December 20. Cents
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40 0 DECEMBER 1958 20. CENTS OUTDOOR INDIANA HAROLD W. HANDLEY Lieutenant-V or and Cdrrssionr of Agri lture INDIANA ONSERVATION 1 CO SSION James M. Tucker, Pao"I aran r JHarry J. Reed, Lafayette Kenneth M. Kunkel, In i s 1 iam Shaw, Knox SKennethM .arin director s Division-Director i f ; Divis in Director State Parks - Kenneth . ., Geol.i~ urvey - Dr. Charles F. Deiss Fish and Game - Hugh .ntomo -John J. Favinger State Forest - Ralph F. Wc . in ee - Henry C. Prange Water Resources - Charle ' - ,WmeHenrY. C.Burnsge Public Relations - John V. Setle Purc as m. C. Burns Enforcement - John W. Websfer Au:ntn l..larold B. Smith Oil and Gas - Homer R. Brown State Park - lone F. Harrington CONTENTS A. LINCOLN, HOOSIER .------- --------------------- ----- 1 MICHIANA WATERSHED .......... ..----------------.. 6 INDIANA'S "SHARPENIN'" STONES----........... ..---------------10 NEWSOGRAM -------------------.......---------...------.........---- 1 3 "NEW LOOK" IN HARRISON FOREST-------...........----------- 15 CONSERVATION LEGISLATION ----------------------- 17 INDIANA WETLANDS SURVEY -------.--................-------------- 19 ELMER .......................................................--------------------------------------------- 21 OUTDOOR EDUCATION OUTDOORS --...................----------------... 22 OFFICERS .....-----------..................................------------------------------- 24 PROTECTING OUR SHADE TREE HERITAGE-----......----....... 25 WHAT ABOUT MULTI FLORA ROSE?....................------------------.. 28 BATS! BLIND FLYING? . ........ .... ........... 31 FILE 13 -----------------.........................------------------------ 32 W. L. THOMPSON, Editor JOHN N. ALLEN, Associate Editor MAC HEATON, Art Editor RIA ZOOK, Circulation Manager OUTDOOR INDIANA COVER Vol. II, No. 6 December, 1958 Indiana's state bird, the cardinal, can be Published monthly by the Indiana Department of seen and heard in Indiana the year 'round. Conservation, 311 W. Washington St., Indianapolis seen and heard in Indiana the year 'rond. 9, Indiana. Subscription price $1.50 a year. In March, 1933, the General Assembly des- Second-class mail privileges authorized at Indian- ignated the Richmondena cardinalis cardi- apolis, Indiana. igri Permission for reprinting material from this issue is nelis as the official state bird. They nest in hereby given with a request that proper credit be thickets and low saplings. given. A. Lincoln, HIS HOOSIER BOYHOOD - Photo courtesy of the Lincoln National Life Foundation, Ft. Wayne. At the approach of December, H ISTORYraphies BOOKSare crammed and Lincoln full of biog-Lin- 1816, Thomas Lincoln and his family coln's life and exploits in Illinois, but left Kentucky and began the tiresome the part Indiana played in shaping this trek to the Indiana wilderness. Leav- man's life is often neglected. How- ing their two horses on the Kentucky ever, Indiana might claim the most side of the Ohio, the family was fer- credit in Lincoln's development, for it ried across the river. Here they was here that Lincoln spent his ado- stopped at Posey's farm to borrow a lescence and formative years. The wagon to carry them and their few Lincoln family lived 14 years in In- household belongings to the new diana--from the time Abe was seven, home. until he became a man at 21. In mid autumn of 1816, Thomas THE NEW "HOME." Lincoln left Kentucky and crossed the Thomas hastily built a "half-faced" Ohio river to Indiana. He stopped at shelter for his wife, son, and daugh- the farm of Francis Posey where he ter. The shelter, only 14 feet wide, left some whiskey and his tools, prom- was open on one end, and a fire was ising to return for them later. Armed kept burning there for cooking and with an ax, hunting knife, and deter- heat. (Depending upon the wiles of mination, Thomas made his way 16 the wind, the fire often provided more miles into the brush, stopping at what smoke than heat for the shelter's oc- was to become the Lincoln family's cupants.) Luckily, wild turkeys and new homestead. Here, he marked the other game were plentiful, so the boundaries of the area he was to oc- Lincoln family had a sufficient, though cupy, and then returned to Kentucky. monotonous, diet. December, 1958 OUTDOOR INDIANA * Pagel VISITORS APPEAR. was erected on the approximate site In the spring of 1817, Thomas re- of her grave.) turned to Kentucky for swine. He Living was, at best, difficult. One- was accompanied on his return by room cabins often contained husband, Thomas Sparrow and 17-year-old wife, children, guests, relatives, and Dennis Hanks. In the following au- hired men. It was often impossible tumn, Betsy and Thomas Sparrow, to wash body or clothes for months aunt and uncle of Nancy Lincoln, and on end. Men and boys had deerskin Dennis Hanks, went to the Lincoln clothing, and the women and girls home to live. By this time, Thomas wore garments of a wool and flax Lincoln had built a cabin 18 feet wide combination called linsey-woolsey. and 20 feet long. Though it was the Nearly everyone went barefoot until largest cabin the Lincoln's had ever winter necessitated hide moccasins. had, it contained no door or window, Men, women (and preachers too) had only a dirt floor, and the roof was drank copious amounts of whiskey. not completed before the arrival of Nearly all chewed, smoked, or snuffed winter. Thomas, Nancy, and their tobacco, and women with corn-cob children spent the winter of 1817-18 pipes were a common sight. Profan- in the unfinished cabin, and Thomas ity was emphatic and widely used. and Betsy Sparrow and Dennis occu- But through the muck of frontier pied the "half-face" camp. living arose a sense of fair play, de- When the men were not hunting, cency, and honesty. Courts and law they found time to clear about six were respected, and the desire to edu- acres of ground upon which they cate children was intense among the raised a little corn and other vege- people. Churches were organized tables. (The nearest mill for grinding whenever there were settlers enough corn, however, was 17 miles away.) to form a congregation. In the autumn of 1818, tragedy When there were enough children struck the tiny settlement in the form in the community to start a school in of the "milk sickness." No cure was 1818, Andrew Crawford opened one known, and anyone afflicted usually a few miles from the Lincoln cabin. died. Nancy Lincoln visited and cared The school, made of unhewn logs, was for a neighbor woman who lived a a subscription school, meaning the half mile away. But the neighbor died, school master took his pay in farm and Nancy too fell ill. After seven produce or skins. Its window was an days of illness, Nancy died-in Oc- opening in the wall made by leaving tober, 1818. No marker was placed to out a log. The open place was often indicate where she lay, and none was covered with greased paper-admit- ever erected during the lifetime of ting the light, but keeping out some of her husband or son. (Later, a marker the wind. When Crawford gave up Page2 * OUTDOOR INDIANA December, 1958 his school after one season, Abe, then furniture. Eight people now lived in 10 years old, did not return to school the cabin. until he was 14 or 15. A year or two after Sarah arrived, In 1819, Thomas Lincoln returned another school, run by Azel Dorsey, to Kentucky. He went directly to was started about four miles away. It Elizabethtown, where lived Sarah was at Dorsey's school that Lincoln Johnston, a widow with three chil- made his greatest advances in reading, dren. Thomas had courted Sarah be- writing, and speaking. Indeed, he did fore his marriage to Nancy, and dur- most of the writing for everyone in ing this visit, he suggested they get the settlement. All his schooling, in married right away. both Indiana and Illinois, supposedly Sarah Johnston agreed to the pro- totaled less than one year. posal, but said she had to pay off some Young Abe was well liked by small debts first. Thomas paid the nearly everyone, and his kindness and debts that evening, and the next honesty were clearly evident to those morning, December 2, 1819, the two around him. But Abe and his father were married. got along badly, with Abe often bear- Thomas and Sarah, with her three ing the brunt of severe whippings. Re- children, started for Indiana taking ports, however, indicate that Thomas along goods and furniture accumu- Lincoln was also kindly, likeable, and lated by the thrifty Sarah. Arriving well loved by those close to him. It is at the filthy cabin near Pigeon Creek, possible that Abe was so absorbed by Sarah was aghast at what she saw. his books that he did not always turn Soon, under the direction of Sarah, a willing hand to farming and other Thomas and Dennis Hanks had fin- work. ished the roof, put in a window (of Abe was generally the center of at- greased paper) and added a door. The traction at gatherings. He told jokes children were washed and combed, and stories, sung (rather poorly) and the cabin cleaned, and bedding was made speeches. Some of his essays placed on the pole and clapboard bed- and poems were widely known in the steads. Sarah contributed good cook- settlements, and one scandalous story ing utensils, and Thomas overhauled involving a mix-up of brides and the fireplace and made some needed grooms after a wedding nearly started a feud with the offended family. Four years after Thomas' marriage to Sarah, Thomas joined the Pigeon Creek Baptist Church. Though others of the Lincoln family joined, Abe never did. Abe did read the Bible and knew many of the scriptures, but WINS GIBSO N The Lincoln family O LYNNVILLE trail through Indiana. LIWAR POSEY VANDERBURG * Page 3 ~"-%~ i ? , ,/ i! ----L--- -w~i ~c~-~~ ~- he never did openly profess his views went to this rural court to listen to on religion.