The precise date of the opening of Denton Offutt's store is not known.
We only know that on July 8, 1831, the County Commissioners' Court of
Sangamon County granted Offutt a license to retail merchandise at New
Salem; for which he paid five dollars, a fee which supposed him to
have one thousand dollars' worth of goods in stock. When the oxen
and their drivers returned with the goods, the store was opened in a
little log house on the brink of the hill, almost over the river.
[Illustration: THE KIRKHAM'S GRAMMAR USED BY LINCOLN AT NEW
SALEM.--NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.]
The copy of Kirkham's Grammar studied by Lincoln belonged to a man
named Vaner. Some of the biographers say Lincoln borrowed [it,] but
it appears that he became the owner of the book, either by purchase
or through the generosity of Vaner, for it was never returned to the
latter. It is said that Lincoln learned this grammar practically by
heart. "Sometimes," says Herndon, "he would stretch out at full length
on the counter, his head propped up on a stack of calico prints,
studying it; or he would steal away to the shade of some inviting
tree, and there spend hours at a time in a determined effort to fix
in his mind the arbitrary rule that 'adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives
and other adverbs.'" He presented the book to Ann Rutledge [the story
of Ann Rutledge will appear in a future number of the Magazine], and
it has since been one of the treasures of the Rutledge family. After
the death of Ann it was studied by her brother, Robert, and is now
owned by his widow, who resides at Casselton, North Dakota. The title
page of the book appears above. The words, "Ann M. Rutledge is
now learning grammar," were written by Lincoln. The order on James
Rutledge to pay David P. Nelson thirty dollars and signed "A. Lincoln,
for D. Offutt," which is shown above, was pasted upon the front cover
of the book by Robert Rutledge. From a photograph made especially for
MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE.--_J. McCan Davis_.]
The frontier store filled a unique place. Usually it was a "general
store," and on its shelves were found most of the articles needed in a
community of pioneers. But to be a place for the sale of dry goods and
groceries was not its only function; it was a kind of intellectual
and social centre. It was the common meeting-place of the farmers, the
happy refuge of the village loungers. No subject was unknown there.
The _habitués_ of the place were equally at home in talking politics,
religion, or sport. Stories were told, jokes were cracked and laughed
at, and the news contained in the latest newspaper finding its way
into the wilderness was discussed. Such a store was that of Denton
Offutt. Lincoln could hardly have chosen surroundings more favorable
to the highest development of the art of story-telling, and he had not
been there long before his reputation for drollery was established.