| Show tradition gives lincoln three birthplaces Birth plaes r but historical research Re searh establishes the fad fact there was only one it s near Ng odgen enville ville ky by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released ne leased by western union NE of the most famous of 0 ONE all newspaper cartoons appropriate prop to the annual observance of Lincol ns birthday was drawn by H T webster while he was on the staff of the old new york world it has become a newspaper classic i e annually it is reprinted by request it is HARDIN COUNTY KY 1809 41 g wo ae 51 5 1 I 1 rd SPA ea ft k CC fmc 0 r bear ee ar I 1 Z za T it if you go down ahto hardin bardln county kentucky today expecting to see the place where the new baby was born down t tom Lincol ns be disappointed for you wont fand there the log cabin in which that historic event took place but if you drive east into larue county to the little town of hodgenville Hodg enville the county seat scat then go avs 2 miles south you will see enshrined in a temple of stone this rude little structure and you will be told that it stands on the very spot where it stood when abraham lincoln was born within its log walls on february 12 1809 why this apparent discrepancy in t the he geography of Lincol ns birthplace well the explanation is simple when torri tord and N nancy ncy hanks lincoln became the parents parents of a son their home stood within the boundaries of hardin county years later hardin was divided into two counties and the eastern part of it including tom Lincol ns place on nolin creek became larue county so theres some truth in the statement that abraham lincoln was born in two counties paradoxical though that statement may sound other inconsistencies nor is that the only apparent in consistency in regard to the site of Lincol ns res birth several years ago rev william E barton one of the leading biographers of the great emancipator and the man who perhaps more than any other historian has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the name of 0 abraham lincoln wrote an article under the title of three places claim honor of being birthplace of lin coln coin it sin parti part homer had sewn seven birthplaces lincoln had at least three according to divergent kentucky traditions first of 0 the houses in which abraham lincoln Is said laid to have been lorn born Is the berry house at washington county kentucky if I 1 we should go to benchland we will find the house Is 13 not there it h has as been moved to ta harrodsburg Harrods burg where it stands as a kind of museum not very intimately associated with lincoln lin oan who never in till his life was in harrodsburg Harrods burg the h house 0 use today bears little resemblance t to its former onner self Fortunat fortunately cly however it was photographed while on its original n at site in this house the h home 1 me ot of richard berry the presidents p parents a rents thomas lincoln and nancy hanks were married by rev jesse jeise head june 12 1800 washington c county anty people have a formidable group of 0 affidavits from rom old and truthful people who declared that abraham lincoln was bem there that his people did not remove to lu I 1 1 1 bardin county till he was a lad several years 0 of age and bertan tan witnesses affirmed on oath that they saw him as a child playing about the door of the berry house my own wn impression is that these people W were e re truthful and that they may have seen the little lad abraham lincoln coln playing about this house the parents of 0 abraham lincoln were married in this ahouse he doubtless visited it in hla his early childhood and may have lived several months beneath its root roof but we must ik elsewhere for his birthplace so we go to elizabethtown Ellzabeth Elizabeth town the house hous we wish to see Is not standing tut but w we can ind people who will assure us that lincoln was born there and iho will show us the unattractive location what they th ey are showing us I 1 Is a the he place where thomas and nancy lincoln spent thel r honeymoon and lived from june 1808 1006 tal till I 1 the spring ot of 1208 liere here abrah abrahams ams little sister sarah vis born the cabin that stood here was the first house ad advertised v ertl s ed as the birthplace of abraham abra ham lin lincoln coln and the picture Is still frequently shown a as g such c h this house was standing at th the e sen end d of the i 0 W in this log cabin near Hodgen vi A ky abraham lincoln was born on february 12 1809 civil war it was first arst photographed apparent apparently ay f tor 0 r the campaign document D acu in W which aich william M 1 thayer I ha y e r in n 1864 told of 0 the character and public services 0 abraham lincoln but thomas linc lincoln 0 an I 1 did not build this cabin ana and abraham was not born there and never lived there the last vestige ot of this cabin has disappeared the actual birthplace of abraham lincoln was a log cabin which otter after many removals now stands not tar far from Us its original site on rock spring farm on nolin creek ai 21 1 miles south from where the village of Hodg hodgenville enville now Is in what was then hardin and now Is larue county kentucky A romantic history this cabin which was the true birthplace of lincoln has a romantic history it stood on a tract of acres known as the sinking spring farm which thomas lincoln bought in december 1808 for 66 cents per acre here little abe lincoln lived until he was four years old then his father abandoned the PI place ace because of litigation involving a flaw in the title and moved his family 10 miles northeastward to another farm of 30 acres on knob creek which he had chased several years later two different dates 1827 and 1835 are given for this event a certain henry brother bought the sinking spring farm and lived in the lincoln birthplace cabin for several years then according to everidge beveridge who quotes J T hobsons footprints of abraham lincoln as his authority for the statement m ent brother tore down the cabin and used the logs for firewood the occur accuracy cy of this statement however as is doubtful and as will be seen later in this article it has been refuted there seems to be good reason to believe that the cabin was still standing on its original site in 1860 when lincoln was elected president soon afterwards it was purchased from the man who then owned the farm by george rodman who moved it to another farm about a mile and a half from the sinking spring farm there it remained during the turmoil of the civil war and after being used a number of years as a shelter for negro families and as a tenant house it was used as a school house in 1872 and 1873 A certain john davenport married the schoolteacher school teacher and they lived in the cabin from 1875 to 1894 when it was bought by A W dennett and moved back to its original brigina i site on the sinking spring farm the cabin was not destined to remain on its original site long however soon afterwards it was bought by rev J W bingham who took it down and shipped the logs in it to nashville tenn for a centennial centennia celebration there next it was moved to central park in new york city where it was on exhibition for a time and in 1901 it was exhibited at the buffalo exposition the next owner was david greer who stored it in the old mansion in long island city N Y bought by collier in 1906 robert J collier bought the sinking spring farm and presented it to the lincoln farm association cia tion a patriotic organization formed by american citizens for the purpose of preserving ns as a national park the farm on which abraham lincoln was born the president of this association was joseph W folk governor of missouri and its trustees were a group of distinguished citizens including mr collier who also bought the lincoln cabin the logs were shipped to kentucky accompanied by a guard of honor sent by the state for a homecoming celebration in louisville ille and then taken to the lincoln farm the cabin I 1 am reliably informed originally stood near to the spring writes barton after its first removal it was re erected on the top of the slope leading up from the spring when it was taken down for exhibition purposes this site was i ma marked aked by a post and w when hen the cabin was purchased and rebuilt it was erected around the post which still stands in the middle of the cabin floor the lincoln farm association by popular subscription not only raised an of to maintain the homestead but provided an impressive memorial at a cost of nearly to house the little log cabin in 1916 the title to the farm was transferred to the united states government which in accepting the property and the administration of the endowment agreed to maintain the farm preserve the cabin and never charge an entrance fee to the public thus the farm became a national park 1 in september 1918 1916 president woodrow wilson journeyed to hodg enville to accept the new national shrine on behalf of the nation and on that occasion declared that it was an altar upon which we may forever keep alive the vestal fire of democracy as upon a shrine at which w hica some of the deepest and most sacred hopes of mankind may from a age geto to age be rekindled unfortunately however the government did not cot keep its broje ise so far as maintaining the farm properly was concerned during the next 10 years the place was permitted to fall into disrepair owing to a lack of maintenance funds then in 1928 rep M H thatcher Thatch cr of kentucky reported a as s a national disgrace the fact that the lincoln memorial farm is now grown up in bushes and briars jellies are being washed across the I 1 land and and at times the approach to t the he memorial is covered with several era I 1 inches of silt the spring where lincoln drank as a boy and which supplied water for the household is flooded in rainy weather so as to foul the water yet this is one of af the greatest shri shrines in the country and the government of the united states having taken over this property is under at least a moral obligation to provide for its maintenance As a result of this disclosure congress passed a bill providing for the rehabilitation of the farm and authorizing future appropriations as may become necessary for its preservation one of president Coolid last official acts before leaving leavin the white house was to sigu sign this I 1 the legend lives on in the meantime the legend that the logs in the rebuilt cabin in the stately memorial were not the original logs would not die down in 1920 the kansas city star published a story about the lincoln memorial at hodgenville Hodg enville which brought from judson juds on S west justice of the supreme court of kansas this statement in august 1879 1 I visited the scene of Lincol ns birthplace a few ew miles from ky and drank from the beautiful stream which lows flows of off the ledge of rocks the cabin in which mr lincoln was born had then been burned for some time lime and from the ashes of 0 the debris where the fire occurred I 1 gathered up some relies to take home no one has see seen and no one will ever ice the original cabin in which abraham lincoln was born in reply the star declared it has no correction to of offer feron on the story published the log cabin in which lincoln was born stands on the spot where it was originally built en s shrines in an imposing building ol of granite it then tells of the work of the lincoln farm association mentions some of the men who were trustees and declares it is hardly possible that citizens of their standing would allow an imposition in the matter of Lincol ns birthplace the statements of such a careful and conscientious historian as rev william E barton seem to be sufficient verification of that assertion and americans who visit this shrine of democracy at hodgenville Hodg enville today can feel certain that they are gazing upon pun the veritable logs of the cabin F in I 1 n which abraham lincoln was born |
