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Report by: Hailey
5th Grade
Bennion Elementary
Taylorsville, Utah
Mrs. Hansen
Hailey
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 Introduction
Boom!!! A shot rang out. Abraham's
grandfather Abraham Lincoln had gotten shot in the head by an
Indian and killed. Years later when Abraham Lincoln was born,
his parents named him after his grandfather because they always
wanted to have a way to remember Abraham's grandfather.
Abraham Lincoln was born on a
Sunday morning on February 12, 1809 in a one room log cabin near
Hodgenville, Kentucky. After he was born his father, Tom, walked
around two miles on a dirt trail to the Sparrow's house and announced,
"Nancy just had a baby boy!". Seven members of the
Sparrow family walked to the little log cabin where Abraham Lincoln
was born. One was Abraham's nine-year old cousin, Dennis Hanks.
He was also adopted by the Sparrow's like Nancy, Abraham's mother.
Dennis Hanks was the first boy
to hold Abraham and also the first boy to see him. He began holding
Abraham in his arms but suddenly Abraham started to cry. Unhappily,
Dennis handed him back to his Aunt yelling, "Aunt, take
him!" Years later he still remembered saying it.
That same cabin where Abraham
Lincoln was born still stands today and is part of the Abraham
Lincoln birthplace monument in Hodgenville, Kentucky. So people
today can go and see that little log cabin where Abraham Lincoln
was born.
When Abraham was only three years
old, his family moved to Knob Creek which was about 15 miles
northeast of his birthplace.
Even though Abraham was a young
one, he still had plenty of chores to do. He'd often pull a plow
with a horse at plowing time wearing only a long shirt. He helped
his father plant corn, potatoes and beans. He also cleaned the
ashes out of the fireplace and he put the wood his father chopped
into a big box.
Near the end of Abraham's stay
in Kentucky, young Abraham hardly ever went to school. During
the winter months of 1815 and 1816 he and his sister, Sarah,
walked about 4 miles each way to a log cabin school called a
"blab" school because the children recited their lessons
out loud. They did not attend that school for very long though
because problems for their family were beginning to pile up.
In 1816 the Lincoln's moved to
Indiana territory. At first Abraham's father went alone on a
flatboat with most of the family's furniture but the boat capsized
and most of the family's furniture and treasures were lost.
When Tom got to where he wanted
to be he took an axe and cut notches in a tree to claim that
it was his land but he knew he would have to pay for it sooner
or later at $1.25 per acre.
Then Tom walked about 100 miles
to get his family and take them there. "We moved from Kentucky
to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, when I was eight."
wrote Abraham years later.
Abraham was still two months short
of his 8th birthday when his family arrived at their new homesite
in southern Indiana in December of 1816.
In 1817 the Sparrow's and Dennis
Hanks (now 19 years old.) went to Indiana like the Lincolns did
and settled nearby in the area known as Pigeon Creek.
Sadness hit the following year.
Many people got sick from a mysterious disease the frontier
people called "milk sickness." Both of Dennis Hank's
parents Tom and Elizabeth Sparrow got sick and died of the disease.
Soon after they died, Abraham's
mother died of the same disease at 34. Abraham's father, Thomas,
then made a coffin out of cherry wood and buried her on a hillside.
For a while, Dennis Hanks moved
in with the Lincolns. Abraham's twelve-year old sister, Sarah,
did her best to sew, cook, and keep the house for the three men.
"The same year Abraham was
kicked in the head by a horse and literally killed for a while."
Abraham said. But he recovered and regained health that year
and a mother.
Abraham's father went back to
Kentucky and married a widow named Sarah Bush Jonston. For weeks
Abraham's father was gone and he and his sister Sarah lived in
the cabin alone. One day four horses and a wagon pulled up to
the door.
"Here's your new mammy."
Thomas told his children as they ran outside to see him.
Traveling with Thomas and Sarah
were Sarah's children: John, Sarah, and Matilda. Now the cabin
was filled with people and three of them were Sarah's. One was
Abraham's sister, Sarah, Abraham's stepmother, Sarah, and Abraham's
stepsister, Sarah.
Most of Abraham's childhood was
spent in the forest working with an axe. He cleared acre after
acre of trees for farming. He cut and split firewood and split
rails to make fences with.
All of the wood chopping made Abraham healthy and strong, but
he was always sad about how he spent his childhood.
Abraham attended school hardly
ever during the winter months in Indiana. His total schooling
throughout his life came about to less than a year.
Although Abraham had very little
time for school, he managed to educate himself.
He began reading books whenever
he could. Even though books were scarce in Indiana. He borrowed
every book he could find.
In early 1828 Abraham heard the
sad news that his only real sister, Sarah, had died during childbirth
a couple of days before her 21st birthday. From that day until
the day he died, Abraham suffered from sudden attacks of depression.
When Abraham was twenty years
old he was fascinated by the law. He also started to attend trials
held in log cabin courthouses that were in Rockport and Boonville.
Eventually his interest led him to being a lawyer. Then that
led him into being a politician.
He did not start in Indiana because
in 1830 his dad and stepmom decided to move, but this time to
Illinois.
Abraham did not know this at the
time, but Illinois would be his home for twenty five years until
it was time to move into the White House. Now that Abraham was
well past his 21st birthday, he took interest in politics.
In 1832 when Abraham was 23, he
announced that he had become a candidate for the Illinois state
legislature.
The town where Abraham lived gave
him 277 our of 300 votes but it wasn't enough though because
the other towns did not know him very well so they did not vote
for him.
In 1834 Abraham decided to run
again for the Illinois state legislature. This time he was easily
elected because he had earlier had a job as a postmaster which
often made him travel around the countryside. While he did that
he shook peoples hands and talked to them and sometimes he even
helped them harvest their crops.
Abraham was then re-elected in
1826, 1838, and 1840 but he wasn't a candidate afterwards.
During those years, the National
debate about the issue of slavery was getting more intense. In
January of 1837, by a vote of 77 to 6, the House of Representatives
agreed that certain states have the right to have slavery.
Abraham Lincoln was one of the
only six people that voted against it.
Abraham was worried about the
people that wanted to stop slavery. Abraham's concerns were proved
correct within a couple of months. Elijah Lovejoy, a publisher
of an abolitionist newspaper, was murdered by an angry group
of people that were opposed to his beliefs. The people did not
just kill him, they also burned down his office and dumped his
printing press into the Mississippi River.
Slavery had started to become
the most important issue of the time. But while Abraham was working
for the Illinois legislature, Abraham had different, more personal
concerns.
Abraham still continued to read
books so he could study about the law.
By 1836 Abraham was already writing wills and deeds for his neighbors.
In March of 1837, the clerk of
the supreme court put Abraham's name on an official list of lawyers
allowed to practice in Illinois.
At the age of 28 Abraham had become
a lawyer as well as a politician. At that time he then decided
to move to Springfield. That same year the capital of Illinois
was moved from Vandalia to Springfield.
In the fall of 1839, twenty year
old Mary Ann Todd, a relative of John Todd Stuart, went to Springfield
to visit her sister and her sister's husband, Ninian Edwards.
Mary had come from a wealthy family that lived in Lexington,
Kentucky. Abraham had see the girl around town. He had also heard
that the girl was very smart and well educated.
Usually Abraham never went to
dances because he felt uncomfortable around women, but he decided
to attend his first formal dance when he heard that Mary Ann
Todd would be there.
At the dance, Abraham finally
got the courage to ask Mary to dance with him in the worst way,
but Mary said that she would.
After the dance Mary told a friend
that Abraham certainly did dance in the worst way. Even though
he was not a really good dancer, there was something about him
that she really liked.
Then in the January of 1840 they
were going to get married but the wedding got called off because
Mary's family thought that Abraham was too "rough".
But about three years later in 1842, they got married anyway.
Soon after they got married, they
had a son named Robert. Then the Lincoln's moved into a house.
They had three more kids: Eddie, Willie and Tod.
In 1846, Abraham was elected as
a United States House of Representative and off he went to Washington,
D.C.
After two years, Abraham got tired
of politics. He then went home to Springfield, Illinois to be
a lawyer again. In 1850 Abraham's son, Eddie, died. Abraham felt
so bad that he worked all the time.
In 1858, Abraham ran for U.S.
Senate. Stephen Douglas also ran for Senate.
Douglas was a little man with
a big voice. He said that each state should decide about slavery.
He thought that the constitution was only for white people.
Abraham and Stephen had seven
debates. Thousands of people came. Stephen won the elections.
But Abraham said, "THE FIGHT MUST GO ON!". In 1860,
the Republicans chose Abraham to run for president. HE WON!!
But the states in the South were
not happy about that and they decided to make their own nation.
Soon eleven states had left the Union. Then on April 12, 1861
the Civil War began.
"The war will not last long"
many people said. "The North has more factories and soldiers."
But the South had better generals and they kept winning the battles
and President Lincoln was getting worried.
Abraham's only good times were
with his family. Then, in 1862, his son Willie died. "It's
soooo hard to have him die!" cried Abraham. More than anything,
Abraham wanted the nation to be ONE country again, not two, but
he knew that would not happen while there was slavery. So on
January 1, 1863, Abraham signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
It said that all slaves would be free forever.
But the war went on and at last
the North won more battles. But thousands and thousands of soldiers
still died. Abraham said his heart felt heavy as lead.
Abraham did not think that the
U.S. would re-elect him again for President. But by November
1864, everyone saw that the North would win the war so they re-elected
Abraham Lincoln as president.
After four years, the Civil War
ended. Over 600,000 people died and cities and farms sat in ruins.
Abraham knew that the North and South would become one nation
again.
But some people hated Abraham
and they wrote him rude letters saying that they would kill him
and Abraham's friends were worried.
On April 14, l865, Abraham and
Mary went to the Ford Theater. They sat with some friends and
a guard stood outside their box watching them. But after awhile
the guard left his post.
A man named John Wilkes Booth
came into the box and shot Abraham Lincoln.
Later Booth was killed in a barn
in Virginia. Some soldiers took Abraham to a nearby home. Five
doctors worked on him all night, but they cold not save him.
Early on April 15, 1865 Abraham
Lincoln died. He was 56 years old.
"He now belongs to the ages."
His friend Edwin Stanton said. Edwin Stanton was right. People
who love freedom will never forget Abraham Lincoln.
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