History of Western North Carolina - Chapter 12



CHAPTER XII.
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS

JUNALUSKA. In the fall of 1910 the General Joseph Winston Chapter, D. A.
R., unveiled at Robbinsville, Graliam county, a metal tablet, suitably
inscribed, to Junaluska and Nicie his wife. The tablet was attached to a
large boulder which had been placed on the graves of these two Cherokees.
Mrs. George B. Walker of Robbinsville read a paper [missing word(s)] was
given the chief facts of the career of this noted Indian chieftain; among
which was the recovery by him of an Indian maiden who had been sold into
slavery and taken to Charleston, S. C., by proving by microscopic tests
that her hair had none of the characteristics of the negro's. He also, on
separate occasions, saved the lives of Rev. Washington Lovingood and
Gabriel North, whom he found perishing from cold in the mountains. He went
with the Cherokees to the west in 1838, but returned, and was allowed to
remain, the legislature of North Carolina of 1817 having, by special act,
made him citizen and granted him 337 acres of land near what is now
Robbinsville. The Battle of the Horse Shoe was fought August 27, 1814,
according to Alfred M. Williams' Life of Sam Houston (p. 13), and on March
27th, according to other. It was called the Battle of To-ho-pe-ka, and
Nvas fought in the bend of the Tallapoosa river, Alabama, by Gen. Andrea-
Jackson in the Creek War. It was fortified across the neck of the
peninsula by a fort of logs against which Jackson's small cannon were
ineffective. But in the rear there were no fortifications except the river
itself, so that Gen. Coffey, Jackson's coadjutor, could not cross. But
Junaluska swain the river and stole the canoes of the Creeks, strung them
together and paddled them to the opposite shore, where lies filled them
with a large number of Cherokees, recrossed the river, led by himself, and
attacked in the rear while Jackson attacked in front, Sam Houston and his
Tennesseans scaling the walls and grappling the Creeks hand to hand. Ill(,
Creeks asked and received no quarter, Houston himself being desperately
wounded. This ended the last hope of the Creeks as a nation. I-su-nula-hun-
ski, which has been improved into Junaluska, is Cherokee for "I tried but
failed," and was given this chief because at the outset of the Creek War
he had boasted that lie would exterminate the Creeks, but, at first, had
failed to keep his promise. The following is the inscription on the
tablet: "Here lie the bodies of the Cherokee chief Junaluska, and Nicie,
his wife. Together with his warriors, he saved the life of General
Jackson, at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and for his bravery and
faithfulness North Carolina made him a citizen and gave him land in Graham
county. He died November 20, 1858, aged more than one hundred years. This
monument was erected to his Memory by the General Joseph Winston Chapter,
D. A. R., 1910." Before his death Junaluska conveyed his land to R. M.
Henry. But Sheriff Hayes administered on the estate of the deceased Indian
and got an order from the court for the sale of the land to make assets.
Under the sale Gen. Smythe of Ohio became the purchaser, and took
possession. The case was carried to the United States court, where Henry
won. But Judge Dick held that it was a case in equity, and set aside the
verdict of the jury, heard the evidence himself and decided it in favor of
Smythe. Henry did not appeal. See record in office of clerk of United
States court, Asheville. It was decided in the seventies.

PEYTON COLVARD. This pioneer was of French extraction, the name originally
having been spelt Calvert, according to the Rev. Mr. Verdigans of the
Methodist Church, South. Peyton Colvard came to Ashe county after the
Revolutionary War. The Colvards of Cherokee and Graham are descendants, as
is also Dr. J. W. Colvard of Jefferson, Ashe county.

PART OF NEGRO MOUNTAIN FALLS. About the year 1830 Peyton Colvard lived in
a log building which stood on the site of the present Jefferson Cash store
of Dr. Testerman, and on the morning of February 19, 1827, the day his
daughter Rachel, now the wife of Russell Wilbar of Texas, was born, a huge
mass of rock fell from the top of Negro mountain and ploughed a deep
furrow, still visible, down its side for a quarter of a mile. The main
mass of this rock, almost intact, is still visible, with a small tree
growing on it, while large trees have since grown in the ravine left by
the fall of this immense boulder.

THE FALLING of THE STARS. Several people still living remember this
wonderful and fearful event. Col. John C. Smathers, who then lived on
Pigeon river above Canton, remembers it distinctly. He remembers hearing
women wailing and men praying. Francis Marion Wells, still living on Grass
creek in Madison county, remembers it also. He is now over ninety-two
years of age. Mrs. Eliza Burleson, still living on the head of Cane creek
in Mitchell county, remembers the occurrence. She also is over ninety-two
years of age.

FRANKIE SILVER'S CRIME AND CONFESSION. According to Mrs. Lucinda Norman,
the only living sister of Charles Silver, now (1912) 88 years of age and
residing at Ledger, Mitchell county, N. C., Frances Stewart Silver
murdered her husband, Charles Silver, at what is now Black Mountain
Station on the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad-tho mouth of the
South Toe river-on the night of December 22, 1831.(2) She was tried before
Judge Donnell, June Term, 1832, and convicted at Morganton, where she was
executed July 12, 1833. On appeal her conviction was affirmed by Judge
Ruffin (14 N. C., 332). She escaped from jail but was recaptured. She cut
her husband's head off with an ax, and then dismembered the body, after
which she tried to burn portions of it in the open fireplace of her home.
She left a poem lamenting her fate, in which she refers to "the jealous
thought that first gave strife to make me take my husband's life." She
also pleads that her "faults shall not her child disgrace." She also
relates in the poem that

"With flames I tried him to consume
But time would not admit it done."

She must have been educated better than the average woman of that day.
Finding that she could not get rid of the body by burning it, she
concealed portions of it under the floor, in rock cliffs and elsewhere,
claiming that he had gone off for whiskey with which to celebrate
Christmas, and had probably fallen into the river, which had soon
thereafter frozen over. A negro with a "magic glass" was brought from
Tennessee, and as the glass persisted in turning downward, the floor was
removed and portions of the body found. The weather growing warmer other
parts of the remains revealed themselves, a little dog helping to find
some.

TWO BAIRD FAMILIES. Indicative of the almost utter desolation of these
early scattered mountain communities is the story of the two Baird
families. On the 20th of April, 1795, John Burton sold to Zebulon and
Bedent Baird all his lots in Asheville "except what lots is [already] sold
and maid over."(3) In 1819 Bedent Baird represented Ashe county in the
House of Commons. He was not the Bedent who had bought the lots from John
Burton.(4) Certain it is that another Bedent Baird lived at Valle Crucis
in what is now Ashe county, and his descendants constitute a large and
influential family in that county at this time, just as the Bairds of
Buncombe do in that county. But these two families seem never to have
heard of the existence of the other till the 28th of January, 1858, when
Bedent E. Baird wrote to Adolphus E. Baird at Lapland, now Marshall, in
answer to Baird's note of enquiry, which he had penciled on the margin of
a newspaper. In that note he had claimed Bedent as a relative and stated
that he resided at Lapland; but he failed to sign his name or state the
county in which Lapland was situated. A. E. Baird received the letter
promptly, but seems never to have answered it. In it Bedent gave a full
family history; and the letter was published in full in the Asheville
Gazette News on February 20, 1912. This letter was read and preserved by
the numerous Bairds in Buncombe but no one seems to be able to trace the
exact relationship between the Buncombe and the Watauga Bairds. That they
are the same family no one who knows them can doubt, as they look, and, in
many things, act alike, besides having the same given names in many
cases.(5)

THE COLD SATURDAY. This date is fixed in Watauga by the fact that John
Hartley was born on that day, which is set down in his family Bible as
February 8, 1835. On June 5, 1858, a freeze killed corn knee-high, and all
fruits, vegetables and white oak trees between Boone and Jefferson,
according to the recollections of Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone. There was a
slight frost at Blowing Rock on the night of July 26, 1876. There was snow
on the Haywood mountains June 10, 1913.

"THE BIG SNOW." Just when occurred what old people call the "big" snow
cannot be determined to the satisfaction of everyone. Mrs. Eliza Burleson,
of Hawk, Mitchell county, and the mother of Charles Wesley Burleson of
Plum Tree, was born on the 5th of April, 1820, on Three Mile creek, her
father having been Bedford Wiseman. She married Thomas Burleson, now
deceased, in 1840, and after the Big Snow, and still remembers the hunters
who came to her father's house from Morganton with guns and dogs and well
nigh exterminated the deer, which could not run on the frozen surface of
the deep snow, their sharp hoofs plunging through the crust, thus
rendering locomotion impossible. Strange to say, near this very place is
now the largest private collection of deer in the mountains-Bailey's deer-
park being well stocked, while a small number of deer still wander wild in
the neighborhood and are hunted every fall. George W. Vanderbilt's and the
Murchison deer parks also contain a number of these animal, as well as
several other smaller collections.

"SNEW, BLEW AND FRIZ." T. L. Lowe, Esq., of Banner Elk, thinks that two
hundred years ago elk, moose or caribou roamed these mountains, and that
there was little or no underbrush or laurel or ivy then. He speaks of a
big snow which fell during the Fifties which recalled Dean Swift's great
snow in England, When he said "first it blew, then it snew and then it
friz." A large number of deer were killed at this time for the same
reason, the frozen crust. In Watauga they still tell of a big snow which
entirely obliterated all evidence of fence; and shrubbery; but the year
seems to have been prior to 1850.

OTHER WEATHER EXTRAVAGANCIES. From Robert Henry's diary we learn that in
"the summer of 1815 no rain fell from the 8th of July till the 8th of
September. Trees died." Also that, "on the 28th day of August, 1830, Caney
branch (which runs by Sulphur spring five miles west of Asheville) ceased
to run. Tom Moore's creek and Ragsdale's creek had ceased to run some days
before; the corn died from the drouth. This has been the driest summer in
sixty- years to my knowledge. Our spring ceased to run for some weeks
previous to the above date." Again: "[The?] summer of 1836 was the wettest
summer in seventy years in my remembrance." This is the climax: "Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday next before Christmas, 1791, were the coldest days in
seventy year," though as he had been born in 1765 he could not their have
been quite thirty years of age himself.

A MODERN "BIG SNOW." On the 2d and 3d of December 1886, a snow three feet
in depth fell in Buncombe and adjoining counties. On December 6th the
newly elected officers of Buncombe county- were required lay law to
present their official bonds to the county commissioners for approval;
but, owing to the snow, it was impossible to travel very far. As a
consequence R. H. Cole, who had been elected register of deeds, and J. V.
Hunter, who had been elected treasurer, could not provide bonds acceptable
to the commissioner,, and J. H. Patterson who had been defeated was
appointed register of deeds, and J. H. Courtney-, who had also been
defeated, was appointed treasurer.

TWO RECENT COLD SNAPS. On the night of February 7, 1895, there was a
dangerous fire on Pack Square, Asheville, threatening for awhile the
entire southeastern section of the city. The thermometer was seven degrees
below zero. On the morning of February 13, 1899, the thermometer was 13
1/2 below zero at Asheville.

MOUNT MITCHELL.(6) In 1835 Prof. Elisha Mitchell made the first
barometrical measurements of our mountains, and his report was the first
authoritative announcement of the superior altitude of the highest
southern summit to that of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. In 1844 he
and Gen. T. L. Clingman took observations in the Balsam, Smoky and Black
mountains, and Gen. Clingman subsequently published a statement to the
effect that he had found a higher peak in the Blacks than the one measured
by Dr. Mitchell. "It was admitted that Gen. Clingman had measured the
highest point, the only question being whether that peak was the same as
that previously measured by Dr. Mitchell."

DISCOVERERS DISPUTE. To settle the matter Dr. Mitchell ran a series of
levels from the terminus of the railroad near Morganton to the half-way
house built by Mr. William Patton of Charleston, S. C., in 1856. From this
place Dr. Mitchell started alone to Big Tom Wilson's in Yancey by the
route he had followed in 1844. He intended to meet his son Charles at the
appointed place on the Blacks the following Monday, he having left the
half-way house Saturday, June 27, 1857. His son waited and searched for
him till Friday following, when news of the professor's disappearance
reached Asheville, and many men set out to search for him. On the
following Tuesday Big Tom Wilson, who had been the professor's guide in
1811, discovered his trail and found the body- in a pool of water at the
foot of a waterfall, since called Mitchell's creek and Mitchell's fall.
The body was taken across the top of the Blacks to Asheville and there
interred in the Presbyterian church yard; but a year later it was taken
back to the Peak and buried there.(6)

THE MERITS OF THE CONTROVERSY. Dr. Arnold Guyot of Princeton College, in
an article published in the Asheville News, July 18, 1860: "The statements
Dr. Mitchell made, at different times, of the results of his measurements
failed to agree with each other, and, owing to unfavorable circumstances
and the want of proper instruments, the precise location of the points
measured, especially of the highest, had remained quite indefinite, even
in the mind of Dr. Mitchell himself, as I learned it from his own mouth in
1856. . . I may, perhaps, be permitted to express it as my candid opinion
(without wishing in the least to revive a controversy happily terminated)
that if the honored name of Dr. Mitchell is taken from Mount Mitchell and
transferred to the highest peak, it should not be on the ground that he
first made known its true elevation, which he never did, nor himself ever
claimed to have done; for the true height was not known before my
measurement of 1854, and the coincidence made out quite recently may be
shown, from abundant proofs furnished by himself, to be a mere accident.
Nor should it be on the ground of his having first visited it; for,
though, after his death, evidence which made it probable that he did [came
out,] he never could convince himself of it. Nor, at last, should it be
because that peak was, as it is alleged, thus named long before; for I
must declare that neither in 1854, nor later, during the whole time I was
on both sides of the mountain, did I hear of another Mount Mitchell than
the one south of the highest, so long visited under that name; and that
Dr. Mitchell himself, before ascending the northern peak, in 1856, as I
gathered it from a conversation with him, believed it to be the highest.
Dr. Mitchell has higher and better claims, which are universally and
cheerfully acknowledged by all, to be forever remembered in connection
with the Black Mountain . . . . From these facts it is evident that the
honorable senator [T. L. Clingman] could not possibly know when he first
ascended it that anyone had visited or measured it before him, nor have
any intention to do any injustice to Dr. Mitchell.... As to the highest
group in the Great Smoky Mountains, however, I must remark that, in the
whole valley of the Tuckaseegee and Oconaluftee, I heard of but one name
applied to the highest point, and it is that of Mount Clingman. The
greatest authority around the peak, Robert Collins, Esq., knows of no
other.... Gen. Clingman was the leader of a party which made, in 1858, the
first measurement, and the party was composed, besides himself, of Mr. S.
P. Buckley and Dr. S. L. Love. He caused Mr. Collins to cut a path six
miles to the top, which enabled me to carry there the first horse ever
seen on these heights . . . . The central or highest peak is therefore
designated as Clingman's Dome, the south peak, the next in height, as
Mount Buckley, the north peak as Mount Love."

THE MONUMENT. The monument to Professor Elisha Mitchell, on the crest of
the highest peak east of the Rocky mountains, was completed August 18,
1888. It is bolted to the bed-rock itself, is of white bronze-an almost
pure zinc-treated under the sandblast to impart a granular appearance,
cause it to resemble granite, and prevent discoloration; and was made by
the Monumental Bronze Company, of Bridgeport, Conn. It was erected by Mrs.
E. N. Grant, a daughter, and other members of Prof. Mitchell's family. Its
dimensions are about two and one-half feet at the base and about twelve
feet high. It is a hollow square and without any ornamentation. Vandals
have shot bullet holes in it and an ax blade has been driven into one of
its sides. Professor V. B. Phillips, now the professor of Geology at the
University of Texas, had charge of its erection. It contains the following
inscriptions:

Upon the western side, in raised letters is the single word:

"MITCHELL"

On the side toward the grave is the following:

"Erected in 1888.
"Here lies in hope of a blessed resurrection the body of Rev. Elisha
Mitchell, D.D., who, after being for 39 years a professor in the
University of North Carolina, lost his life in the scientific exploration
of this mountain in the 64th year of his age, June 27th, 1857."(7)

A MEMORABLE RIOT. During the Seymour and Blair campaign of 1868 a riot
occurred on the public square at Asheville in which one negro was killed
and two others seriously wounded. Trouble had been expected, and when a
negro knocked a young Mississippian down, twenty or more pistols were
discharged into the crowd of negroes, while from several store doors and
second-story windows shotguns and rifles were discharged into the fleeing
blacks. That night a drum was beaten in the woods where now is Aston park
and a crowd of negroes assembled there, and reports spread that they would
burn the town. Messengers were sent to surrounding towns, and by daylight
three hundred armed white men from adjoining counties arrived. For two
weeks the streets were patrolled at night. Oscar Eastman, in charge of the
Freedman's Bureau, had an office in the Thomas building on the southwest
corner of the square; but after the riot Eastman could not be found for
several days, as it was thought he had incited the negroes to arm
themselves with stout hickory sticks and shout for Grant and Colfax, the
immediate casus belli. Giles McDowell, a large, bushy-headed negro and a
Democrat, came up South Main street and shouted "Hurrah for Seymour and
Blair," whereupon the other negroes made a rush for him, during which the
young Mississippian was knocked down. Giles fled; but another darky by the
name of Jim Greenlee fell on his face at the first shot, groaning and
hollering. After the shooting was over it developed that Jim was unhurt,
but had wisely pretended to be hurt in order to keep anyone from firing at
him. In 1874, Eastman, who had made himself very obnoxious, was indicted
in Buncombe Superior court twenty-five dines for retailing whiskey and
once for gambling. At the Spring Term of 1869 George H. Bell, William
Blair, Erwin Hardy, Gaston McDowell, Ben. Young, Natt Atkinson, J. M.
Alexander, J. W. Shartle, E. H. Merrimon, Henry Patton, Simon Henry,
Robert Patton, John Lang and Armistead Dudley, pleaded guilty to the
charge of riot, and were taxed with the costs.

A BACKWOODS ABELABD AND ELOISE. The tomb of the Priest Abelard and his
sweetheart Eloise, in Paris, is visited by greater numbers than that of
Napoleon. But the grave of poor, ignorant and deluded Delilah Baird near
Valle Crucis is neglected and unknown. Yet she as truly as Eloise gave her
life for love; for although she knew that John Holsclaw was a married man,
she thought he was taking her to Kentucky when as a child of fifteen she
followed him to the Big Bottoms of Elk in the spring of 1826, where she
lived a, life of faithfulness and devotion to her lover and their son and
daughter, and died constant and true to her role as his widow in God's
sight, if not in that of man's. Having sold her land the poor repressed,
stinted creature indulged in gay dressing in her later years, which caused
some of her relatives to fear that she was not competent to manage her
money- matters; but a commission of which Smith Coffey was a member, found
that she was. (Deed Books R., p. 574, and A., p. 498) In 1881-82 she wrote
to a childhood friend, not a former sweetheart, Ben Dyer, at Grapevine,
Texas, to come and protect her interests and she would give him a home. He
came, but was not satisfied, and on flay 26, 1882, sued her for his
traveling expenses and the worth of his time; but recovered only $47.50,
the price of a ticket to Texas. (Judgment Roll and Docket A., p. 172,
Watauga county; See Chapter 13, "Lochinvar Redux.")

NIMROD S. JARRETT. In the early fall of 1873 Bayliss Henderson, a
desperado from Tennessee, wandering about, heard that Col. N. S. Jarrett
would leave his home at the Apple Tree place on the Nantahala river, six
miles above Nantahala station on the Western North Carolina Railroad, and
the same distance below Aquone, where his daughter, Mrs. Alexander P.
Munday, and her husband lived. Henderson had been told that Jarrett would
carry a large sum of money with him as he had to go to Franklin to settle
as guardian for wards who had become of age. On a bright Sunday morning he
was to start alone, as Henderson had been told, and on that morning he did
start and alone. Half a mile below the home where Micajah Lunsford used to
live he overtook Henderson, who was strolling idly along the road.
Henderson walked a short distance by Jarrett's horse, but falling back a
pace drew his pistol and shot the Colonel in the back of the head at the
base of the brain. He took his watch and chain and the little money he had
in his pocket, and hearing some one coining he waded across the Nantahala
river and watched. The person he had heard leas Mrs. Jarrett, the dead
man's wife, a cripple, who had ridden rapidly in order to overtake her
husband and ride with him to Aquone where she was to have stayed till he
returned from Franklin. She went on and told Micajah Lunsford and a crowd
soon gathered about the body. The footprints of a man near the body were
measured, but before the body was removed Henderson came upon the scene.
It was noticed that the heels of his shoes were missing, but that in other
respects his shoes made a print exactly like those which had been there
before his arrival. He was arrested and taken to Franklin. The trial was
removed to Jackson county, where he was convicted and hanged, the Supreme
court refusing a new trial. (68 N. C.) While Henderson was in Macon jail
he sent a man named Holland to a certain tree near the scene of the
murder, where he found the watch, chain and money. Later on Henderson
escaped and went back to the place where he had lived before the murder,
but was found hiding in a brush-heap soon afterwards and returned to
prison. Col. Jarrett was 73 years old.

A FORGOTTEN CRIME. In the spring of 1855 the home of Col. Nimrod S.
Jarrett at Aquone, Macon county, was burned in the day time, and one of
his children, a little girl, perished in the flames, though her mother had
gone into the burning dwelling in the effort to find and rescue her, and
had been dragged out by force. About 1898 a man named Bill Dills died on
the head of Musser creek, and confessed that he had set fire to the house
in order to prevent suspicion falling on him for having stolen several
small sums of money, his idea being that their loss when discovered, would
be attributed to the fire.

QUAKING BALD, "The most famous of the restless mountains of North Carolina
is Shaking Bald." The first shock, which occurred February 10, 1874, was
followed in quick succession by others and caused general alarm in the
vicinity. This mountain for a time received national attention. Within six
months more than one hundred shocks were felt.

The general facts of these terrestrial disturbances have never been
disputed, but concerning their cause, there has been widely diversified
speculation. Is there an upheaval or subsidence of the mountains gradually
going on. Are they the effect of explosions caused by the chemical action
of minerals under the influence of electric currents? Are they the effect
of gases forced through fissures in the rocks from the center of the
earth, seeking an outlet at the surface? These are questions on which
scientists differ. Be the cause what it may, there is no occasion to fear
the eruption of an active volcano.

"The famous Bald mountain forms the north wall of the valley. Its sterile
face is distinctly visible from the porch of the Logan hotel. Caves
similar to Bat cave are high on its front. In 1874 Bald mountain pushed
itself into prominence by shaking its eastern end with an earthquake-like
rumble, that rattled plates on pantry shelves in the cabins of the
valleys, shook windows to pieces in their sashes, and even startled the
quiet inhabitants of Rutherfordton, seventeen miles away. Since then
rumblings have occasionally been heard, and some people say they have seen
smoke rising in the atmosphere. There is an idea, wide-spread, that the
mountain is an extinct volcano. As evidence of a crater, they point to a
fissure about half a mile long, six feet wide in some places, and of
unmeasured depth. This fissure, bordered with trees, extends across the
eastern end of the peak. But the crater idea is effectually choked up by
the fact that the crack is of recent appearance. The crack widens every
year and, as it widens, stones are dislodged from the mountain steeps.
Their thundering falls from the heights may explain the rumbling, and
their clouds of dust account for what appears to be smoke. The widening of
the crack is possibly due to the gradual upheaval of the mountain."

TRIAL OF THOMAS W. STRANGE. On the 27th day of April, 1876, Thomas W.
Strange was acquitted in Asheville for the murder on the 19th of August,
1875, of James A. Hurray of Haywood county before Judge Samuel Watts and
the following jurors: W. P. Bassett, J. L. Weaver, John H. Murphy, Owen
Smith, W. W. McDowell, B. F. Young, John Chesbrough, G. W. Whitson, S. M.
Banks, W. A. Weddin, and P. I. Patton. W. L. Tate of Waynesville was the
solicitor. There was much feeling in Haywood and Buncombe counties because
of this acquittal. During his confinement in jail Preston L. Bridgers, his
friend, voluntarily stayed with Thomas Strange. The court was held in the
chapel of the Asheville Female College, now the high school. Judge Watts
was from the eastern part of the State and was nick-named "Greasy Sam."

"BIG TOM" WILSON. Thomas D. Wilson, commonly known as "Big Tom," on
account of his great size, was born December 1, 1825, on Toe river, near
the mouth of Crabtree creek, in the Deyton Bend. The "D" in his name was
solely for euphony. He married Niagara Ray, daughter of Amos L. Ray, and
settled at the Green Ponds, afterwards known as the Murchison boundary.
The place was so called because of several pools or ponds in Cane river,
on the rock bottom of which a green moss grows. He died at a great age a
few years ago. He was a great woodsman, hunter and trapper, a typical
frontiersman, picturesque in appearance and original in speech and manner.
He is said to have killed over one hundred bears during his life. His
knowledge of woodcraft enabled him to discover Prof. Mitchell's trail,
resulting in the recovery of his body, when the scientist lost his life on
Black mountain in the summer of 1857.(8)

LEWIS REDMOND, OUTLAW. He was part Indian, and was born and reared in
Transylvania county, having "hawk-like eyes and raven-black hair." When
fifteen years of age he was taken into the family of "Uncle Wash
Galloway," a pioneer farmer of the county, and after he was grown and had
left his home at Galloway's, he began "moonshining." Warrants were issued
for his arrest, but the deputy United States marshals were afraid to
arrest him. Marshal R. M. Douglass, however, deputized Alfred F. Duckworth
a member of a large and influential family of Transylvania county. Redmond
had sworn he would not be arrested, but young Duckworth went after him
notwithstanding. Another deputy by the name of Lankford accompanied him.
They came up with Redmond in the neighborhood of the East Fork, March 1,
1876. Redmond and his brotherin-law Ladd were driving a wagon. Duckworth
told Redmond to stop, as he had a warrant for his arrest. Redmond stopped
the wagon, and asked to hear the warrant read. Duckworth dismounted from
his horse and began reading the warrant, but holding his pistol in one of
his hands while he did so. Redmond said, "All right, put up your pistol,
Alf, I will go along with you." While Duckworth was putting his pistol in
his pocket, Ladd passed a pistol to Duckworth, and before "a man standing
near by could speak," Redmond put the pistol to Duckworth's throat and
fired. Then he and Ladd jumped from the wagon and ran. Duckworth followed
them a dozen or more step, firing his pistol as he ran; but fell in the
road from the shock of his wound. He died soon after being taken to his
home, and Redmond escaped. Redmond was caught later in South Carolina for
some offence committed there, but escaped. Later on he was captured in
Swain county at or near Maple Springs, five miles above Almond. He was
living in a house which commanded a view of the only approach to it, a
canoe landing and trail leading from it. A posse crossed in the night and
were in hiding nearby when daylight came. Redmond left the house and went
in the upper part of the clearing with a gun to shoot a squirrel. One of
the posse ordered him to surrender. Redmond whirled to shoot at him, when
another of the posse fired on him from another quarter, filling his back
with buckshot, disabling but not killing him. He was taken to Bryson City,
and while recuperating from his wounds received a visit from his wife. She
managed to give him a pistol secretly which Redmond concealed under his
pillow. A girl living in the house found it out, and told Judge Jeter C.
Pritchard, who was one of the men guarding him at that time. He told his
companions, and it was agreed that he should disarm him. This was done,
warning having first been given Redmond that if he moved he would be
killed. "Redmond served a term in the United States prison at Albany N.
Y., and after being released moved to South Carolina, where, I am
informed, he killed another man, an officer, and was again sent to
prison."(9) During the term of Gov. Wade Hampton a long petition,
extensively signed by many ladies of South Carolina, was presented to the
governor for his pardon. He called himself a "Major," and claimed to be
dying of tuberculosis. The pardon was granted in 1878, and Redmond has
given no trouble since. He was never tried for killing Duckworth.(l0)

ESCAPE OF RAY AND ANDERSON. In the summer of 1885 several prisoners
escaped from the county jail on Valley street in Asheville. They were J.
P. Sluder, charged with the murder of L. C. Sluder; C. M. York, also
charged with another murder; and E. W. Ray and W. A. Anderson of Mitchell
county, who had been convicted in Caldwell county-Anderson of murder and
Ray of manslaughter, for the killing of three men in a struggle for the
possession of a mica mine in Mitchell county. The last two men were
members of prominent families. On the night of July 3, 1885, these men
with an ax broke a hole in the brick wall of the jail, and escaped. They
had forced the sheriff, the late J. R. Rich, and J. D. Henderson, the
jailor, into the cage in which the prisoners were confined, when they-
were tied and gagged. The military company was called out to recapture the
prisoners, but without result. Proceedings were instituted against Rich
and Henderson for suffering these escapes, but both were acquitted in
January, 1886.

PHENOMENA NOTED AND EXPLAINED. In his "Speeches and Writings" (Raleigh,
1877), Gen. Thomas L. Clingman has described and explained many phenomena,
among which was the meteor of 1860 (p. 53), which was originally published
in Appleton's Journal, January 7, 1871; the falling of several destructive
water-spouts in Macon and Jackson counties (p. 68) on the 15th of June,
1876; and what he terms "Low volcanic action" in the mountains of Haywood,
at the head of Fines creek, which he visited in 1848 and 1851, and which
had caused "cracks in the solid granite...chasms, none of them above four
feet in width, generally extending north and south" where large trees had
been thrown down, hillocks on which saplings grew obliquely to the
horizon, showing they had attained some size before the hillocks were
elevated. He again visited this place in 1867, when he saw evidences of
further disturbances, a large "oak tree of great age and four or five feet
in diameter having been split open from root to top and thrown down so
that the two halves lay several feet apart" (p. 78 et seq). This was first
published in the National Ingelligencer of November 15, 1848.

A CRIME NECESSITATING LEGISLATION. It was on the Cherokee county boundary
line that on the 11th day of July, 1892, William Hall shot and killed
Andrew Bryson. He stood on the North Carolina side of the boundary line
between the two States and, shooting across that line, killed Bryson while
he was in Tennessee. William Hall and John Dickey were tried with Hall as
accessories before the fact, and all were convicted of murder at the
spring term of the Superior court of Cherokee county in 1893. But the
Supreme court granted a new trial at the February term of 1894(11) on the
ground that Hall could not be guilty of homicide in Tennessee. This
decision was immediately followed by efforts on the part of the State of
Tennessee to extradite the defendants under the act of Congress, but the
Supreme court of North Carolina held on habeas corpus proceedings(12)
degrees that no one can lie alleged to have fled front the justice of a
State in whose domain he has never been corporeally present since the
commission of the crime. The prisoners were discharged and have never been
tried again in North Carolina. These decisions were followed by remedial
legislation embodied in the Acts of 1895, Chapter 169, making similar
homicides crimes in North Carolina as well as in Tennessee.

THE EMMA BURGLARY. Following are the facts of a sensational burglary which
occurred in Buncombe county February 8, 1901, as taken from the case of
the State v. Foster, 129 N. C. Reports, p. 704:

"Indictment against Ben Foster, R. S. Gates, Harry Mills and Frank
Johnston, heard by Judge Frederick Moore and a jury, at June (Special)
Term, 1901, of the Superior Court of Buncombe County. From a verdict of
guilty and judgment thereon, the defendants appealed.

"The facts are substantially as follows:

"D. J. McClelland was the owner of a store at a place called 'Emma', a few
miles from the city of Asheville, in the county of Buncombe. Samuel H.
Alexander is his clerk, find had been for more than three years boarding
in the family of McClelland and sleeping in the store. There was a room in
said store building fitted up and furnished with a bed and other furniture
as a sleeping apartment, in which said Alexander kept his trunk and other
belongings, and slept there, and had done so regularly for three years or
more. On the night of the 8th of February, 1901, he closed and fastened
all the windows and outer doors of said store building, and between eight
and nine o'clock he went into his bedroom, but, thinking some customer
might come, and not being ready to retire, he left a lamp burning in the
store-room. There was a partition wall between his sleeping-room and the
store-room, in which there was a doorway and a shutter, but the shutter
was rarely ever closed and was not closed that night. Soon after lie went
into his sleeping room, he heard a noise at one of the outer doors of the
store building, and, thinking it was some one wanting to trade, he went to
the door and asked who was there. Some one answered 'We want to come in;
we want some coffee and flour.' He then took down the bar used in securing
the door, unlocked the same, and when he had opened the door about twelve
inches, still having the knob in his hand, two men forced the door open,
rushed in the house, covered him with pistols, told him to hold up his
hands, that they had come for business. With the pistols still drawn upon
him, they marched him into his bed-room, where they searched him and the
things he had in his room, taking his pistol and other things. They then
carried him into the store-room and made an effort to break into the
postoffice department, there being a postoffice kept there. But not
succeeding readily in getting into this, they abandoned it for the
present, saying they supposed there was nothing in it, except postage
stamps, and they would attend to them later. They then turned their
attention to an iron safe and compelled him to assist in opening it, one
of them still holding his pistol on him. After the safe was open and one
of them wing through it, taking what money and other valuables he found, a
cat made a noise in the back part of the store, and the man with the
pistol bearing on him turned his attention to that; and, as he did so,
Alexander seized his own pistol they had taken from his room and which the
man who was robbing the safe had laid on the end of the counter, and shot
the man robbing the safe, and also shot the other man, but, in the
meantime, the man whose attention had been attracted by the cat shot
Alexander. They were all badly shot, but none of them died."

This testimony was that of Alexander alone, neither prisoner going on the
stand. Henry Mills and R. S. Gates, indicted as being present, aiding and
abetting, were tried with Ben Foster and Frank Johnston, charged as
principals. All were convicted of burglary in the first degree. The
judgment was sustained and Ben Foster and Frank Johnston were hanged at
Asheville, the governor having commuted the sentence of the two others to
life imprisonment in the penitentiary.

NANCY HANKS TRADITION. For a hundred years a tradition has persisted in
these mountains to the effect that between 1803 and 1808 Abraham Enloe
came from Rutherford county and settled, first on Soco creek, and
afterwards on Oconalufty, about seven miles from Whittier, in what is now
Swain county; that he brought with his family a girl whose name was Nancy
Hanks; that this girl lived in Enloe's family till after his daughter
Nancy ran away with and married a man named Thompson, from Hardin county,
Ky. An intimacy had grown up between Nancy Hanks and Abraham Enloe, and a
son was born to her, which caused Enloe's wife, whose maiden name had been
Edgerton, to suspect that her husband was the father of Nancy's child.
Soon after the birth of this child, the tradition relates, Mrs. Nancy
Thompson came to visit her parents and on her return to Kentucky or
Tennessee took Nancy Hanks and her son with her, much to Mrs. Enloe's
relief. Abraham Enloe is said to have been a large, tall, dark man, a
horse and slave trader,(14) a justice of the peace and the leading man in
his community. Thus far the tradition as given above is supported by such
reputable citizens as the following, most of whom are now dead: Col. Allen
T. Davidson, whose sister Celia married into the Enloe family, Captain
James W. Terrell, the late Epp Everett of Bryson City, Phillip Dills of
Dillsborough, Abraham Battle of Hay wood, Win. H. Conley of Hay wood,
Judge Gilmore of Fort Worth, Texas, H. J. Beek of Ocona Lufty, D. K.
Collins of Bryson City, Col. W. H. Thomas and the late John D. Mingus, son-
in-law of Abraham Enloe.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN TELLS OF HIS PARENTAGE. That the child so born to Nancy
Hanks on 0cona Lufty was Abraham Lincoln is supported by the alleged
statements that in the fall of 1861 a young man named Davis, of
Rutherford, had, during the fifties, settled near Springfield, Ill., where
he became intimate with Abraham Lincoln and "in a private and confidential
talk which he had with Mr. Lincoln, the latter told him that he was of
Southern extraction; that his right name was, or ought to have been,
Enloe, but that he had always gone by the name of his step-father."(14)

 After the Civil War a man representing himself as a son of Mrs. Nancy
Thompson, a daughter of Abraham Enloe of Ocona Lufty, called on the late
Col. Allen T. Davidson, a lawyer, in his office in Asheville, and told him
that President Lincoln had appointed him Indian agent or to some other
office in the Indian service "because he (Lincoln) was under some great
obligation to Thompson's mother, and desired to aid her, and at her
request he made her son Indian agent."(15) Col. Davidson as a lawyer had
settled the Abraham Enloe estate, had heard of this tradition all his life
and had no doubt as to its truth. There is another version to the effect
that the child Abraham was not born till after his mother had reached
Kentucky and also that Felix Walker, then congressman from the mountain
district, aided Nancy Hanks in getting to Tennessee, where Thompson lived.

"TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION." The above facts or statements have been
taken from a small book of the name given, by James H. Cathey, once a
member of the North Carolina legislature, and a resident of Jackson
county. It was published in 1899. The various statements upon which the
tradition was based are set forth in detail, accompanied by short
biographies of each person named. No one can read these accounts without
being impressed with their air of truthfulness.

EVIDENCE SUSTAINING THE ENLOE PARENTAGE. The late Captain James W. Terrell
refers to an article in Bledsoe's Review "in which the writer gives an
account of a difficulty between Mr. Lincoln's reputed father and a man
named Enloe" (p. 47) and states, as one of the reasons for sending Nancy
Hanks to Kentucky, the fact that at that time some of the Enloe kindred
were living there (p. 49). On page 54, a Judge Gilmore, living then within
three miles of Fort Worth, Texas, told Joseph A. Collins of Clyde, Haywood
county, North Carolina, that he knew Nancy Hanks before she was married,
and that she then had a child she called Abraham; that she afterwards
married a man by the name of Lincoln, a whiskey distiller, and very poor,
and that they lived in a small house.(16) Col. T. U. C. Davis of St.
Louis, Mo., a native of Kentucky, a cousin of President Jefferson Davis, a
lawyer who once practiced law-with Mr. Lincoln in Illinois, is quoted as
saying that he knew the riot leer of Lincoln; that he was raised in the
same neighborhood; and that it was generally understood, without question,
in that neighborhood, that Lincoln, the man that married the President's
mother, was not the father of the President, but that his father's name
was Enloe" (p. 78). The foregoing are the most important facts alleged;
but there is one statement, or, page 55, to the effect that a man named
[W?]ells visited the Enloe home while Nancy Hanks was there and witnessed
a disagreement or coolness between Enloe and his wife on her account. This
man said he had gone there while selling tinware and buying furs, leathers
and ginseng for William Johnston of Waynesville. This could not have been
true, as William Johnston did not emigrate from Ireland to Charleston till
1818. Soon after the appearance of this book the writer visited Wesley
Enloe at his home on Ocona Lofty- for the purpose of learning what he
could of his connection with Abraham Lincoln; but, like the correspondent
of the Charlotte [missing] of September 17, 1893 (quoted on pages 63 et
seq), I did not observe any likeness between him and the picture of Mr.
Lincoln which I had seen, as Mr. Enloe was blue-eyed and florid. He also
stated to me that he had never heard his father's name mentioned in his
family in connection with Abraham Lincoln's, just as he stated to that
correspondent on page 70.

CLARK W. THOMPSON. Col. Davidson was a man of such unquestioned integrity
that any statement from him is worthy of belief; and in the interest of
truth a letter was written to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Washington, on March 8, 1913, asking "whether a man named Thompson was
ever appointed by President Lincoln to some position in the Indian
Service," and on the 25th of the same month, Hon. F. H. Abbott, acting
commissioner, wrote as follows: ". . . You are advised that the records
show that Clark W. Thompson, of Minnesota, was nominated by President
Lincoln to be Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern
superintendency on March 26, 1861, and his appointment was confirmed by
the Senate on the following day. There is nothing in the record to show
reasons influencing this appointment. . ." Of course this does not prove
that Clark W. Thompson was a son of Mrs. Nancy Enloe Thompson, and is
merely given for what it may be worth. In "The Child That Toileth Not,"
Major Dawley, its author, says (p. 271): "Where Mingus creek joins Ocona
Lufty, in a broad bottom, is an old, partially demolished log-house, used
as a barn, in which tradition says that Nancy Hanks, the mother of
Lincoln, served as a house girl," etc.

THE NANCY HANKS HISTORY. As opposed to this traditional evidence we have
the voluminous history of Nickolay and Hay, Mr. Lincoln's secretaries,
called "Abraham Lincoln," in which the fact that the immortal President's
mother was married to Thomas Lincoln June 12, 1806, by Rev. Jesse Head, at
Beechland, near Elizabethton, Washington county, Ky., and a copy of his
marriage bond for fifty pounds, as was then required by the laws of
Kentucky, is set forth in full, with Richard Barry as surety. In addition
to this, there was published by Doubleday & McClure Co., New York, in
1899, by Carolina Hanks Hitchcock, "Nancy Hanks, the Story of Abraham
Lincoln's Mother," giving in detail the facts of her birth in Virginia,
her removal to Kentucky with her family, and her marriage to Thomas
Lincoln on the date above given, and many other facts which, it would
seem, place this date beyond all doubt. Col. Henry Watterson, in an
address, presenting the Speed statue of Lincoln to the State of Kentucky
and the Nation, November 8, 1911, said: "Let me speak with some
particularity and the authority of fact, tardily but conclusively
ascertained, touching the maternity of Abraham Lincoln. Few passages of
history have been so greatly misrepresented and misconceived. Some
confusion was made by his own mistake as to the marriage of his father and
mother, which had not been celebrated in Hardin county, but in Washington
county, Kentucky, the absence of any marriage papers in the old court
house at Elizabethton, the county seat of Hardin county, leading to the
notion that there had never been any marriage at all. It is easy to
conceive that such a discrepancy might give occasion for any amount and
all sorts of partisan falsification, the distorted stories winning popular
belief among the credulous and inflamed. Lincoln himself died without
surely knowing that he was born in honest wedlock and came from an
ancestry upon both sides of which he had no reason to be ashamed. For a
long time a cloud hung over the name of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham
Lincoln. Persistent and intelligent research has brought about a
vindication in every way complete. It has been clearly established that as
the ward of a decent family she lived a happy and industrious girl until
she was twenty-three years of age, when Thomas Lincoln, who had learned
his carpenter's trade of one of her uncles, married her, June 12, 1806.
The entire record is in existence and intact. The marriage bond to the
amount of 50 pounds . . was duly recorded seven days before the wedding,
which was solemnized as became well-to-do folk in those days. The uncle
and aunt gave an 'infare', to which the neighboring countryside was
invited. Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, one of the best known and most
highly- respected of Kentuckians, before his death in 1885, wrote at my
request his remembrances of that festival and testified to this before a
notary- public in the ninety-sixth year of his age." (The affidavit is set
forth in full.)(17)

WHY THE TRADITION PERSISTS. After reading the foregoing article, a feeling
of indignation naturally arises that anyone should longer doubt or discuss
the legitimacy of the Great Emancipator, and it was that feeling which led
to an examination of the "authority of fact tardily but conclusively
ascertained touching the maternity of Abraham Lincoln." Naturally, too,
the story was ascribed to "partisan falsification." Nicolay and Hay's
account seemed to fix the (late of the marriage as in June, 1806, since
the marriage bond is dated on June 10th; and Miss Tarbell has settled the
exact date as of June 12th of that year. So far, so good. But Miss Tarbell
states (Vol. I, 7) that Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock had compiled the
genealogy of the Hanks family, which, "though not yet printed, has
fortunately cleared up the mystery of her birth." This little book, now
out of print, was obtained after great trouble, and what was found. That
instead of clearing up the mystery of Nancy Hanks' birth, Mrs. Hitchcock
has only made confusion worse confounded. In fact, she shows that Thomas
Lincoln married an altogether different Nancy Hanks from the one the
President remembered, the one Dennis Hanks knew, and the one Herndon has
so particularly described in his carefully prepared work on the origin of
Abraham Lincoln. She also discredits every subsequent statement by trying
to show that Thomas Lincoln was not "the shiftless character" be has been
represented as being (p. 54). After that, one naturally looks with
suspicion upon every statement of fact in the little volume.

THE LINEAGE OF LINCOLN'S REAL MOTHER. Almost immediately after the death
of Mr. Lincoln his former law partner, Win. H. Herndon, Esq., set out to
interview every member of the Lincoln and Hanks families then living. He
kept up this investigation for years. What did Abraham Lincoln himself
have to say as to who his mother was? Herndon says (p. 3) that in 1850,
while they were in a buggy together, going to Menard county court, Lincoln
told him that his mother "was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred
but obscure Virginia farmer." Who that farmer was is not stated; but Lucy
Hanks, after the birth of Nancy, married a man named Henry Sparrow, and
Nicolay and Hay say that Nancy Hanks was sometimes called Nancy Sparrow
(Vol. I, p. 7). Herndon also says with exactness (p. 10) that "Nancy
Hanks, the mother of the President, at a very early age, was taken from
her mother Lucy-afterwards married to Henry Sparrow and sent to live with
her aunt and uncle, Thomas and Betsy Sparrow, finder this same roof the
irrepressible and cheerful waif, Dennis Hanks,...also found shelter." Now
who was Dennis Hanks? He was the illegitimate son of Nancy Hanks and
Friend. Which Nancy Hanks was this? The sister of Lucy Hanks (p. 10). Miss
Tarbell calls him Dennis Friend (pp. 14 and 25) and says misfortune had
made him an inmate of Thomas Lincoln's Indiana home.

THE LINEAGE OF MRS. HITCHCOCK'S NANCY HANKS. Her father was Joseph Hanks
and her mother Nancy Shipley, and was born February 5, 1784, (p. 25) and
came with her parents from Virginia to Kentucky about 1789, and settled
near Elizabethtown what is now Nelson county (p. 40). Her father died
January 9, 1793, and his will was probated May 14, 1793, by which her
brother Joseph got all her parents' land and she herself got a pied
heifer, although there were eight children Joseph Hanks, Sr.'s widow and
his son William being executors (pp. 43-45). Miss Tarbell adopts the same
lineage for her Nancy (p. 8), and they both place this Nancy in the home
of Lucy Shipley, wife of Richard Berry, when Nancy least nine years old.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LINCOLN'S REAL MOTHER. Herndon says (p. 10)
that "at the time of her marriage to Thomas Lincoln, Nancy was in her 23d
year. She was above the ordinary height in stature, weighed about 130
pounds, was slenderly built, and had much the appearance of one inclined
to consumption. Her skin was dark; hair dark brown; eyes gray and small;
forehead prominent; face sharp and angular, with a marked expression of
melancholy which fixed itself in the memory of everyone who ever saw or
knew her . . . . "

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MRS. HITCHCOCK'S NANCY. "Bright, scintillating, noted
for her keen wit and repartee, she had withal a loving heart," is Mrs.
Hitchcock's (p. 51) notion of Nancy Hanks' manner. Traditions of Nancy
Hanks' appearance at this time [of her marriage] all agree in calling her
a beautiful girl. She is said to have been of medium height, weighing
about 130 pounds (p. 59), light hair, beautiful eyes, a sweet, sensitive
mouth, and a kindly and gentle manner. In another place (p. 73) she says
that when Nancy Hanks went to her cousins', Frank and Ned Berry, the
legend is that "her cheerful disposition and active habits were a dower to
those pioneers." Frank and Ned were sons of Richard Berry.

HERNDON'S THOMAS LINCOLN. "Thomas was roving and shiftless... He was
proverbially slow of movement, mentally and physically; was careless,
inert and dull. He had a liking for jokes and stories . . . . At the time
of his marriage to Nancy Hanks he could neither read nor write (p. 8). He
was a carpenter by trade, and essayed farming, too; but in this, as in
almost every other undertaking, he was singularly unsuccessful. He was
placed in possession of several tracts of land at different times in his
life, but was never able to pay for a single one of them" (p. 9). He
hunted for game only when driven to do so by hunger (p. 29).

MRS. HITCHCOCK'S THOMAS LINCOLN. "Thomas Lincoln had been forced to shift
for himself in a young and undeveloped country (p. 56). He had no bad
habits, was temper ate and a church-goer" (p. 54). She quotes an affidavit
of Dr. C. C. Graham to the effect that he was present at the marriage of
Thomas Lincoln, but he says nothing more of him, except that he had one
feather bed, and when the doctor was there, Thomas and his wife slept on
the floor. This same Dr. Graham is quoted as saying that it is untrue that
Thomas kept his family in a doorless and windowless house. But Miss
Tarbell (p. 19) and Herndon (p. 18) say that Thomas Lincoln kept his
family in a "half-face camp" for a year, and that after the cabin was
built it had but one room and a loft, with no window, door or floor; not
even the traditional deer-skin hung before the exit; there was no oiled
paper over the opening for light; there was no puncheon floor on the
ground...and there were few families, even in that day who were forced to
practice more make-shifts to get a living"; and that sometimes the only
food on the table was potatoes (p. 20). And yet Mrs. Hitchcock says he was
not shiftless!

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HIS PARENTS. Mr. Herndon says (p. 1) that if Mr.
Lincoln ever mentioned the subject of his parents at all it was with great
reluctance and with significant reserve. "There was something about his
origin he never cared to dwell upon." To a Mr. Scripps of the Chicago
Tribune, in 1860, Mr. Lincoln communicated some facts concerning his
ancestry which he did not wish to have published then and which Scripps
never revealed to anyone" (p. 2). In the record of his family which Mr.
Lincoln gave to Jesse W. Fell, he does not even give his mother's maiden
name; but says that she came "of a family of the name of Hanks." (Footnote
on page 3). He gives but three lines to his mother and nearly a page to
the Lincolns. And "Mr. Lincoln himself said to me in 1851... that whatever
might be said of his parents and however unpromising the early
surroundings of his mother may have been, she was highly intellectual by
nature, had a strong memory, acute judgment, and was cool and heroic" (p.
11). His school days he never alluded to; and Herndon says lie slept in
the loft of the Indiana cabin, which lie reached by- climbing on pegs
driven in the wall, while Miss Tarbell says that "he slept on a heap of
dry leaves in a corner of the loft" (p. 19), while his parents reclined on
a bedstead made of poles resting between the logs and on a crotched stick,
with skins for the chief covering." Although in the highest office in the
land for four years before his death, Mr. Lincoln left his mother's grave
unmarked, and when his father was dying he allowed sickness in his own
family to deter him from paying him a last visit, writing instead a letter
advising him to put his trust in God.

HERNDON'S ESTIMATE OF THE HANKSES. "As a family the Hankses were peculiar
to the civilization of early Kentucky. Illiterate and superstitious, they
corresponded to that nomadic class still to be met with throughout the
South, and known as 'poor whites.' They are happily and vividly depicted
in the description of a camp-meeting held at Elizabethton, Ky., in 1806,
which was furnished me in August, 1865, by an eye-witness (J. B. Helm).
'The Hanks girls', narrates the latter, 'were great at Camp meetings,"'
and the scene is then described of a young man and young woman with their
clothing arranged for what was to follow, who approached and embraced each
other in front of the congregation: "When the altar was reached the two
closed, with their arms around each other, the man singing and shouting at
the top of his voice, 'I have my Jesus in my arms, sweet as honey, strong
as baconham.' She was a Hanks, and the couple were to be married the next
week; but whether she was Nancy Hanks or not my informant does not state;
though, as she did marry that year, gives color to the belief that she
was. But the performance described must have required a little more
emotion and enthusiasm than the tardy and inert carpenter was in the habit
of manifesting" (p. 12).

CONFIRMATION OF THE ENLOE TRADITION. One might suppose that the Enloe
story has no other basis than that recorded in Mr. Cathey's look. But this
is far front being the fact, though most of the biographers of Lincoln
make no reference to the Enloes whatever. But Mr. Herndon, on page 27,
remarks of Thomas Lincoln's second wife, Sarah Bush, that her social
status is fixed by the comparison of a neighbor who contrasted the "life
among the Hankses, the Lincolns, and the Enloes with that among the
Bushes, Sarah having married Daniel Johnston, the jailer, as her first
matrimonial venture. Dr. C. C. Graham, in his hundredth year, made a
statement as to the Lincoln family, which is published in full by
McClure's in magazine form and called "The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln,"
by Ida M. Tarbell. This is dated in 1896. Herndon and all the biographers
agree that, although so old, Dr. Graham was a competent witness as to
Lincoln's early life. Indeed, all of pages 227 to 232 of this little
magazine book are devoted to testimonials establishing his credibility.
But, although Tarbell's Life of Lincoln is an enlargement of this magazine
story, and contains four large volumes, very little of Dr. Grahain's long
statement, covering over five closely printed pages, is preserved. And
among the things that have been suppressed is this: "Some said she (Nancy
Hanks, Thomas Lincoln's first wife) died of heart trouble, from slanders
about her and old Abe Enloe, called Inlow while her Abe, named for the
pioneer Abraham Linkhorn, was still living." Neither Mrs. Hitchcock nor
Miss Tarbell seems to have attached the slightest importance to this
statement. But that is not all. Herndon records the fact (p. 29) that when
he interviewed Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln, Thomas Lincoln's second wife, in
September, 1865, "She declined to say much in answer to my questions about
Nancy Hanks, her predecessor in the Lincoln household, but spoke feelingly
of the latter's daughter and son."

Thus, it will be observed, that most of the testimony on which the stories
concerning Nancy Hanks are based do not rest on the fabrications of his
political enemies, but on the statements and significant silence of
himself, his friends, relatives and biographers.

THE CALHOUN TRADITION. If anywhere in the world Lincoln had enemies, it
was in South Carolina. If anywhere in the world a motive could exist to
ruin his political fortunes, it was among the politicians of the Palmetto
State. It is true that for years there has been an intangible rumor about
John C. Calhoun and Nancy Hanks; but the world must perforce bear witness
that such rumors have met with little or no encouragement from the people
of that State. Yet, during all the years that have flown since early in
the last century, many men and women knew of a story which connected the
name of the Great Nullifier with that of Nancy Hanks, the mother of
Abraham Lincoln. It has lain untold all these years; but in 1911, Mr. D.
J. Knotts of Swansea, S. C., brought it to the light of day. The reason
for this delay was due to the respect that the custodians of the secret
entertained for the wishes of the Calhoun family. For, even now, some of
those to whom the facts had been communicated by Judge Orr and Gen. Burt,
will not permit their names to be used in connection with the story. But
the main facts seem to be well established by other testimony, and
although these article have been before the public since 1910, no one has
as yet attempted their refutation. Abbeville "District," as it was called,
in South Carolina, was the home of John C. Calhoun and of Gen. Armistead
Burt, who married Calhoun's niece. They were fast friends and political
supporters of State Rights. Judge James L. Orr was born in Craytonville,
S. C., May 12, 1822, and was in Congress from 1849 to 1859, having been
speaker of the 35th Congress. He thus began his congressional career the
year after Mr. Lincoln had completed his single term; but John C. Calhoun
was serving then as senator, dying March 31, 1850. Judge Orr was probably
born in the very tavern which had previously been kept by Ann Hanks at
Craytonville, as Orr's father certainly kept the same hostelry during his
life.

THE STORY IS TOLD AT LAST. During 1911 the Columbia State published four
articles on the "Parentage of Lincoln," by D. J. Knotts, of Swansea, S. C.
Briefly stated, his story is to the effect that in 1807, John C. Calhoun
began the practice of law in Abbeville county, where he lived till his
removal to Fort Hill in 1824. Anderson county was not established till
1828; but in 1789 Luke Hanks died and left a will, which was probated in
Abbeville county in October of that year, by which his widow, Ann Hanks, a
relative of Benjamin Harris of Buncombe county, N. C., and John Haynie
were made executors. No deed can be found to land of Luke or Ann Hanks,
but there is a grant to 210 acres to her brother in 1797. However, the
appraisers of the property under Luke Hanks' will valued these 210 acres
at one dollar per acre, and the personal property at $500. Just how long
after Luke's death it was that his widow, Ann Hanks, took charge of a
tavern at the cross roads, called Craytonville and Claytonville, was not
stated; but it is alleged that she kept this tavern in 1807, and for
several years thereafter. This crossroads place is between Anderson,
Abbeville and Pendleton-all flourishing towns at this time. At this tavern
John C. Calhoun stopped in going to and from the courts, and became
involved in a love affair with Ann Hanks' youngest child, Nancy. At this
tavern also stopped Abraham Enloe on his way South from Ocona Lufty with
negroes and stock for sale. With him came as a hireling Thomas Lincoln,
the putative father of the President. Nancy Hanks began to be troublesome
and Mr. Calhoun is said to have induced Thomas Lincoln to take her with
him on his return with Abraham Enloe-paying him $500 to do so. Lincoln is
said to have conducted Nancy to the home of Abraham Enloe, where she
became a member of the family. This is a confirmation of the Enloe
tradition, except that Nancy is said to have gone there from Rutherford
county.

THE PETITION FOR PARTITION. Ann Hanks, who seems to have had a life estate
in the 210 acres of land, must have died about 1838 or 1839, for we find
that Luke Hanks' heirs tried to divide the property without the aid of a
lawyer, making two efforts to that end, but failing in both. In 1842,
however, an Anderson attorney- straightened things out by bringing in
Nancy Hanks as the twelfth child of Luke and Ann Hanks, and the property
was divided into twelve equal shares, it having been alleged that Nancy-
Hanks had left the State and that her whereabouts were unknown. Col. John
Martin became the purchaser of this land, which is in a neighborhood
called Ebenezer, and is within three or four miles of the tavern at
Craytonville.

LINCOLN IS TOLD OF REMARKABLE RESEMBLANCE. In 1849, while John C. Calhoun
and Gen. Burt were attending Congress, young James L. Orr, not yet a
member, but wishing to see the workings of that body over which he was one
day to preside, made a visit to Washington, D. C., and as he had grown up
with the Hanks family near Craytonville, he was at once impressed with the
remarkable resemblance between those Andersen county Hankses and a raw-
boned member from the State of Illinois, by name Abraham Lincoln. He told
Lincoln of the fact, and the latter replied that his mother's name was
Nancy Hanks. Thereupon, it is stated, Orr wanted to go into particulars,
but Lincoln at once became reticent and would not discuss the matter
further. This aroused Orr's suspicions, and on his return to Anderson he
mentioned it to the Hankses of Ebenezer, who having lout recently heard
the almost forgotten story of John C. Calhoun's connection with Nancy and
her disappearance from the State early in the century (in the partition
case) related it to Judge Orr in all its detail. Gen. Burt also became
possessed of the story, but guarded his secret jealously, his wife being
Calhoun's niece. But, when Lincoln was assassinated Judge Orr, who was a
brother inlaw of Mrs. Fannie Marshall, a second cousin of John C. Calhoun,
told her and her husband what lie had learned from the Anderson Hankses:
and in 1866 Gen. Armistead Burt, under the seal of an inviolable secrecy,
told what he knew to a group of lawyers all of whom were his friends. So
inviolably have they kept this secret that even to this day several of
them refuse to allow their names to be mentioned in connection with it.
But the Hankses also told their family physician, Dr. W. C. Brown, the
story of their kinswoman and John C. Calhoun, and he mentioned it to
others. John Hanks, also, is said to have told Dr. Harris that Nancy Hanks
had gone to an uncle in Kentucky when her condition became known at the
Enloe farm; for it seems that a Richard Berry has been located as buying
land in Anderson county in 1803, and as disappearing entirely from the
records of Anderson county thereafter.

Mr. Knotts introduced much other evidence, and has accumulated much
additional testimony since, which he will soon publish in full, giving
book and page of all records and full extracts from all documents.

MINOR MATTERS. Mr. Knotts also states that Dr. V. C. Brown was a brother
of "Joe" Brown, the "War Governor" of Georgia; that Mr. Herndon's first
life of Lincoln contained several statements which Lincoln had made as to
his illegitimacy; but that friends of Lincoln "had tried to recall the
volumes and failed to get a few of them in for destruction"; but that Mr.
Knotts had secured a copy, from which he made (pp. 5 and 6) the following
statement: "Mr. Herndon, says Mr. Weik, his co-laborer in the work, spent
a large amount of time and trouble hunting down this tradition in
Kentucky, and finally found a family in Bourbon county named Inlow, who
stated to him that an older relative, Abraham Inlow, a man of wealth and
influence, induced Thomas Lincoln to assume the paternity of Abraham
Lincoln, whose mother was a nice looking woman of good family named Nancy
Hanks, and that after marriage he removed to Hardin or Washington county,
where this infant was born." Mr. Knotts also makes the point that there
could have been no contemporaneous record of Lincoln's birth, and that he
made the date himself in the family Bible, years after he became a man;
that in that record he nowhere records the fact or the date of his
father's marriage to Nancy Hanks, although he is careful to record his
father's second marriage to Sarah Bush Johnston, and his own marriage to
Mary Todd; also that he speaks of his sister Sarah, when she married Aaron
Grigsby, as the daughter of Thomas Lincoln alone; and when she died, he
again speaks of her as the daughter of Thomas Lincoln and wife of Aaron
Grigsby, but never mentions her as the daughter of Nancy Lincoln. No one
has ever accounted for the mutilation of the family record made by Abraham
Lincoln himself in the family Bible. In every instance in which discredit
might fall on Nancy Hanks, the dates have been carefully obliterated in
some vital point. Surely Lincoln's political enemies did not do this
thing, the doing of which has cast more suspicion on his legitimacy than
all things else combined.

THE RUTHERFORD COUNTY HANKES. When this last tradition was called to the
writer's attention, it was apparent that the only way to discredit it was
to follow the clue which stated that the Nancy Hanks of Abraham Enloe's
household had gone there from Rutherford county. Accordingly, diligent
enquiries were instituted in the counties of Rutherford, Lincoln and
Gaston with the result that no trace could be found of Nancy Hanks in
either of them, or elsewhere in the State. All persons who seemed to know
anything of the Hanks family referred to Mr. L. M. Hoffman of Dallas, N.
C., who wrote, June 2, 1913, to the effect that for several years he had
been working on a genealogical history of all the families who first
settled that section from whom he is descended. Among these were a Hanks
family; and while he obtained 600 manuscript pages concerning all the
other families from which he has descended "the want of time and the
difficulty of getting reliable information has caused me (him) to nearly
close my (his) search. . ." Further correspondence resulted in discovering
little chore than that there once existed a Bible of the Hanks family in
the possession of the Jenkins family; but Mr. Hoffman, who examined and
made extracts from it, found nothing of record regarding Nancy Hanks. He
then gave several discoveries that he made, and add,: "This only
illustrates how I failed to get anything like a connected story of the
Hanks family. There arc: several of the Hanks family here still, but they
know almost nothing of their ancestors. . ." When it is remembered that
there are several Hanks men in Anderson county, S. C., who are said to
resemble Abraham Lincoln in a most striking way, it is evident that the
probabilities are largely that Nancy Hanks went to Abraham Enloe's from
South Carolina rather than from Rutherford county, N.C."

THE TENNESSEE TRADITION. On the farm of G. 'V. Wagner, formerly owned by
Isaac Lincoln-a few miles from Elizabethton and opposite the little
station called Hunter-is a tombstone on which is carved: "Sacred to the
memorv of Isaac Lincoln, who departed this life June 10, 1816, aged about
64 years."(19) In McClure's Early Life of Lincoln, Isaac Lincoln is
mentioned as one of the brothers of Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of
the President (p. 223). Tradition says that to this farm came Thomas
Lincoln after the death of his father in 1788 had, according to Miss
Tarbell (p. 6), turned him "adrift to become a wandering laboring boy
before he had learned to read." Tradition also says that a Nancy Hanks at
one time lived in that neighborhood; but that Thomas was so shiftless that
his Uncle Isaac drove him away, when Nancy disappeared also. The lady
referred to on page 73 of J. H. Cathey's book by Col. Davidson was his
sister, Miss Elvira Davidson, who was a visitor in the home of Felix
Walker, one of whose sons she afterwards married: and it was while there,
according to her statement to her niece, that she had seen Abraham Enloe
call Felix Walker to the gate and talk earnestly with him, and that when
Walker came hack he told Mrs. Walker Abraham Enloe had arranged with him
(Walker) to have Nancy Hanks taken to Tennessee, instead of Kentucky, when
Mrs. Walker remarked that Mrs. Enloe would "be happy again." Mrs. Enloe
and Mrs. Walker were great friends. Elvira Davidson was a young girl at
this time. She first married Joseph Walker and years afterwards was left a
widow. Her second husband was Thomas Gaston, whose descendants are in
Buncombe today.

THE SOUTH CAROLINA RECORD. This record is in the office of the Ordinary,
corresponding to that of probate judge in most States, its number is 964,
and is entitled: "Valentine Davis and wife, applicant, v. Line Hanie and
others." The summons in relief was filed before William McGee, Ordinary of
Anderson District, S. C., December 26, 1842; it relates to the real estate
of Ann Hanks, and is recorded in real estate book, volume 1, p. 59. The
summons is to the "legal heirs and representatives of Ann Hanks, who died
intestate," and requires the parties named therein-among whom is Nancy
Hanks-to appear on the 3d day of April, 1843, and "show cause why the real
estate of Ann Hanks, deceased, situated in said district on waters of
Rocky river, bounding Brig. R. Haney, John Martin and others, should not
be divided or sold, allotting the same as it proceeds among you."
Valentine Davis was appointed and consented to act as the guardian ad item
of the minor heirs named in the summons; a large number of heirs accepted
legal service of the summons; while the Ordinary notes that he "cited"
several others to appear in court, etc. A rule was also issued December
26, 1842, to twenty-seven of the defendants "who reside without the
State," among whom is the name of Nancy Hanks, all of whom are required to
"appear and object to the sale or division of the real estate of Hanks on
or before the third day of April next, or their consent to the same will
be entered of record." There is also in this record an assignment to 'Mary
Hanks by her son James R. Hanks, of Crittenden county, Kentucky, of his
interest "in the real estate of my grandmother Ann Hanks, which came to me
by right of my father, George Hank, which was sold by the Court of
Ordinary in Anderson District, South Carolina, in June, 1843, which claim
or claims I renounce to my said mother Mary during her natural life, from
me, my executors or assigns, so long a; the said 'Mary Hanks shall live,
but at the said Mary's death to revert back me to and my heirs," etc.

This assignment of interest is dated April 1, 1844, and was probated
before James Cruce, justice of the peace of Crittenden county, Ky., by
William Stinson and Reuben Bennett, subscribing witnesses, on the first of
April, 1844.

The record fails to show any receipt from Nancy Hanks for her share in the
proceeds of this real estate, which would seem to indicate that she was
(lead and that her heirs received no actual notice of this proceeding. The
foregoing excerpts have been furnished by Thomas Allen, Esq., of the
Anderson. S. C., bar.

REALITY OF ISAAC LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE. Of the residence of Isaac Lincoln
and Mary (nee Ward) his wife, in what is now Carter county, Tenn., there
can be no doubt, the deed books of that county showing many conveyances to
and from Isaac Lincoln, one of which (B, p. 14) is indexed as from Isaac
"Linkhorn" to John Carter, which bears the early date of March 4, 1777,
and conveys 303 acres on the north side of Doe river known by the name of
the "Flag Pond," for one hundred pounds. The deed, however, is signed
"Isaac Lincoln," not "Linkhorn"; but it was not registered till July 22,
1806. Lincoln and Carter are both described as of "Watauga" simply. Other
coil conveyances that lie owned several lots in what is now Elizabethton,
the county seat of Carter county (B, 18). There is also a conveyance from
Johnson Hampton, with whom Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks arc said
(according to a letter from D. J. Knott, to J. D. Jenkins, 1913 (to have
gone from Abraham Enloe, to Thomas Lincoln's brother's home on Lynn
mountain, five miles above Elizahethton, on Watauga river. But this
conveyance is dated March 13, 1834, and is to Mordeca (sic) Lincoln and
John Berry of the "county of Green and Carter," Term. (Book D, p. 373).
The site of the cabin in which Isaac and Mary lived is still pointed out
at the base of Lynn mountain.

ISAAC AND MARY LINCOLN SLAVEOWNERS. The Will of Isaac Lincoln, dated April
22, 1816, is filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of
Carter county, Tenn., anal, though yellow with age, is in a good state of
preservation. By it he leaves all his property to his wife Mary: and when
her will (filed in the same office) is examined, it is found to bequeath
at least 28 negroes, musing each one separately, and providing for the
support of two of them during life. William Stover, who got the bulk of
her estate, was the son of her sister and Daniel Stover; and Phoebe Crow,
wife of Campbell Crow, to whom she left the negro girl Margaret and her
four children, to wit: Lucy, Mima, Martin and Mahala, was Phoebe Williams,
a niece of Mary Lincoln. Campbell Crow was left "the lower plantation, it
being the one on which he now lives, adjoining the land of Alfred M.
Carter on the west and south and of John Carriger on the east." To
Christian Carriger, Sr., she bequeathed seven negroes; to Mary Lincoln
Carriger, wife of Christian Carriger Sr., she left two negro girls.
Christian Carriger, Sr., had married a sister of Mary Lincoln. Daniel
Stover, J. D. Jenkins' great-grandfather, married another sister of Mary
Lincoln. Daniel Stover's son William had a son Daniel, who married Mary, a
daughter of Andrew Johnson, the successor of Abraham Lincoln in the
Presidency, and he (Johnson) died in her house, a few miles above
Elizabethton, July 31, 1875. P. T. Brummit lives there now. It was not a
part of the Lincoln farm. The house is still visible from the railroad,
the log portion thereof having been torn away; but the room in which
Andrew Johnson died, in the second story of the framed addition to the
original house, still stands. W. Butler Stover, great-grandnephew of Mary
Lincoln, of Jonesboro (R. F. D.), Tenn., still has Mary Lincoln's Bible;
but he wrote (March 6, 1914) that "it gives no dates of births or deaths
or marriages of any of the Lincoln," William Stover was Butler Stover's
grandfather and inherited the farm on which Mary and Isaac Lincoln are
buried, as their tombstones attest, Mary's stating that she died August
27, 1834, "aged about 76 years." It is said that Isaac and Mary Lincoln
had but one child, a boy, who was drowned before reaching manhood. Mrs. H.
M. Folsom of Elizabethton is related to Mordecai Lincoln, while Mrs. W. M.
[thought?] of the same place was a Carriger. Dr. Natt Hyder, who died
twenty-odd years ago, and whose widow still live at Gap Creek, in the
Sixth District, told James D. Jenkins that old people had told him-"Old
Man" Lewis particularly-that Abraham Lincoln was born on the side of Lynn
mountain, and was taken in his mother's arms to Kentucky, going by way of
Stony Fork creek and Bristol. An anonymous writer-supposed to be B. Clay
Middleton-in all article which was published in the Carter County News,
February 13, 1914, says: "Tradition says that it was here, in the
beautiful Watauga Valley, so rich in history, that the young Thomas
Lincoln first met and wooed the gentle Nancy Hanks, whose name was
destined to become immortal through the achievements of her illustrious
son. Tradition further says that for a while before Thomas Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks left for Kentucky they lived for a time together as common law
husband and wife in a little cabin on Lynn mountain, which overlooks the
Watauga valley. I have been informed that old people in that vicinity
still recall the site of what was known as the Tom Lincoln cabin, and
traces of the spot where the cabin stood still remain in the way of stone
foundations, etc." He also cites as "a little singular that the life of
Andrew Johnson in a way should be interwoven with the name of Lincoln,
whom he succeeded as President of the United States. When he married Miss
Eliza McCardle, at Greenville, Tenn., it was Squire Mordecai Lincoln who
performed the ceremony. His daughter Mary married Col. Dan Stover, the
great nephew of Isaac Lincoln."

(1. Statements made to J. P. A. in 1912)

(2. Letter from S. [missing initial] Silver to J. P. A., dated November
18, 1912)

(3. Zebulon settled near French Broad River in Buncombe county, 2 1/2
miles below Asheville, where the National Casket Factory is now, and died
there years ago)

(4. Bedent settled on Beaver Dam, two miles north of Asheville, at what is
now the Way place, where he died in 1839. Letter of Dr. J. S. T. Baird to
J. P. A., December 16, 1912. Dr. Baird died in April, 1913)

(5. Andrew, a brother of Zebulon and Bedent Baird, settled in Burke; but
the Valle Crucis Baird did not Claim descent from him. John Burton was
really the founder of Asheville, as on July 7, 1794, he obtained a grant
for 200 acres covering what is now the center of that city. Condensed from
"Asheville's Centenary". He afterwards moved to Ashe County and in April,
1799, he entered 200 acres near the Virginia line. Deed Book A., p. 339.

(6. Condensed and quoted from T. L. Clingman's "Speechescheq[?] and
Writings," pp. 138, et seq.,)

(7. University Magazine of 1888-89)

8. Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 245)

(9. Letter of C. C. Duckworth to J. P. A., May 1, 1912)

(10. Letter from C. C. Duckworth to J. P. A., May 1, 1912; letter from D.
K. Collins, June 1912; statement of Hon. J. C. Pritchard, June, 1912. In
"The Child That Toileth Not" (p. 448) Pickens county, S. C., is given as
the one in which Redmond held forth twenty years ago, etc)

(11. State v. Hall, 114 N. C., p. 909)
(12. State v. Hall, 115 N. C., p. 811)

(13. For Hon. Z. B. Vance's account of the finding of Prof. Mitchell's
body, sec "Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain," by S. M. Dagger (p.
261). In this appears a list of those who assisted in the search. From
this account it seems that what is now known as Mitchell's Peak was put
down in Cook's Map as Mt. Clingman, and that Prof. Mitchell insisted that
he had measured it in 1844, while Gen. Clingman claimed to have been the
first to measure it.)

(14. "Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction," pp. 130-137-139)
(14. Ibid., p. 86)
(15. Ibid., p. 74)

(16. According to Herndon, Thomas set up house-keeping in Indiana with the
tools and liquor he had recovered from his capsized river boat, p. 17)

(17. From Louisville Courier Journal, of Thursday, November 9, 1911)

(18. "The story of Abraham Lincoln's Mother," by Carolina Hanks Hitchcock,
1889)

(19. Tradition as related by James D. Jenkins, Esq., recorder of
Elizabethton Tenn., who also stated that Isaac Lincoln's wife was Sarah
Stover, of Pennsylvania. Also that President Andrew Johnson had died on
the Isaac Lincoln farm.)