Do you think that Lincoln's Indiana years had a good or bad effect on Abraham Lincoln's life?
-Cedar Crest Elementary School 6K Homeroom, IN
Lincoln experienced both good and bad things during his 14 years in Indiana. The deaths of his mother and sister were certainly difficult for him and life on the frontier was full of hard work. But those experiences helped shape his personality and character. He was known for his great compassion for others as an adult. That could have been due to the fact that he had personally experienced loss and difficult times and knew what it was like. Learning how to meet the challenges of life on the frontier impressed on him the importance of working hard to achieve your goals. He continued to work hard all of this life and he certainly was able to accomplish some remarkable things.
Mike Capps
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
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Who built Lincoln’s cabin? Is it still there?
-Kevin C., C.H. Decker Elementary School 327, Las Vegas, NV
We think that the Lincolns probably had at least two and maybe as many as three, different cabins during the 14 years they lived in Indiana. In each instance, Thomas built the cabin, perhaps with some assistance from his neighbors. None of these cabins exist any longer. The Cabin Site Memorial, here in the park, marks what we think was the location of the last cabin. Thomas and Abraham began construction on this cabin in 1829 but the family never actually lived in it; Thomas decided to move to Illinois before it was completed. Today, we do have a log cabin but it not original. The National Park Service built it in 1968 as part of the living historical farm. The farm is not meant to be a strict recreation of the Lincoln farm but is representative of the time period. It gives visitors some idea of what life on a frontier farm was like.
Mike Capps
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
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Was Lincoln really as poor as the stories say, when he was a child?
-Ann Hannah, Marlboro Memorial Middle School, Morganville, NJ
Many authors have portrayed the Lincoln family’s time in Indiana as one of hardship and poverty. While life on the frontier did have its share of challenges, especially in the early years, Thomas Lincoln was able to provide a good life for his family. In addition to being a farmer who raised enough of a surplus of crops to sell for cash and to barter, he was a skilled carpenter. That trade gave him an advantage in that he could make additional money by making furniture. The Lincolns were not rich by any standards, but they were probably what we would consider as middle class by today’s standards. By 1827, Thomas owned his property outright and when he decided to move the family to Illinois in 1830, he had 100 hogs and 400-500 bushels of surplus corn to sell. In addition, he had nearly $500 in cash.
Mike Capps
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
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What schools did Lincoln go to? How far did President Lincoln get in school?
-K. Shelton and Alannis L., C.H. Decker Elementary School 327, Las Vegas, NV
“The aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year. He was never in a college or academy as a student. What he has in the way of education he has picked up. After he was twenty-three and he had separated from his father, he studied English grammar – imperfectly of course, but so as to speak and write as well as he now does. He regrets his want of education and does what he can to supply the want.” So wrote Abraham Lincoln on the subject of his education.
It was an education acquired, as he put it, “by littles.” Opportunities for attending school were scarce on the frontier of the early 19th century, since few people were literate enough to teach. Education was, however, something that Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln wanted for their children, so when it was possible to do so, they sent Abraham and Sarah to attend whatever school was available. As a result, Abraham studied under five different schoolmasters during his childhood in Kentucky and Indiana. Each of these sessions lasted approximately two months and spelling, reading, writing, and ciphering to the Rule of Three were taught.
In Kentucky, Abraham “…acquired the alphabet and other rudiments of education” from Zachariah Riney. Samples of Riney’s handwriting indicate that he was able and qualified to teach the three R’s. Neighbor and friend Caleb Hazel was Lincoln’s second schoolmaster. Evidence indicates that he was a trained scribe and a good teacher of English grammar. Hazel possessed many fine books and his teaching contributed much to the education of young Abraham.
In Indiana, where schools were attended chiefly in the winter when the outdoor work was less pressing, Lincoln attended terms of school when he was 11, 14, and 17 years old. In his eleventh year, he studied under Andrew Crawford, a stern, yet capable, teacher. Crawford loaned Abraham a copy of Weem’s Life of Washington, a book that profoundly influenced the young student. During his fourteenth year, Abraham very briefly attended the school taught by James Swaney. Later, at the age of seventeen, Lincoln attended a school taught by Azel W. Dorsey. Dorsey was the best educated of his Indiana teachers and probably was responsible for helping him acquire his excellent grasp of mathematics.
Referring to his educational opportunities in Indiana, Abraham stated, “There were schools, so called, but little qualification was ever required of a teacher. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. When I came of age I did not know very much. Somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three.”
But he did know how to read and books were an important part of his life. In addition to Weem’s book, he studied the pages of Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Robinson Crusoe, The Arabian Nights, and Ramsey’s Life of Washington. For Abraham to get books and read them “…was the main thing.”
Mike Capps
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
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Did Lincoln attend school?
-Elizabeth T., Saint Joan of Arc, Indianapolis, IN
Lincoln occasionally attended informal frontier schools, sometimes called “blab schools” because students learned their lessons by repeating their teachers, for about a year total while he was growing up in southern Indiana. He later wrote about his lack of formal education in an autobiographical sketch (December 20, 1859): “There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.”
Dr. Matthew Pinsker
Dickinson College
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Was Lincoln popular in school?
-Ms. Gamble's 8th grade History Class, Piccowaxen Middle School, Newburg, MD
He never really attended what we would call a school, but he was popular with the few young people he knew.
Brooks Davis
Institute of Learning in Retirement
Northwestern Universit
