The Emigration to Illinois

Preparations for Removal—Recollections of Old Acquaintances—The Old Indiana Home—Blocks from the Old House—The Cedar Tree—More Tangled History Untangled—Mr. Jones' Store—Various Experiences in Illinois—Recollections of an Old Friend.

After residing in Indiana fourteen years, and having rather a rough experience, Thomas Lincoln, through the inducements of others, concluded to move to Illinois. Abraham was now twenty-one years old. The farm products were sold to David Turnham. The family started March 1, 1830. Other families accompanied them.

Expressions made to me, and written at the time by different persons who remembered the departure of the Lincolns, are here given:

Allen Brooner said: "I remember when the Lincoln family left for Illinois. Abraham and his step-brother, John Johnston, came to my father's to trade a young horse for a yoke of oxen. The trade was made. John Johnston did most of the talking."

Redmond D. Grigsby said: "I was twelve years old when the Lincolns left for Illinois. I helped to hitch the two yokes of oxen to the wagon, and went with them half a mile."

James Gentry said: "I was eleven years old when the Lincoln family started to Illinois. They stayed at my father's the night before they started."

Mrs. Lamar said: "I remember when the Lincolns left for Illinois. All the neighbors went to see them start. All the surroundings, to my mind, are as plain as things are now in my kitchen."

The old Indiana house, built by Thomas Lincoln, in 1817, was torn down, and the logs shipped away, many years ago, except one log. Isaac Houghland, a reliable man and merchant of Lincoln City, was in possession of this log, and stated to me that a man by the name of Skelton said he would make oath that it was one of the logs of the old Lincoln house. Mr. Houghland kindly gave me two blocks, which I saw his son chop from the log.

A cedar-tree stands near where the Lincoln house stood. A number of unreliable stories concerning this tree have been told in various Lincoln biographies, magazine and newspaper articles. Some state that the tree was planted by Abraham Lincoln; others, that James Gentry planted the tree the day the Lincolns started to Illinois, in honor of his friend, Abraham. James Gentry, many years ago, purchased several hundred acres of land around and including the Lincoln farm. He told me, in the interview before mentioned, that he planted the cedar-tree in 1858. I wrote that fact in his presence, and have preserved the original paper on which it is written. The tree was planted twenty-eight years after the Lincolns vacated the premises. Some of the citizens of Lincoln City do not know the true history of the tree. Some yet believe Lincoln planted it, and hundreds of visitors have almost stripped the tree of its twigs and branches with the same delusive idea. Here is more "tangled history untangled."

William Jones kept a store at Gentryville some years before, and at the time the Lincolns went away, Abraham often worked for Mr. Jones, and read newspapers at the store. Before leaving he bought thirty-five dollars' worth of goods from Mr. Jones to sell on the way out to Illinois. He wrote back that he doubled his money on the investment. Mr. Jones was born in Vincennes, Indiana, January 5, 1800. He was a member of the Indiana Legislature from 1838 to 1841. He was killed while in command as colonel of the Fifty-third Indiana Regiment, at Atlanta, Georgia, July 22, 1864. I gather these facts, mainly, from an article furnished a newspaper by Captain William Jones, of Rockport, Indiana, a son of Colonel William Jones. I knew Captain Jones at Dale, many years ago.

The Lincolns were about two weeks on their journey to Illinois. They first settled near Decatur. Thomas Lincoln moved a time or two after, and finally settled on Goosenest Prairie, near Farmington, in Coles County, where he died January 12, 1851, at the age of seventy-three. Lincoln's step-mother, whom he loved very dearly, died April 10, 1869, in her eighty-first year, and four years after the death of her famous step-son.

After his removal to Illinois, Abraham Lincoln did not remain much of the time at home. I shall not follow his history here in detail. His rail-splitting proclivities; his Black Hawk War record; his experience as a merchant and postmaster; his career as a lawyer; his election at various times to the Illinois Legislature; his election to Congress; his marriage, and many other matters of history are found in most any of his numerous biographies. Whatever reference may be made to any of these periods in his history will be for the purpose of introducing new material.

The following, relative to some of Lincoln's early experiences in Indiana, was related to me by one of Lincoln's early Indiana friends, Allen Brooner: