Boyhood Of Abraham Lincoln (2nd Ed, 1992)

o [Music] we all know that Abraham Lincoln was a great president of the United [Music] States many photographs were taken when he was president but photography hadn't been invented when he was a boy so we don't have pictures of him then but what if there was a picture album of Abraham Lincoln's [Music] life and in it were pictures of him in the Years before he was grown up our album about Abraham Lincoln would probably have a picture of a long cabin he was born in one in 1809 in Kentucky and there would be pictures of what Kentucky looked like at that time the forests and the rivers hills and mountains and there would probably be a map to show where they lived in Kentucky across the Ohio River from Indiana Indiana wasn't a state when Lincoln was born but it did become one and in December of 1816 when Lincoln was almost nine and on his way there with his family that's when he had to cross the Ohio on a ferry Abraham Lincoln would always remember that trip to his new home as one of the hardest experiences of his life crossing the river was probably the most dangerous part of the trip the river was wide and deep with fast currents the man fing them across probably was good at his job but it wasn't just the danger of the trip that made it so hard for young Abe it was a very sad trip for him he had to leave without being able to say goodbye to his best friend he had enjoyed many good times and Adventures with his friend like the time they were out in the woods with ab's dog and it got into a fight with a wild cat or the time Abe fell into Knob Creek and his friend saved him with a Long Branch that Abe grabbed hold of a would never forget his best friend at least he was with his family his father Tom his mother Nancy his sister Sarah just 2 years older than he was they were all headed for a new life and new adventures in Indiana at a place called little Pigeon Creek and the hardest part of the journey would be getting through the Wilderness ahead in our album we'd also see his new home and the woods that were all around and the land that was cleared and the little creek and we'd also see what was so important to Abe that first year in Indiana the mill where Abe took corn to be ground in flour there were always a lot of people waiting their turn to Hitch up their horses to the millstone and grind their corn into flow Abe made many friends here he liked talking to people sharing news and stories people like talking with Abe too his ability to get along well with people to like them and be liked by them and to be able to tell a good story were traits that would stay with him as he grew up in that first year in Indiana we'd see pictures of Abe chopping wood because his father taught him how to use an axe there were trees that had to be cut down logs that had to be split for fences a new cabin that had to be built cleared fields that had to be plowed and planted during this first year in Indiana in the Autumn of 1818 a terrible thing happened to the Lincoln family ab's mother Nancy died of what they called the milk sickness it was caused by drinking milk from cows that had eaten certain poisonous plants people didn't know about the poisonous plants then Abe helped his father build his mother's coffin and so when Abe was nine and his sister Sarah and leban they were without a mother grieving over their mother's death brought them closer together the next year was a hard one for the Lincoln Sarah had to do all the work that a grown woman was expected to do in those pioneer days and Abe worked with his father Tom in the fields working helped ease the sorrow they all felt but the pictures from the year 189 would show a much happier family Tom Lincoln had gone back to Kentucky and married a widow Sarah Bush Johnston and then brought her and her three children back with him a few weeks before Christmas she was a kind loving woman who would be a good mother to Abe and Sarah she encouraged AB to learn as much as he could his best teachers were books books stimulated Abraham Lincoln's imagination he would read isup's fables Robinson cruso he'd read stories about real and imaginary people among them would be people who had shaped The History of the United States like Benjamin Franklin and he would read of one man who would become a hero for him George Washington Abe educated himself by reading every book he could find some people said he mastered what he read by putting it into his own words now the pictures in our album would show life in the wilderness babe working in the fields chopping down trees and splitting logs for cabins and fences for new settlers all the different kinds of jobs the growing AB Lincoln did during the next few years on his family's farm and on neighbors farms and so young Abe worked and grew taller and stronger he became well known for his strength and his skill with an ax by the time he was 14 he was nearly 6 ft tall and very popular in his community this was the time when he began stopping at a country store about 2 miles from the Lincoln cabin people who came to the store enjoyed listening to the stories that 14-year-old Abraham Lincoln told they enjoyed talking with him and hearing what he had to say people talked about politics and discussed what was in the newspapers sometimes he even worked in the store for the owner people in Pioneer communities all around became acquainted with young AB Lincoln and liked him and so the pictures in our album will show time passing people [Music] working Abe growing up when Abe was 18 years old there was another great tragedy in his life his only Sister Sarah died he mourned her loss deeply that year of 1828 another event occurred that would have an important effect on Abraham Lincoln's future he built a flat bottom boat called a scow he carried people and their baggage from the Indiana shore of the Ohio River out to the steamboats waiting for them in Midstream Where the River was deep and from the boats back to shore but the owners of a ferry boat from the Kentucky side of the river felt he was competing with them unfairly so they took Abe to court it would have been illegal for Abe to have taken passengers all the way across the Ohio River from Indiana to Kentucky but Abe convinced the judge that he was carrying passengers only to the middle of the river so he wasn't breaking any law this experience got a very interested in law and the courts and he would row across the river and attend the court frequently in Kentucky when it was in session ab's interest in the law would eventually lead him to become a state representative and later a lawyer a year later when AB was 19 he made his first trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans a storekeeper hired him to move some Goods down the river to be sold in New [Music] Orleans Abe went with the man's son this was his first experience in a great city in New Orleans Lincoln saw a slave auction for the first time humans were sold like animals he had never seen anything like this before it's said that watching the slave auction helped him decide to try to end slavery if he ever got the chance Abe turned 20 while he was in New Orleans until he was 21 all that he earned from the different jobs he did had to go to his father that was the law and then in February of 1830 he turned 21 now he was free to leave home and earn money for himself he had reached his full height of 6' 4 in but that year Abe's Father Tom decided to move the family to Illinois it had become a state in 1818 they settled in the central part of the state even though Abe was free to go off on his own now he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life so he stayed with his family to help build a new log cab and to help make fence rails to close in their new land and then after his family moved again 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln finally left home he set off with his stepbrother and a cousin for nearby New Salem Illinois to take a job at a store his Boyhood was over now Abraham Lincoln was a man he had no clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life he thought of himself as homely and awkward but he had learned to laugh at himself and that helped make him popular with many people he would keep educating himself by reading and talking with people who had a wider experience than he did he believed in himself and in what he could do although he was modest he was very ambitious but in this year of 1831 when Abraham lincol was 22 years old he had no idea of how far his ambition would take him he had no idea that one day he would become the 16th president of the United States oh