>
> c O
u>
r i Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnbekcflinc Abraham Lincoln
before 1 860
Knob Creek Farm
Excerpts from newspapers and other sources
From the files of the
Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
J!.2£>OtiOXS~CZ$Pi
^T
Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation Dr. Louis A. Warren, Editor. Published each week by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Number 411 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA February 22, 1937
THE KNOB CREEK FARM—PLAYGROUND OF LINCOLN
The Knob Creek farm was the Ken- taken first for a test case. In the bill at $21.36. This suit also dragged on tucky home which Abraham Lincoln of exceptions filed with this suit, it is until May, 1821, when an endorsement remembered when he was interviewed apparent that Thomas Lincoln did not shows the Philadelphia defendants to about his childhood days. In writing to have a clear title to all this land as be non-inhabitants. It is doubtful if an old acquaintance of his father's he George Lindsey was made a co-de- Thomas Lincoln, then living in In- said, "The place on Knob Creek, I re- fendant and is called the "Landlord diana, ever was able to collect any of member very well." Mr. and Mrs. Lin- of said Lincoln." the expenditures. The story about his coln moved to this farm in 1811, when having sold the farm for several bar- Abraham was but two years old and rels of whiskey, while the title to the remained there until the late fall of farm was in question, is undoubtedly 1816. pure fiction. Under what terms Thomas Lincoln With the claim of Mr. Middleton's gained possession of this 238 acre heirs disposed of, the changes in title farm we have not been able to dis- to the Knob Creek farm can now be cover. He was taxed for a portion of traced from the original patent to the it at least, and was also made a de- present owner. fendant, and later a co-defendent, in By virtue of a treasurer warrant against a suit of ejectment brought No. 13319, James Love, on June 1, him. The most likely supposition is 1790, became the possessor of two that George Lindsey assigned 238 hundred and thirty-eight acres of land acres to Thomas Lincoln for a money on Knob Creek. He assigned this piece consideration and was to hold the deed of property to George Lindsey on May until such a time as the payment would 24, 1802. Lincoln probably acquired be completed. Before a deed had been the property in May, 1811, but after made, however, the land was in liti- the litigation over the title evidently it gation. Following is the boundary reverted to Lindsey. calls for the tract: Lindsey attempted to sell the prop- Knob Creek, 228 Acre Tract erty to John Price but it was again 1. Beginning with two sugar trees thrown into litigation and was finally North 19 degrees, East 141 poles to sold by a court commissioner to Wil- a dogwood tree and ash tree corner liam Bush. to a 100 acre tract. KNOB CREEK FARM Charles x Site of cabin. Boone later secured the 2. North 48 degrees, West 74 poles — property from Bush but the date on to a beech tree. Numerals—Corners of survey noted in text. which the transaction took place has 3. 29 degrees, 65 poles River—Knob Creek. North West not been learned. In 1846, Boone sold to a popular tree on the east side of Road—Old Cumberland Road, Louisville to three tracts of land to Nicholas Ra- a hill. Nashville. pier, among them the Lincoln tract. 4. North 58 poles to an ash tree. Nicholas Rapier disposed of the large 5. South 76 degrees, West 105 poles Thomas Lincoln moved from the area of land including the Lincoln to a white ash tree. place to Indiana in the late fall of tract to Charles Rapier. John W. 6. South 117 poles to a stake. 1816, while the land was still in litiga- Crady purchased three hundred and tion and just before leaving he paid eight acres including the Lincoln tract 7. South 31 degrees, East 168 poles his of two hundred and thirty-eight to a sugar tree. lawyer for services rendered in the acres suit. The case continued in the courts from Charles Rapier on March 23, 8. South 70 degrees, East 54 poles to until the June term, 1818, when a jury 1911. the beginning. with Robert Bell as foreman brought The present owner, Chester How- On the first day of January, 1815, a in a verdict in favor of Lincoln and ard, acquired the property from Crady Bill of Ejectment was brought against Lindsey for $17.89%, the costs in the and has built a log cabin on the tradi- Thomas Lincoln and nine of his neigh- suit, and which also revoked the claim tional site of the Lincoln home. bors who were occupying tracts of that had been brought against their land within a ten thousand acre sur- property. Failing to get the plaintiffs' This is now the only tract of land on vey. The plaintiffs, who lived in Phila- representative, Kennady, to pay the which Abraham Lincoln lived for any delphia were Abraham Sheridan, claim, Lincoln probably through his considerable space of time which has Thomas Stout, and Hannah Rhodes, Kentucky attorney, brought suit not become in part at least, a national heirs of Thomas Middleton, under against the original plaintiffs, May 17, shrine. This was the playground of whom they claimed a prior right to the 1819. In September, 1820, a verdict Lincoln and by far the most pictur- property. Out of the nine defendants, was rendered and I. W. Larue was esque of all of the Lincoln homes. It Thomas Lincoln was selected as the foreman of the jury which found for is hoped that some day this farm, too, one against whom litigation should be Lincoln and his damages were placed may become a national reservation. l^rvkzjs^ \ K r^
B
Number 1619 Fort Wayne, Indiana January, 1973
Re-Discovering The Supposed Grave Of Lincoln's Brother
Editor's Note: In the February, 1946 issue of This is undoubtedly the original a credit to Thomas Lincoln for $1.46. Herald, I published an article bear- the Lincoln source for later biographers who The services rendered by Dr. Potter ing the above title. This is an account of a field trip I made in the summer of 1945 with made an effort to compile information were certainly between his arrival in the late Judge Otis M. Mather of Hodgenville, concerning Lincoln's immediate fam- Hardin County in 1811 and his death Kentucky, and my seven-year old son, Stephen, ily. Holland, apparently had some in 1814. Likely the doctor's bill to the Redmon cemetery in the vicinity of the was Lincoln home on Knob Creek. We were seeking misgivings with respect to its ac- rendered for services in the years the supposed grave of young Thomas Lincoln, curacy, because he put the name in 1811 or 1812, during the illness of the Jr. As the magazine then had a limited cir- brackets. It is quite likely, however, boy baby. culation and because no new evidence has been discovered in the intervening twenty-eight A Knob Creek tradition relates that years, it is thought appropriate to reprint with the death of the child, the (with some slight changes and deletions) the father made a coffin for his infant original article. This is, of course, done with the permission of Lincoln Memorial University, son, and that George Redmon, a the publisher of the Lincoln Herald. neighbor living on an adjoining farm, R.G.M. carried the remains on his shoulder Since the fall of 1933, a grave in for about three-quarters of a mile the Redmon family cemetery, in the over a rugged path from the Knob Knob Creek section of Larue County, Creek Valley home to his more pre- Kentucky, has been marked as being tentious log house on the brow of that of Thomas Lincoln, Jr., the in- Muldrough Hill, where funeral serv- fant brother of Abraham Lincoln. In ices were held. The burial was said fact, all the evidence now available, to have followed in the Redmon fam- which consists merely of a tradition ily cemetery located about seventy- and a crudely carved tombstone, seems five yards from the Redmon cabin. to substantiate the claim that the This tradition, related by the de- grave of the infant Thomas has ac- scendants of the Taylor family, one- tually been discovered. time neighbors of the Redmons, did Little is known of this third and not receive very much consideration last child of Thomas Lincoln and from students who have delved into Nancy Hanks Lincoln. The dates of the Kentucky phase of Lincolniana. his birth and death were not entered Not until the year 1933, when the so- in the Lincoln family Bible, but at called grave of Lincoln's brother was From The Herald Post, Louisville. Kentucky least he lived long enough to receive discovered, was the tradition revived. a name. The best evidence that his- The original limestone slab bearing Many historians were until then of torians have concerning the earthly the initials "T.L." which was dis- the opinion that the infant Thomas existence of the infant brother are covered in the Redmon cemetery by was buried in the Little Mount Ceme- the words of Abraham Lincoln. In James Taylor in the fall of 1933 as tery located about three miles east preparing an autobiographical sketch a marker over what is believed to be from Hodgenville. However, exhaus- in 1860 for John Locke Scripps and the grave of Lincoln's brother. tive efforts made to locate the grave writing in the third person, Lincoln there proved to be futile. made this statement, "He (Abraham) that the President may have told It was a crew of relief workers, had a sister, older than himself, who more than one of his interviewers that under a foreman named James Tay- was grown and married, but died the boy's name was Thomas. Present lor, that made the discovery of the many years ago, leaving no child, day biographers, for want of contra- grave in the early fall of 1933. With also a brother, younger than himself, dictory proof, accept the name, the task of cleaning and clearing old who died in infancy." Thomas, as accurate. and neglected graveyards, the fore- Thomas was born two or three The causes of the death of the man selected the Redmon cemetery, years after Abraham's birth. Biog- child, whom some say lived only then the property of Fred De Spain, raphers cannot seem to agree on the three days, cannot be explained. How- as their special project. This cemetery date. Some advance the year 1811, ever, it is possible that during his is located about half-way between while others are inclined to select the illness the family had the services of Hodgenville and New Haven, not far year 1812. In fact, some historians a professional physician. From the from U.S. Highway 31-E. About have used both dates, at different years 1811 to 1814, Elizabethtown, seventeen marked graves, arranged times, in their published works. With- Kentucky, the county seat of Hardin in two orderly rows, were uncovered out question, the infant brother was County, had as one of its physicians, by the workmen, and a third irregular born while the family resided on their Dr. Daniel B. Potter. This doctor was row with four isolated graves was Knob Creek farm. a college graduate of recognized abil- likewise cleared of sassafras, sumac, There is no documentary authority ity, and there is documentary evidence briars and weeds. Two of the isolated available to prove that the given that he had some contact with Thomas graves have no inscriptions on the name of the infant son was "Thomas." Lincoln. lichen-covered headstones, while an- The earliest mention of the name In 1814, the doctor died of the "cold other one bears the initials "S. B." appears on page 22 of J. G. Holland's plague," and, in the settlement of his In this irregular row of graves, biography, The Life Of Abraham Lin- estate, a record appears in the ad- which archaeologists might term as coln, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1866. ministrator's accounts in the form of intrusion burials, Taylor noticed a LINCOLN LORE
1816. There is every indication that for the February, 1934, issue of their the best of relationships existed be- publication. This article, entitled tween the two families until the Lin- "Grave of Lincoln's Infant Brother colns left the state. Discovered," was republished in the Other members of the Redmon fam- form of a reprinted folder and widely ily who are interred in this pioneer distributed. cemetery are Mina Redmon, 1803- For awhile, Lincoln circles were 1852; Delilah Redmon, 1779-1857; enthusiastic over the discovery of the George P. Redmon, 1810-1860 (the supposed grave of Lincoln's brother.
son of the patriarch) ; and Nancy Judge Otis M. Mather, of Hodgen- Morgan, with a death date which ville, whose hobby was the study of might be deciphered as 1839. the life of Lincoln and Kentucky his- When the "T. L." stone was un- tory, made a careful survey of the earthed, it did not occur to any of the site and the traditions concerning the workmen, who were natives of that infant brother and the newly found community, that the marker might grave. Then too, professional his- locate the remains of a member of torians like William H. Townsend, the Lincoln family. Not until several Winston Coleman, Jr., Louis A. War- days later did Taylor remember the ren, and others made their way to tradition that his father had told the so-called grave. The historical him (which he had heard in turn problem connected with this dis- from his father) that the Lincoln covery was one which no one could child was buried in the Redmon prove, yet at the same time one which cemetery. could not be intelligently refuted. and Shook Canfield The news of the discovery then For awhile, so many interested peo- The initials of Thomas Lincoln which spread rapidly and soon a local his- ple called at the farm of Fred De appear in a corner cupboard owned torian, the late John J. Barry, the Spain to see the grave it was thought by The J. B. Speed Art Museum of editor of the Rolling Fork Echo, of best to preserve the grave-marker by Louisville, Kentucky. A comparison of New Haven, was to give the story to placing it in the vault of The Lin- these initials with those carved on the the world. Historians were fascinated grave stone reveal a striking similarity. with the discovery and they could see no "obstacles to the plausibility small, partially sunken grave, prob- of the hypothesis." Archaeologists ably that of a child, near a scrawny and geologists examined the lime- 2, **> walnut tree. As the headstone was stone marker, noting particularly the missing, he dug down about a foot age of the rough edges, and pro- in the wet earth where the stone nounced it as indigenous to Kentucky, might be covered, and his W. P. A. with the belief that the edges and shovel struck something hard. With carved initials could be well over increased effort the obstruction, which 121 years old. The letters were, like- proved to be the marker, was re- wise, pronounced to be of the pioneer moved. The earth was so wet it cov- style, a design of which might have ered the stone, which was set aside to developed before printed books were dry. It was not long before the tri- put to general use in that part of angular-shaped limestone marker Kentucky. The shape of the letter /. >"<• could be cleaned and examined. The "L" was thought to be particularly t, stone measured, roughly, about eight typical of that pioneer period. y* inches by fourteen inches, which in The initials "T.L." found on the all probability was the broken top gravestone are not the first to be of a larger slab which the President's attributed to Thomas Lincoln. As is father had selected to identifv the well known, he was a cabinet maker, grave. It bore the letters "T. L." in- and it appears that his specialty was scribed in peculiar pioneer fashion. corner cupboards. One of these cup- Most of the graves in the Redmon boards found in Hardin County, cemetery are marked with full in- which has been proved beyond all scriptions or initials. In addition to reasonable doubt to be the work of those already mentioned, other stones the President's father, bears in an :z; bear the initials "A. R.," "S. R.," and obscure place on the left of the top "G. R.," all undoubtedly graves of shelf the initials "T. L." and the the Redmons. One of the more elab- date "1814." A comparison of the orate stones is that of George Red- cupboard's initials with those on the mon, which bears the following in- grave stone show a striking resem- blance of an individualistic style of From the original manuscript in the scription: Lincoln National Life Foundation lettering. This cupboard is on public In Memory exhibition and is now the property of When Samuel Stevenson served as ad- George Redmon The J. B. Speed Art Museum of ministrator of the estate of Dr. Daniel Died March 21, 1847 Louisville, Kentucky. B. Potter of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Aged 69 yrs. 8-12 The editor of The Herald-Post, he collected $1.46 on account from George Redmon was the patriarch Louisville, a newspaper no longer Thomas Lincoln. The medical service of the pioneer family, and it was he published, believed the story of the was rendered between the arrival of whom Thomas Lincoln succeeded as discovery of the Lincoln grave to be Dr. Potter in Hardin County in 1811 surveyor of that part of the road especially significant. Francis E. and his death in 1814. It is believed leading from Nolin to Bardstown, Wylie was sent to the scene of the that this account may have some con- which lies between the "Bigg hill and discovery and under the dateline of nection with the death of the third the Rolling Fork." According to the October 23, 1933, published an illus- child of Thomas Lincoln, who died court order of May 18, 1816, "all trated, copyrighted article entitled, during the residence of Dr. Potter at the hands that assisted said Redmon "Grave of Lincoln's Infant Brother Elizabethtown. Samuel Haycraft, Jr., (were ordered to) assist said Lincoln Believed Found — Stone Engraved who wrote A History of Elizabethtown, in keeping said road in repair." It 'T. L.' Supports Kentucky Burying Kentucky And Its Surroundings in was George Redmon who shared with Ground Tradition." Likewise the 1869, referred to Dr. Potter as a Thomas Lincoln, along with eight editor of the American Motor Travel- "regular graduate" and stated that he other neighboring farmers, land title er, a magazine published by the Ohio was "in reality well skilled in his difficulties which were largely respon- Oil Company, Findlay, Ohio, sent a profession," and "his death was justly sible for the migration of the Lin- staff writer named George F. Jackson considered a real loss to the com- colns to Indiana in the late fall of to Larue County to prepare an article munity." LINCOLN LORE
One conclusion we did reach, in our fatigued condition, was that the world will never beat a path to the grave of Thomas Lincoln, Jr.
Lincoln Remembered A Stone House In Kentucky When Dr. Jesse Rodman of Hodg- enville, Kentucky, called on President Lincoln in Washington, D. C, in re- gard to Larue County's 1863 quota under the military draft, they con- versed at some length about the area around Knob Creek where the Presi- dent had lived from 1811 to 1816. Lincoln told Rodman that two ob- jects in Larue County "which were most impressed upon his memory were a big tree that was somewhere on South Fork and the 'Stone House.' " Otis M. Mather in his book, Six Generations of LaRues And Allied
Families: . . . , 1921, described the "Stone House" as follows: "The quaint dwelling, situated two miles east of Hodgenville, which was erect- ed about the year 1800, with limestone walls so thick as to be suggestive of A section of a geological map of Larue County, Kentucky, a fortification, is yet well known to showing the location of the Lincoln Birthplace Farm, the the people of the locality by the same replica of the Lincoln Knob Creek cabin, the approximate, name which had lingered in the mind original site of the Lincoln Knob Creek cabin and the Redmon of President Lincoln. He probably Family cemetery. Many of the roads and highways on this saw it often in his childhood as he map have been relocated. travelled between the Knob Creek home and Hodgen's mill." The "Stone House" still stands on coin National Bank at Hodgenville. Brown, the present owner of the property once owned by Gustavus There it remained for many months. farm and cemetery, was at work, and, Ovesen and later by Claude Williams. Soon this flurry of interest in Lin- then, we knew that we had achieved The house is located two miles east our objective. coln's brother's grave subsided, and of Hodgenville on the Bardstown Upon examination of the cemetery, only a few historians and biographers Road (Route 31-E). While Otis M. we found it a tangled mass of bram- remembered the details of the dis- Mather referred to the building as covery. Next, the W. P. A. discon- bles and weeds, and, after locating a dwelling, it might also have served the walnut tree which was our gen- tinued its activities in providing re- occasionally as a fortification, a school eral marker for the identification of lief work, and the cemetery quickly house and a spring house. reverted to its wild, natural state with the historic spot, we sighted the crude A photograph of the Old Stone a lush growth of weeds, sumac, and stone that had been placed over the House was first published as a frontis- sassafras. Also, the ownership of the supposed grave. The original marker piece in J. Rogers Gore's book, The farm was changed. Fred De Spain, was still locked in the meat house, Boyhood Abraham Lincoln, The who had received so much publicity which we, unfortunately, did not see Of Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, as the owner of the cemetery, sold on this visit, but which we had seen Indiana, 1921. out and moved nearer to town. Also, earlier while the stone was being pre- the stone marker bearing the initials served in the bank vault. Louis A. Warren in his article. "T. L." was taken out of the bank Much to our disappointment, we Living Lincoln Memorials, 1929, made vault and placed in a meat house. found, too, that the log home of the following statement about the Little Tommy Lincoln's fame was George Redmon, which had for sev- "great tree somewhere on Nolin short lived. eral years past been used for a tobac- River": During the summer of 1945, I spent co barn, had just recently been dis- "There are a few residents of that several weeks of my vacation in Ken- mantled and the logs neatly stacked region today who remember hearing tucky, and, growing tired of inac- in one corner of the field. It is of of a famous old tree on Nolin River tivity, I decided to rediscover the interest to note that the original side- near Buffalo, but it has been down grave of Lincoln's brother. Fortun- wall logs of the Redmon cabin meas- so long its location has been for- ately, I called at the law office of ured from eighteen to twenty-one gotten. Just recently, however, some Judge Mather, who immediately real- inches thick. authentic information about this tree ized that I could never locate the While trying to relive the historic has come to light. Dennis Hanks, the grave due to the relocation of county scene that was undoubtedly enacted boyhood associate of Lincoln, wrote to roads and the inaccessibility of the in this cemetery in 1811 or 1812, I one of his relatives in Kentucky on pioneer cemetery. Very graciously, he could not help but think how the March 25, 1866, and among his many offered to be my guide, and, with my gods of chance had dealt so graciously inquiries was this one: 'Is the old seven-year-old son, Stephen, we set with Abraham and, at the same time, Lunderner (?) poplar a-standing yet? out by car in of I was born within thirty steps of that quest the grave, had been so parsimonious with Thom- " which was located approximately six as. At least, he made one contribution tree in the old peach orchard.' or seven miles northeast of Hodgen- to his more fortunate brother. The Warren continued: "This is un- ville. Traveling as far on wheels as mere fact that Lincoln had an elder doubtedly the tree which Lincoln re- possible, we finally were forced to sister and a younger brother silences membered and it has not been diffi- ) abandon our car and follow our the charges made by the President's cult to locate the place where it stood. course on foot. Even the Judge ex- political enemies that he was ille- It was near the old mill site at Buffa- perienced some difficulty in keeping gitimate. Then too, the earthly ex- lo, on one of the branches of Nolin his bearings in this isolated coun- istence of the brother refutes the at- River. It is difficult to imagine the try, but, eventually, we found the tacks made against the father, in enormous growth which these old tobacco patch where R. Beauchamp regard to the President's paternity. trees achieved."
^rvior^ Creek h
?1
p §
//
^v
-%M : \ >
* -a
v v '?-! ^-/.- n\ 11 t^^^j^^-w^^^ \ m g i > ^c^m&BMM. kM2Ml
To Louisville -40 Miles \ ^/ BARDSTOWN J§ \
VBETHTOWN •
IV ( ^rLincoln's r TS ^^Boyhood Home
HODGENVILLE J§ KNOB ^r 1 CREEK
(S) "I / K) ^N/V ^/avr Sonora mm I <^W ^^
To Nashville
> o O 3 a- o 3: 3 ro ^ O 3 n
&p— 2rt o ^ c
o
00 , —
4-> CO * CO J. . CO CO cn c « o CO CO > X o S 2 t. J:CD > ® « £ C CO CO X > S — IB 4-» O ^ s co 3 o 2 £0 CO CO • o t- 2 X c cd O o XI I +J 3 2 o » 3 u. CO c o <« *= o o» £ ^ XI CJ H O ro c g O ° O) (~ .'j O _co r- c 1U > CD P co CO 2 O 3 CD CD .| >o «-" ra "g Q. CD Q- «= CD c > <0 O E X 'o « S CD CD u. bO 4^ O CO X c 4= X « E o r- CD o a a. CD .i-' J^ CO x != § •- « c .2 C c co O 3 X 2 > CQ X o *o 2 XI 2 E CO CO .— JZ .£ CJ V5 1- r- a x CO «, : H K CO
> J2 x „; Wo c XI a> _ - 1 CO o t: CO » a) c c c r c en CD r~ O CO a - O co CO c 8 X !— X JZ > "Jj o •? .E c o o c 3 C CO CO C » o o $ o X O • CJ -^ -" g H— CO 1— o 5 5 o CJ CO r > CO x o o X 1 o CJ +-> CD 1- +- 3 CO « E c c Y H JZ CD M— DQ X = § CD CO co 2 co _l Q CO o _ co U X c <-• .- CD £ X CO o CD CD ^^ X 1— c co a> O CO C35 o « «! o > t -8 CO C CD CO * c X co c cn cn co T3 CO C O) cn co x o x i,- X Ji > 52 c x o o 6x .Era.- >- D C X CD C c x « X +- c o CD £ co CO •* c - 5 i- CD CD t -X1- CO CU V> ra in co i_ O o C ra j*: — X 4^ CO J- fc- +-< E 53 o V Jz > 4- "» X -C CD cn co c x 2 O CD 0) co c f ra «-" i- X CO CD o X cn ra co 5 3 O r- X S ra ra 8 zz > & CO CO E 2 >- o •- °> * CO CO JU2 ra .2 5 x X m m X I *x - y ** 4-> (O o CO C *-< ra o UJ — f CD P m *-< X '5 :*5 Q. x CO ^ — z 2 o !5 X ra X X x TJ S CC o CO CD -q X X 5 O) ? - X cc a> g.E x: *— c 4-- S ._ -C co Ce- 4-* o ra ra — ra 3 co *"" ra« u E x "o " C -z;*^ < It e > E t; e 5 CO CO 4-* - c o> .2» i_" x « O X u. -tJ cj 4-; cn „j CD , CQ X Z S co •- CO X CD — ra zz ° C CO 2 >- -Q S X CI) E x 2 Ol c 4-> 8 I E 4-> = CJ .E x E C 4^