The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

Abraham Lincoln was, of course, born in Kentucky in 1809. He spent most of his adult life in Springfield, Illinois prior to his election to the presidency and is entombed there as well. And he lived the final years of his life in Washington, D.C. where he was assassinated and died. In this year of Lincoln's birth bicentennial, much attention has been focused on the aforementioned locations.

The official bicentennial celebration kicked off last year in Hodgenville, Kentucky, near Lincoln's birthplace. A gala birthday celebration took place this year on February 12 in Springfield, with President Obama in attendance. And Washington, D.C. has been the setting for major exhibitions, the re-dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, and various artistic performances throughout the city to celebrate Lincoln.

Not to be overlooked during this or any year is the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. Located in southern Indiana near the small town of Lincoln City, the Memorial encompasses the area where Abraham Lincoln lived from the time he was a young boy until he grew to adulthood.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Boyhood Memorial for the first time just two weekends ago, on September 19, 2009. I've been to the Birthplace Memorial in Kentucky twice, Springfield twice, and to Washington, D.C. more times than I can remember. So I thought I should visit where Lincoln grew up during this bicentennial year. I'd like to share about my trip with my readers. But first some background.

HISTORY

In 1816, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln moved from Kentucky to Indiana along with their two children, Sarah (9) and little Abraham (7). Various reasons are given for the move away from Kentucky, but the most likely reasons are slavery and problems with land deeds. Lincoln's parents were Baptists and opposed slavery, which was legal in Kentucky, but not in Indiana. And Kentucky used irregular "meets and bounds" for land boundaries, which led to constant disputes and uncertainty whether the land a person inhabited was clearly owned by that person. Indiana used a more regular method of defining boundaries and a land owner could be reasonably sure that deeds were accurate.

Lincoln spent the next 14 years of his life living in this area of Indiana, until 1830 when his father decided that Illinois offered better opportunities for farming. It was in Indiana, though, where Abraham learned many of the values which served him so well as he matured into adulthood and as he ascended to the presidency.

After Lincoln's death in 1865, this area of Indiana became revered both for Lincoln and his mother, Nancy, who died there in 1818. At first the area was known as the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Memorial Park and was operated by the state of Indiana. The memorial building pictured above was constructed in the 1940's. Gradually, supporters of the park pushed for national status and in 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation which created the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. Since then it has been run as a unit of the National Park Service.

The park totals about 200 acres and contains the memorial building, a small graveyard which is the burial site of Lincoln's mother, a "living farm" depicting what frontier life was like in Lincoln's time, a small memorial to the cabin the Lincoln family began building in 1829, and a trail featuring twelve stones which came from various sites related to Lincoln.

I'll cover the major highlights of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in individual entries rather than have one post with a lot of information so as to not lose the attention of my readers. I'll be posting in the coming days about the Memorial Building, Lincoln's mother Nancy, and other Lincoln sites I visited within the park and the surrounding area.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Boyhood Memorial. First of all, it's heavily forested and it's a lovely setting. More importantly, I enjoyed this park far more than I ever have the Birthplace Memorial in Kentucky and, perhaps, even Springfield. Lincoln seemed to me to be more "accessible" at the Boyhood Memorial in some ways than he did at the Birthplace site. While it lacks the sheer historical setting of Springfield as it relates to Lincoln, the Boyhood Memorial also is simpler and helps us to understand the foundations of Lincoln's greatness.

The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is open every day of the year, with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January 1. The admission fee is $3.00 per person.

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Stay Tuned For New Posts

My apologies to my regular (and new) readers for the lack of postings this past month. Job, home, and some other issues have been working against me in recent weeks and I've simply not been up to the task of putting out new stories about Mr. Lincoln.

This is about to change. I have some news about the trip I took this past weekend to southern Indiana for my first visit ever to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln State Park, and a highly interesting archaeological dig at a home associated with Lincoln. I also will be sharing a personal story about my being quoted in a Civil War magazine in an article about Lincoln.

Thanks for your continued support and patience during this extended absence. I'm gratified by the hundreds of hits I receive on the blog every day.

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A Different Kind of Lincoln Statue

Back on July 5, I posted about an Abraham Lincoln "sculpture" made of cheese. Now here is one featuring a young Lincoln, this time carved from butter.

From this article in the Springfield, Illinois State Journal-Register newspaper comes the story about the annual butter cow display at the Illinois State Fair. This year's display also includes Lincoln, yet another honor for his 200th birthday. The sculpture shows Lincoln as legend imagines him: reading while he has a cow to milk and wood to chop. The figure of Lincoln is nearly life-sized and shows him at the approximate age of 29, according to the sculptor, Sharon BuMann who lives in the state of New York. She primarily earns her living from working in bronze sculptures, but she also works on these butter carvings for state fairs in Texas, Kansas and of course in Illinois.

It took Ms. BuMann nine days to create this sculpture, working inside a display case kept at 34-36 degrees. She used up 90 pairs of rubber gloves and had to exit the case every couple of hours to warm up. Very interesting.

Why Lincoln? Because there's no one "butter" than Abe. Couldn't resist.

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Beautiful Lincoln Artwork By Tony Bennett

I found an article online here from the Chicago Sun-Times which tells about a limited edition poster issued by the Ravinia Festival in honor of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. The creator of the poster is multiple Grammy winning singer Tony Bennett, who is also a notable artist. The poster is shown in this photo.

The poster will be sold at the Ravinia gift shop. Proceeds will be divided equally between the festival and a charitable organization ("Exploring The Arts") founded by Bennett and his wife, which supports arts education in the New York City schools.

The artwork was previously featured on Harold Holzer's book "Why Lincoln Matters."

I'm not an artist or art critic by any means, but I think this is beautiful and wanted to share it with my readers.

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Kentucky's Lincoln Birthplace Building Temporarily Closing

Hodgenville, Kentucky is of course close to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. That community is the site of the Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building, which houses a "symbolic" log cabin representing the structure in which Lincoln was born.

According to this article from The News-Enterprise newspaper (Hardin County, Kentucky), the memorial building is going to temporarily close on September 14, 2009 for renovations and will not re-open until Memorial Day 2010. The building is approximately 100 years old and age has taken its toll. Plaster needs replaced and the skylight and windows will be refurbished as well.

The visitors center at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park will remain open.

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The Abraham Lincoln Blog Takes A Break

The Abraham Lincoln Blog is taking a bit of a break over the next couple of weeks. I'm heading to the country of Turkey tomorrow morning so my wife and I can attend the celebration of her father's 90th birthday on Thursday. My wife is originally from that country and her parents still live there.

The image in the photo is taken on the beach where they live on the western coast of Turkey. Yes, it's every bit that beautiful. It will be my 10th trip to the country and I never tire of it, its people, and the amazing history everywhere you look. There are remnants of ancient Rome and Greece, the Hittites, the Byzantines, the Ottoman Empire, and other peoples mentioned in the Bible. It is a fascinating land.

Of course, this being a blog about Abraham Lincoln, I had to find an article about his administration's interaction with the Ottoman Empire, which is here. The U.S. and the Ottoman Empire had very cordial relationships in those days. Today, Turkey remains a staunch and important ally of the U.S. in the unstable Middle East.

The other snippet I know about Lincoln's interaction with the Ottomans is that he sent General Lew Wallace (author of the famous Ben-Hur) as ambassador to Constantinople (now Istanbul). He hoped that the ancient city would inspire Wallace to write another Biblical novel.

Thank you for your patience if I don't update the blog over the next couple of weeks. If major "Abe News" breaks, I'll blog about it as soon as possible. I return in early August after, it is to be hoped, a very relaxing vacation.

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Book Review: "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln"

Perhaps no American in history is surrounded by more mythology than Abraham Lincoln. The "Great Emancipator" who freed the slaves actually freed not a single one. The man who supposedly put himself above politics to serve the good of the country was in reality a masterful politician who was not above playing hardball to get what and where he wanted. The most lingering and powerful myth of all for most Americans might be the belief that Lincoln was adored while he was alive, seen as the savior of the Union. Nothing could be further from the truth.

An important new book has been released in the past few months which reveals just how despised Abraham Lincoln was by his opponents, the press, the intelligentsia, and abolitionists. The book, written by Larry Tagg, is titled "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" with the subtitle of "The Story of America's Most Reviled President." I've had the great pleasure to read the book and have decided to post a review of it here in my blog.

(Before I begin the review, I want to make it clear that Larry Tagg is a Lincoln enthusiast. The book discusses the hatred felt for Lincoln by people in the 1860's. It is not a revisionist history or modern-day "hatchet job" on Lincoln.)

Lincoln was obviously the target of fanatical hatred throughout the South, where he received not a single electoral vote in the election of 1860. He was branded an usurper, a tyrant, a bigot, a king, and a gorilla. He was called ugly, foolish, stupid, and other names not fit to print even by today's standards.

What is more surprising, though, is how much Lincoln was detested by many in the North. The rival Democrat press savaged him from the moment he was nominated. Most Northerners felt this backwoods country lawyer from what was then the frontier was not up to the challenge of leading the country at the most critical point in its history. Abolitionists hated him because of his foot-dragging about slavery. His political rivals targeted him from the beginning as well, his new Secretary of State William Seward attempting a bit of a "coup" against him. The intelligentsia laughed at his appearance, mocked his lack of formal education, and were repulsed by his accent. "Proper society" was shocked by the stories of his crass, even vulgar jokes (at least by the standards of the day), and his awkward manners. Even George B. McClellan, the commanding general of the Army Of The Potomac detested Lincoln, was insubordinate to him, and called him an "idiot" in writing.

"The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" goes into great depth relating how much Lincoln was assailed from the time of his nomination, during the election campaign, and throughout his presidency. The author relates how Lincoln was mocked throughout the country when he was sneaked into Washington in the dead of night prior to his inauguration, thanks to credible threats of violence against him during his journey from Springfield.

Where "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" excels is when the author presents the reasons *why* Lincoln was so hated. It wasn't simply because he was a Republican, for members of his own party detested him. Tagg describes clearly the various reasons, including an inherent distrust of leaders by Americans; a series of weak presidents who preceded Lincoln; the party system which had produced those weak presidents; the spoils system which had caused a serious corruption of politicians (sound familiar?); and of course the great debate over slavery. This analysis over the course of a few chapters is outstanding and helps the reader to understand what Lincoln faced as soon as he was nominated.

In the book's epilogue, Tagg discusses the almost instant deification of Abraham Lincoln after the assassination. Newspaper editors who had hurled the most vile of invectives against Lincoln for the previous 4 1/2 years now sang his praises in print. They followed the theme of "Just when Lincoln was finally getting this thing right, he was killed." Preachers who had attacked him for either not being enough of a Christian or being too slow about slavery, now compared him to Christ, for Lincoln was of course shot on Good Friday just as he was leading his country to the "Promised Land." Even papers in the defeated Confederacy now felt compelled to offer him the kind words in death that he was denied in life. Of course, the Union Armies might have something to do with "winning over" the Southern Press. The epilogue to this book is poignant and even moving.

"The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" is beautifully written, with an almost rhythmic cadence at times. Even though it totals 473 pages, it does not seem overly long, because the story and the writing hold the reader's attention. There is generous use of reprinted cartoons and sketches of the era vilifying Lincoln, including many I had never before seen.

Mr. Tagg obviously did an incredible amount of research for this book, much of it from the original sources. It is thoroughly footnoted and Tagg provides a helpful bibliography for the reader who wishes to learn more about the subject matter.

I would have liked to have seen a little more about the press reactions to The Gettysburg Address, because many editors thought it was undignified, too short, and some didn't bother to even reprint it in entirety. The book discusses this in just a couple of pages. But this observation is only a personal opinion and it is the only quibble I had while reading the book.

In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln." Along the way, I learned a great deal more about this under-represented area of Lincoln history than I previously knew.

The best books on Lincoln (David Donald's "Lincoln" and recent biographies by Michael Burlingame and Ronald White) help us understand the real Lincoln, the man behind the myths, the man who was not universally loved as we all seem to want to believe. And I am very happy to report that "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" fits that description perfectly. This book is important and it deserves a lofty place in the pantheon of Lincoln literature. Well done, Mr. Tagg.

("The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" was published in early 2009 by Savas Beattie LLC. It is available on Amazon.com and at LarryTagg.com plus bookstores nationwide. If you don't see it at your local store, ask them to order it for you. You will not be sorry you did.)



My rating:


5.0 Log Cabins out of 5.0 - An outstanding and important Lincoln work

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