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William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 1. (search)
as is known, revealing them to anyone. On the subject of his ancestry and origin I only. remember one time when Mr. Lincoln ever referred to it. It was about 1850, when he and I were driving in his one-horse buggy to the court in Menard county, Illinois. The suit we were going to try was one in which we were likely, either directly or collaterally, to touch upon the subject of hereditary traits. During the ride he spoke, for the first time in my hearing, of his mother, Dennis and John Hanks have always insisted that Lincoln's mother was not a Hanks, but a Sparrow. Both of them wrote to me that such was the fact. Their object in insisting on this is apparent when it is shown that Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Lucy Hanks, who afterward married Henry Sparrow. It will be observed that Mr. Lincoln claimed that his mother was a Hanks. dwelling on her characteristics, and mentioning or enumerating what qualities he inherited from her. He said, among other things, that she was t
William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 2. (search)
of preservation. Frequently, related his stepmother, he had no paper to write his pieces down on. Then he would put them with chalk on a board or plank, sometimes only making a few signs of what he intended to write. When he got paper he would copy them, always bringing them to me and reading them. He would ask my opinion of what he had read, and often explained things to me in his plain and simple language. How he contrived at the age of fourteen to absorb information is thus told by John Hanks: When Abe and I returned to the house from work he would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn bread, sit down, take a book, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read. We grubbed, plowed, mowed, and worked together barefooted in the field. Whenever Abe had a chance in the field while at work, or at the house, he would stop and read. He kept the Bible and Aesop's Fables always within reach, and read them over and over again. These two volumes furnished him with the many figur
William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 4. (search)
est of the town of Decatur in Macon county. John Hanks, son of that Joseph Hanks in whose shop at Ehe work fell to his lot our only chronicler, John Hanks, fails to note; but it is conjectured from teen acres of sod, and Abe and myself, observes Hanks in a matter-of-fact way, split rails enough to as 1831 he was still in the same parts, and John Hanks is authority for the statement that he made nding in Illinois is thus described to me by John Hanks, whose language I incorporate: After Abe gotmany miles. Having heard glowing reports of John Hanks' successful experience as a boatman in Kentuw Orleans. He wanted me to go badly, observes Hanks, but I waited awhile before answering. I hunt gave rise to its name. Offut had agreed with Hanks to have a boat ready for him and his two compambarked, Offut remaining behind while Lincoln, Hanks, and Johnston started across Illinois on foot. At Edwardsville they separated, Hanks going to Springfield, while Lincoln and his stepbrother fol[2 more...]
William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 10. (search)
on which he had taken passage stranded on a sand bar. The captain ordered the hands to collect all the loose planks, empty barrels and boxes and force them under the sides of the boat. These empty casks were used to buoy it up. After forcing enough of them under the vessel she lifted gradually and at last swung clear of the opposing sand bar. Lincoln had watched this operation very intently. It no doubt carried him back to the days of his navigation on the turbulent Sangamon, when he and John Hanks had rendered similar service at New Salem dam to their employer the volatile Offut. Continual thinking on the subject of lifting vessels over sand bars and other obstructions in the water suggested to him the idea of inventing an apparatus for the purpose. Using the principle involved in the operation he had just witnessed, his plan was to attach a kind of bellows on each side of the hull of the craft just below the water line, and, by an odd system of ropes and pulleys, whenever the kee
William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 15. (search)
anvass. the dawn of 1860. Presidential suggestions. meeting in the office of the Secretary of State. the Cooper Institute speech. speaking in New England. Looming up. preparing for Chicago. letters to a friend. the Decatur convention. John Hanks bringing in the rails. the Chicago convention. the canvass of 1860. Lincoln casting his ballot. attitude of the clergy in Springfield. the election and result. The result of the campaign of 1858 wrought more disaster to Lincoln's financred to them as much as ever. The first public movement by the Illinois people in his interest was the action of the State convention, which met at Decatur on the 9th and 10th of May. It was at this convention that Lincoln's friend and cousin, John Hanks, brought in the two historic rails which both had made in the Sangamon bottom in 1830, and which served the double purpose of electrifying the Illinois people and kindling the fire of enthusiasm that was destined to sweep over the nation. In t
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 1. (search)
penmanship, and his arithmetic were by no means overabundant. Writing of his father's removal from Kentucky to Indiana, he says: He settled in an unbroken forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young, was large of his age, and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that till within his twenty-third year he was almost constantly handling that most useful instrument-less, of course, in plowing and harvesting seasons. John Hanks mentions the character of his work a little more in detail. He and I worked barefoot, grubbed it, plowed, mowed, and cradled together; plowed corn, gathered it, and shucked corn. The sum of it all is that from his boyhood until after he was of age, most of his time was spent in the hard and varied muscular labor of the farm and the forest, sometimes on his father's place, sometimes as a hired hand for other pioneers. In this very useful but commonplace occupation he had, however, one ad
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 2. (search)
f relates somewhat in detail how Offutt engaged him and the beginning of the venture: Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown, Illinois [on the Illinois River], to New Orleans; and for tduring his previous New Orleans trip, sufficient to enable him with confidence to undertake this task in shipbuilding. From the after history of both Johnston and Hanks, we know that neither of them was gifted with skill or industry, and it becomes clear that Lincoln was from the first leader of the party, master of construction, rtly there and partly at Beardstown, the boat safely made the remainder of her voyage to New Orleans; and, returning by steamer to St. Louis, Lincoln and Johnston (Hanks had turned back from St. Louis) continued on foot to Illinois, Johnston remaining at the family home, which had meanwhile been removed from Macon to Coles County,
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 11. (search)
Chapter 11. Candidates and platforms the political chances Decatur Lincoln resolution John Hanks and the Lincoln rails the Rail Splitter candidate the wide Awakes Douglas's Southern tour Jefferson Davis's address fusion atur in Coles County, not far from the old Lincoln home, when, at a given signal, there marched into the convention old John Hanks, one of his boyhood companions, and another pioneer, who bore on their shoulders two long fence rails decorated with a banner inscribed: Two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830. They were greeted with a tremendous shout of applause from the whole convention, succeeded by a united call for Lincoln, who sat oemen: I suppose you want to know something about those things [pointing to old John and the rails]. Well, the truth is, John Hanks and I did make rails in the Sagamon Bottom. I don't know whether we made those rails or not; fact is, I don't think th