After seeing the Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln Memorial Cabin and Lincoln Heritage House at Freeman Lake Park in Elizabethtown, KY we headed south on down to the next stops along our Lincoln route. We love Kentucky! It is absolutely gorgeous. This part of our trip took us by corn fields and farms as far as the eye could see. It looked like waves on the ocean.
We headed on down to Hodgenville, KY which is a very small town that takes great pride in its Lincoln connection. There are two statues of Lincoln in the town square along with Kentucky's official Lincoln Museum. We plan to check out the museum and take photos of the statues later this year when we have more time. We also learned about Sinking Spring which is below the hill where Lincoln was born and added it to the Lincoln sites we need to see.
We had two Lincoln sites to see when we arrived: Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home at Knob Creek and Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace National Historical Park. We went to Lincoln's Boyhood Home at Knob Creek first which we enjoyed far more than I expected. It is about 6.5 miles outside of Hodgenville on US-31E. Just as we started to doubt if we had gone the right way along this country road it emerged on our left.
We headed over to the Knob Creek where Abraham Lincoln almost drowned as a boy. His childhood friend, Austin Gollaher, saved him. It was just a trickle when we went and the only sound was the crunch of the rocks beneath our feet. The kids really wanted to collect rocks, but it is prohibited.
We found raspberries growing right next to the creek and imagined Lincoln feasting upon them as a boy. Knob Creek is an ideal place to explore and make believe. It is a child's paradise!
The Lincoln family moved to Knob Creek and leased 30 acres in 1811 when Abraham was only two years old. Sadly the following year, his younger brother, Thomas, died a few days after his birth. Little Thomas is buried somewhere nearby and next time we visit we must go visit his grave.
Abraham sporadically attended an "ABC" school two miles away with his older sister, Sarah. Their mother, Nancy Hanks, taught them to read and write. She read to them from the Bible, Aesop's Fables and Pilgrim's Progress. These books became some of his most beloved reads.
Abraham's father, Thomas Lincoln, and nine of his neighbors were involved in a land title dispute in 1815 over the Knob Creek Valley. After losing a court case involving 300 acres of land at Sinking Springs in the fall of 1816, the Lincoln family moved from Knob Creek to Indiana. Their log cabin was torn down in 1870, but was rebuilt on the original site in 1931. None of the items inside the cabin belonged to the Lincolns, but they are period pieces that show what life would have been like.
A common problem in Kentucky during the early 1800s was land disputes. The property map below shows an example of how property lines were drawn back then. Obviously, with overlapping property lines it would be very difficult to determine who owned the land. Try to find the name of the famous American frontiersman, Daniel Boone.
The kids loved checking out the old well as they filled out their Junior Ranger books. Braxton and Delaney love finding money and were so excited when they found a penny and Knob Creek commemorative coin.
The Lincoln family grew corn and pumpkins, raised vegetables which they ate in the summer and dried in the winter.
The cool breeze felt amazing as we ate lunch and finished the Junior Ranger activity books. Since it was such a gorgeous day we stayed there for quite a while just relaxing. I enjoyed the silent, green beauty and the little ones played snakes to their heart's content. It's the perfect place to play snakes!
We ended up staying much longer than planned so we had to table a visit to Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace National Historical Park until our next visit later this year. All in all it was such a fantastic day!
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