ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- CHAPTER 2

ABE IS BORN      When Thomas Lincoln was twenty six, he was married to Nancy Hanks, niece of Joseph Hanks, a carpenter of Elizabeth town, Kentucky. Neither the husband nor the wife was educated. They could hardly write their own names.      Three children were born to them. Sarah was the eldest, Abraham the next, and Thomas the third. Thomas died in infancy. Abraham was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin on a barren farm in the backwoods of Kentucky.      At an early age Abraham learned to run errands, and do small jobs. His father occasionally allowed him and his sister to attend classes in a log schoolhouse some two miles distant from home.      When he was seven years old, the Lincolns crossed the Ohio River on a ferry near the village of Troy, and, making their way 16 miles farther north through thick woods, settled near Pigeon Creek in Spencer County.      Abraham being fond of study, read the Bible, the Catechism and the spelling book by the light if the fire and practised            penmanship with a stick. His log cabin was worse than the poorest cottage in these days.      In the mean time a fearful disease broke out among the settlers. It was called  milk desease. Caws that gave the milk, and the people who drank it, became sick, suffered and died. Abraham's mother died of this malady. Without a woman to manage household matters, the Lincoln lived in miserable uncleanliness.      During the first few years of Abe's residence in Indiana, there came to that region a number of eager preachers.    Among them were Jeremiah Cash, John Richardson and Young Lamar. They preached in the cabins of the settlers, and in the open when there were many listeners. They were good, powerful speakers of English, and their sermons left a lasting impression on the boy's mind.