Isaac N. Arnold

“ In after life, when pronouncing a eulogy on Henry Clay, whose opportunities for education at schools were little better than his own, Lincoln said: "His example teaches us that one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably." ”

“ The axe, the rifle, the maul, and the plough were the farmer's tools and means of livelihood. Every child, boy or girl, was early trained to habits of industry. The people were kind and neighborly, always ready to help one another, and were frugal, industrious, and moral. There was a quick sense of justice among them. No gross wrong, fraud, or injustice, but was promptly punished, and, if too often repeated, the offender was expelled from the community.
Young Abraham borrowed of the neighbors and read every book he could hear of in the settlement within a wide circuit. ”

“ The Bible has been at all times the one book in every home and cabin in the republic; yet it was truly said of Lincoln that no man, clergyman or otherwise, could be found so familiar with this book as he. ”

“ Tough and hardy, with his trusty rifle always in his hands or by his side, his long, keen knife always in his belt, and his faithful hunting-dog his constant companion, of greater endurance and of far superior intellect, the Kentucky hunter could outrun his Indian enemy, or whip him in a man to man fight. ”

“ Living thus on the extreme frontier, mingling with the rude, hard-working, simple, honest backwoodsmen, while he soon became superior in knowledge to all around him, he was at the same time an expert in the use of every implement of agriculture and woodcraft. As an axe-man he was unequalled. He grew up strong in body, healthful in mind, with no bad habits, no stain of intemperance, profanity or vice. ”

“ Abraham Lincoln was born to a very humble station in life, and his early surroundings were rude and rough, but his ancestors for generations had been of that tough fiber, and vigorous physical organization and mental energy, so often found among the pioneers on the frontier of American civilization. His forefathers removed from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, in the first half of the seventeenth century; and from Pennsylvania some members of the family moved to Virginia, and settled in the valley of the Shenandoah, in the county of Rockingham, whence his immediate ancestors came to Kentucky. ”

“ Many streams were to be forded, and a part of the way was through the primeval forest, where they were often compelled to cut their path with the axe. At the time of this removal the lad Abraham was in his eighth year, but tall, large and strong of his age. The first things he had learned to use were the axe and the rifle, and with these he was already able to render important assistance to his parents on the journey, and in building up their new home. The family settled near Gentryville, and built their log-cabin on the top of an eminence which sloped gently away on every side. ”

“ My Parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-- second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon Counties, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or '2, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. ”

“ These virtues were ever associated in his mind with the most tender love and respect for his mother. "All that I am, or hope to be," he said, "I owe to my angel mother."
The common free schools which now so closely follow the heels of the pioneer and settler in the western portions of the republic had not then reached Indiana. An itinerant teacher sometimes "straggled" into a settlement, and if he could teach "readin', writin', and cipherin'" to the rule of three, he was deemed qualified to set up a school. With teachers thus qualified. Lincoln attended school at different times ”

“ Indeed, the difference between such men as Boone, and Kenton, and Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the President, on the one hand, and the early Warwicks, the Douglases and the Percys on the other, is that the Kentucky heroes were far better men and of a more advanced civilization. ”

“ Thomas Lincoln, born in 1778, and the father of the President, was in the field with his father when he fell. Mordecai and Josiah, his elder brothers, were near by in the forest. Mordecai, startled by the shot, saw his father fall, and, running to the cabin, seized the loaded rifle, rushed to one of the loop-holes cut through the logs of the cabin, and saw the Indian who had fired; he had just caught the boy, Thomas, and was running towards the forest. Pointing the rifle through the logs, and aiming at a silver medal on the breast of the Indian, Mordecai fired. ”

“ If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes. ”

“ Her ancestors were of English descent, and they, like the Lincolns, had emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky. Thomas and his wife settled on Rock Creek farm, in Hardin County; and here, on the 12th of February, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. He was the second child, having an older sister, named Sarah. He had, besides, a younger brother, named Thomas, who died in infancy.
The ancestors of President Lincoln for several generations were farmers, and, as has already been stated, his grandfather purchased from the United States five hundred acres of land. ”