Footprints of Abraham Lincoln / Presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before published

CHAPTER III.

Indiana Associates and Incidents

The Double Wedding—One of the Brides Interviewed—"The Chronicles of Reuben"—Josiah Crawford's Daughter—The Lincoln-Brooner Rifle Gun—David Turnham, the Indiana Constable—The "Revised Statutes of Indiana."

Reuben Grigsby had quite a family of sons. Aaron, the oldest, who married Lincoln's sister, and Redmond D., the youngest, have already been mentioned. Two sons, Reuben and Charles, were married the same day, the former married in Spencer County and the latter in Dubois, the adjoining county on the north. A double infare dinner was given at old Reuben Grigsby's, the day following the marriages. The Grigsbys were regarded as belonging to the "upper ten" class in those days, for they lived in a two-story hewed-log house.

On the sixth of April, 1899, I met Elizabeth Grigsby, commonly called "Aunt Betsy," one of the brides, the widow of Reuben, Jr., at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Justin Banks, near Grandview, Spencer County. She was in her eighty-seventh year. She was cheerful, and bright in her mind, and had a good knowledge of current events. I requested her to give me a sketch of her life, and stated that it might prove useful and interesting as a matter of history. She thought that, perhaps, what I said might be true, and cheerfully gave the following:

"My father, Ezekiel Ray, was born in Ireland, and came to America at the age of three years, and his father settled in Tennessee. My father and a number of others, among them Mr. Grass and Mr. Lamar, came to Indiana, and settled where Grandview now stands. My father died when I was five years old. I had one sister and five brothers. I was next to the youngest child. My mother remained a widow, and died twelve years after the death of my father. I had sixty acres of land left to me, my part of father's estate.

"I was married to Reuben Grigsby on the 15th of April, 1829, before my seventeenth birthday, which was June 1, following. Charles, my husband's brother, was married the same day. We had infare dinner at the home of my husband's father, Reuben Grigsby, three miles south of Gentryville. My husband and I arrived about two hours before the other couple arrived. John Johnston, Abraham Lincoln's step-brother, told a story about a mistake made by the brothers in going to bed upstairs that night, which led to a fight between himself and William Grigsby, a brother of the two who were married. This story told by John Johnston occasioned the writing of 'The Chronicles of Reuben,' by Abraham Lincoln, a short time afterward. I saw Lincoln at my father-in-law's two days after our marriage. He was not a good looking young man.

"Sally Lincoln, Abraham's only sister, married Aaron Grigsby, my husband's oldest brother, but that was before my marriage. I never saw her, for she died about three years after her marriage. I have seen Thomas Lincoln, but was not acquainted with him. My husband and Abraham Lincoln attended the same school. My husband never had a sister that he thought more of than he did of Sally Lincoln.

"After our marriage on Thursday, we moved to my place, where Grandview now is. I have been a member of the United Brethren Church about forty-five years. My husband joined the church about eight years before I joined. He was a class-leader for many years. He died sixteen years ago last January. I have raised eight children, but only four are living, one son and three daughters.

"I am not much account any more, but I am still here. My health has been better the past winter than common. My eyesight is good. I have never used spectacles, but I have trouble sometimes in threading a fine needle. My teeth are all gone, except two old snags. I am living on my farm of forty acres, two miles northwest of Grandview. I have a house of four rooms. I rent my farm and three rooms, reserving one room for myself. I do my own cooking, and eat alone."

"Aunt Betsy" died March 27, 1901, two years after the interview mentioned, in her eighty-ninth year. Her picture, secured for this book, through her daughter, Mrs. Enco, residing in Spencer County, is a good one.

"The Chronicles of Reuben," mentioned by "Aunt Betsy," were written in scripture style, but no copy has been preserved. Thomas Bunton, an aged citizen of Gentryville, told me that he remembered hearing the "Chronicles" read when he was a boy. Redmond D. Grigsby told me, in my interview with him, that he was in possession of them for some time, but they were lost or destroyed. He said the "Chronicles" were no credit to Mr. Lincoln. Those purporting to be the "Chronicles" in Herndon and Weiks' "Life of Lincoln," were written by Herndon as remembered by Mrs. Crawford, the wife of Josiah Crawford. Dr. W. S. Bryant, of Dale, told me, some years ago, that he accompanied Herndon, in 1865, to the Crawford place, when the "Chronicles" were written as before stated. It had then been thirty-six years since they were written.

The Grigsbys were much irritated when the "Chronicles" were written, and have protested against their becoming a matter of history. It is alleged that they were written to humiliate the Grigsbys for slighting Lincoln in the invitations to the infare. The account of the fight between John Johnston and William Grigsby is mentioned in full in Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," but whether all the details there mentioned are true no one can say.

The day I visited Captain and Mrs. Lamar, already referred to, at their request, I visited the captain's cousin, Mrs. Ruth Jennings Huff, residing in Buffaloville. She was the only surviving child of Josiah Crawford. She said she was the middle child of five children, three brothers and one sister. She showed me a corner cupboard made by Thomas Lincoln and his son Abraham for her father. Her father died about thirty years before my visit. In the distribution of the property among the children, among other things, she chose the cupboard. After telling many things she had heard her parents say about Lincoln, I ventured to ask if she ever heard of the "Chronicles of Reuben." Her quick, characteristic reply was, "Lord, yes; I've heard mother tell it a thousand times." Mrs. Huff died at the residence of her son, S. H. Jennings, in Rockport, Indiana, December 26, 1906, in her eightieth year. Mr. Jennings is the present owner of the cupboard referred to, and he writes me that he would not part with it for any reasonable price. I am indebted to him for a good photograph of his mother.

In the latter part of the 'twenties, Abraham Lincoln and Henry Brooner walked to Vincennes, Indiana, a distance of more than fifty miles, and while there they purchased a rifle gun in partnership for fifteen dollars. They hunted for game on their way back home. When the Lincolns moved to Illinois in 1830, Mr. Brooner purchased Mr. Lincoln's interest in the gun. He kept it until 1872, when he presented it to his adopted son Samuel, on the day of his marriage. I purchased the gun of Samuel Brooner, September 7, 1903. Of course, the gun was originally a "flint-lock." It was changed to shoot with percussion caps. John F. Martin, now living at Dale, in his seventy-eighth year, and a son-in-law of Henry Brooner; John W. Kemp, now sixty-three, a justice of the peace, born and reared on a farm adjoining Henry Brooner, and Samuel Brooner, each made oath as to their knowledge of the gun. I have known all these persons for more than twenty years, and know their testimony to be first class. The gun is now in possession of John E. Burton, of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Nearly all the Lincoln biographies mention the fact that Lincoln often read and studied the "Revised Statutes of Indiana," which he borrowed of David Turnham, a constable, who lived near the Lincolns in Indiana. Mr. Turnham's father and family came to Indiana and settled in Spencer County, in 1819. Turnham and Lincoln went hunting together and attended the same school, although Turnham was six years older, as he was born August 2, 1803. "The Revised Statutes," besides containing the constitution and laws of Indiana, contained the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. No doubt it was in this book that Lincoln first read those important documents. Mr. Turnham gave the book to Mr. Herndon in 1865, when he was gathering material for the "Life of Lincoln." After being in several hands, the book is now said to be in possession of W. H. Winters, librarian of the New York Law Institute.

Twenty years ago I visited the home of David Turnham's widow, now deceased, who knew Mr. Lincoln, and I was well acquainted with the two sons, John J. and George W., who then resided at Dale. David Turnham died August 2, 1884, at the age of eighty-one. I am under obligation to my esteemed friend, George W. Turnham, now of Evansville, Indiana, for information concerning his father, for a copy of Lincoln's letter to his father, found elsewhere in this book, and for his father's and mother's pictures, which have never before appeared in any publication.

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