On that occasion, an aviator zooming low over the grave and cabin site, dropped this messnge : TO THE MANES OF NANCY HANKS LINCOLN The men and women of today are here benlOe your grave. Among the guarding trees, to make their vow, your name Shall never die. And to their praise, add our tribute, from the eky. We are the artificers of the paat, whose handicraft Has gnlned the praise of men. With tone and clny. With brush and pen. we wrouRht, to leave expressions of the truth we found. But you You dared to take A living child, a plastic Infant mind, to mold Into a soul of love, an Instrument divine. Tour genius Used an art that ours was mean beside. be-side. To you then. Master Artist, we aend our word of praise. Through devious paths that masked the way, Vou led with kindly hand, a child - Into the light of truth. And made an honest man. The memorial will Include the spot where the Lincoln cabin stood and the Srave where his mother lies burled. It Is Intended that It shall In all respects re-spects typify the pioneer days when Lincoln was a youth. The plans of Frederick I ..aw OUnstead, landscape I architect of r.rookline, .Mass.. which have been adopted. Include the com-plele com-plele restoration of the area wiih appropriate ap-propriate markers, a magnificent memorial me-morial hall and the pioneer almo-ft almo-ft sphere of native trees and shrubbery. with a small body of water and a clearing. The proposed national memorial will link the three states of Kentucky, n- 111 TfMfcrxAifKJuircQijr'j &u diana and Illinois in the perpetuation of Lincoln's life and labors preparatory prepara-tory to his great destiny. It also honors hon-ors the memory of the pioneer mother who gave him to the world. The story of that pioneer mother is one of the most appealing in all American Amer-ican history. "A backwoods madonna," madon-na," Dr. William B. Barton calls her and in his book, "The Women Lincoln Loved," published by an Indiana publishing pub-lishing company, Bobbs-Merrill of Indianapolis, In-dianapolis, he gives this graphic word picture of her life, and her death, in the state to which Is given the privilege priv-ilege of caring for her grave: Southern Indiana was then a wild region, and the settlements back of the Ohio river were few and sparse. There were at first no regular church services, no physicians, no schools. Perhaps Thomas Lincoln did not regret re-gret the absence of schools so much as Nancy did. There Is no reason to believe that he opposed such education educa-tion as his children were able to secure, se-cure, but apparently the mother was more Intent on the securing: of an education ed-ucation for her children than was the father. Abraham and Sarah had at-I at-I tended school portions of two terms I ln Kentucky. They had learned to spell and had begun to read. But there were no schools in their neighborhood in Indiana during Nancy's lifetime. If Abraham and Sarah learned anything more, they learned it from Nancy, or from Dennis Hanks, whom the Sparrows Spar-rows had sent to school in the old Baptist Bap-tist meeting-house on Nolin, and who claimed, with some apparent reason, to have grounded Abraham Lincoln in the elements of his education. There were very few books In the home of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, and the same condition prevailed in all other homes in the neighborhood. For two years Nancy Hanks Lincoln dwelt In Indiana, and saw some approach ap-proach to comfort in the conditions of her home. Gradually the cleared area of land and "deadening" around the cabin widened, and the acreage of corn Increased. The stock of poultry ami of bacon grew, and the "pinching times," while not pushed fax back into the woods, were not at the door as they were at the beginning. Conditions Condi-tions appeared to promise a reasonably reason-ably comfortable future for the family. Abraham Lincoln was old enough now to look with more possibility of appreciation on this mother of his, and to estimate somewhat her qualities. She was now approaching the age of thirty-five. She was above medium , height and had & slight stoop as though predisposed to consumption. She weighed about a hundred and thirty thir-ty pounds. Her complexion was dark, and her face was thin and sallow. Her forehead was unusually high, and all her relatives commented on this feature feat-ure of her appearance as belonging to and exhibiting her intellectual nature. She was usually cheerful, but her face in repose was'sad. At times she displayed dis-played a marked tendency to mirth, but she had moods of melancholy. Abraham had a boy's limitation of Judgment; perhaps he did not appreciate appreci-ate these qualities so fully in his youth aa he did later, but we have no reason to suppose that he was wholly blind to them. She was a good mother to htm, and he knew it- She was ambitious ambi-tious for him. and desired that he should have the opportunities which both she and her husband had missed. The autumn of 1818 brought jo southern south-ern Indiana a terrible sickness, afflicting afflict-ing both man and beast. The cattle were first to suffer from It, contracting contract-ing the disease from eating the foliage of snake-root, and as it was found to have been their milk that carried the illness to their human owners, it was called "the milk -sickness." A number of the ptnpla in the neighborhood where the Lincoln lived contracted the disease and died. Levi and Nancy Hall died, and so d;d Thomas and Betsy Sparrow. Two uncles and aunts, one couple being her foster parents, were swept away as with a flood. Then Nancy herself contracted the d. sense. There was no rhysirjan within with-in 3 miles. We have the testimony of a tie! .ch !uir who was n eye-witness, that A ora ha m and his s . s t e r were faithful .n waiting on their mother, aiul doinr; Wr.r.t rn;M for her. 'She struu'-!.'d ..n." ft;.. -his neiph-bor neiph-bor "a g-ioil t ' nv's : i.i n w , r-n. and d.ed imcoLZr CABirrijrinviAirA on the seventh day after she was taken tak-en sick. The mother knew that sh was going to die. She was very weak, and the children leaned over her while she gave her last messages. Placing her feeble hand on Abe's head, she told him to be kind and good to his father and sister. To both she said 'Be good to one another,' expressing a hope thai they might live, aa they had been taught by her, to love their kindred and worship God." Thus, at the aga of thirty-five, on October fi, 1818, died this madonna of the backwoods, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Doctor Barton then tells how Abraham Abra-ham assisted his father in sawing out the planks from which he made the coffin, how they burled her on the hill beside her foster-parents and how no funeral sermon was preached over her grave until months later, when Rev. David Elklns came that way and conducted con-ducted services. First there was an opening hymn with David Elkina "lin-I "lin-I ing out, two lines at a time," then a "simple and heart-felt eulogy of the dead and a stern admonition to the living" and finally a closing hymn "with it rose the courage and faith of those who sang." Then came the word of blessing, and ' Thomas Lincoln took the hands of his j two weeping children and led them back to his desolate home. The feet of millions of pilgrims have walked and will walk that path. They will ' stand within the granite temple that now enshrines the log walls within which, at Hodgenville, the maternal pain of Nancy Hanks gave to the world her son Abraham; and they will tread revently through the leafy aisles of the State park at Gentryville, where a massive granite stone now marks the spot which Abraham Lincoln In his boyhood watered with his tears. He loved his mother while she lived, and he loved her memory afterward. It was a pathetic memory, and had In It elements concerning which he was properly reticent; but as to hie inheritance inheri-tance through her of the qualities which he deemed to be some of the best i within him, he spoke with deep feeling. feel-ing. "God bless my mother. All that I am or hope to be I owe to her." Although Al-though in this utterance, her eon spoke of the mental traits he thought himself him-self to have Inherited from her, rather rath-er than her direct influence over him, it was of her mind and character he spoke when he said that however unpromising un-promising her early surroundings might have been "she was highly intellectual in-tellectual by nature, had a Btrong memory, accurate Judgment, and was cool and heroic." To hf m, as he looked back upon It from the standpoint of later experience, experi-ence, it seemed her life had been a j tragedy. But we are not Bure that ! she so regarded It. She had sad ex- ! periences, and times of depression, but j she had lived and learned and loved. She had known the Joys of wifehood and motherhood. She had never suf- I fered hunger or neglect. Always there ' were those who cared for her and for ! whom she cared. To her it may not j have seemed that hers had been a tad life: and she left that which perma- ' nently brightened the life of humanity, j Though the world has acclaimed : Abraham Lincoln as one of the great- : est men who ever lived, thpy wore pimple people, th;s mother and this son. So the simplify of his character char-acter is stres?ed by the archiiect, Thorrns Ribbon of Ind'annpnlis, in his design for the main building of tha proiHsod Lincoln memorial. |