ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

I wish to acknowledge the help of the following persons in the preparation of this pamphlet:

Hon. Clark E. Carr, Galesburg, Illinois.

Pres. Thomas McClelland, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.

Hon. J. McCan Davis, Clerk of the Supreme Court, Springfield, Illinois. Prof. Henry Johnson, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.

Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber, Librarian, State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois.

Maj. E. S. Johnson, Custodian Lincoln Monument, Springfield, Ill.
Mr. Horace White, New York City.

Mr. Robert J. Collier, New York, who gave permission to use President Roosevelt's letter.

Mr. U. J. Hoffman, of this office, who prepared the connected story of the early life of Lincoln.

The frontispiece is a picture of Lincoln taken in 1860. The picture on the front cover was taken in 1864.

HOW TO USE THIS MATERIAL.

It is suggested that the teacher read a part of the biographical matter to the children for an opening exercise each morning preceding the anniversary. A part of the time might be used to let the children tell in their own words what incidents they remember.

The words of Lincoln should also be read to the children. From these each child should select a saying, a sentence, or a paragraph which he likes and commit it to memory.

The same should be done with the tributes to Lincoln and the statements of men about him.

At least half of the day of February 12th should be given up to public exercises, consisting of patriotic music, recitations of sayings and verses by the children and speeches by citizens. The exercises should end at 3:30 and as a closing exercise all the children might turn their faces toward Springfield and in concert repeat these words:

A blend of mirth and sadness, smiles and tears;

A quaint knight errant of the pioneers;

A homely hero, born of star and sod;

A Peasant Prince; a masterpiece of God.

* * *

With malice toward none;

With charity for all;

With firmness in the right,

As God gives us to see the right,

Let us strive on

To finish the work we are in;

To bind up the nation's wounds;

To care for him who shall have borne the battle,

And for his widow and orphan

To do all which may achieve and cherish,

A just and lasting peace among ourselves,
And with all nations.

This pamphlet should be placed in the school library of every school room that the children may continue to study the life of this interesting

man.

I.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

HIS PARENTS.

On the 12th day of February, 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born. On the 12th day of February, 1909 the people all over our country will stop their work and give their thoughts to what Abraham Lincoln was and what he did. President Theodore Roosevelt will journey from Washington to the little farm in Kentucky where Lincoln was born just one hundred years ago and voice the love which we all cherish for the child and the man. Mr. James Bryce, the ambassador of England to this country, will go to Springfield where Abraham Lincoln is buried and will express what the world thinks of him and his work. Twenty millions of school children in America will lay aside their studies and will hear the story of his great life, listen to his words of wisdom, and have their hearts touched with high resolves and noble purposes.

Most of us have heard stories about Daniel Boone. He was the first white man to live in Kentucky. He was a courageous hunter, and when he had to be, he was a great Indian fighter. He was born in Virginia, but removed to North Carolina. From there he crossed the mountains into Kentucky. Kentucky was called by the Indians "the dark and bloody ground." They did not live there but used it only as a hunting ground. When unfriendly tribes met there they fought many a bloody battle. Daniel Boone spent a year in the woods of Kentucky and had a glorious time hunting deer, buffalo, and beaver. He explored the country and found the best soil, the largest timber, the clearest water, and the finest salt springs. This seemed to him the best country in the world. No matter how poor a man was he could get all the land he wanted. To have a house he needed only to cut down the trees and build it in a few days. If he wanted meat he needed only to go a little way into the woods and shoot a deer, a bear, or a wild turkey. If he wanted bread he needed only to plant a small field of corn or wheat, the women and children would grind it by hand and they had enough. Clothing for boys and men was easily made out of the skins of animals. The pelts of fur bearing animals were easily carried on pack horses to the east where they were traded for clothing for the women and for guns and ammunition. Sugar was obtained from maple trees, honey from wild bees, and salt from the spring. No wonder that Daniel Boone thought this was a free man's paradise.

Among the friends of Daniel Boone who heard his account of the wonderland of Kentucky was Abraham Lincoln in Virginia. He was called a rich man and because he was well educated he was called a "gentleman." Mr. Lincoln sold his land in Virginia, moved his family to Kentucky and bought nearly a thousand acres of land. He had three sons, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas. The first was a young man, the second was twelve or fifteen, and Thomas was six. The father and the boys were working in a field near the woods when a shot was fired from the bushes and the father fell dead to the ground. Mordecai ran to the house, Josiah ran to call the neighbors, and little Thomas, not knowing what to do, stayed by the dead body of his father. Having reached the house Mordecai seized the loaded gun. Looking through the cracks between the logs of the house he saw an Indian just ready to carry off little Thomas. Taking aim at a white medal on the Indian's breast he fired and the Indian fell beside the body of the dead father. Thomas ran safely to the house. Mordecai stood his ground and whenever an Indian showed himself he fired. They soon had enough and ran away.

The Lincoln family was broken up. Mordecai got all the property according to the law of the land at that time. Thomas was left to shift for himself. There were no schools in Kentucky and Thomas had no chance to learn to read and never did learn. He became a wandering laboring boy, worked wherever he got a chance and lived with the people for whom he worked. He learned the carpenter's trade, did the rough carpenter work which was all that was necessary in the houses of that time, and also made the furniture of the houses. He was a good man, and honest, did not swear, fight, or drink. But he was a poor manager and had little ambition to do anything more than live in the way he had always lived.

LIFE IN KENTUCKY.

In 1806 he was married to Nancy Hanks, a good looking, gentle and well educated girl. They began life in a very poor house in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The country was no longer what it was in the days of Daniel Boone. It was well settled, the rich people owned the land and had slaves to do the work which was needed to be done. Thomas Lincoln found very little to do and the family was very poor. They removed to a little farm of very poor land on Nolin Creek, three miles from Hodgensville. They were able to pay very little on the land. Their dwelling was a log cabin without a floor other than the bare earth. Here on the 12th day of February, 1809, a baby boy was born and they named him Abraham after his grandfather who was killed by Indians when Thomas, the father, was a little boy. In this cabin they lived until the child was four years old. They were poorer than ever before. They raised nothing on the farm and there was no work in the neighborhood for the father to do.

Mr. Lincoln had to give up his land because he could not pay for it. He contracted for another farm on Knob Creek, six miles from Hodgensville. Here he had better land. He planted six acres and found work

After being carried about the country for exhibition purposes, this cabin was secured and is now owned by the Lincoln Farm Association. When the farin becomes a National Park this cabin will be prized by the American people above all other interesting objects there, because here began the life which Stanton said "Now belongs to the Ages.''