Jason Elmer Hammond

“ Thomas Lincoln, the father, was a kind-hearted man, very strong and brave. Sometimes he would take the child on his knee and tell him strange, true stories of the great forest and of the Indians and the fierce beasts that roamed among the woods and hills. For Thomas Lincoln had always lived on the wild frontier; and he would rather hunt deer and other game in the forest than do anything else. Perhaps this is why he was so poor, perhaps this is why he was content to live in the little log cabin with so few of the comforts of life. ”

“ There were no school houses in that part of Kentucky in those days, and of course there were no public schools. One winter a traveling schoolmaster came that way. He got leave to use a cabin not far from Mr. Lincoln’s, and gave notice that he would teach school for two or three weeks. The people were too poor to pay him for teaching longer. The name of this schoolmaster was Zachariah Riney.
The young people for miles around flocked to the school. Most of them were boys and girls, and a few were grown-up young men. The only little child was Abraham Lincoln, and he was not yet five years old. ”

“ She was a model housekeeper, too; and her poor log cabin was the neatest and best-kept house in all that neighborhood. No woman could be busier than she. She know how to spin and weave, and she made all the clothing for her family. ”