Lincoln and His Father

[RJNorton]

Here's another story:

"There is a tradition that on the occasion of his visit to his father's grave, Lincoln placed at the grave a marker, on which he had cut the initials "T. L." John J. Hall told George E. Mason, in an interview which took place about 1906, the story of Lincoln's last visit as the story was preserved in the Hall family. After arriving at the Hall cabin at Goosenest Prairie, Mr. Hall recalled that:

Before noon Uncle Abe told me to hitch up; that he wanted to go over to the graveyard. Just before we started he said: "John, have you any good, solid joists around here?" I said yes, and got him some white oak timbers about three inches wide and two inches thick. He took one and got the saw and ax and made two grave markers — one for the head and the other for the foot. He then took his knife and cut in the headboard the initials "T. L."

We drove over to the graveyard and he cleared up the grave and drove the posts at the head and foot."

https://archive.org/stream/abrahamlincol...e_djvu.txt