properly a church edifice; and the few religious services which he had an opportunity to attend, were held either in humble private dwellings, or in some log school-house.

Another change of home, however, awaited our young hero. His father, perhaps from the old restless spirit of adventure, but more probably because he found life in a slave State a most unsatisfactory one for himself, and presenting only the prospect of a hopeless struggle in the future for his children, determined upon removal to the wilds of Indiana, where free labor would have no competition with slave labor, and the poor white man might reasonably hope that, in time, his children could take an honorable position, won by industry and careful economy.

So, having sold his Kentucky farm, as the story goes, for ten barrels of whiskey (forty gallons each) valued at two hundred and eighty dollars, besides twenty dollars in money, and having made a trial trip to Indiana to select a location to his liking, which he found in what is now Spencer county, he made his preparations to remove his family to their new home.

* Although this story has been discredited by some, yet as such transactions in the disposal of real estate were not uncommon at that period, we see no reason to doubt it, nor to consider it as prejudicial to Thomas Lincoln's character; for it must be remembered that those days were not the days of temperance and "Total Abstinence."

CHAPTER II.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S THIRTEEN YEARS IN INDIANA.

Removal of the Lincoln Family to Spencer county, Indiana.-Abraham as a Farm Boy.-As a Marksman.-The Death of his Mother.-The second Marriage of his Father.-Abraham's Education.- His own Account, when President, of his Education.-His Love of Books.The Story of the Damaged Book.-His Voyage to New Orleans as a Flatboatman.-Description of Early Times and Scenes in Indiana.

EARLY in the autumn of 1816, the Lincoln family, bidding adieu to their old Kentucky home, commenced a long and wearisome journey toward the forests of southern Indiana. The plain wagon, with its simple covering, contained the "household goods," and sheltered the wife and daughter, while the father and his son, who was now in his ninth year, walked beside the horse which steadily drew the family conveyance, or took care that the indispensable cow kept pace to the music of the jolting wheels. Arriving at the proper landing on the banks of the Ohio, the little caravan was embarked upon a flatboat, and floated across the stream, now swelled to fair proportions by the autumn rains. Finally reaching the Indiana side, the adventurers landed at or near the mouth of Anderson's creek, now the boundary between the counties of Perry and Spencer, about one hundred and forty miles below Louisville, by the river, and sixty above Evansville. In a direct line across the country from their former residence, the

distance is perhaps hardly one hundred miles, yet the journey had occupied them a whole week.

The place where Mr. Lincoln settled at the end of his journey, was near the present town of Gentryville, some distance back from the Ohio river, and was, under the earliest organization, in Perry county. Two years later, however, Spencer county was formed, embracing all that part of Perry west of Anderson's creek, and including the place of Mr. Lincoln's location.

Here, then, his emigrant wagon paused; and soon, with the help of his youthful son, a log cabin was built, which was to be their rough but comfortable home for many coming years.

This done, and a shelter provided for their cattle, the next work was to clear an opening in the forest, upon which to raise a crop of grain for their sustenance during the next season. Hard work had now begun in good earnest for the young Kentuckian, and the realities of genuine pioneer life were to be brought home to his comprehension in a very practical manner.

Indiana, at this date, was still a Territory, having been originally united under the same government with Illinois, after the admission of Ohio as a State, "the first-born of the great Northwest," in 1802. A separate territorial organization was made for each in 1809. In June, 1816, pursuant to a Congressional "enabling act," a Convention had been held which adopted a State Constitution, preparatory to admission into the Union, and under this Constitution, a month or two after Thomas Lincoln's arrival, in December, 1816, Indiana became, by act of Congress, a sovereign State. Its population, at this time, was about sixty-five thousand, distributed