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Lincoln's Birth and Early Life in Kentucky

Unpromising Cradles—Site of the Log Cabin—Tangled History Untangled—Jacob S. Brother's Statement—Speaking with Authority—The Lincolns Move to Knob Creek—The Lincoln Farm Association.

It has been said truly that God selects unpromising cradles for his greatest and best servants. On a cold winter night, a hundred years ago, in a floorless log cabin, the emancipator of a race was born. Like the Redeemer of mankind, there was "no room" in the mansions of the rich and the great for such a child to be born.

Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, natives of Virginia, were married by Rev. Jesse Head, a minister of the Methodist Church, June 12, 1806, near Beechland, Washington County, Kentucky. They settled at Elizabethtown, Hardin County, where their first child, Sarah, was born, February 10, 1807. In 1808 they moved to a farm containing one hundred and ten acres, on the south fork of Nolin Creek, two miles south of Hodgenville, Hardin County, and fifty miles south of Louisville. Hodgenville afterward became, and is now the county-seat of Larue County, as that part of the territory now embraced in Larue County was set off from Hardin County in 1843. Here, on the twelfth of February, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born.

The Hodgenville and Magnolia public highway runs through the farm. The site of the old log cabin in which Lincoln was born is about five hundred yards west of the road, and a short distance from the well-known "Rock Spring." The old Kirkpatrick mill, on Nolin Creek, is but a short distance away. The cabin, of course, is no longer in existence, although various publications have printed pictures of it, as though it were still standing on the original spot. Misleading statements have also been published that the original cabin has been placed on exhibition in various cities. Other publications, with more caution, have pictured it as the alleged log cabin in which Lincoln was born.

Evidence is here introduced to untangle tangled history. Jacob S. Brother, now in his ninetieth year, resides at Rockport, the county-seat of Spencer County, Indiana, on the Ohio River, fifteen miles south of Lincoln City, the site of the Lincoln farm in Indiana. Mr. Brother is a highly-respected Christian gentleman. I have known him for many years. On the thirtieth of March, 1899, when visiting him, he incidentally told me that his father purchased the Lincoln farm in Kentucky, and that the family lived in the cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born. On the eighth of September, 1903, I again visited him, and, at my request, he gave a fuller statement, which I wrote out, and then read it to him, all of which he said was correct, and is here submitted:

"My name is Jacob S. Brother. My father's name was Henry, but he was generally known as 'Harry.' I was born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, March 8, 1819. In the year 1827, when I was eight years old, my father purchased the old farm on which Abraham Lincoln was born, in Kentucky. He purchased it of Henry Thomas. We lived in the house in which Lincoln was born. After some years, my father built another house almost like the first house. The old house was torn down, and, to my knowledge, the logs were burned for fire-wood. Later he built a hewed log house, and the second old house was used as a hatter-shop. My father followed the trade of making hats all his life. The pictures we often see of the house in which Lincoln was born are pictures of the first house built by my father. He died in the hewed log house, and my youngest brother, Joseph, was born in the same house three weeks after father's death. Some time after father's death, mother, I, and the other children moved to near St. Joe, Missouri. The brother born on the Lincoln farm enlisted in the Southern army, and was captured at Lookout Mountain, and taken to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, as a prisoner. My oldest brother, George, who was a surgeon in the Union army, went to Washington City to see President Lincoln, in order to get a reprieve for his brother. Among other things, he told the President that his brother and he (the President) were born on the same farm. I do not know how much weight this had with the President, but my brother was reprieved. I left Missouri to avoid going into the Confederate army, and came to Rockport, Indiana, in 1863, where I have ever since resided."

At the time of this interview, I had with me some newspaper and magazine articles, with illustrations, descriptive of the old Lincoln farm in Kentucky, including the "Rock Spring," Nolin Creek, the old watermill, Hodgenville, and other places, which were read and shown the old gentleman. He was perfectly familiar with all the points named, and mentioned a number of other items. When the name of the creek, near the farm, was pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, he said, "We always pronounced it No-lin´" (with the accent on the second syllable). All these statements are entitled to credit, as there could have been no object in making any false representations.

When Abraham was about four years old the Lincolns moved from the Rock Spring farm to a farm on Knob Creek, in the eastern part of what is now Larue County. Here a little boy, younger than Abraham, was buried.

Of late years considerable interest has been given to Lincoln's birthplace. "The Lincoln Farm Association" has been organized and incorporated, and the farm purchased by a group of patriotic citizens who believe that the people of our country should, through affiliating with the organization, develop the farm into a national park, embellished by an historical museum. Mrs. Russell Sage has contributed $25,000 for this purpose, and others are contributing. It is hoped that this most worthy enterprise may be successful, and thus further honor the immortal emancipator, and that the place will be dedicated to peace and good will to all, where North, South, East, and West may find a common ground of pride and fellowship.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN