The company which emigrated to Illinois included the families of
Thomas Lincoln, Dennis Hanks--married to one of Lincoln's
step-sisters--and Levi Hall, thirteen persons in all. They sold land,
cattle, and grain, and much of their household goods, and were ready
in March of 1830 for their journey. All the possessions which the
three families had to take with them were packed into a big wagon--the
first one Thomas Lincoln had ever owned, it is said--to which four
oxen were attached, and the caravan started. The weather was still
cold, the streams were swollen, and the roads were muddy, but the
party started out bravely. Inured to hardships, alive to all the new
sights on their route, every day brought them amusement and
adventures, and especially to young Lincoln the journey must have been
of keen interest. He drove the oxen on this trip, he tells us, and,
according to a story current in Gentryville, he succeeded in doing a
fair peddler's business on the route. Captain William Jones, in whose
father's store Lincoln had spent so many hours in discussion and in
story-telling, and for whom he had worked the last winter he was in
Indiana, says that before leaving the State Abraham invested all his
money, some thirty-odd dollars, in notions. Though the country through
which they expected to pass was but sparsely settled, he believed he
could dispose of them. "A set of knives and forks was the largest item
entered on the bill," says Mr. Jones; "the other items were needles,
pins, thread, buttons, and other little domestic necessities. When the
Lincolns reached their new home, near Decatur, Illinois, Abraham wrote
back to my father, stating that he had doubled his money on his
purchases by selling them along the road. Unfortunately we did not
keep that letter, not thinking how highly we would have prized it
years afterwards."
The pioneers were a fortnight on their journey. The route they took we
do not exactly know, though we may suppose that it would be that by
which they would avoid the most watercourses. We know from Mr. H.C.
Whitney that the travellers reached Macon County from the south, for
once when he was in Decatur with Mr. Lincoln the two strolled out for
a walk, and when they came to the court-house, "Lincoln," says Mr.
Whitney, "walked out a few feet in front, and after shifting his
position two or three times, said, as he looked up at the building,
partly to himself and partly to me: 'Here is the exact spot where I
stood by our wagon when we moved from Indiana twenty-six years ago;
this isn't six feet from the exact spot.'... I asked him if he, at
that time, had expected to be a lawyer and practise law in that
court-house; to which he replied: 'No; I didn't know I had sense
enough to be a lawyer then.' He then told me he had frequently
thereafter tried to locate the route by which they had come; and that
he had decided that it was near to the line of the main line of the
Illinois Central Railroad."
[Illustration: LINCOLN, OFFUTT, AND GREEN ON THE FLATBOAT AT NEW
SALEM.
From a painting in the State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois. This
picture is crude and, from a historic point of view, inaccurate. The
celebrated flatboat built by Lincoln and by him piloted to New
Orleans, was a much larger and better craft than the one here
portrayed. The little structure over the dam is meant for the Rutledge
and Cameron mill, but the real mill was a far more pretentious affair.
There was not only a grist-mill, but also a saw-mill which furnished
lumber to the settlers for many miles around. The mill was built in
1829. March 5, 1830, we find John Overstreet appearing before the
County Commissioners' Court at Springfield and averring upon oath
"that he is informed and believes that John Cameron and James Rutledge
have erected a mill-dam on the Sangamon River which obstructs the
navigation of said river;" and the Commissioners issued a notice to
Cameron and Rutledge to alter the dam so as to restore the "safe
navigation" of the river. James M. Rutledge, of Petersburg, a nephew
of the mill-owner, helped build the mill, and says of it: "The mill
was a frame structure, and was solidly built. They used to grind corn
mostly, though some flour was made. At times they would run day and
night. The saw-mill had an old-fashioned upright saw, and stood on the
bank." For a time this mill was operated by Denton Offutt, and was
under the immediate supervision of Lincoln. A few heavy stakes, a part
of the old dam, still show themselves at low water.--_Note prepared by
J. McCan Davis_.]
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S AXE.
This broad-axe is said to have been owned originally by Abram Bales,
of New Salem; and, according to tradition, it was bought from him by
Lincoln. After Lincoln forsook the woods, he sold the axe to one Mr.
Irvin. Mr. L.W. Bishop, of Petersburg, now has the axe, having gotten
it directly from Mr. Irvin. There are a number of affidavits attesting
its genuineness. The axe has evidently seen hard usage, and is now
covered with a thick coat of rust.]