The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln

[Gene C]

This is a collection of stories given during an interval of about 5 years from Ausitn Gollaher, Abraham Lincoln's boyhood friend in Kentucky, to J Rogers Gore when he worked for the local weekly newspaper published in Hogenville, KY. Mr Gollaher died in 1898, and the book was published in 1921.

"I found much pleasure in visiting the home
of Mr. Gollaher, and drawing from him
these tales of the days when he and Lincoln,
children of the wilderness, played in
the woods, and along Knob Creek, upon
the banks of which the boy Austin Gollaher
lived when the Lincolns moved from Cave
Spring Farm to the Knob Creek hills.
Mr. Gollaher was unschooled, but he pos
sessed a keen intellect, and talked interestingly
and intelligently of his and Lincoln's
childliood in LaRue County. In answer to
my questions Mr. Gollaher, little by little,
related the narratives quite free from intentional
embellishment, I feel sure.

In following these pages, however, the
reader is asked to bear in mind that they are
leaves from the loving memory of an old
man. Abraham Lincoln was, in the recollection
of Austin Gollaher, the great event ; he
was at once playmate and prophet, the day's
companion and the man for the ages. JNIr.
Gollaher saw the boy through the splendor
of the man's later years, and while he sought
a scrupulous truth to fact—for he ever made
probity his watchword—it would have been
extraordinary, if not impossible, for his narration
of early youth to escape the coloring
and the glamour of an imperishable name.
It is undoubtedly true that no one, except
the writer, preserved the data from which
this series of stories has been written.

I have, therefore,
dramatized Mr. Gollaher's reminiscences in
order to reconstruct with more realism the
life of the period, and have allowed Abe and
Austin, their friends and neighbors to talk
in character and so, naturally, reveal in
anecdote and experience the early life of the
boy who was to become one of the world's
greatest figures.

All that being said, most of the stories in this book are probably just stories. But some of them are quite interesting, including one about Lincoln and his dog Honey, which could have easily have been the basis for an episode or two from Lassie. The book ends as he leaves with his family on the move to Indiana

The book is on the Internet Archives
https://archive.org/stream/boyhoodofabra...9/mode/2up

I found it an interesting book, has about 314 pages with 40 short chapters with many stories. Many of the stories reflect on Abraham's personality and personal characteristics as a young boy, and life in the early 1800's in rural Kentucky.
It is a reflection of the times in which it was written. Reprinted copies are available, but they are not cheap, and some of them are low quality printing. I am satisfied to have read it on line.