The early life of Abraham Lincoln: containing many unpublished documents and unpublished reminiscences of Lincoln's early friends

Origin of the Lincoln Family.—Possessions of Lincoln’s Grandfather.—Lincoln’s Story-telling Uncle.—Account of Lincoln’s Father, Thomas Lincoln.—Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Na...

The Lincolns leave Kentucky.—Hewing a Way through the Forests of Indiana.—A Cabin erected near Gentryville, Spencer County, Indiana.—Description of Lincoln’s New Home.—Domestic...

Lincoln’s Struggle for an Education.—The Books he Read.—Lincoln as the Oracle of Jones’s Store.—Slavery in Indiana.—Lincoln 69 Develops into an Orator and Writer.—Life on the Oh...

The Lincolns leave Indiana.—Parting from Old Friends in Indiana.—The Journey to Illinois.—Lincoln as a Peddler.—Begins Life on his own Account.—Splitting Rails for a Pair of 94...

Lincoln’s First Work on his own Account.—Lincoln’s Popularity in Sangamon County.—Rescues Three Comrades from Drowning.—Ingenuity 103 in getting a Flatboat over a Dam.—A Visit t...

Lincoln settles in New Salem.—He becomes a Grocery Clerk.—The Frontier Store.—Lincoln defeats the Champion Wrestler of Clary’s 115 Grove.—His Popularity in New Salem.—His Chival...

Lincoln’s First Announcement to the Voters of Sangamon County.—His Views on the Improvement of the Sangamon.—Views on Usury and 125 Education.—The Modesty of his Circular.—Pilot...

The Black Hawk War.—Outbreak of Sacs and Foxes.—Lincoln volunteers and is elected a Captain.—The Manner of his Election.—An Inexperienced Captain and a Disorderly Company.—The C...

Expiration of Lincoln’s Term and his Reënlistment.—Major Iles’s Reminiscences of the Campaign.—The Frantic Terror raised by 144 Black Hawk.—Lincoln and his Company enter Michiga...

Electioneering in 1832 in Illinois.—Lincoln defeated of Election to the Assembly.—Looking for Work.—Berry and Lincoln buy Three 155 Stores on Credit.—New Salem Merchants in Linc...

Lincoln appointed Postmaster.—Masters Surveying in Six Weeks, and becomes Deputy County Surveyor.—Surveying with a Grapevine.—His 175 Work and Earnings as a Surveyor.—Early Illi...

Business Reverses.—The Kindness shown Lincoln in New Salem.—His Helpfulness to all about him.—Growing Esteem and Influence in Sangamon County.—Becomes a Second Time a Candidate...

Lincoln decides finally on a Legal Career.—His Methods of Study.—First Session in the General Assembly.—Distrust of Yankees in Early Illinois.—Description of the Early Frontier...

This table was prepared especially for this work by the Hon. L. E. Chittenden of New York, Register of the Treasury under Mr. Lincoln. In the Appendix will be found a full memor...

It was at Elizabethtown that the first child of the Lincolns was born, a daughter. Soon after this event Thomas Lincoln decided to combine farming with his trade, and moved to t...

In 1816 a great event happened to the little boy. His father emigrated to Indiana from Knob Creek (Thomas Lincoln had removed from the farm on Nolin Creek to one some fifteen mi...

With all his hard living and hard work, Lincoln was getting, in this period, a desultory kind of education. Not that he received much schooling. He went to school “by littles,”...

In spite of the crudeness of these early opportunities for learning; in spite of the fact that he had no wise direction, that he was brought up by a father with no settled purpo...

If Abraham Lincoln’s early struggle for both livelihood and education was rough and hard, his life was not without amusements. At home the rude household was overflowing with li...

In the spring of 1830, when Abraham was twenty-one years old, his father, Thomas Lincoln, decided to leave Indiana. The reason Dennis Hanks gives for this removal was a disease...

Through the summer and fall of 1830 and the early winter of 1831, Mr. Lincoln worked in the vicinity of his father’s new home, usually as a farm-hand and rail-splitter. Most of...

The month in New Orleans passed swiftly, and in June, 1831, Lincoln and his companions took passage up the river. He did not return, however, in the usual way of the river boatm...

The only preliminary expected of a candidate for the legislature of Illinois at that date was an announcement stating his “sentiments with regard to local affairs.” The circular...

One morning in April a messenger from the governor of the State rode into New Salem, scattering circulars. These circulars contained an address from Governor Reynolds to the mil...

The march in pursuit of the Indians led the army to Ottawa, where the volunteers became so dissatisfied that on May 27th and 28th Governor Reynolds mustered them out. But a forc...

On returning to New Salem, Lincoln at once plunged into electioneering. He ran as “an avowed Clay man,” and the county was stiffly Democratic. However, in those days political c...

It was not only Burns and Shakespeare that interfered with the grocery-keeping; Lincoln had begun seriously to read law. His first acquaintance with the subject had been made wh...

Even after the license was granted, however, business was not so brisk in Berry and Lincoln’s store that the junior partner did not welcome an appointment as postmaster which he...

Between his duties as deputy surveyor and postmaster, Lincoln had little leisure for the store, and its management passed into the hands of Berry. The stock of groceries was on...

The best thing which Lincoln did in the canvass of 1834 was not winning votes; it was coming to a determination to read law, not for pleasure, but as a business. In his autobiog...

In the spring of 1835 the young representative from Sangamon returned to New Salem to take up his duties as postmaster and deputy surveyor, and to resume his law studies. He exc...

When the death of Ann Rutledge came upon Lincoln, for a time threatening to destroy his ambition and blast his life, he was in a most encouraging position. Master of a professio...