Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

Coordinates: 38°7′6″N 86°59′49″W / 38.11833°N 86.99694°W / 38.11833; -86.99694
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
U.S. National Memorial
Lincoln Farm (replica)
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is located in Indiana
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is located in the United States
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
LocationIN 162, Lincoln City, Indiana, United States
Coordinates38°7′6″N 86°59′49″W / 38.11833°N 86.99694°W / 38.11833; -86.99694
Area200 acres (81 ha)
Built1816
ArchitectBishop, Richard E.; Olmsted, Frederick Law
WebsiteLincoln Boyhood National Memorial
NRHP reference No.66000012[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966
Designated NHLDDecember 19, 1960
Designated NMEMFebruary 19, 1962

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is a

Sarah Lincoln Grigsby was buried in the nearby Little Pigeon Baptist Church cemetery, across the street at Lincoln State Park
.

Included in the park is the Lincoln Living Historical Farm. The Lincoln Boyhood Home was named a

U.S. 231
Route, named the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Parkway in his honor.

Memorial features

Memorial building

The centerpiece of the memorial is a one-story limestone ashlar memorial building completed in 1945 that features five sculpted panels portraying different phases of Lincoln's life.[3] It has a small theater featuring a 16-minute film about Lincoln's life in Indiana. The museum features several exhibits and artifacts related to Lincoln's life, which are located in an adjoining hall. A private gallery displays Lincoln-related artwork, including numerous portraits and lithographs of Lincoln and his family. The park holds an oil portrait of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, done by an artist long after her death. A chapel and meeting hall can be rented for public weddings and other gatherings.

Historical farm

Nearby is the site of the original Lincoln cabin; the

archeological excavation, it is now preserved and protected by a wall.[4]
A very short distance from the original cabin site stands the replica farm house. Park rangers in full period clothing work the 1820s-style farm, making it a living history site. Visitors can talk with them, take classes and learn more about the many activities and items at the farm. The Living Historical Farm is open seasonally, from mid-spring to early fall; it cultivates crops, raises livestock, and uses and displays historic farm implements.

History

Lincoln in Indiana

Memorial Building

Abraham's father

slave
labor.

The family took two weeks in 1816 to move to

Nancy Hanks Lincoln. She succumbed and died on October 5, 1818. She was buried in a gravesite behind the family cabin next to the Lincolns' closest neighbor, Nancy Rusher Brooner. Brooner had also been ill with milk sickness, was nursed by Nancy Lincoln, and died two weeks before on September 18. Nancy's maternal aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Thomas Sparrow, with whom she had grown up, also died of the illness and were buried nearby, at what became known as Pioneer Cemetery. A minister could not reach the frontier settlement until the following spring, when he conducted a funeral service for all of the dead.[7]

Following his mother's death, young Abraham Lincoln continued to work on the farm and was cared for by his older sister

Little Pigeon Creek Primitive Baptist Church, where Thomas served as a trustee and Abraham briefly as a sexton. The church is preserved in the Lincoln State Park.[9]

In November 1819, the area's first school was opened by Andrew Crawford, and at age 10, Abraham attended a school for the first time, at a cost of two dollars per year. He was a student there for two school years, which were three-month intervals held during the winter months when the children were not needed for farming. In 1822 the Lincolns enrolled the boy in a new school taught by James Swaney. As it was more than 4 miles (6.4 km) away and Abraham had to walk there, his attendance was poor. In 1824 he was transferred to another school closer to home, which he attended until age 16, when he ended formal schooling.[9] In January 1826, Abraham's only sister Sarah died during the birth of her first child, who was stillborn. She was buried in the Little Pigeon Creek Primitive Baptist Church cemetery.[7]

As he grew, Abraham began taking outside jobs, often working for twenty-five cents a day clearing land, plowing fields, and building fences. When he was not working, he spent a great deal of time at the James Gentry General Store and the two nearby

grain mills in the small town, where he liked to tell stories and listen to those of older men. He also read widely and borrowed books from anyone who would lend them.[9] During his several trips into the county seat of Rockport, Abraham became acquainted with the lawyers John Pitcher and John Breckenridge, who inspired his interest in the law. Later he followed that profession. During this period, he made his first trip with the businessman Allen Gentry by flatboat down to New Orleans to sell produce and bring home supplies. He earned eight dollars from the trip. It is traditionally believed that this was when he first saw a slave market. From his experiences and the influences of the anti-slavery men in Indiana and locally, Abraham began to form his opinions against slavery.[7] After fourteen years in southern Indiana, in March 1830, Thomas Lincoln moved his family to Central Illinois
.

Making the memorial

The site attracted little attention as a link to Lincoln's past until 1879, during a period of increased activity in the North and the South of memorializing following the

Nancy Hanks, Peter Evans Studebaker (of the South Bend, Indiana Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company
) arranged for a headstone to be placed at the site. For decades, local groups tried to gain recognition for the site as one of historical importance. In 1917 they located the foundation of the cabin and officially marked it on April 28.

In 1927 the Indiana Lincoln Union was formed to raise funds and encourage support for a memorial to recognize Lincoln's years in the Hoosier state. In 1932 the state established the adjacent Lincoln State Park to protect the area and preserve the historic homestead site. The state transferred part of that area to the memorial district, including the grave site of Nancy Lincoln (and what was found to be 29 other graves), now included in what is called Pioneer Cemetery. The Union continued to raise funds to make improvements to the site in the 1930s and 1940s, during the Great Depression and World War II. It completed construction of the Memorial building in 1944. It has five bas-relief panels portraying different periods of Lincoln's life, designed by sculptor Elmer Daniels.[11]

In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped mold much of the memorial's surrounding landscape, including an iconic grass alleyway leading from the memorial center to the pioneer cemetery. In 1934, a CCC crew located and excavated the original hearthstones of the Lincoln family farm. These workers also helped plant more than 22,000 native trees to restore that part of the county to something similar to the wilderness a young Abraham Lincoln would have seen when his family first came to Indiana. Today, high school students continue helping maintain and improve the national park through the Youth Conservation Corps.[12]

In 1962 the Indiana legislature approved donating another 114 acres (46 ha) to the district and the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial was created. The U.S. Congress authorized the national memorial on February 19, 1962, placing it under the National Park Service. The memorial district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, on October 15, 1966. In 1968 the NPS created the Living Historical Farm after "meticulous research" about the period, to help visitors better understand the lives of Lincoln, his family and neighbors during the frontier years in the area.[11]

Gallery

  • Memorial entrance
    Memorial entrance
  • Memorial courtyard
    Memorial courtyard
  • The foundation of the Lincolns' cabin
    The foundation of the Lincolns' cabin
  • Lincoln in Kentucky
    Lincoln in Kentucky
  • Lincoln in Indiana
    Lincoln in Indiana
  • Lincoln in Illinois
    Lincoln in Illinois
  • Lincoln in Washington D.C.
    Lincoln in
    Washington D.C.
  • Lincoln's legacy
    Lincoln's legacy
  • Cabin at the Living Historical Farm
    Cabin at the Living Historical Farm
  • "There I Grew Up...," A History of Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home
    "There I Grew Up...," A History of Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ Shedd, Charles E. (June 16, 1959). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Nancy Hanks Lincoln State Memorial". National Park Service. and Accompanying photos
  3. ^ Arbogast pp. 7.1, 8.2
  4. ^ Arbogast p. 8.2
  5. ^ Funk, p. 40
  6. ^ Funk, p. 41
  7. ^ a b c Funk, p. 43
  8. ^ Funk, p. 44
  9. ^ a b c Funk, p. 42
  10. ^ Eric Foner, Race and Reunion
  11. ^ a b Arbogast p. 8.1
  12. ^ "A labor of history: Youth Conservation Workers spend summer tend to Lincoln's boyhood home". Spencer County Journal Democrat. July 17, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2019.

Sources

External links

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