Tag: Chasing Abraham Lincoln

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Lincoln’s Rocking Chair – The Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

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Abraham Lincoln rocking chairMy Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour took me to Dearborn, Michigan to see the chair. “The Chair.” The rocking chair that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in the moment he was assassinated. The chair is in the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, which along with its outdoor venue, Greenfield Village, is a treasure trove for Abraham Lincoln aficionados.

After spending the previous day in the bowels of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Emily Rapoza helped me research their incredible Lincoln collection, I drove from Fort Wayne up to Dearborn to see the original rocking chair. After it had languished for decades in storage at the Smithsonian Institution, the aging widow of Ford’s Theatre co-owner Harry Ford reclaimed it in 1929, and it was soon auctioned for $2,400. The buyer? An agent for automobile pioneer Henry Ford (no relation to the Ford’s Theatre Fords). Henry Ford had revered Lincoln, the “humble, self-made man, the ordinary man who seized opportunity and raised himself up.” The Lincoln rocking chair now sits in a temperature and humidity controlled glass enclosure in the Henry Ford Museum.

But there was more Lincoln to the visit. Prior to the protected spot in which it now sits, the chair was held in the Logan County Courthouse in the adjoining Greenfield Village. This is the actual courthouse from Postville, Illinois (since renamed Lincoln, Illinois) in which Lincoln practiced in during his long months on the 8th Judicial Circuit. Ford had it transported to Michigan and restored to depict Lincoln’s visits between 1840 and 1847.

The chilly, rainy day I visited made the warm and dry courthouse a welcome retreat. A somewhat bored docent was happy to see someone he could entertain. Finding a knowledgeable patron, his love for talking about Lincoln cascading out like the water Lincoln saw flowing over the lip of Niagara Falls. I decided not to tell him about my own book about Lincoln and let him run on with an incredible font of information about the courthouse, Lincoln, and legal circuit. He also told me the wardrobe sitting in the corner of the courthouse was believed to have been built by Lincoln’s father, Thomas. The knowledge and enthusiasm the docent exhibited was exhilarating. He was so enthralling I didn’t even tell him I had written a book on Lincoln.

One of my previous books was about Thomas Edison and Greenfield Village also has a replica of Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park lab, including some original outbuildings and even soil carted in by train from the New Jersey site. I had visited the current Menlo Park site museum and its towering lightbulb, as well as his West Orange (NJ) and Fort Myers (FL) laboratories, so it was a great treat to see one of his first labs as it was. Even more exciting, I fortuitously was there during one of the periodic visits by Edison himself, an actor who came into the lab in character and told us all about his current work. Afterwards I toured some old saw and grist mills important for my research.

Lincoln furniture, Ford Museum

Back inside the Ford Museum I found a small center table and side chair once owned by Abraham and Mary Lincoln in their Springfield, Illinois home. Furniture owned by other writers like Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe were a thrill to see. I also spent some time in the Agriculture section of the museum where I could see some of the technological improvements (e.g., a McCormick reaper) that I’m researching for my next Lincoln book. For the science geek in me they had a Mathematica section with all sorts of cool exhibits.

Both the Museum and the Village have much more worth seeing and I highly encourage everyone to make the trip. There truly is something for everyone here and one can’t help but learn some history and science while being entertained.

My Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours continue! Much more to come.

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty 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!

 

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Chasing Lincoln’s Almanac Murder Trial in Beardstown

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On my most recent Chasing Abraham Lincoln trip I stopped in Beardstown, Illinois to visit the site of one of Lincoln’s most famous cases – the Almanac Murder Trial. Beardstown has the only active courthouse that Lincoln practiced in, and the 1858 trial was both sensational and controversial.

Almanac trial

I arrived at the Beardstown Courthouse Museum around 3:50 pm. The sign said it was open only until 4 pm, so I rushed in to find a nearly empty foyer and some locked doors. As my hopes began to fade I encountered a resident volunteer guide named Paula Woods. I felt intrusive as I told her I would like to see the museum, as she fumbled for an old-fashioned keychain reminiscent of a jailhouse. Before we were finished, I actual did see the jailhouse cell that had held Duff Armstrong, the man charged with murder.

Even before she opened up the first door leading to a small room filled with Lincoln and trial-related artifacts, the visit turned into something special. In the foyer Paula pointed out a tall sign highlighting the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area and the Looking for Lincoln campaign. I had indeed heard of it, I said, and had in fact just participated in the LEAD: Spirit of Lincoln Leadership Academy program (hence my late arrival to Beardstown). It turns out Paula isn’t just a volunteer, she is the Chair of the Commission that runs the courthouse museum and other historical locations in Cass County. She is also on the LEAD program Board!

The 4 pm closing time quickly sped away as Paula showed me the exhibits and then unlocked the door to the stairs leading to the second floor courtroom. The court is still in session, she explains, with cases heard about once a month. Entering the doorway I was standing in the very court where Lincoln defended Duff Armstrong. The key witness in the trial claimed he clearly saw the fight by “the light of a high moon” around 10 or 11 pm that night. Aha, thought the scientifically minded Lincoln and produced an almanac showing the moon “runs low” that night and was already setting by the time of the incident. Having shown the witness lying, Duff Armstrong was acquitted. On the wall is a large painting depicting the moment Lincoln pointed out the discrepancy to the jury, the almanac clear on this point.

The almanac most often depicted was the Old Farmer’s Almanac for that date, although no one actually knows if it was that one or another of the several available at the time. There is even a suggestion that the almanac was forged, but modern recalculations show the moon would indeed have been unusually low that night, part of an 18.6-year lunar cycle that affects lunar declination.

As people started to show up for a pre-arranged community meeting in the courtroom, Paula took me around other parts of the courthouse, including the jailhouse. It was here that Duff Armstrong spent his days and nights waiting for his trial to start. Lincoln had been friends with the Armstrong family for many years and wrote Hannah Armstrong as soon as he heard about her son Duff’s predicament. Lincoln refused payment, citing his work as thanks for all the favors done by the Jack and Hannah over the many years of Lincoln’s life.

Long after the official closing time I thanked Paula for staying late on my behalf. We discussed the work of the LEAD program and Heritage Area, as well as how my book has successfully brought Lincoln to a broad swath of the American public. Having started the day with the LEAD students, it was time to head north for more adventures Chasing Abraham Lincoln.

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty 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!

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The Belly Ache Abraham Lincoln

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In Manchester, England there stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The statue was supposed to be given to London, but no one there wanted it. Robert Lincoln was aghast. “No, no, no,” he mightily exclaimed. “No way. It looks like Lincoln has a belly ache.” So it was sent to Manchester and a copy of the more acceptable statue of Lincoln standing in front of a chair found its way to London instead.

Today I saw the original “belly ache” statue in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Abraham Lincoln, Cincinnati, OhioTo be honest, it does look like Lincoln is feeling some distress (and not just because I was dodging rain drops to take the photo). The sculptor, George Grey Barnard, intended a frontier Lincoln, dressed his usual frumpy, with his arms clasped in front of him. At 11 feet tall, plus a pedestal, the statue is rather impressive.

But apparently not dignified enough for the Brits.

So a copy of the Barnard statue is in Manchester (with another in Louisville, KY) and a copy of the more famous statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens sits in Parliament Square, London.

I’ve seen several other statues on this trip…and will see more before I’m done. I’ll be posting more about them as I sort through thousands of photos, most of them better than this phone shot.

Check back soon.

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty 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!

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Chasing Abraham Lincoln – The Tour Continues

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Lincoln bust in Havana, CubaAbraham Lincoln is everywhere. I just saw his bust in a park in Havana, Cuba. I even saw an art exhibit in the Fine Arts Museum of Cuba that included a figure of Lincoln (and missed the other three busts/statues of him there). He’s been seen in Singapore, Edinburgh, Oslo, Mexico City, and other far reaching places. And, of course, impressions of Lincoln are in many places in the United States, especially, and not surprisingly, in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln. As my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour(s) continue, Part 3 takes me back to Illinois and points coming and going.

For those who followed my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours (Parts 1 and 2) last year, the first trip took me through Lincoln’s early life in Kentucky and Indiana, along with a stop to see the assassination chair at the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Part 2 took me into the heart of Illinois, following in Lincoln’s footsteps through all seven Lincoln-Douglas debate sites, the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and a multitude of other towns and cities with statues, gravestones, and log cabins.

There have been other tours not officially designated with a Part Number, including trips to Charleston, South Carolina where the Civil War started, to Hampton Roads where the “Battle of the Ironclads” took place, and to Gettysburg for the annual Lincoln Forum. On a separate trip a few years ago I explored Lincoln’s Springfield and the Eighth Judicial Circuit. I’ve also made frequent visits to DC-area landmarks.

This official “Part 3” takes me back to Illinois. Details are still being worked out but on the way there I plan to stop in key places in Ohio and Indiana, plus the place where the Lincoln’s crossed into Illinois. After participating in the LEAD: Lincoln’s Path to Leadership program in Jacksonville, I’ll continue north to visit places I missed on my previous Illinois trip, plus forays into Wisconsin and Michigan to see statues in Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Kalamazoo. On the way back I plan to visit a new national park in Indiana and the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania.

As with last year, the exact timing and locations will likely change on the fly. I’ll do my best to emulate the late Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic; Spying on the South) and talk to as many local people as I can to get their views on Lincoln.

Until then, feel free to check out some of my previous Chasing Abraham Lincoln trips (click and scroll for stories, or simply type “Chasing Abraham Lincoln” into the Search box above).

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty 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!

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Thomas, Abraham Lincoln’s Father, Dies Today in 1851

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Abraham Lincoln seems to have had a falling out with his father later in life, rarely visiting once he had a family of his own. When Thomas passed away at the age of 73, Abraham was home tending to a sick wife and his rambunctious boys. Thomas died on January 17, 1851.

I recently visited Thomas Lincoln’s gravesite near Lerna, Illinois. Today there is a beautiful headstone marker noting Thomas Lincoln and his second wife, Lincoln’s stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln. It guards a small fenced area that also includes small individual markers at the foot of each of their graves.

Originally the Gordon Burial Ground, then the Shiloh Cemetery, and now called the Thomas Lincoln Cemetery, the gravesite sits next to the Shiloh Presbyterian Church on the way to the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. Abraham Lincoln visited his father’s grave shortly before heading to Washington to be inaugurated as our 16th president.

He would not have seen a grave marker. Likely no more than a rock marked the site at the time, a nephew said that Abraham placed a board with the initials T.L. during his visit. Whether that story is true or not, a permanent gravestone was not erected until 1880 after donations by local friends and Robert Todd Lincoln.

But that isn’t the end of the story, for the gravestone erected then is not the one passersby see today, unless they pay attention. The beautiful grey headstone most obvious to visitors was installed in 1924 by the Illinois Lions Club, with the two smaller footstones donated by the Kiwanis Club a year later. The more unassuming original marker sits in its own wrought iron fenced area about 50 yards from the modern marker. This small spire had been slowly chipped away by tourists seeking souvenirs, hence the need for a surrogate stone. A “Looking for Lincoln” sign sits in the small parking lot in back of the church, and only its readers are tipped off to the location of the original gravestone.

Thomas Lincoln grave, Lerna, IllinoisGeorge Balch, a local farmer and poet who knew Thomas and Sarah Lincoln, wrote a poem years later to bring public attention to the neglected condition of the grave. A portion graces the waymarker sign; the following presents the entire poem.

I
In a low, sweet vale, by a murmuring rill,
The pioneer’s ashes are sleeping.
Where the white marble slabs are so lonely and still,
In the silence their vigil are keeping.

II
On their sad, lonely faces are words of fame,
But none of them speak of his glory,
When the pioneer died, his age and his name,
No monument whispers the story.

III
No myrtle, nor ivy, nor hyacinth blows,
O’er the lonely grave where they laid him;
No cedar, nor holly, nor almond tree grows
Near the plebian’s grave to shade him.

IV
Bright evergreens wave over many a grave
O’er some bow the sad weeping willow,
But no willow trees nor evergreens wave
Where the pioneer sleeps on his pillow.

Some are inhumed with honors of state
And laid beneath temples to moulder;
The grave of the father of Lincoln the great,
Is known by a hillock and boulder.

VI
Let him take his lone sleep, and gently rest,
With naught to disturb or awake him,
When the angels shall come to gather the blest
To Abraham’s bosom, they’ll take him.

Abraham would never see his stepmother again as she was too old to make the trip to Washington and President Lincoln never traveled back to Illinois. He was assassinated in office on April 14-15, 1865, days after the end of the Civil War. Sarah Bush Lincoln outlived her stepson, passing away on April 12, 1869.

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World 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!

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Illinois – Dan Fogelberg and Abraham Lincoln in Peoria

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Dan Fogelberg, Peoria, Illinois“Will it play in Peoria?” It did. They did. And I did. How a Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour turned into a pilgrimage to the singer Dan Fogelberg.

The turn of phrase has its roots in the vaudeville era, where traveling vaudeville acts knew if they played well in Peoria, which at the time reflected the diversity of the nation as a whole with respect to race, income, age, rural, urban, and educational background. Peoria became the first stop on national tours – if it played well there it likely would play well all over the country. This was true not only for vaudeville acts, but for test marketing consumer products and politics too.

Abraham Lincoln gave one of his most famous speeches in Peoria, and certainly one of his most powerful speeches on the wrongs of slavery. The speech has been studied by many Lincoln scholars and was the focus of an entire book by Lewis E. Lehrman, Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point. I visited Peoria on Part 2 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour, where I saw several Lincoln statues and related sites.

While there I made sure to head for the memorial grove in Riverfront Park where three large stones remember Dan Fogelberg. Fogelberg, one of my favorite performers, was born and raised in Peoria. His mother was a classical pianist, his father the local high school band director. Dan wrote the song “Leader of the Band” to honor his father; I used it as a framework for a dedication to my own father. Besides singing the vocals (including multitracking background harmony), Dan played many instruments, notably guitar (acoustic, 12-string, electric), bass, piano, and mandolin. He was a talent beyond the norm. He had commercial success, but I think the songs I love the most are those that tell stories that develop over time not conducive to the radio crowd.

Lyrics from three of Dan’s songs are etched into the three memorial stones. A park bench has been added and features a quote from Dan about why he was a musician. Unfortunately, Dan died in late December 2007 from prostate cancer. I was lucky enough to see him three times in concert and listened to him this morning while exercising on the elliptical. He is still a part of my life (along with Lincoln, of course).

Among Dan’s many amazing songs is a tribute to his home state, “Illinois,” from his Souvenirs album released in 1974. While I’m not a native of Illinois, I thought of Dan’s song as I realized how many Lincoln sites and statues I missed on my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours.

And it looks like you’re gonna
Have to see me again
…
Illinois, oh, Illinois.
Illinois, I’m your boy.

As I write this there is a blizzard raging in Fogelberg/Lincoln country, so Part 3 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour will have to wait until spring. But be prepared Illinois; it looks like you’re gonna have to see me again…

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World 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!

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Visiting Sarah Lincoln – Lincoln State Park, Indiana

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Lincoln State Park, Lincoln City, IndianaDirectly across the road from the Lincoln Boyhood National Monument in the aptly named Lincoln City, Indiana is Lincoln State Park. I paid the $9 out of state entrance fee and went to visit with Sarah Lincoln, Abraham’s sister.

Sarah was born two years and two days before Abraham. Their younger sibling, Thomas Jr., died a few days after his birth, so Abraham always looked up to and cherished his older sister, especially after their mother died and Sarah became for a time the woman of the family at age eleven. Sarah married Aaron Grigsby when she was eighteen, but died during childbirth a year and half later. 

So my visit was to see Sarah’s grave. Winding through the wood-lined roads of the State Park I found the Little Pigeon Primitive Baptist Church where the family attended services. Abraham served as church sexton, responsible for maintaining the church property, ringing the bell for services, and digging graves. Behind the church is Old Pigeon Cemetery, which holds the final resting place for many of the first families of the Little Pigeon Creek settlement. Sarah’s gravestone was one of the first in the cemetery, and one of the most prominent. It’s certainly one of the cleanest, maintained pristine for Lincoln pilgrims, who often leave pennies – featuring Abraham Lincoln’s profile – on the relief flower bough that adorns the center of the stone.

Lincoln State Park, Lincoln City, Indiana

Her husband Aaron Grigsby’s gravestone is there too. In contrast to Sarah’s, Aaron’s stone is a small obelisk darkened by age and lack of maintenance. I suppose the reflects their relative positions in American history.

On my way out of the park I stopped at an area I had spied on the way in listed rather unhelpfully as the “Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Plaza.” The plaza was dedicated in 2009, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. From the parking lot all you can see is trees, but as you follow the short path you suddenly find yourself viewing a small plaza with a semi-circular stone monument. With help from the ample signage, you realize that the roughened portions of the stone in front of you represents Abraham’s height for each of the fourteen formative years he lived in Indiana.

Around the back is another surprise. What seems like a circular monument on one side turns out to be only half a circle. The back side features a half statue of Lincoln in front of a wall engraved with the Gettysburg Address and the proration from his Second Inaugural Speech. On the statue’s base, the sculptor, Will Clark, explains the positioning of the hands:

Lincoln’s closed left hand symbolizes his desire to hold the Union together, and his open right hand symbolizes his desire for a strong, positive, post-war reconciliation with the South.

There is more to see in Lincoln State Park, including a Lincoln amphitheater and other areas related to Lincoln. After the park, I headed north. Tomorrow would be a research day in the library. More on that next. Meanwhile, for more on my Chasing Abraham Lincoln travels, follow the link and scroll down.

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World 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!

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Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial – Going Back in Time

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Lincoln Boyhood National MemorialDuring my Chasing Abraham Lincoln road trips this summer I covered areas where Lincoln was born, raised, became an adult, and debated the politics of the day. My last stop was in Rockport, Indiana. Today I move on to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. This stop was truly going back in time.

The site, run by the National Park Service, consists of two distinct areas connected by a large wooded area lined with hiking trails. When you first enter the site you find a large curved memorial building. Inside is the park service information center, some informative museum displays, a tiny store, and a small theater where they show a historical movie of Lincoln’s boyhood in Indiana. The outside of the building is covered from end to end with a series of sculptured relief panels by E.H. Daniels marking important periods in Lincoln’s life. Selected quotes from Lincoln are also carved into the building.

Lincoln Boyhood National MemorialFrom here there is a short walk up a landscaped tree-line allee to the gravesite of Nancy Hanks Lincoln designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. Lincoln’s mother had died in 1818 of what was called “milk sickness,” later to be associated with cows eating the toxic white snakeroot plant. Her grave remained unmarked until a permanent marker was erected in 1879.

From here another short walk through the woods takes you to the Lincoln cabin site memorial. Researchers located and marked the site in 1917; another nineteen years passed before the State of Indiana excavated the site and found the remains of sill logs and a stone hearth. A bronze casting was created to fit the outline of the cabin’s foundation and that is what visitors can now see. Ironically, the Lincoln’s never actually lived in the cabin. This would have been the third cabin built by Thomas Lincoln and his family, but before it was completely he abruptly decided to leave Indiana and move to Illinois. The cabin was never finished.

Next is the second part of the two distinct areas – the Living Historical Farm. A log cabin, smokehouse, woodworking shed, and animal pens have been recreated and rangers dressed in period clothing perform a variety of activities typical of daily life during the time the Lincoln’s lived there. I spoke with several of the period performers who explained the ins and outs of life on the frontier farm. I learned that various tubers and squash are stored in the attic or buried, that candles could be made either from bee’s wax or rendered beef fat, and that mattresses were made from burlap bags filled with leaves or horsehair (or in some cases, wool). One man explained how pork was cured in the smokehouse; another showed me how various farm tools and furniture were made in the woodworking shed.

But I wasn’t finished. One of the many highlights is a walking trail called the “Trail of Twelve Stones.” It begins near the Living Historical Farm and winds through the forest, ending eventually near the pioneer cemetery. Along the trail you’ll encounter a series of twelve stones that have some significance to Lincoln’s life, all transported to this location and set with small bronze plaques explaining their significance. For example, there is a stone from Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Another stone comes from the foundation of the Berry-Lincoln store in New Salem. There are stones from the White House, from Mary Lincoln’s home in Kentucky, from the Lincoln Cottage, from where he delivered the Gettysburg Address, and from a variety of other sites associated with Lincoln. The final stone of the twelve is a memorial to Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

To cap off my visit a park ranger excitedly hurried out to my direction as I returned to the visitor center. “Look up,” he yelled, pointing at a raptor soaring above the trees. “It’s a Mississippi kite,” he explained. “Very rare here in Indiana. We have a pair nesting in the park. There’s another pair nesting in the State Park across the road.”

And with that unexpected but thrilling end to my visit at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, I hopped back in my car and headed across the road to Lincoln State Park. I had a date there with Lincoln’s sister, Sarah Lincoln Grigsby.

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 and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World 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!

 

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Chasing Abraham Lincoln is now on YouTube

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Abraham Lincoln is everywhere it seems. And now he’s on YouTube.

For those that follow me on my Facebook author page, I posted a series of videos from my recent Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour of Illinois. At each of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debate sites I showed the monument – usually some sort of statue of the two debaters – and talked a little about the history of the site and the debates. Here’s just one example:

In addition to the seven debate sites I did a few other videos. I’ll be posting additional videos from this and past trips, plus will be creating “on the road” videos on future tours. In the future I’ll also be producing a series of videocasts on Abraham Lincoln-related topics; the intention is to create an informative and entertaining series on Lincoln’s life and the lessons we can learn from him.

So bookmark and/or subscribe to the YouTube page and check back periodically for new videos. Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more 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.

 

 

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Rockport, Indiana – Where Lincoln Began His Flatboat Trips to New Orleans

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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.

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