There is an article about Thomas' work here.

I would love to see this exhibit - or at least photos of the items described here. I wonder if there is an exhibit booklet available to the public?

Incredible! I wouldn't have expected such a proper piece of work.

If Thomas made that, that settles the argument that he was a hack carpenter. That's quite a feat to perform with hand tools. I couldn't see the inlay work, but that would require some precision work.

I have always felt that Michael Burlingame's analysis of Thomas Lincoln was overly harsh. There are a number of examples of Thomas's skilled joinery, including cabinets, cupboards, mantlepieces and, in the hired girl's room at the Lincoln home in Springfield, a trunk fashioned by Thomas. Lincoln's father may have had his faults, but he also had plusses that should be acknowledged.

The cabinet housed in Dearborn's Greenfield Village looks very similar- that's why I commented that it didn't look crude to me. It must not have been a five dollar cabinet!

A cabinet made by Thomas is on display in Lincoln City, Indiana. There may be one in Rockport, Indiana as well. His work is still as beautiful today as it was in the early 1800's. In addition to making cabinets in Indiana, Thomas Lincoln worked as a cask maker for a local man who made applejack brandy.
Cask maker, cabinet maker, carpenter, farmer, church officer . . . . . evidence indicates Thomas was a man who worked hard and long hours.

Joe, the quotes on Thomas L.'s carpentry were originally collected and published by Herndon (but obviously Herndon and Burlingame agreed about Thomas as well as about Mary...). Here is another one (same source):
"In 1807, Denton Geohegan of Elizabethtown refused to pay Thomas for hewing timbers for his sawmill; some timbers were too short, others too long. Thomas sued for his fee and won."
I'd also determine a discrepance between these quotes and the picture on the web site, respectively your eye-witness accounts on other exemplars.
I wonder how many of them still exist, also unrecognized and unvalued on some attics...and how much a $ 5 cupboard would be nowadays (surely enough for Thomas to be pleased about).

Donna (Ms McCreary?), you might be right with your last statement, on the other hand everything Thomas L. did obcviously turned out to be(come) unsuccessful and he wasn't able to cash in on his labour and his ventures. A. Lincoln, in later life, repeatedly helped Thomas financially, and it is also said that his father's unsuccessfullness and lack of efforts fueled his will to do things better in his own life - although at the very moment (it's quite early in the morning and my brain still sleeping) I can't remember a quote by A. L. himself on exactly this. (I'd have to look it up or perhaps so. is smarter). What do you think about this?

Is it possible that authors have done disservice to both Lincoln's father and wife in order to play up the obstacles that the man faced in achieving his goals in life?

I agree Laurie. If anyone here has ever done any farming, you know that it's a roll of the dice if you are going to have a decent crop. Between the weather, rain or lack of, insects, animals, and getting your crop to market (if you have one), its a physically hard job. Imagine what it was like 150 years ago with no pesticides or herbicides, no tractor, and only a wagon to transport your crops. Tough way to make a living.

Gene: I'm tired just reading your account of what it was like.

(05-28-2013 08:54 AM)Gene C Wrote:  I agree Laurie. If anyone here has ever done any farming, you know that it's a roll of the dice if you are going to have a decent crop. Between the weather, rain or lack of, insects, animals, and getting your crop to market (if you have one), its a physically hard job. Imagine what it was like 150 years ago with no pesticides or herbicides, no tractor, and only a wagon to transport your crops. Tough way to make a living.

Once in awhile, Lincoln made use of a good flat boat to transport crops. Not only was it a tough way to make a living, at times, it was (and still can be) a dangerous way to make a living.

As a person who knows virtually nothing about Thomas Lincoln and Abe's early life, I am getting the impression from these posts (which have been very educational for me) that Thomas Lincoln was likely a very TIRED man who may have been in a bad humor most of the time because there was so much work to do and not enough time. I can easily see where he wouldn't tolerate a child who tended to put "cerebral" things above manual labor. How many of us would like to snatch iPads from our children's hands today and force them to mow the lawn or help clean out the garage?

In Abe's defense, I can also see him resenting his father's pressures on him (most kids do) when he was an intelligent person who wanted much more in life than working on a farm and making a scratch living for himself. I'm sure that festered with him over the years.

Laurie,
I agree with you about Thomas' opinion on "cerebral things". But I don't believe he was tired, think of all his endeavors and his (and the family's) removals at the frontier line into wilderness in order to start new after a failure. You have to be a bit of a "tumbler" to do so (even if there possibly were few options. But he did!) And as to the bad humor - wasn't fondness for funny stories one of the few traits father and son shared?

(05-30-2013 02:12 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Laurie,
I agree with you about Thomas' opinion on "cerebral things". But I don't believe he was tired, think of all his endeavors and his (and the family's) removals at the frontier line into wilderness in order to start new after a failure. You have to be a bit of a "tumbler" to do so (even if there possibly were few options. But he did!) And as to the bad humor - wasn't fondness for funny stories one of the few traits father and son shared?

Yes, Thomas was well known for telling jokes and spinning tales.