The great Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 and died in 1865.  He served as the 16^th President of these United States of America and was probably the greatest and most godly president we have ever been blessed with.  This great, unselfish, man helped keep our country together in the harsh years of the Civil War even when he was harassed and hated by many for his beliefs, but he stood his ground to the very end.  This essay is about his life as a backwoodsman and his life as a political genius.  I hope you find it appealing to your thirst for information on Lincoln’s life.

 

                              On his father’s side, Abe’s ancestry dates back to a humble weaver, Samuel Lincoln, who immigrated to America from Europe. He settled in Hingham, Massachusetts during the year 1637.  After a few years in Hingham, in the year 1778, Samuel had a baby boy born to him and his wife in Virginia: Thomas Lincoln.  This man was to be the father of the great Abraham Lincoln. Soon thereafter, though, Thomas lost his father in a tragic accident.  He continued to live in the backwoods of Kentucky, while learning his trade as carpenter. Soon he became very skilled with this trade to where he could support himself quite well. Even through all of this work and hardship, he never lacked the basic essentials in life.  He always had what he needed.  Thomas was an honest man who always paid his taxes on time and attended jury duty when called.  In 1806, he fell in love with a completely illiterate woman, Nancy Hanks.  They were married in the same year they met.  Not much is known about Lincoln’s mother except that she came from a very poor Virginia family and that she always signed her name with an “X”.  As I had stated before, she was completely illiterate. 

 

                              After their marriage, the small Lincoln family moved to a small town which is called Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where, in 1807, a little daughter was born to them: Sarah Lincoln.  Not much is know about Lincoln older sibling.  All that is known is that she died at a very early age.   In December of the same year, Thomas saw that is was time to move once again.  This time it was to a bigger and greater piece of land in Hodgenville, Kentucky.  It had 348 acres, and on those 348 acres, a great man of God was born.  Abraham Lincoln was born into this world on February 12, 1809, to Nancy and Thomas Lincoln, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. 

 

                             But times were hard, and in 1816, Thomas and his family were forced to move to Gentry Ville, Indiana. Thomas had lost his title on the land he previously owned.  So they packed everything that they could possibly carry, and headed for Indiana.  They crossed over the Ohio River into Indiana to settle in Gentry Ville.

 

                             

 

 

 

                              The time of year the Lincolns left was a terrible time to choose, for it was winter.  So, as soon as Thomas brought his family to Gentry Ville, he immediately erected a crude shelter to keep out the cold while he built a proper home for him and his family.  After two years of living in Indiana, milk sick broke out, resulting in many deaths in the area.  One of its first victims was Nancy Hanks Lincoln.  She died on October 5, 1818, in Gentry Ville, Indiana.  Thomas was heart-stricken, but he persevered and in the next year, he took a trip to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where he met and married Sarah Bush Johnson: a widow of three children.  They remained together for the rest of their lives. Abe was very fond his new mother.

 

                             Abraham grew very quickly, and as he grew he was given more and more responsibility.  Chopping down forest trees and splitting logs were Abe’s specialty.

When was not doing farm work (which he hated by the way) he would attend an ABC school about two or three miles up the road in a log cabin.  Now something you need to know is that, in those days, teachers in country schools were just barley educated above their students.  This was a great difficulty to both the teacher and the student.  In his entire life, Abraham Lincoln had only less than a year of schooling.  But he could read and write and do basic arithmetic to some extent. 

 

                             Also in his spare time, Abe would love to read books by John Bunyan, Aesop, and Daniel Defoe. He loved to read the Bible as well. 

 

                              By the time Abe was 19 he had grown to his predestined height: 6ft. 4in!  This young man was lean, muscular, and had huge hands at the end of very long arms.  This gave him an awkward looking appearance.  Now as I had said before, Abe hated farm work.  One neighbor commented on his laziness, “Abe was awful lazy, he would laugh and talk and crack jokes and tell stories all the time!” (Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia c)

 

                              But in 1829, Lincoln would learn to not be lazy, for he was offered a job by a man named James Gentry to haul a cargo-laden-flat boat down the Missisipi to New Orleans.  This was a very risky job, because you could be robbed or killed from drowning.  Lincoln, by God’s loving hand, was able to go where he needed to go.

 

                              After this quick employment, Lincoln went to work for a Mr. Denton Offutt as a clerk in a general store in the year 1831.  The store location was in New Salem, Illinois.  Everyone in this town loved Abe because of his jokes and stories and good humor.  His pay was $15 a month as well as using the store for sleeping quarters.  People also liked Abe because he could draw up legal papers for the illiterate people of New Salem. 

 

                              In the spring of 1832, Abe took his first big step in politics: he ran for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives.  About a month after Abe publicly announced his candidacy, Offutt’s store went bankrupt leaving Lincoln without employment or money.  But the time could not have been better for the governor was enlisting men to fight against Chief Blackhawk, an Indian who was causing trouble for the settlers.  Lincoln immediately enlisted and served well in the Army.  Out of the three months he served, he never saw any fighting, but he took pride in serving nonetheless.