Abraham Lincoln was born in what is now known as Hodgenville, Kentucky in 1809, at that time there was no town just a rural county. He was named after his grandfather who was killed by indians in 1786 while clearing a field. He lived in Kentucky until his father was forced off his land by a legal dispute. They moved to Spencer County, Indiana in 1816 partly due to slavery and their legal issues in Kentucky. In 1818 at age 9, his mother (Nancy Hanks Lincoln) died of “Milk Sickness” at age 34. Milk Sickness was common and those who ate meat, milk or other dairy products from a cow that fed on “White Snakeroot,” which contains tremetol, a poison. His father soon married Sarah Bush Johnston who raised the Lincoln children as her own. In comparing Lincoln to her own son, she said, “Both were good boys, but I must say — both now being dead that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or ever expect to see.” His sister died in 1828 during childbirth. Abe loved and respected her calling her his Angel Mother.
His formal education lasted only a year and a half. He was self-educated, studying every book he could find. He often walked many miles just to borrow a book. The Bible, Shakespere, anything of history or poetry was quickly mastered. Many thought him to be a loafer because he did not like to hunt, or fish, and dreaded farming. But he was a skilled axeman and an excellent wrestler. Standing 6’4″ he was a giant in his day and was proud of his stature. His friends said of him “He read so much – was so studious – took so little physical exercise – was so laborious in his studies, and that he became so thin and were afraid that he would craze himself.” – Henry McHenry
In 1830 after more land title battles in Indiana, his father moved the family to Macon County, Illinois (just west of Decatur) and after a brutal winter that almost claimed their lives they moved south to Coles County, Illinois (my birthplace). In 1831 and ready to strike out on his own Lincoln and two life long friends met in Springfield to take a load of goods down to New Orleans starting on the Sangamon River. While in New Orleans Lincoln saw his first slave auction that left a life long impression on him to his final day.
He set up shop with a Mr. Offutt and settled in at Salem, Illinois in 1831. While clerking in the store he met up with the rough river clientel. Lincoln’s humorous story telling and his physical strength fit in nicely with the young and raucous element that included the Clary’s Grove boys, a local bunch of roughians. His respect with them was cemented when he engaged in a wrestling match with the local champion, Jack Armstrong. While Lincoln lost the match, he earned their respect. His reputation as a good and fair businessman caused him to enter politics as a Whig.
Around the same time the Blackhawk War started and Lincoln joined a group of local militia and marched north. One of the the first tales about Lincoln happened on this march. When marching towards a gate he could not remember the command that would get them through the opening so he dismissed his men for a short break, then reassembled them again on the other side of the gate to continue the march. Saving himself from embarrassment.
Upon return from the war, that was over before they got there, he was appointed Postmaster of New Salem, a job he would retain for three years. He also began surveying as an assistant to a local Democratic political appointee. Lincoln had no formal math training so he taught himself trigonometry by borrowing two books and became a master surveyor.
In 1834 he began his campaign for the state legislature as a Whig. He received 1376 votes and was elected. He would be re-elected in 36, 38, 40 and 44. It was at this time that he became close to John Todd Stuart a cousin of Mary Todd his future bride. It was Stuart who encouraged him to study law and having been exposed to bad legal advice when his father was forced off of his land in Kentucky and Indiana he became a rabid legal student. In 1836 he applied for his law license in the Sangamon County Court House. After passing the written exams and a character evaluation, he received his license on Sep 9, 1836 and opened a law office with Stuart in Springfield, Illinois.
His time in the state legislature was very busy with issues. Suffrage of white males was the hot topic of the day. Lincoln took the Whig stance that only property owners should be allowed to vote. He was involved in the establishment of the Illinois and Michigan Canal connecting the Illinois and Chicago Rivers, so that Lake Michigan could connect to the Mississippi. Lincoln had always supported the “American System” vision of Henry Clay that saw a prosperous America supported by a well developed network of roads, canals, and, later, railroads. However he favored raising the money to do this from the sale of public lands by the Federal government, eliminating interest expenses. Otherwise, private capital should bear the cost alone. Fearing that Illinois would fall behind other states in economic development, Lincoln shifted his position to allow the state to provide the necessary support for private developers. He was involved in the selection of Springfield as the state capital. He was involved in the establishment of the Illinois State Bank saying that “a well-regulated bank would provide a sound, elastic currency, protecting the public against the extreme prescriptions of the hard-money men on one side and the paper inflationists on the other; it would be a safe depository for public funds and provide the credit mechanisms needed to sustain state improvements; it would bring an end to extortionate money-lending.”
His legal and political issues were deep and very consuming. Abolition becoming the hot topic of the day. He began his legal relationship with William Herndon. His marriage to Mary Todd all began during this time. Lincoln charged $5 per case and his reputation for honest and integrity earned him the lasting nickname “Honest Abe”.
The most important civil case for Lincoln was the landmark Effie Afton case. America’s expansion west, which Lincoln strongly supported, was seen as an economic threat to the river trade, which ran north-to-south, primarily on the Mississippi. In 1856 a steamboat collided with a bridge, built by the Rock Island Railroad between Rock Island, Il and Davenport, Iowa the first railroad bridge to span the Mississippi. The steamboat owner sued for damages, claiming the bridge was a hazard to navigation. Lincoln argued in court for the railroad and won, removing a costly impediment to western expansion by establishing the right of land routes to bridge waterways.
Lincoln and his partners were involved in more than 5,100 cases in Illinois alone during his 23-year legal career. Though many of these cases involved little more than filing a writ, others were more substantial and quite involved. Lincoln and his partners appeared before the Illinois State Supreme Court more than 400 times. – Wikipedia
He is the only president to be awarded a patent designed to move boats over sandbars. His invention was never marketable, “A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals” was issued May 22, 1849.
Mary and Abe would have four sons. Robert Todd, Edward Baker, William Wallace, and Thomas “Tad”. Only Robert would survive to adulthood as the others would die in childhood or their teens. Much has been said about the mental stability of Mary Lincoln but perhaps we should think about how it would be to lose three young sons and your husband the President! I might go over the edge myself!
If the reader wishes to know more about Mr. Lincoln there are hundreds of excellent books from which to chose. I would like to recommend three. Herndon’s Lincoln by William Herndon (his law partner), Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kerns Goodwin, and Abraham Lincoln a Biography by Benjamin P. Thomas.