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mcclain77 · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2020 10:35 PM by mcclain77.)

(04-25-2020 06:50 PM)Anita Wrote: Welcome Gene!

Thanks you for sharing some of your Hanks family history. Hope you'll share more.
Do you still live in Illinois?

I did a quick search of Decatur Harristown and here's what topped the list on Google. It's a story in the Herald and Review, Sept. 13, 2016.
https://herald-review.com/news/local/han...34d99.html

Here's a bit of the story. Gene, do you know this house?

"DECATUR -- In 1866, the man who brought Abraham Lincoln to Illinois and later helped label him the “Railsplitter Candidate” built a brick house in Hickory Point Township.

This was John Hanks, and the house he built still stands -- it’s at 3496 Betzer Ave. Other than peeling white paint, a different porch and a general state of disrepair, it doesn’t look much different than when it was erected."

"John Hanks isn’t a household name among nonhistorians, but he was first cousins with Lincoln’s mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln. He not only brought Lincoln to Decatur, but was also a major figure in Macon County history.

The house in question was built in 1866, but John Hanks’ history on the property dates back to 1829. Like Lincoln, Hanks came to Illinois from Indiana: He lived with the Lincolns awhile before moving west to Macon County in 1828. He originally settled near Harristown along the Sangamon River, and sent word to the Lincolns that there was rich farmland under the prairie and to “pull up stakes and come to Illinois.”

John, though, moved to Bull Point -- now called Hickory Point Township, about a half-mile east of Boiling Springs. He built a cabin there and began farming. When the Lincolns arrived in 1830, he helped them build a cabin, smokehouse and barn near Harristown where John had originally settled. John and Lincoln -- then 21 years old -- split the rails used to build the cabin, and later split more than 3,000 logs in the employ of Macon County Sheriff William Warnick, who lived near there."

Hello, Anita and thank you so much for the link to the article! I've added that homesite to a list of gravesites and places of interest that I intend on visiting when I go back to Decatur. All of my family still lives there. Unfortunately, no, I had not known about that home until your article, although, I've probably driven by it a thousand times. The Hickory Point area of Decatur is very rural, but a popular area, as our Hickory Point Mall and only (at one time) movie theatre are located there.

Thank you to the others who've posted responses and research into the family. Late last year, I put together an extensive family tree photo album for my 12-yo daughter, my sister, and my niece's family for Christmas. The album began with Lincoln, branched up and over through his mother to the Hanks matriarch and patriarch and then down to the very youngest of my niece's children. They all thoroughly enjoyed it. Lincoln Lineage is the gift that keeps on giving! Hahaha.

I don't know if any of you have had an opportunity to visit Decatur or Springfield, IL, but when I say it is teeming with Lincoln, it truly is. The Lincoln memorial in Springfield is an inspiring place to visit as well. Although, as previously stated, we schoolchildren had gone there so often on field trips that we undoubtedly took it for granted. The circular interior vaults where Lincoln and his family are housed are very somber, but I particularly enjoyed walking around to the back of the monument to see the small entryway where Lincoln was taken prior to the burial within. And, of course, as is customary, we all HAD to reach way up and rub the nose of the Lincoln statue/bust at the front of the memorial for good luck.

I've only recently (this year) begun collecting my own bit of "Lincolnalia", consisting primarily of New York Heralds and New York Daily Tribune newspapers from the days following the assassination. THAT endeavor took on a depth of its own, as I had to do a lot of unexpected studying and researching in order to ensure that I was not purchasing reprints/reproductions. I've still yet to acquire my "unicorn", which would be the various versions of the Herald from April 15th, 1865. Due to the cost involved, I'll most likely have to find them buried in an estate sale somewhere. Well, I've rambled on far too long. Look forward to hearing from you all again.

Gene

(04-26-2020 08:49 AM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:
(04-25-2020 10:01 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:
(04-25-2020 08:48 PM)Anita Wrote: Thanks Steve. I'd like to see that article by Charles Hanks.
Here you are. Abe must have really ticked Charles Hanks off at some point. If I remember correctly Abe wrote a letter to John recalling the little sod busting he had done with Charles, but not much else, after the nasty letter by Charles was printed. Not positive when Abe wrote to John about Charles, and I'm not finding it readily in my files; however, here is a letter attributed as from John to Abe about the Charles Hanks letter. John didn't write that letter either. I think it was Richard Oglesby who wrote the John Hanks letters. Top of my head for that last bit.

Here is another article with testimonials for the veracity of the Charles Hanks letter.
It only took me three rereads, after I posted the Charles Hanks letter clipping, to notice the article just below it with the header "Land for the Landless" and the discussion of the Homestead Bill voting. This clipping would fit right in for another recent thread. Always glad to help folks out.

That aside, I notice the Charles Hanks letter left out Mr Lincoln's many accomplishments, including his law practice. I don't know if Charles was a jilted Whig, along with those in the testimonials, but there seems to be a foul whiff of political animus present.

Good evening, Steve. Late last year while compiling my family tree content, I, too, had researched a bit of the correspondence between Lincoln and the Hanks'. I say "researched", when all I really did was visit the Library of Congress' website and conduct a keyword search for "Hanks". One of the things that I took away from the letters was the humorous happenstance that once a family member becomes "famous", the family and friends come out of the woodwork asking for favors. One of the letters that I'd found at the LOC was sent from one of the Hanks to then-President Lincoln asking him to intervene on his behalf to be awarded a contract to become a local postal carrier in Illinois. Hanks had been denied the contract, but failed to mention to Lincoln that it was because his bid for the contract came in higher than that of someone else. A letter from Lincoln to the Postmaster General inquires of him as to why Hanks was not awarded the contract, to which the PG responds that the Postal Service always awards the contract to the lowest bidder, who was, in that case, not Hanks.

Of course, there were several other requests from the Hanks' to the President, asking for this person or that to be appointed to this or that, or for someone in or related to the family to be released from Military duty. All in all, though, I found it very funny that even back then, with the fame of the Presidency, family came knocking on Lincoln's door. I would assume that this was despite the fact that many of the Hanks had not seen or kept in contact with Lincoln for quite some time, since some of the LOC letters from Hanks to Lincoln begin something akin to, "Hello, this is so-and-so...do you remember that we are related?" Haha...

Anyway, just wanted to leave my two cents and see what your impressions were of the correspondence. Take care.

Gene