Lincoln's Verses About His Old Home

[RJNorton]

(12-20-2014 08:37 AM)Gene C Wrote:  It appears Matthew Gentry tried to harm himself, then turned on his father and mother, and had to be physically restrained. The incident made a lasting impression on Abraham.

A wonderful account of Lincoln's Indiana years is the book on the topic by Louis Warren. Regarding Matthew Gentry, Warren writes:

Apparently Abe was present when his friend was stricken, and saw him attempt to maim himself, fight his father, and attack his mother. Seeing this "fortune-favored child" so horribly struck down shocked and bewildered Abe. It was a grim experience for a young sensitive boy to have undergone. The awful scene seemed to haunt him, and its lasting effect on him cannot be measured. We know that he brooded over it, wondering the meaning behind such a cruel fate.

And later in the book Warren writes:

When he was fifteen, he (Abraham) had witnessed the awful mental collapse of his schoolmate, Matthew Gentry, a demonstration of the "human form with reason fled," "the burning eyeballs . . . maniac laughter," the victim of the "pangs that killed the mind," who "begged, and swore, and wept and prayed." During the months that followed, after Matthew had become less distracted, Abraham would approach the Gentry home to listen to his mournful song and seemed to derive some comfort from the plaintive sound. Even in the early morning, before the other members of his household were awake, Abe would steal out to "drink its strains," when even the "trees with the spell seemed sorrowing angles."