that little attention was paid in that rough destitute life to the raising of Thomas. He grew up simply "a wandering, laboring boy," whose hard circumstances left little ambition

Nannie Shipley, a Quaker girl. From all authentic accounts that can

the marvellous camp-meetings of those days. That the marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks was regarded as an important community event is the testimony

property left her by her father to require a guardian appointed by the court. The uncle with wh

osition, and was well respected in his community. The stories of shiftlessness and shame so long told as truth must

amed Nancy. Twelve years later, after the death of her mother and the marriage of her father to Sarah Bush J

m, bought several years before by Thomas Lincoln, about fourteen miles away. There

tressful destitution, but it was the home of frontiersmen in pioneer days. All testimony agrees that no one suffered and

He built a flatboat in a creek half a mile from his house, put his household goods upon it, and floated down the Rolling Fork on a voyage of discovery to Salt River, an