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Show j Lincoln Ancestors Strong Characters Manship Bronze at Fort Wayne Spurs Lincoln Genealogy Research. FORT WAYXE, IXD Charges that Abraham Lincoln's ancestors were of 'poor white" stock and that his own father was "an illiterate rover, wholly - - -j r Is " ' k - z Paul Mansmp lacking In ambition," ambi-tion," have been .definitely proved false, according to Dr. Louis A. Warren, War-ren, director of the Lincoln National Life Foundation here. 'Most of the scurrilous attacks on the character of Lincoln's ancestors an-cestors had their start in the presidential presi-dential campaign of 1860," Dr. Warren War-ren explained in announcing the results of his research into Lincoln's genealogy. "President Lincoln paid little attention atten-tion to the gossips and at the time of his death had failed to trace his own lineage; but we have been working work-ing on the matter for a number of years and are rapidly clearing up the haze of uncertainty." Seven Paternal Generations. Dr. Warren exhibited a diagram of the Lincoln family tree showing the n.i fprnnl line unl.i-nkpn for seven gen- erations and asserted that every one ' of the ancestors was a strong, npright character. Less is known about the maternal side of the family, but somt headway is now being made in that direction di-rection and Dr. Warren hopes to show ; that the Hanks family, too, were j worthy ancestors of President Lincoln. . "Our research work on Lincoln's ! genealogy was accelerated," he ex- plained, "by a sculptor's request for I facts in connection with a statue of j the 'Boy Lincoln' that he was com- missioned to execute for the plaza of the Lincoln National Life Insurance j company's building in Ft. Wayne. The j statue depicts the Emancipator as a Hoosler youth of 21, an age at which i no picture of Lincoln exists. The j sculptor, Paul Manship, decided that j merely to erase the lines from the i face of the mature Lincoln would fail ; to portray the boy as he really was. J He desired to know something about I his ancestors, especially his own fa- ther and mother, in order to arrive at ; a more accurate portrayal of Lincoln j as a youth. ; No Uncouth Frontiersman. j "With this In view, our foundation ; delved deeply Into Lincoln lore and j has succeeded in establishing many facts about Lincoln's ancestors that were hitherto unknown. Manship has now completed his statue and it is to be dedicated September 16 with Secretary Sec-retary of Agriculture Arthur M. Hyde delivering the principal address. It depicts Lincoln as the dreamer and poet, rather than as the conventional rail splitter." |