Know all men by these presents that we Thomes of incoln and

Richard

Barry archeld and firmly bound unto his Quellexy the gown of Kentucky for the Just and full sun of mony to the payment of which wide

and truly to be made to the hard

Jovenor

Ms. bind our telers our huis & Frutty and bourally funden.
by these prints fealed with

day of

June.

Jointly severally famly.
feals and dared this 10th
1806 The Condition of the abou

our

Obligation is such that whereas there is amoring bhotly

mowing there be no lawful

if

Marriage then this obligation to be Nord or all to rewar

full force & Virtue in Law

A. Parrot

Thomas Linco fond

Richard Burg
Jarden

deals

FACSIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN.

I do huely wrthy that the following

is a true list of Marriages Solemned by me thesilen Scriber from fund the 28th of Afire 1806 mitte the date how of

Jun 26th 1806 Soined together in the Holy estate of
Matumany aquable to the walls of the 18.
Morms Any & Jiggy Simms,
Berry

Nov 27th 1806 Band tee

March 5th 1800 ton

Mach 27th Benjamin Black & Holly Head #Dard Dyle & Rosanah McMahon 1806 Silas Chamberku & Betsey West From 14th 1806 Schusprenger & Elsebeth Iry man Thomas Lincoln & Mancy Hanks * 18.56 September 23/806 John Cambron & Hanch white artober 2nd 1806 Anthony Lypry & Rugioh Putte arther 23th 15.06 Gran Hording & Hanch Hotti apnil 5th, 1807 Damel Daym & Chrashera Phene July 26th 180€ Bangaru blark & Polly Clark - Han May - 18:00 Hugh Hashim & Bitriy Diyar September 25 The 406 Lohn Grahamet bathrine Toms. given under my hand the 22nd day of april надим

Ifer Head D. M. C. Co

RETURN OF MARRIAGE OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS.

From a tracing of the original, made by Henry Whitney Cleveland. This certificate was discovered about 1885 by W. F. Booker, Esq., Clerk of Washington County, Kentucky.

город

years had brought great improvements, but the majority of
the population still lived in log cabins, so that the home of
Thomas Lincoln was as good as most of his neighbors. Lit-
tle is known of his position in Elizabethtown, though we have
proof that he had credit in the community, for the descend-
ants of two of the early store-keepers still remember seeing
on their grandfathers' account books sundry items charged
to T. Lincoln. Tools and groceries were the chief purchases
he made, though on one of the ledgers a pair of “silk sus-
penders," worth one dollar and fifty cents, was entered. He
not only enjoyed a certain credit with the people of Eliza-
bethtown; he was sufficiently respected by the public authori-
ties to be appointed in 1816 a road surveyor, or, as the office

Monday 18th May 1818:

Ordered that Thomas Lincoln lie oud he is hereby Burveyor of that part of the read Appointed Leading from stown which lies betwand the Bigg Uran to all t the rolling forts in poland of George Redman and that aid the hand of that expirties sols Redman de apist was Lincoln in keepiting acid cloud in repaint

do

FACSIMILE OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THOMAS LINCOLN AS ROAD SURVEYOR.

is known in some localities, supervisor. It was not, to be
sure, a position of great importance, but it proved that he was
considered fit to oversee a body of men at a task of consider-
able value to the community. Indeed, all of the documents
mentioning Thomas Lincoln which have been discovered
show him to have had a much better position in Hardin
county than he has been credited with.

It was at Elizabethtown that the first child of the Lincolns,
a daughter, was born. Soon after this event Thomas Lin-
coln decided to combine farming with his trade, and moved

to the farm he had bought in 1803 on the Big South fork of Nolin creek, in Hardin County, now La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville, and about fourteen miles from Elizabethtown. Here he was living when, on February 12, 1809, his second child, a boy, was born. The little newcomer was called Abraham, after his grandfather—a name which had persisted through many preceding generations in both the Lincoln and Hanks families.

The home into which the child came was the ordinary one of the poorer western pioneer-a one-roomed cabin with a huge outside chimney, a single window, and a rude door. The description of its squalor and wretchedness, which are so familiar, have been overdrawn. Dr. Graham, than whorn there is no better authority on the life of that day, and who knew Thomas Lincoln well, declares energetically that "It is all stuff about Tom Lincoln keeping his wife in an open shed in a winter. The Lincolns had a cow and calf, milk and butter, a good feather bed-for I have slept on it. They had home-woven 'kiverlids,' big and little pots, a loom and wheel. Tom Lincoln was a man and took care of his wife."

The Lincoln home was undoubtedly rude, and in many ways uncomfortable, but it sheltered a happy family, and its poverty affected the new child but little. He grew to be robust and active and soon learned how endless are the delights and interests the country offers to a child. He had several companions. There was his sister Nancy, or Sarah -both names are given her-two years his senior; there was a cousin of his mother's, ten years older, Dennis Friend (commonly called Dennis Hanks), an active and ingenious leader in sports and mischief; and there were the neighbors' boys. One of the latter, Austin Gollaher, lived to be over ninety years of age and to his death related with pride how he played with young Lincoln in the shavings of his

HOUSE NEAR BEECHLAND, KENTUCKY, WHERE THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS WERE MARRIED.

From a photograph in the collection of O. H. Oldroyd, preserved in the house in which Lincoln died, Washington, D. C.