Category: Abraham Lincoln

In my last Chasing Abraham Lincoln post I checked in on the Lincoln’s arrival in Indiana at Sandy Creek Landing (now Grandview). Today I’ll move on to nearby Rockport, Indiana, where Lincoln began his first flatboat trip to New Orleans.

I was looking for the rock and plaque that I knew marked the spot but had no idea how to find it. As I’ve discovered during my travels, a good place to start is often the local public library. I found more than I expected at the Spencer County Public Library main branch in downtown Rockport. After meeting all of the four delightful women working the desk and genealogy departments, I spent two hours pouring through their Lincoln collection materials. I found many books and pamphlets I hadn’t known about, and photographed quite a few documents useful for my research. I even purchased a small booklet written in the 1930s that describes Sandy Creek Landing and the Lincolns. Then they showed me how to find the monument, which was only a few blocks away (not surprisingly since Rockport is tiny, harboring a population less than 2,500).

The monument commemorates one of Lincoln’s most interesting (to me) achievements – his first flatboat trip down to New Orleans – which started here in Rockport. Hooking up with Allen Gentry soon after the devastating death of his sister Sarah, Lincoln helped build the flatboat, loaded it with corn, pork, potatoes, hay, apples, and other commodities, then traveled 1,200 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to sell their wares. While in New Orleans he was introduced to the issue that would dominate much of his later political life – slavery.

Also in Rockport is something called the Lincoln Pioneer Village and Museum. Like most artifacts of Lincoln’s life, this isn’t the original; it was built as part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs in the 1930s, then renovated in the 1980s and was undergoing yet another partial renovation while I was there. The Village had opened for the season only the week before so the guy working it seemed a bit shocked to see me walk though the front door. He had grown up in Rockport and was excited to get a job curating the small museum of pioneer life.

As I walked around the village alone I stopped to watch some workers recreating a couple of the log cabins. At one point they began moving furniture back into the “Lincoln cabin” representing what the Lincoln family lived in when they had moved into the country from Kentucky. Around this time the curator came running out to ask if I wanted to see an old hearse that had been used in the 1955 movie The Kentuckian, starring Burt Lancaster, that had been filmed in part in the Village. He was so excited that I of course said yes. Unlocking a building that was temporarily being used for storage during the renovations, he led me into a dark, dusty corner where the hearse stood. He told me about the movie and how the town was honored and thrilled to have Lancaster and up-and-coming star Walter Matthau in their midst.

I rummaged around the rest of the Village, checking out the period furniture in a variety of log cabins. Some were single room, others a kind of duplex with a central porch, and still others set up as law offices, school houses, and inns. A replica of the Little Pigeon Creek Baptist Church was undergoing renovation but could be seen from the outside. The “Gentry Mansion” showed how the Gentry’s were the most prosperous family in the neighborhood (keeping in mind that “mansion” is a relative term).

Overall this was a nice glimpse into the life of pioneer villagers of Lincoln’s time. And of course the science traveler in me was thrilled to see the area where Lincoln and Allen Gentry began their flatboat touring. As I continued my tour I would see more of the frontier life during Lincoln’s most formative years in Indiana. More on that in future posts.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

It’s been a busy week. With over 2900 miles covered, I’ve seen dozens of Abraham Lincoln statues throughout the state of Illinois. Here’s a sampling of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debate monuments. I’ll have more when I return.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Now that I’ve recovered (not) from my recent overseas trip, I’m off on the second part of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln road trip. This part takes me into Illinois, the Land of Lincoln. For stories and photos from Part 1, click on Chasing Abraham Lincoln and scroll down for more.

Once again I’m driving there and back again from the Washington DC area. The first day of driving will take me on much the same route I took at the beginning of Part 1. This time I’ll stop at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War, which I waved to from the highway the first time. By the end of the day I should be somewhere around Knoxville, Tennessee. The next day I’ll make the rest of the trip to Jonesboro, Illinois. And then the fun begins.

Jonesboro was one of the seven sites for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. I’ll hit all seven sites on this road trip. All have some sort of statue or two commemorating the event. Some like Charleston have more extensive museums. As I zigzag around the state, I’ll stop at many little towns that have some connection to Lincoln, and thus have some sort of statue to draw in tourists. I’m looking forward to the statue of Lincoln with the pig. Another has him all set to fight the Black Hawk war. Then there is the giant pair of statues 30 feet high in full color where a dapper Lincoln appears to be giving directions to a Perry Como-like tourist. There are many more, all with their particular style and viewpoint. And of course, I’ll visit the statues and other monuments in Kent, IL.

I won’t be stopping in Springfield or the city of Lincoln (complete with a statue of a watermelon) on this trip as I saw them a couple of years ago. I’ll have enough on my plate, as two fellow Lincoln aficionados raised in Illinois were quick to tell me today when I showed them my map. I won’t even be going to Chicago itself (though I’ll be on its outskirts); that will be a separate trip where I fly in for a few days.

Besides the debate sites and the miscellaneous statues I have two other focused locations I am specifically targeting. One is Rock Island (Illinois) and Davenport (Iowa) right across the river. This is the spot where the famous Effie Afton case occurred. The Effie Afton was a steamboat that accidentally on purpose ran into the newly built railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi River. The steamboat caught fire and both it and the bridge were severely damaged. Afterwards, the steamboat company sued the railroads for putting up an obstruction. I won’t give away the ending, but Lincoln played a key role in the lawsuit. A large statue was added to the Iowa side of the river just a few years ago.

The second targeted area is the Illinois and Michigan Canal towns. As part of its internal improvement program, the state legislature agreed to fund many infrastructure projects, including a canal from Lake Michigan in Chicago to the beginning of navigable Illinois River. Doing so would increase commerce by connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf. In large part the I&M Canal is why Chicago grew from a tiny village to a thriving metropolis so fast. Lincoln played a large role in making the canal happen. Today there are few parts that still exist, but several towns along the route have canal-related activities and monuments.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join in a special Lincoln-Douglas debate reenactment in Freeport. George Buss and Tim Connors play Lincoln and Douglas and will perform a unique variation on the debates while I’m there. I’ve known George for many years and met Tim earlier this year when they did their debate at the National Archives in Washington, DC. I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

I’ll post as much as I can from the road, so stay tuned to this spot for updates.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

As I continue my tour of Abraham Lincoln’s early life (see Chasing Abraham Lincoln and scroll down for several articles), I follow Lincoln’s path across the river into Indiana. Okay, technically I didn’t follow his exact path because 1) it’s not entirely known for sure where he crossed, and 2) there is no longer a ferry. But soon after driving over the modern bridge I came across Lincoln Ferry Park.

As parks go I can safely say this one appeals mostly to Lincoln buffs. It consists of a small parking lot and a picnic shelter, both of which have seen better days. On the day I arrived the shelter was occupied by a sleeping homeless man and his menacingly large bulldog. Nestled alongside the small Anderson River, a merely creek compared to the massive Ohio River into which it flows, the park offers Lincolnophiles a glimpse at the river where Lincoln once worked as a hired hand to James Taylor. Lincoln did basic farm work, butchered hogs, and operated Taylor’s ferry. It was also here that Lincoln earned his first dollar by rowing two men out to a steamer in the middle of the Ohio River. [It was also his first court case; he was sued by a ferry owner on the Kentucky side. Lincoln won the case.]

Finding a cache of recently dead fish behind a tree, and with the shelter inhabitant waking up to something out of a Stephen King novel, I decided to drive along the river to Grandview. This is where the Lincoln’s actually first touched down in Indiana.

Grandview was simply known as Sandy Creek Landing at the time. Long-term reconstruction of the state road forced me into a long detour, but eventually I found my way to the location. And there it was. Here the seven-year-old Abraham, his sister Sarah, and parents Thomas and Nancy were ferried across from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River to Indiana.

Again, there wasn’t much there. A historical marker on a pole told me this is where they crossed, and that was pretty much it. Today the site is a working boat ramp, but you can get a feel for the width of the Ohio River they had to cross.

From here I was on to Rockport, Indiana, where I met four of the nicest ladies of uncertain age you can imagine. More on that in the next post.

If you missed them, follow this link and scroll down to see previous Chasing Abraham Lincoln articles.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Part 1 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour (click and scroll for several articles) took me to Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky. My last piece highlighted the museum and statues in downtown Hodgenville itself; today we visit Lincoln’s birthplace.

“My earliest recollection…is of the Knob Creek place.” – Abraham Lincoln

We’ll get to Lincoln’s actual birthplace in a moment, but my route first took me past the Knob Creek Farm to which the Lincoln’s moved when Abraham was just a toddler. Today it’s a unit of the Birthplace National Historical Park. Not much is there these days; even the inn was boarded up and a sign warned against a growing nest of wasps. But there is a field where the farm stood, plus a log cabin and a 2-3 hour hiking trail. The cabin is actually that of the Gollaher family, moved here from a few miles away. Nearby is Knob Creek where Austin Gollaher had saved Lincoln from drowning. Presumably the spot where that happened was a distance away as the spot near the farm is barely deep enough to wet your shoes.

Moving on from Knob Creek, and passing through Hodgenville, you eventually come to Lincoln’s birthplace at the Sinking Spring farm. Here on February 12, 1809 the future president and martyr would join his older sister and parents in this world. Today the site is a bit surreal. After touring the grandparents cabin and other rustic sites, the birthplace is like something out of ancient Greece. In fact, it is the Greek style temple that first captures your eye.

There are 56 steps leading up to the temple, one for each year of his life. It’s hard not to think of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. as you walk up the steps. That’s on purpose. For Lincoln buffs, entering the building is like entering a shrine. Therein stands the symbolic birthplace cabin. The real deal. Well, sort of.

It’s a long story but basically the budding park service purchased the logs of what was believed to be Lincoln’s birthplace cabin. An entrepreneur had been touring the United States a year after the assassination with a cabin he claimed to be the Lincolns’. He also had a second cabin he claimed to be that of Jefferson Davis. Putting the logs together at each stop, the guy made a fortune displaying the birthplaces of the two Civil War presidents. Of course, this story wasn’t known by the park service when they bought the logs, which had been stored in a warehouse for decades. It was only after they started putting them together that they realized they had too many windows, too many doors, and too many logs. Some research led to the discovery of its history.

Hence the “symbolic” designation. Some purists insisted the cabin couldn’t be called the original birthplace because, well, it wasn’t. Recent tests on some of the logs show they were cut sometime in the 1850s or 60s, too late to have been the cabin in 1809. The park service used the best logs of the “two-cabins-worth” they had at their disposal and settled on “symbolic” as the best description for a trimmed down version of the cabin that fit in their temple. To be honest, the lack of original cabin shouldn’t be a surprise. The Lincoln’s moved several times and most likely they would have used some of the logs and hewn boards as materials for wagons and for firewood as they prepared to leave.

One of the best parts of touring to these sites is the personal contact with knowledgeable people. I mostly had the cabin to myself and spent some time chatting with William Ozment, the park ranger on duty. Through him I learned first-hand about the history of the cabin, its construction (including the use of straw or horse hair to strengthen the daubing mud, much like rebar in concrete), and even the kinds of logs used for walls and roofing shingles. This information will be in my next book.

There are two other spots in the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park you must visit. One is Sinking Spring itself, which still exists. A short walk down narrow steps at the base of the memorial shrine takes you to a tiny waterfall leaking over the side of a small depression. Here is where the Lincoln’s got their water. Not far away is the site of the boundary oak, a huge oak tree that sat on the western edge of the farm. Probably 25-30 years old at the time of Lincoln’s birth, it remained until its death in 1976. Eventually cut down in 1986, there isn’t much left to see, but it’s worth the short walk into the woods nonetheless.

Of course, there is also a small museum, gift shop, and theater. Take the 12 minutes to watch the introductory movie and check out the historical displays. Look at the map showing the amount of industrialization in the North and the percent slave population in the South (e.g., South Carolina and Mississippi had more slaves than white people, and other states are close to 50%, hence why the South wanted to protect and expand slavery). In the lobby there is a statue featuring the Lincoln family – parents Thomas and Nancy, sister Sarah, and the young Abe.

Like the Lincolns, my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour (Part 1) takes me next into Indiana and the farm where Lincoln spent the next 11 of his most formative years. Alas, it’s also where he lost both his mother and his sister to eternity. Stay tuned.

If you missed them, follow this link and scroll down to see previous Chasing Abraham Lincoln articles.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!