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Show Birthplace of Lincoln by No Means Squalid And cow there ha been brought to ..j.'-. light practical evidence that the birth-t birth-t place of Abraham Lincoln was not the pitiful hut of poverty that has been described lugubriously by historians, nor was the great emancipator of humble hum-ble and poor parentage. A letter-book of Capt. John Dunlap. historic printer I of Philadelphia, and wealthy landown- J er, coupled with a research made re- i cently by n newspaperman of Ken- 1 tueky, brings out plainly these refuta- j tiODS. ! Since the recent discovery of the Important work rendered during the Revolution by Captain Punlap and . Lieutenant Claypoole, printers of the first daily newspaper in America and official printers of the Continental congress, con-gress, John Earr. Connecticut historian and a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has followed the documents doc-uments of Dunlap and revealed through his study many interesting facts of historical value. The latest source of information that ha3 come to notice Is the letter-book of Dunlap, loaned the Historical society so-ciety by the noted printer's great-grandson, great-grandson, George Chapman Bleight of Haymarket, Va., formerly a Philadelphia Philadel-phia attorney. The letters are the correspondence cor-respondence of Dunlap and four other wealthy men who traveled to the very spot In Kentucky where Lincoln's family came from Virginia. In order to Invest in land there, i Dispels Poverty Legend, i By comparing the reports of these men to their Philadelphia associates i and the documentary evidence present ed in a book compiled by Louis A. Warren, a newspaperman of Hodgen- ville. Ky.. .Mr. Ban- has drawn conclusions conclu-sions which he points out as adequate to dispel the popular belief In the poverty pov-erty legend. j Abraham Lincoln needed no such i tale to enhance his greatnesv (lis rise from obscurity was mighty enough, j start i3 rom the Kentucky h'ciegrass j v- - frontier it is not necessary to fable bis beginning from a low level. The correspondence Dunlap offers testifies to the richness of the land, the beautiful resources of the country and the splendid type of men who populated pop-ulated the section. John Dunlap, his brother. James, George Keightly. William Wil-liam rr. tl-.e engineer, and Michael Hilleg-.is. then treasurer of the I'nited States, were partners in pure-basin? I aens of the Kentucky hind. , Later I e.;j-.; ,.'s sun visited F.!i:::-het!i-imvu. ten rre:: the Lincoln li'rih- .!::('. t,i c;i:v :: !,:s fMilr-'r's aif.iirs. At ll.r t::n. I ::. I'ittt Ihi'.-e met ,.e .'..i; - !': j. :-,::!. ev I rein I'hii-. I'hii-. :, ' : :: i : : Ohio riv- i iwi: a '' n , ' ''! ill. fort, Kj Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of his namesake, who became President of the United States, left his comfortable home in Virginia for the same purpose to invest in the newly opened land of promise. Abraham Lincoln had extensive ex-tensive holdings in Virginia and purchased pur-chased large tracts in the new coun- try. He was not poor. The year was 17S3. Indians Killed Grandfather, Again, the Philadelphlans wera linked with Abraham Lincoln in trag" edy. The country was beautiful and rich, but dangerous from hostile In-diaes. In-diaes. Lincoln lost his life by the tomahawk tom-ahawk In the same year that George Keightly was killed In a similar, perhaps per-haps the same, Indian massacre. James Dunlap tells- the story of Keightly's death In a letter to his brother, who had returned to Philadelphia Phila-delphia temporarily with plans to remove re-move his family to the new country. The letter, warning him to remain North, reads: "Dear Brother; I am now on my way to the Falls. I am sorry I have some very unhappy news to tell you that Is the death of Mr. Keightly, who was killed by the Indians on the 12tb of August, 17S-J, within five miles of this place and 15 from the Falls W. Daniels, the lawyer, was killed at the same Instant. Mr. Johnston, the clerk of the lower county, was wounded ; In the SJime company, Mr. Keightly was shot, tomahawked and scalped Pray drive away all notions of returning to this country. All that Is to he got In it Is not equal to the danger that attends at-tends living In It " When Abraham Lincoln met his death at the hands of the Indians, his oldest son, Mordecal, who was fifteen years old at the time, avenged his death as an Indian stooped over to take the pioneer's scalp. Thomas Lincoln, Lin-coln, father of the President, witnessed wit-nessed the scene. He was ten years old at the time. The entire estate went to Mordecal Lincoln, under the law of primogeniture, and consisted mainly of 5,544 acres of land In Virginia Vir-ginia and In Kentucky a considerable estate for "a drifting, moving people, struggling with poverty." Father Owned Land. So It was that Thomas Lincoln was to earn his livelihood. He rose from laborer to carpenter, surveyor, soldier, farmer and property owner. In Ellza-bethtown Ellza-bethtown he was employed by Samuel Haycraft, a substantial business man of the territory, who was a close friend of John Dunlap and who wrola many letters to the Philadelphlan. There he met Nancy Hanks and later built the cabin where Lincoln, the President, was born a new cabin and as well constructed as an average' house of the time and section on a farm, ten miles from Elizabethtown, at Ilodgenville. Deeds in the courts there show that the farm which has been Identified as the site of Lincoln's birthplace and from which the cabin enshrined in tho Lincoln memorial was taken consisted of more titan 300 acres a considerable consider-able plot, and not a few acres, as has been told. The farm was purchased in iSOS with ?J0O In cash and other subsequent payments. lie owned, in addition, records show, 220 acres of Kentucky lands. Leonard U. Arnold, in the Philadelphia Record. 1 |