Lincoln and Berry

[mbgross]

I decided to get all the books listed in Michael Burkhimer's book "100 Essential Lincoln Books" ( I am one short of having all 100). One of the recent books that I got was "Lincoln at New Salem" by Thomas Reep. it is a delightful book that gives a lot of information on all the settlers in New Salem and what happens to them afterwards. when I first got the book I was disappointed that there was much highlighting and notes written inside. I usually hate that, but I noticed that the former owner of the book had written many notes that challenged many of statements in the book. the former owner name was in the book and his name was Zarel Cratic Spears. I thought he was a relative of George Spears of New Salem. (Lincoln once wrote Spears a terse note). Because of the same last name and many of his notes concerned George Spears, I thought he must be related. (I am sure that they are but I couldn't find a direct link.) What I did find out is that he is related to William Berry of "Lincoln and Berry Store" fame. In fact he wrote a book called "Berry and Lincoln: The Store that Winked Out" which is a strong defense of Berry and claims he was not the drunk that everybody claimed. (I have now ordered that book). It was co-written by a son of William Barton. My question for this esteemed body has anybody heard of this defense of Berry? is there any validity to his argument? You can read Spears's book at this link https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=m...=1up&seq=9