Show tradition gives lincoln three Girth birthplaces plaes but historical research Re searh establishes the fad fact there was only one it s near hodgenville Hodg enville ky B by ELMO SCOTT WATSON n nel leased cased by western newspaper 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 11 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 wlm byg got X wi w I r m 4 TV 1 11 ft A 9 billa C 0 ire C 6 a tom w ppe WM ct nr MUM if you go down ahto hardin county kentucky today expecting to see the place where the new baby was born down t tom Lincol ns be disappointed for you wont find there the log cabin in which that hi historic event took place but if you drive east into larue county to the little town of hodgenville Hodg enville the county seat then go 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 the geography of Lincol ns birthplace well the explanation is simple when torri tord and nancy hanks lincoln became the parents of a son their home stood within the boundaries of 0 hardin county years later hardin was divided into two counties and the eastern part of it including tom Lincol ns place 0 on nolin creek became larue county t y so theres some truth h 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 inconsistency in regard to the site of Lincol ns barth 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 abraham lincoln wrote an article under the title of three places claim honor of being of lincoln it reads in part alomer had seven birthplaces lincoln had at least three according to divergent kentucky traditions first of the houses in which abraham abraha m lincoln la Is said to have been born Is uie h e berry house at Be echland washington 0 county kentucky 11 we should go to Be echland we will lind find the house la Is not there it has been moved to Harrods harrodsburg burg where it stands as a kind ot of museum not very intimately alsoc assoc associated I 1 a led nith lincoln who never in h his I 1 g life e was in the h house 0 use today bears little resemblance t to 0 its former lorn self fortunate fortunately y however it was photographed while on its original rite in this house the he h home f me ot of richard berry the presidents nt a p parents a rents thomas lincoln and nancy hanks were married by rev jesse head june 12 1800 wa washington county people have a formidable group of affidavits front rom old and truthful people who declared that abraham lincoln was born there th that at his people did not remove to alardin county till he was ft a lad ad several years rf age and certain witnesses dinnee dinned conj 0 sib that they saw a him as aa a child playing about the door ot of uie the berry house my 0 own wn impression Is that these people w were ere truthful and that they may have seen the little lad abraham lincoln playing play in about this house the parents of abraham lincoln were married in this house he doubtless visited it in his early childhood and may have lived several months beneath its root roof but we he must look elsewhere for his birthplace so we go to Elizabeth elizabethtown town the house we wish to sp sr e Is not standing but we can find people who will assure us that lincoln was born there and who will show shaw us the unattractive location wh what a t they are showing us Is the place where e thomas and nancy lincoln spent their houey honeymoon moon end and lived from june ISM 1806 till tal the spring ot of 1808 here abrahams little sister sarah was born the cabin that stood here was the first house adverts advertised s ed as the birthplace ot of abraham lin lincoln coln and the pl posture ture Is still frequently chown as such e h ise run house was standing at the end d of 0 the 4 4 7 in this log cabin near hodgenville Hodg enville ky abraham was born conr february 12 1809 civil war it was first photographed appa apparently ren ay for the campaign document in w which aich ellit william a m 14 thayer I 1 in 1864 told ot of the character and public public services ot of abraham lincoln but thomas lincoln did not build this cabin and abraham was not lorn there and never lived there the last vestige of 0 this cabin has disappeared the actual birthplace b Irth place 0 of abraham lincoln was a log cabin which after many removals now stands stand s not far ar from its original site 81 te on 0 n rock roc k spring farm on 0 nolin creek 2 i mile bollea a s south ou th from where re the village of 0 now Is in what was then alardin 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 ac acres res known as the sinking spring farm which thomas lincoln bought in december 1808 tor for 66 cents per acre here little abe lincoln lived until he was four years old then his father abandoned the place because of litigation involving a haw flaw in the title and moved his family 10 miles northeastward to another farm ot of 30 acres on knob creek which he had previously pur 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 th the e cabin and used the logs for firewood the accuracy of this statement however is doubtful and as will be seen 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 halt 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 site on the sinking spring farm the cabin was not destined to rc main 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 celebration there next it was moved to central park in new york city where it was on exhibition for a tinie time and in 1901 it was exhibited at the buffalo exposition the next owner was david greer who stored it t in the old mansion in in long island city N Y bought by collier in 1908 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 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 horne coming celebration in louisville 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 1 marked by a post and when 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 endowment 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 in september 1910 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 some of the deepest and most sacred hopes of mankind may roay from age to age be rekindled rekindle el unfortunately however the government did not keep its promo pro ise so far as maintaining the farm properly was con cernea during the next 10 years the place was permitted to fall into disrepair owing to a lack of maintenance funds then in 1928 1923 rep M H thatcher of kentucky reported as a national disgrace the fact that the lincoln memorial farm is now grown up in bushes and briars bullies ullies jl are being washed across the land and at times the approach to the memorial is covered with several 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 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 Us its preservation one of president Coolid last official acts before leaving the white house was to sigu this 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 Hodg hodgenville enville which brought from judson S west justice of the supreme court of kansas this statement in august 1879 1 I visited the scene of 0 Lincol ns birth birthplace birthala pla e a few miles iles from rom ky and dranan drank from rom the beautiful stream which flows oft off the ledge of rocks the cabin in which mr lincoln was born had then been burned lor for some gome time and from the ashes of the debris where the fire occurred I 1 gath gain ered up some relies relics to take home no one has hag seen and no one will ever see lee the original cabin in which abraham lincoln was waa born in reply the star declared it has no correction to offer on the story published the afie log cabin in which lincoln was born stands on the spot where it was originally built en thrived shrines in an imposing building 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 bl bf democracy at hodgenville Hodg enville today can feel certain that they are gazing upon the veritable logs of the cabin in which abraham lincoln was born |