Ours needed to be a bit larger than Lincoln’s to accommodate visitors walking through the structure. It may seem small but the cabin at the museum is actually larger than we think the real Lincoln may have been. The result looks and feels authentic, because it is! Each was shipped to Springfield and reassembled, using genuine materials and techniques. A second one, 20’x20’, was located in storage in Abington, Virginia. The logs constructing the cabin have the authentic look and feel of a 19th century cabin, because…they really are a 19th century cabin! A 30’x30’ tobacco barn, built in the mid-1800s and very similar in style to Lincoln’s, was found in storage in Cynthiana, Kentucky. With this information, high fidelity reproductions of Black and White Oak, Ash, Sugar Maple and Flowering Dogwood were made and placed in a natural setting around the cabin. With the help of historians, studies were made of what the dominant plant growth was in Indiana in the early 19th century. Our cabin is based on what little is known about the Lincoln Boyhood Home in Indiana, 1818 - the third log cabin in which young Lincoln lived with his family after they moved from Kentucky where he was born. On this farm in the middle of the Illinois prairie, the wave of national grief was very personal. The night of my visit, a theater troupe was presenting a play titled, “An Evening at Ford’s Theater, April 14, 1865.The original one-room boyhood log cabin home of Lincoln no longer exists. On my visit to the farm, surrounded by the freshness of early spring, I couldn’t help but notice the black crepe draped across the front of the cabin and wonder at the scene when the devastating news arrived from Washington that fateful day. By this time Abe was old enough to leave the nest and went out on his own, settling in New Salem, and embarking on a path quite different from his father. But of course it is Illinois that is most closely associated with the Lincolns. Thomas repeated this story many times to his children and Abraham said it was the one story “more strongly than all others imprinted on my mind and memory.”Ībe was born in Kentucky, but when he was seven, the family moved to Indiana. It was constructed in 1895 by entrepreneur Alfred Dennett and his agent, James Bigham, from logs found in a log cabin near the sinking spring where records suggest Lincoln was born. Sadly, Thomas witnessed the murder of his father by a Native American while clearing his fields. He was born during the American Revolution in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and moved to western Virginia (now Kentucky). I learned that in his 73 years Thomas had lived many places, reflecting the migrating patterns of many Americans. On a good day a man and a team of horses could plow a 2 1/2 acre field, walking a distance of 25 miles. Lincoln’s father worked hard to eek out a living from the soil. This was a time when many members of the extended Lincoln family lived in the area. The farm is interpreted as an 1840s working farm site, with heirloom varieties of livestock and crops. No one is sure where the pieces ended up after the Fair. The original was disassembled and carted to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair where it was on display. The present log cabin was built by Civilian Conservation Corps crews in 1934 and based on photographs and contemporary descriptions. Lincoln had arrived and hundreds came to see him.” Augustus Chapman, husband of Lincoln’s niece, wrote that Lincoln told him that his stepmother “had been his best friend in this world and that no man could love a mother more than he loved her.” Son-in-law Dennis Hanks later wrote of that visit: “It soon became known in town that Mr. He was close to his widowed step-mother and made a final visit to see her in this area before heading to assume the presidency in Washington. Abe, himself, owned a portion of the land which he deeded back to his parents for their use during their lifetime. Turns out Abraham Lincoln never lived here. His father and step-mother, Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, ended up on this farm site. From 1831 to 1837, the young man in his twenties had a number of jobs before becoming a lawyer. The village was 20 miles northwest of Springfield and is now known as Petersburg, Illinois. Sure enough, I was in Charleston, in the eastern part of the state and noticed a sign for “ Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site.” So, on a beautiful sunny early spring day, I drove through the flat farm country curious to see yet another Lincoln site. A lot of places in Illinois claim to have been Lincoln’s home, but when he was a practicing lawyer he truly did live in the pioneer village of New Salem. Plus, I just returned from a trip to Illinois, the land of Lincoln, where it seems one is always several miles from a Lincoln site. Abraham Lincoln has been on my mind this week because Wednesday was the 150th anniversary of his assassination.
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