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Show Rough Trail of Pioneers to History Tom Lincoln was looking for a vvun-i-.d to travel through life with, for het-it-r or worse, tie visited at the place of Christopher Bush, a hard-working farmer who came from Herman parent slid had raised a family of son? with muscle. Also there were two daughters with muscle and with shining faces and C A.SI Kl K WHICH TME BOV LINCOLN LIVED Steady eyes. Tom Lincoln passed tv Hannah and gave his host jokes Sarah !uh. I'.ut It happened that Sarah Hush wanted Daniel .Johnson fur a hushand and lie wanted her. Another woman Tom's eyes fell on was a hrunette sometimes called Nanc Hanks heciiuse she was a daughler ol l.ucy Hanks, and sometimes called Cancy Sparrow because she was an adopted daughter of Thomas and Klizalivth Sparrow and lived with the Sparrow family. l.ucy Hanks had welcomed her child Nancy into life in Virginia in 1781 and had traveled the Wilderness road arryiiig what was to her a precious bundle through Cumberland gap into Kentucky. Sad With Sorrows. Tom Lincoln had seen this partlcu lar Nancy Hanks (there were several other Nancy llankses In Hardin coun ty) and noticed she was shrewd and dark and lonesome. . . . Her dark skin, dark brown hair, keen little gray eyes, outstanding forehead, somewhat accented shin aid cheekbones, body of slender build, weighing about :I pounds these funned the outward .-'.ape of a woman carrying something strange and cherished along her ways ol life. She was- sail with sorrows like dark stars in blue mist. . . . The day Cime when Thomas Lin coin si-tied a bund with his friend. Kichard Kerry. In the courthouse at Springfield. In Washington county, over near where his brother, Mordecai. was fanning and the bond gave notice: no-tice: "There is a marriage shortly in tended between Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks." It was June 10, lSii. Two days later, at Kichard Herry'a place. L'eeehlnnd. a man twenty-eight years old and a woman twenty-three years old came before Itev. Jesse Head, who later gave the county clerk the names of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, as having been "joined together in the holy estate of matrimony matri-mony agreeable to the rules of the Methodist Episcopal church." . . . Carried Off His Bride. Tiie new husband put his June bride on his horse and they rode away on the red clay road along the timber trails to L'lizabethtown. Their new home was in a cabin close to the court house. Tom worked at the carpenter's trade, made cabinets, door frames, window win-dow sash and collins. A daughter was" horn and they named her Sarah. . . . The same year saw the Lincnlns moved to a place on the liig South fork of Nolin's creek, about two and a half miles from Ilodvnville. They were trying to farm a little piece of ground and make a home. The house i hey lived in was a cabin of logs cut from the timber near by. One morning in February of thb year, 1 SOU. Tom Lincoln came out of his cabin to the road, stopped a neigh bor and asked him to tell "the granny woman." Aunt i'eggy Walters, that Nancy would need help soon. Lincoln's Birth. On the morning of February 12, a Sunday, the granny woman was there at the cabin. And she and Tom Lin coin and the moaning Nancy Hanks-welcomed Hanks-welcomed into a world of battle and blood, of whispering dreams and wist-rul wist-rul dust, a new child, a boy. A little later that morning Tom Lin coin threw some extra wood on the lire, and an extra bearskin over the mother, went out of the cabin, and walked two miles up the road to where the Sparrows, Tom and Hetsy, lived. Dennis Hanks, the nine-year-old boy adopted by the Sparrows, met Tom ai the door. In his slow way of talking he was a slow anil quiet man Tom Lincoln told them, "Nancy's got a boy baby.' A half-sheepish look was in his eyes, as though maybe more babies were noi wanted in Kentucky just then. The boy, Dennis Hanks, took to his feet down the road to the Lincoln cabin. There lie saw Nancy Hanks on a bed of poles cleated to a ce tier of the cabin, undi r a large, warm bear- i skin. She turned her dark head from looking at the baby to look fit DennW and threw him a tired, white smile from her mouth and gray eyes. lie stood by the bed, has eyes wide open, watching the even, quiet breaths, of tills fresh, foft red baby. "What you goln' to name him. Nancy?" the boy asked. "Abraham." was the answer, "after his grandfather.'' Little Dennis Prediction. Little Dennis rolled up In a bearskin and slept by the fireplace that night. He listened for the crying of the newborn new-born child once In the night and the feet of the father moving on the dirt floor to help the mother and the little one. In the morning he took a long look at the baby and snid to himself. , "Its skin looks Just like red cherry pulp squeezed dry. In wrinkles." And Dennis swung the baby back and forth, keeping up a chatter about how tickled he was to have a new cousin to play with. The baby screwed up the muscles of Its face and began crying with no let-up. Dennis turned to ltsy Sparrow, handed her the baby and said to her. "Aunt, take him! He'll never come to much." So came the birth of Abraham Lin-coin Lin-coin that twelfth day of February in the year ISOil in silence and pain from a wilderness mother on a bed of corn husks and bearskins with an j mm L GRAVEl OP MxrsiCV KANIO Ll rS COLN early laughing child prophecy he j would never come to much. And though he was born In a house with only one door and one window, it was written he would come to know many doors, many windows; he would read many riddles and doors and -vin-dows. From "Abraham Lincoln, tho I'ralrie Veins," by Carl Sandburg. |