Abe Lincoln and His Ancestors by Ida Tarbell

[Gene C]

One of the interesting things in the Tarbell book had to do with the Lincoln family's move to Indiana from KY.
I had the impression that once they made it to Indiana, they basically had to cut their own path or road from where they landed

'Two days, at the very least, it must have taken to reach the knoll which the father had selected several weeks earlier; no road
whatever existed, and only a trail, Blazed out part of the way By a Man By the [name] of Jesse Hoskins,' served to guide
them. *The Ballance of the way . . . Lincoln had to Cut his way,' writes Dennis Hanks. So Thomas felled trees, cut underbrush and vines and made openings through which the oxen could drag the sled or wagon forward. Over stumps and rocks, across gullies, bogs, mounds, and soggy ground, they crept on- ward and, finally, reached the spot 'Rite in the Brush,' where Abraham Lincoln was to spend the next fourteen years." (Abe Lincoln in Indiana by Albert Beverage, p.13 Dennis Hanks to William Herndon in 1866)
https://archive.org/details/abelincolnin...0/mode/2up

Well maybe, and maybe not. This is what Ida Tarbell has to say
"A more picturesque and entertaining story-teller could not
have been found than Dennis Hanks, and his satisfaction in
having a fresh audience in Mr. Herndon is evident in all the
testimony of which we have notes, either in his or in Mr.
Herndon's hand. He delighted in remembering things as long as anybody would listen to him, and his own opinion of
the value of his recollections was magnificent. (page 85)

"The country through which they
traveled was not a jungle, as it has often been described.
Southwestern Indiana had long been the home of Indian
tribes and there were cleared spaces left by them. The forests
had been kept largely free of underbrush by occasional prairie
fires; that is, it was a fairly open land; there were trails, too, and the beginning of roads. Thomas Lincoln was by no means the first settler in this part of Indiana."
(page 118)

On pages 120-121 is a interesting account of their first home in Indiana, the half face camp. https://archive.org/details/infootstepso...e+Lincolns

Hope to visit the Lincoln Boyhood National Park this spring and hopefully one of the park rangers can share their views.