Abraham Lincoln  "The Early Years"  February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865

Abraham Lincoln's remarkable life story began with a humble birth in a backwoods cabin near Hodgenville, KY., to a sturdy pioneer father, Thomas Lincoln, and a mother named Nancy Hanks. Thomas Lincoln moved his family to public land in southwestern Indiana when Abraham was seven years old, and there, as a squatter, he built a cabin and cleared land for farming. This pioneering family had very little in material goods. Lincoln later remembered frontier life as being "pretty pinching at times", and he recalled the "panther's scream" and the bears that "preyed on the swine".

Nine-year-old Abraham grieved deeply, as he watched his mother being buried in the forest in 1818. Fortunately for him, the next year his father married Sarah Bush Johnson, a widow with three young children. Abraham and his stepmother, whom he referred to as his "angel mother", developed a special fondness for each other, and she exerted a strong and favorable influence on his development. The Lincoln children had little opportunity for education. Abraham attended formal school for only about a year, but he had a tremendous drive to learn and somehow learned to read. Both his parents were illiterate, their only book being a Bible, and Lincoln later remembered his backwoods upbringing as offering "absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all."

Thomas Lincoln moved his family again in 1830, this time to a new farm in Illinois. Abraham, then 21 years old, drove the team of oxen during the migration and helped his father clear and fence the fields, but he had no desire to be a farmer. He was 6'4" tall, lanky but very strong. He walked like a plowman, spoke with a strong backwoods twang, and was good-natured and known to be a good storyteller. As he began life on his own, any other talents he may have possessed were unknown.

Fascinating Fact:  In 1808, in another frontier home in Kentucky about 100 miles from Lincoln's birthplace, another American president had been born. His name was Jefferson Davis.


Back to index page