Backyard Adventures

46 PIKE PUBLISHING BACKYARD ADVENTURES 2016 WALKING WITH ABE STORY AND PHOTOS BY FRAN PETIT In 1931, The Indiana Lincoln Union began plan- ning a memorial trail at Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial Park, in Gentryville, just across the road from Lincoln State Park. The group wanted to cre- ate a path to memorialize important benchmarks in Abraham Lincoln's life by placing a token, preferably a stone, along a path dedicated to appreciate the stepping-stones in our 16th President's life. The Trail of Twelve Stones connects the homestead of Abraham Lincoln's family with the pioneer cemetery where Nancy Hanks Lincoln, his mother, is buried. The stones were obtained and placed by the Indiana Lincoln Union in 1933. Beginning east of the Cabin Site Me- morial on the Thomas Lincoln Farm, the stones are arranged in chronologi- cal order at irregular intervals along the trail. The trail is about a half-mile long and begins east of the Cabin Site Memorial. The area feels like an outdoor museum and contains a valuable history lesson. Twelve historic stones are arranged in chronological order at random areas. The trail provides bronze tablets located near each stone that briefly explain the events in Lincoln's life associated with each of the memorial stones. Several shaded areas, complete with bench rests, are located along this easy trial for resting and reflec- tion. STONE 1 "Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, then in Hardin, now in the more recently formed county of Larue, Kentucky." During the first seven years, he lived in Kentucky with his parents, Thomas and Nancy, along with his sister Sarah. This stone was brought here from Lincoln's birth- place, the Sinking Spring Farm, located near Hodgenville, Ky. STONE 2 The second stone is the original Indiana cabin site marker. This stone memorializes young Abra- ham's 14 boyhood years in Indiana. "He (Thomas Lincoln) removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union." The Lincolns moved to the 160 - acre Indiana farm in December 1816 and lived there for 14 years. Between the years 1917 and 1934, this stone monument, donated by the citizens of Spencer County, marked the location of the Lincoln cabin, 100 yards west. STONE 3 As a teenager in Indiana, young Abe worked at many different jobs, including that of clerk in a local store. One store, owned by William Jones, was located three miles west of their home. This stone is from the foundation of that building. STONE 4 This stone is from the founda- tion stones of the Vincennes West- ern Sun newspaper building. Abraham Lincoln's stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, said that "newspapers were had in Indi- ana as early as 1824 and up to 1830 when we moved to Illinois. Abe was a constant reader of them." Sixteen newspapers were pub- lished in Indiana during the mid- 1820s. How many of these papers reached the Lincoln family is not known. Most likely, copies of the Corydon Gazetteer, the Vincennes Western Sun and the New Harmony Gazetteer passed through Lincoln's eager hands. During the family's departure from Indiana to Illinois in March of 1830, the family "passed through Vincennes, Indiana, where they rested for a day." While in Vin- cennes, he visited the Elihu Stout Print Shop and viewed a printing press for the first time. STONE 5 The stone here is one of the foundation stones from the Lincoln-Berry store. "Abraham stopped indefinitely and for the first time, as it were, by himself, at New-Salem." Lincoln lived at New Salem, Ill., from 1831 to 1837, supporting himself as a clerk, mill hand, sol- dier, storekeeper, postmaster and surveyor. He bought a half-interest in a store with William F. Berry in 1832. "They opened as merchants; of course, they did nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt." Lincoln's career as a store owner did not last long. Berry died, leav- ing Lincoln solely responsible for the store's debts. By October 1833, "the store winked out." STONE 6 These bricks are from the child- hood home of Mary Todd, who grew up in Lexington, Ky. By the 1840s, Lincoln was an up-and coming young lawyer in Springfield, Ill. He met a young Kentucky woman, Mary Ann Todd. "In November 1842, he married Mary, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. They have three children, all sons - one born in 1843, Robert, one in 1850, William, and one in 1853, Thomas. They lost one, who was born in 1846, Edward, who died in 1850." STONE 7 This stone was at one time a part of the White House. The Executive Mansion or The White House was the Lincoln family's home from March 1861 until the President's assassination in April of 1865. For the most part, Lincoln must have found White House life difficult. He rose at 7 a.m. and worked for two hours before having breakfast with his family. Lincoln opened his doors to of- ficials and ordinary citizens from 9 a.m. to 1-2 p.m. At 4 p.m., he took a daily carriage ride with his wife. The Lincolns had dinner at 6 p.m. The White House had no telegraph service, so after dinner, Lincoln usually went to the War Depart- ment to read telegrams from the battle front. He often returned to his office and worked until 11 p.m. STONE 8 This stone was a part of the Anderson Cottage, Abraham Lin- coln's "Summer White House," at the National Soldiers Home, three miles from the White House. During the summer and fall of 1862, 1863 and 1864, the Lincoln family lived there to escape the steamy conditions in Washington, D.C. While in residence at the An- derson Cottage in 1862, President Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. STONE 9 This rock was brought here from the Civil War Battlefield at Gettysburg. (President Lincoln did not stand on this stone at Gettysburg. He spoke from a wooden platform specially constructed for the dedi- cation.) On November 19, 1863, Presi- dent Abraham Lincoln spoke brief- ly at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa. His speech, The Gettysburg Address, is known by millions as the greatest example of patriotic expression. STONE 10 This stone was a part of the Old Capitol building in Washington, D.C., from where Lincoln made his historic second inaugural speech on March 4, 1865. In that speech he stated, "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." STONE 11 The eleventh stone is a piece of an original porch pillar from the Peterson House in Washington, D.C., the house where Lincoln died. General U.S. Grant III donated the column section when he was in charge of the house. The pillar was cut from Seneca Creek sandstone quarried near Washing- ton, D.C. On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Wash- ington, D.C. Shortly after, the mor- tally wounded President was taken across the street to the Peterson House, where he died at 7:22 a.m. the next morning. STONE 12 Following the most elaborate and expensive state funeral in our country's history, the body of Abraham Lincoln was transported by railroad to Springfield, Ill., where he was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery on May 4, 1865. Ground was broken in 1869 for the construction of a suitable memorial to Lincoln, four years after the President's death. This, the original Lincoln Tomb, was dedicated on October 15, 1874. Due to uneven settling of the earth under the tomb, a complete reconstruction of the structure was performed between 1899 and again in 1902. This carved stone is called the Culver Stone. J.S. Culver, the contractor for the Lincoln Tomb reconstruction, donated this stone. Culver had this piece of granite carved to serve as a headstone for Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Dedicated on October 1, 1902, the stone marked Nancy's grave until 1933, when it was moved to this location to mark the end of the Trail of Twelve Stones. The headstone in the cemetery had marked Lincoln's mother's grave since 1879. Trail of Twelve Stones at Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

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