Children's Books

[Gene C]

Regarding the book's comments on Thomas Lincoln and carpentry
" Tom " Lincoln was not a very good carpenter. In a community where the neighbors were as able as he to make the simple furniture and rude buildings they needed, it is not strange that he failed. He had followed no steady work since his father's death had thrown him upon the world, and while he was not discontented or idle, he was restless. So he gave up his trade and undertook farming.

Regarding his exposure to superstition and the supernatural
"It is hard to believe that, in the early days of the "West, men and women had the same strange superstitions that the Puritans had in New England two hundred years earlier. It is true, however, that in the country where Abraham Lincoln lived as a boy, people believed that their lives and fortunes were influenced by visions, and ghosts, and witches. They believed, for instance, that potatoes planted " in the dark of the moon " would suffer blight ; that fences built " in the light of the moon " were bound to fall ; that a bird at the window foretold death ; that the breath of a horse in a child's face would give it the whooping cough ; that work could not be commenced with safety on Friday. Women supposed to be witches were driven from the neighborhood. The men told their dreams to one another and were guided by them, as men were in the days of Pharaoh of old. From the influence of these superstitions Abraham Lincoln never wholly escaped, and in the experiences of his after-life we find evidence of his belief in the supernatural.

Lincoln, Jack Armstrong and the Clary Grove gang
"Jack Armstrong, the champion of the near-by settlement, Clary's Grove, had heard Mr. Offutt's boasts of young Lincoln's prowess until he could stand it no longer. He challenged Lincoln to a wrestling-match, which a touch of foul play converted into a list-fight, and in which the champion of Clary's Grove bade fair to be defeated. Before he had finished, Lincoln had to whip the entire gang, one at a time, but he did it so thoroughly and with such good humor that he won their hearty friendship and kept it ever afterward."