Adin Baber on Nancy Hanks

[Steve Whitlock]

(03-18-2021 01:38 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

(09-23-2020 12:41 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Steve,

is this the DNA project that has been mentioned previously? https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Han...ction=news

The Amazon reviews for Hitchcock's book were not that great, two of the seven reviews gave it one star based upon the content.

Rob mentioned in the first post that Tarbell, over the years, tried to distance herself from Hitchock's book. Tarbell later wrote a book "In the Footsteps of the Lincoln's", copyright 1928. It was later retitled "Abraham Lincoln and His Ancestors"
I am currently reading it now, and it has an interesting chapter on Nancy Lincoln.

https://archive.org/details/infootstepso...8/mode/2up

Gene,

I have a newspaper article for a portion of "In the Footsteps of Lincoln" by Ida M. Tarbell; however, it is too large for me to add. I'll ask Roger to include it for discussion, and then comment.

Gene,

Setback! The file is too big for Roger to post as well. So, I'd rather not just comment on something others haven't seen. I'll pause to consider other options, such as making three or four files out of one; not as easy for reading, but the files would be much smaller. On the flip side it may not be worth the hassle for just a few comments. I may just revisit a question for a chapter you once asked me about from Ida's book. To be continued!

[Rob Wick]

I have the entire series as it appeared in the Boston Globe. What date is the one you are trying to upload, Steve?

Best
Rob

[Steve Whitlock]

(03-18-2021 10:00 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  I have the entire series as it appeared in the Boston Globe. What date is the one you are trying to upload, Steve?

Best
Rob

Rob,

What I have is 25 Mar 1923 in The Decatur Herald, "In The Footsteps of Abraham Lincoln", Chapter VII-The Mother of Abraham Lincoln.

Regards,
Steve W.

[Rob Wick]

Steve,

Evidently the Boston Globe either didn't run that chapter, or I somehow missed it. However, I was able to find the article in the Los Angeles Times. I've uploaded it to a website called PDF Host. Here is the link.

Best
Rob

https://pdfhost.io/v/cxWW7OA52_In_The_Fo..._LIpdf.pdf

[Steve Whitlock]

(03-19-2021 12:39 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Steve,

Evidently the Boston Globe either didn't run that chapter, or I somehow missed it. However, I was able to find the article in the Los Angeles Times. I've uploaded it to a website called PDF Host. Here is the link.

Best
Rob

https://pdfhost.io/v/cxWW7OA52_In_The_Fo..._LIpdf.pdf

I just sent the pdf file from your link to Roger. It's only 568 kb, but I'm limited to 1 kb. Perhaps he can post it, and I'll go from there.

[Rob Wick]

It can also be downloaded from the host site.

Best
Rob

[Steve Whitlock]

(03-19-2021 01:20 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

(03-19-2021 12:39 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Steve,

Evidently the Boston Globe either didn't run that chapter, or I somehow missed it. However, I was able to find the article in the Los Angeles Times. I've uploaded it to a website called PDF Host. Here is the link.

Best
Rob

https://pdfhost.io/v/cxWW7OA52_In_The_Fo..._LIpdf.pdf

I just sent the pdf file from your link to Roger. It's only 568 kb, but I'm limited to 1 kb. Perhaps he can post it, and I'll go from there.

Rob,

Thank you for your efforts!! I decided to make a word document out of Chapter VII. In 1923 it was "In The Footsteps of Abraham Lincoln" and in 1924 it became "In The Footsteps of The Lincolns", but the content is the same for Chapter VII with a couple of minor exceptions for a few words.

So, anyone who wants to follow along can either use the newspaper article with a couple of damaged areas, the book by Ida M. Tarbell or the attached document.

Miss Tarbell starts off by going to a Quaker, John Hanks, in PA, who she believes is associated with the Lincolns. That John Hanks m: Sarah Evans, and among his children had a son, Joseph Hanks; however, he was not the Joseph Hanks that m: Ann "Nanny" Lee. That Joseph Hanks was born in North Farnham Parish of Richmond Co., VA, as shown in the NFP Register, with parents John and Catherine (Williams) Hanks. Ann Lee was also in Richmond Co., VA, a daughter of William Lee 1704-1764. She had several siblings, among them Peter and Mark Lee, who are of record in Nelson and Mercer Co., KY, before moving to LA (where Mark Lee served as a witness for the marriage of Charles Hanks, son of Joseph and Ann (Lee) Hanks, as stated on the marriage record).

The John Hanks mentioned by Ida Tarbell seems likely as John Hank, and Myra Hank Rudolph researched that line heavily in an attempt to prove a link to President Lincoln, but there seems to be no verifiable link.

Ida next mentions Abraham Hanks going over the Wilderness Road, but turning back. That's true, but not the whole story. From an Abraham Hanks document by Nancy Royce we show:

"Abraham Hanks traveled with William Calk to Boone’s Fort, Ky. in 1775. Abraham Hanks in Pr. William Co., Va. on 13 March 1775 set out for Ky. from Pr. Wm. Co., Va. with William Calk.11 On the 13th of April 1775 Hanks and Drake, another man with the group, decide to turn back.12 “Hanks and Drake had not gone far back over the Wilderness road...when they met another band of pioneers going to Kentucky. The two Virginians...joined this band and reached Boone’s fort shortly after Colonel Henderson and his followers.”13

13 Lewis H. Kilpatrick, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 7, Issue 4 (March 1921), 363-377, The Journal of William Calk, Kentucky Pioneer, page 370

Skipping ahead a little bit Miss Tarbell raises a question, "Was there another Nancy Hanks recognized anywhere in Kentucky records? She could find none of a proper age, nor has any one else found one of proper age." That last line is not true. There was another Nancy Hanks of proper age, the eldest daughter of Lucy (Hanks) Sparrow. She was the Nancy Hanks who married Thomas Lincoln. Nancy Hanks, dtr of Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee, married Levi Hall 18 Oct 1802 in Green Co., KY, and was not available to marry Thomas Lincoln. Nancy and Levi both died later from the "milk sickness" and were buried by her niece, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and her sister, Elizabeth Hanks Sparrow. It was Elizabeth and her husband, Thomas Sparrow, brother of Henry Sparrow, who had no children and took in Dennis Friend Hanks, the out of wedlock son of Nancy Hanks Hall, as Dennis stated. Dennis also inherited the estate of Thomas and Elizabeth Sparrow after their death.

The letters that Ida Tarbell mentions from Elizabeth (Adams) Hanks and her son, Jacob Mckendree Hanks (4 letters) are in pdf format, so I can't attach them, but they do claim that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the sister of Joseph Hanks Jr, but that isn't true. Jacob's sister, Mrs M. A. Wilson (Martha Ann (Hanks) Wilson) as stated in an earlier post in this thread somehow knew correctly that Joseph Jr said his sisters were Nancy Hall, Polly Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow, but left out Lucy (Hanks) Sparrow for some reason. William Hanks on the other hand knew that Lucy was his sister, and advised John "The Railsplitter" Hanks that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was his first cousin. It's unfortunate that my exact notes for that are gone with my old notes, which it seems I am not going to recover. Also, when aunts Polly Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow were sent for at Abraham Lincoln's birth, they would have been sisters, not aunts, if Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the daughter of Joseph and Ann (Lee) Hanks.

Mrs E. S. Hanks also claims her father, Green Adams, was a 1st cousin of John Quincy Adams, but that too is false. Green Adams married in Hardin Co.., KY to an Enlow. After his death she remarried, and was with Jacob Vertrees Hanks in a census. I have traced the line of Green Adams back several generations, and not any level of cousin, let alone a 1st cousin. For educated people, as was Charlotte Vawter, significant errors were made.

To be clear here, what Ida M. Tarbell wrote concerning the Jacob Vertrees Hanks family is in accordance with the letters she received from people who should have reasonably been expected to know the truth, but were untruthful.

Both John Hanks and Abraham Lincoln mention Lucy Hanks being the mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, so it's pointless for me to keep chewing on that bone. The Jacob Vertrees Hanks descendants, and wife, seem not to have any knowledge of her.

This is already lengthy, but there are 2 more points to make re:

"One thing is certain, no such discussion as this disturbed the peace of the marriage of Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln. That marriage on June 12, 1806, at Beechland, Washington County, Kentucky, was a gay affair, with a great dinner and friends and neighbors from far and wide. The ceremony was performed by one of the best known clergymen of that part of Kentucky in that day, Jesse Head, whose marriage returns, to be seen in the Springfield court house, report the wedding he had celebrated."

The "gay affair" part seems to be the testimony of Dr. C. C. Graham, who mentioned Nancy's guardian, Mr Parrot, the clerk who signed the marriage bond for Thomas and Nancy, as her guardian and the one with all the food and "gay affair", but the reality is that Richard Berry Jr was the guardian, likely because Nancy had no close male kin in attendance, even tho she was of age. If C. C. Graham just saw the marriage record and made up the rest, who was still around to know. He is an unreliable witness.

Also, tho it took awhile, and Charlotte Vawter, to come up with the marriage records in the 1870's for Thomas and Nancy, President Lincoln knew about the marriage in 1864, much sooner. General Samuel Gano "Butcher" Burbridge wrote a couple of letters to Lincoln explaining what Jesse Head and others had advised him of in regard to the marriage of Tom and Nancy.

"I Have Seen a Good Deal of the Back Side of This World": Childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
Michael Burlingame – Abraham Lincoln: A Life
39 Poortown was also known as Beechland. The wedding, performed by the Methodist minister Jesse Head, was held at the cabin of Richard Berry, who served as Nancy’s guardian. The cabin was made of “hewn logs, fine for that day.” Reminiscences of the Rev. Mr. George L. Rogers of Elizabethtown, paraphrased in Stephen G. Burbridge to Abraham Lincoln, Lexington, Kentucky, 8 November 1864, copy, Lincoln Collection, Brown University. At the age of ninety-nine, Christopher C. Graham described the wedding. Ida M. Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln(New York: McClure, 1896), 235-36. His account is suspect. Martha Stephenson to William E. Barton, 14 February 1924, Barton Papers, University of Chicago. A Mrs. Litsey, who was allegedly an eyewitness, gave her account to Charlotte Spear Hobart Vawter, who reported it in a letter which appeared in the Louisville Courier, 20 February 1874. Vawter alleged that Nancy Hanks was a cousin of her grandmother, Sarah Shipley Mitchell, who also lived with the Berrys. That document is reproduced in Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, Nancy Hanks: The Story of Abraham Lincoln’s Mother (New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1899), 72-80. Cf. Lincoln Lore, no. 1418 (11 June 1956).
49 Otis M. Mather, “Thomas Lincoln in Larue County, Kentucky,” talk given 26 June 1937, 2, Mather Papers, Filson Club, Louisville, Kentucky. Mather called Thomas Lincoln “a good, substantial citizen.” Ibid., 9. A parishioner of J. Edward Murr told him that her grandmother was present at Lincoln’s birth. That grandmother “described the evidences of poverty – the rude bedstead, the one room log cabin – the bear skin placed upon the bed.” Murr, “Wilderness Years of Lincoln,” 74. Harvey H. Smith alleged that his great grandmother, Sally Gentry Smith, and her daughter Nancy, then eleven years old, along with an aged slave, were the only persons present at the delivery of Lincoln. Thomas, Smith said, was away on jury duty. H. H. Smith to Esther C. Cushman, Vine Grove, Hardin County, Kentucky, 11 February 1934, Lincoln Collection, Brown University. One unlikely tradition suggests that the baby was named after Abraham Enlow, a neighbor whom Thomas Lincoln asked to fetch a midwife when Nancy was ready to deliver. This story was told by Mrs. Betsy Middleton, who in turn imparted it to Mrs. Mary J. Churchill, a sister of Judge Alfred Mackenzie Brown. Alfred Mackenzie Brown to Reuben T. Durrett, Louisville, Kentucky, 12 May 1886, Durrett Personal Papers, University of Chicago. See also J. L. Nall to W. H. Sweeney, Carthage, Missouri, 2 February 1881, unidentified clipping, copying an undated article from the Lebanon, Kentucky, Standard, ibid. Nancy Hanks told the Rev. Mr. George L. Rogers of Elizabethtown that young Abe was baptized (“sprinkled”) in the traditional Methodist fashion. Stephen G. Burbridge to Abraham Lincoln, Lexington, Kentucky, 8 November 1864, copy, Lincoln Collection, Brown University.
***********************************
That's enough for now.

Steve Whitlock

[Steve Whitlock]

(03-20-2021 02:37 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

(03-19-2021 01:20 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

(03-19-2021 12:39 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Steve,

Evidently the Boston Globe either didn't run that chapter, or I somehow missed it. However, I was able to find the article in the Los Angeles Times. I've uploaded it to a website called PDF Host. Here is the link.

Best
Rob

https://pdfhost.io/v/cxWW7OA52_In_The_Fo..._LIpdf.pdf

I just sent the pdf file from your link to Roger. It's only 568 kb, but I'm limited to 1 kb. Perhaps he can post it, and I'll go from there.

Rob,

Thank you for your efforts!! I decided to make a word document out of Chapter VII. In 1923 it was "In The Footsteps of Abraham Lincoln" and in 1924 it became "In The Footsteps of The Lincolns", but the content is the same for Chapter VII with a couple of minor exceptions for a few words.

So, anyone who wants to follow along can either use the newspaper article with a couple of damaged areas, the book by Ida M. Tarbell or the attached document.

Miss Tarbell starts off by going to a Quaker, John Hanks, in PA, who she believes is associated with the Lincolns. That John Hanks m: Sarah Evans, and among his children had a son, Joseph Hanks; however, he was not the Joseph Hanks that m: Ann "Nanny" Lee. That Joseph Hanks was born in North Farnham Parish of Richmond Co., VA, as shown in the NFP Register, with parents John and Catherine (Williams) Hanks. Ann Lee was also in Richmond Co., VA, a daughter of William Lee 1704-1764. She had several siblings, among them Peter and Mark Lee, who are of record in Nelson and Mercer Co., KY, before moving to LA (where Mark Lee served as a witness for the marriage of Charles Hanks, son of Joseph and Ann (Lee) Hanks, as stated on the marriage record).

The John Hanks mentioned by Ida Tarbell seems likely as John Hank, and Myra Hank Rudolph researched that line heavily in an attempt to prove a link to President Lincoln, but there seems to be no verifiable link.

Ida next mentions Abraham Hanks going over the Wilderness Road, but turning back. That's true, but not the whole story. From an Abraham Hanks document by Nancy Royce we show:

"Abraham Hanks traveled with William Calk to Boone’s Fort, Ky. in 1775. Abraham Hanks in Pr. William Co., Va. on 13 March 1775 set out for Ky. from Pr. Wm. Co., Va. with William Calk.11 On the 13th of April 1775 Hanks and Drake, another man with the group, decide to turn back.12 “Hanks and Drake had not gone far back over the Wilderness road...when they met another band of pioneers going to Kentucky. The two Virginians...joined this band and reached Boone’s fort shortly after Colonel Henderson and his followers.”13

13 Lewis H. Kilpatrick, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 7, Issue 4 (March 1921), 363-377, The Journal of William Calk, Kentucky Pioneer, page 370

Skipping ahead a little bit Miss Tarbell raises a question, "Was there another Nancy Hanks recognized anywhere in Kentucky records? She could find none of a proper age, nor has any one else found one of proper age." That last line is not true. There was another Nancy Hanks of proper age, the eldest daughter of Lucy (Hanks) Sparrow. She was the Nancy Hanks who married Thomas Lincoln. Nancy Hanks, dtr of Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee, married Levi Hall 18 Oct 1802 in Green Co., KY, and was not available to marry Thomas Lincoln. Nancy and Levi both died later from the "milk sickness" and were buried by her niece, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and her sister, Elizabeth Hanks Sparrow. It was Elizabeth and her husband, Thomas Sparrow, brother of Henry Sparrow, who had no children and took in Dennis Friend Hanks, the out of wedlock son of Nancy Hanks Hall, as Dennis stated. Dennis also inherited the estate of Thomas and Elizabeth Sparrow after their death.

The letters that Ida Tarbell mentions from Elizabeth (Adams) Hanks and her son, Jacob Mckendree Hanks (4 letters) are in pdf format, so I can't attach them, but they do claim that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the sister of Joseph Hanks Jr, but that isn't true. Jacob's sister, Mrs M. A. Wilson (Martha Ann (Hanks) Wilson) as stated in an earlier post in this thread somehow knew correctly that Joseph Jr said his sisters were Nancy Hall, Polly Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow, but left out Lucy (Hanks) Sparrow for some reason. William Hanks on the other hand knew that Lucy was his sister, and advised John "The Railsplitter" Hanks that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was his first cousin. It's unfortunate that my exact notes for that are gone with my old notes, which it seems I am not going to recover. Also, when aunts Polly Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow were sent for at Abraham Lincoln's birth, they would have been sisters, not aunts, if Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the daughter of Joseph and Ann (Lee) Hanks.

Mrs E. S. Hanks also claims her father, Green Adams, was a 1st cousin of John Quincy Adams, but that too is false. Green Adams married in Hardin Co.., KY to an Enlow. After his death she remarried, and was with Jacob Vertrees Hanks in a census. I have traced the line of Green Adams back several generations, and not any level of cousin, let alone a 1st cousin. For educated people, as was Charlotte Vawter, significant errors were made.

To be clear here, what Ida M. Tarbell wrote concerning the Jacob Vertrees Hanks family is in accordance with the letters she received from people who should have reasonably been expected to know the truth, but were untruthful.

Both John Hanks and Abraham Lincoln mention Lucy Hanks being the mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, so it's pointless for me to keep chewing on that bone. The Jacob Vertrees Hanks descendants, and wife, seem not to have any knowledge of her.

This is already lengthy, but there are 2 more points to make re:

"One thing is certain, no such discussion as this disturbed the peace of the marriage of Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln. That marriage on June 12, 1806, at Beechland, Washington County, Kentucky, was a gay affair, with a great dinner and friends and neighbors from far and wide. The ceremony was performed by one of the best known clergymen of that part of Kentucky in that day, Jesse Head, whose marriage returns, to be seen in the Springfield court house, report the wedding he had celebrated."

The "gay affair" part seems to be the testimony of Dr. C. C. Graham, who mentioned Nancy's guardian, Mr Parrot, the clerk who signed the marriage bond for Thomas and Nancy, as her guardian and the one with all the food and "gay affair", but the reality is that Richard Berry Jr was the guardian, likely because Nancy had no close male kin in attendance, even tho she was of age. If C. C. Graham just saw the marriage record and made up the rest, who was still around to know. He is an unreliable witness.

Also, tho it took awhile, and Charlotte Vawter, to come up with the marriage records in the 1870's for Thomas and Nancy, President Lincoln knew about the marriage in 1864, much sooner. General Samuel Gano "Butcher" Burbridge wrote a couple of letters to Lincoln explaining what Jesse Head and others had advised him of in regard to the marriage of Tom and Nancy.

"I Have Seen a Good Deal of the Back Side of This World": Childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
Michael Burlingame – Abraham Lincoln: A Life
39 Poortown was also known as Beechland. The wedding, performed by the Methodist minister Jesse Head, was held at the cabin of Richard Berry, who served as Nancy’s guardian. The cabin was made of “hewn logs, fine for that day.” Reminiscences of the Rev. Mr. George L. Rogers of Elizabethtown, paraphrased in Stephen G. Burbridge to Abraham Lincoln, Lexington, Kentucky, 8 November 1864, copy, Lincoln Collection, Brown University. At the age of ninety-nine, Christopher C. Graham described the wedding. Ida M. Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln(New York: McClure, 1896), 235-36. His account is suspect. Martha Stephenson to William E. Barton, 14 February 1924, Barton Papers, University of Chicago. A Mrs. Litsey, who was allegedly an eyewitness, gave her account to Charlotte Spear Hobart Vawter, who reported it in a letter which appeared in the Louisville Courier, 20 February 1874. Vawter alleged that Nancy Hanks was a cousin of her grandmother, Sarah Shipley Mitchell, who also lived with the Berrys. That document is reproduced in Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, Nancy Hanks: The Story of Abraham Lincoln’s Mother (New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1899), 72-80. Cf. Lincoln Lore, no. 1418 (11 June 1956).
49 Otis M. Mather, “Thomas Lincoln in Larue County, Kentucky,” talk given 26 June 1937, 2, Mather Papers, Filson Club, Louisville, Kentucky. Mather called Thomas Lincoln “a good, substantial citizen.” Ibid., 9. A parishioner of J. Edward Murr told him that her grandmother was present at Lincoln’s birth. That grandmother “described the evidences of poverty – the rude bedstead, the one room log cabin – the bear skin placed upon the bed.” Murr, “Wilderness Years of Lincoln,” 74. Harvey H. Smith alleged that his great grandmother, Sally Gentry Smith, and her daughter Nancy, then eleven years old, along with an aged slave, were the only persons present at the delivery of Lincoln. Thomas, Smith said, was away on jury duty. H. H. Smith to Esther C. Cushman, Vine Grove, Hardin County, Kentucky, 11 February 1934, Lincoln Collection, Brown University. One unlikely tradition suggests that the baby was named after Abraham Enlow, a neighbor whom Thomas Lincoln asked to fetch a midwife when Nancy was ready to deliver. This story was told by Mrs. Betsy Middleton, who in turn imparted it to Mrs. Mary J. Churchill, a sister of Judge Alfred Mackenzie Brown. Alfred Mackenzie Brown to Reuben T. Durrett, Louisville, Kentucky, 12 May 1886, Durrett Personal Papers, University of Chicago. See also J. L. Nall to W. H. Sweeney, Carthage, Missouri, 2 February 1881, unidentified clipping, copying an undated article from the Lebanon, Kentucky, Standard, ibid. Nancy Hanks told the Rev. Mr. George L. Rogers of Elizabethtown that young Abe was baptized (“sprinkled”) in the traditional Methodist fashion. Stephen G. Burbridge to Abraham Lincoln, Lexington, Kentucky, 8 November 1864, copy, Lincoln Collection, Brown University.
***********************************
That's enough for now.

Steve Whitlock

In defense of Ida Tarbell I should make a couple of points. I've pointed out that Ida thought Nancy Hanks, dtr of Joseph Hanks and Ann "Nanny" Lee, was Nancy Hanks Lincoln. That was in 1923 and 1924 copyright books. But back in an 1895 & 1896 copyright Ida M. Tarbell wrote "The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln". In this book she correctly wrote:

"Thomas Lincoln learned his trade as carpenter in Elizabethtown, in the shop of one Joseph Hanks. There he met a niece of his employer, Nancy Hanks, whom, when he was twenty-eight years old, he married."

In the same book she mentions Levi Hall and his wife (unnamed) were buried near Nancy Hanks Lincoln in Spencer Co., IN. A little further into the book she mentions Levi Hall as married to a step-sister of Abraham Lincoln. As shown previously Levi Hall was married to Nancy Hanks, the mother of Dennis Hanks. Also in her book Ida found no reason to point out the flaws in Dennis Hanks or William Herndon as sources.

What happened to redirect Ida Tarbell? Caroline Hanks Hitchcock and J. M. Hanks, grandson of Joseph Hanks Jr, happened. J. M. Hanks claimed that "Nancy Sparrow" was the mother of Dennis Hanks (without naming him, only referring to his "irregular origin"). I believe, whatever shortcomings Dennis may have had, that he knew who his mother was, Nancy Hanks Hall.

J. M. Hanks mentions that after Joseph Hanks Sr died young Joseph Jr went to live with a brother in VA, but was ill-treated and left for KY at age 13 to live with his sister, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, for which he was ever grateful. Well, Joseph at age 13 would be about 1794 (his tombstone shows 1781 birth), considerably before Nancy Hanks married Tom Lincoln in 1806. In 1794 Joseph signed over his land, given to him by his father's will, to his brother William Hanks. From a document by Nancy Royce I have:

Joseph Hanks gave a deposition on 8 March 1817 in Breckinridge Co. Ky. on the banks of the Ohio River as a witness in a chancery suit in Nelson Co. between Zachariah Riney and the heirs of Benedict Compton. He declared that sometime in 1799 he spoke with Joseph Nevelt concerning the title to a tract in Nelson Co. willed to him by his father and then in the possession of sd. Nevelt. About 2 yrs. later Nevelt came to him to purchase his right to the land and Hanks sold him his good will for about $15.00. The land had been sold to Joseph Hanks Sr. by John Lee in 1787 and in 1794 “was endorsed by the widow, Anne Hanks and her son Joseph, to Joseph’s older brother William”. It appears from Barton that both the widow Anne and son Joseph Hanks signed the title on 10 Jan 1794."

Continuing on we have:

"In 1805 Joseph Hanks appears on the Hardin County, Ky. tax lists with 300 ac. in Breckinridge Co. KY. (This 300 ac. is part of the 1000 ac. acquired by William Hanks in 1804. According to Barton in his Lineage of Lincoln, “William Hanks sold land (the 150 acres) to Joseph Nevelt taking in exchange treasury warrant #19256 on which 12 June 1784 James Love and Jonathan Colvin had entered 1000 ac. in Grayson Co. near the falls of Rough Creek. William Hanks patented this land on 17 July 1810…”)
25 June 1806 Know all men by these presents, that I William Hanks of Hardin Co. for 200£ current money paid by Joseph Hanks do sell to Joseph Hanks all the land, horses, cows, good household stuff and implements and furniture of all kinds hereinafter mentioned to wit: 700 ac. on Rough Creek, Breckinridge Co., 4 horses one sorrel mare about 14 yrs. old, one gray mare and colt about 8 yrs. old, the colt a bay folded on 8 May last, the other black mare colt 1 yrs. old May 8th. Head of cows viz. two cows and calves, calves 1 yr. old last spring, one two yr. old last spring, 2 beds and bed clothing, 11 head hogs, 13 geese, iron kettle, 2 pots, 1 oven, 2 pewter plates, 2 discs, 1 plow, 2 axes, all of which sd. Goods now in my possession. Recorded 25 June 1806.6
Joseph continues to appear on the tax lists of Hardin Co., KY in 1806 through 1816. In Aug 1808 Hardin Co., Ky. Joseph Hanks is a purchaser at the estate sale of George Watt. Though he is listed on the 1810 tax list, I was unable to find him on the 1810 census."

If born in 1781 he should have appeared in the Tax Lists in 1802, instead of 1805, but the point here is that Joseph Jr has his own property before he married Polly Young in 1810, and wasn't living with Tom and Nancy.

As Ida pointed out in her "Early Llife of Abraham Lincoln", Tom Lincoln was working for Joseph Hanks Jr, who is presumed to have taught him the carpenter trade, BEFORE Tom married Nancy Hanks. With a 1781 birth, Joseph Jr would have been 25 in 1806.

J. M. Hanks also mentions when Abe Lincoln came to visit "Uncle Joe's Jake", Jacob Vertrees Hanks, father of J. M. Hanks. That would imply that Joseph Hanks Jr was Abe's uncle, and Abe's mother was Joseph's sister. I can only presume that uncle is a short form for grand-uncle as well, with Joseph in fact being the uncle of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.