who married Aaron Grigsby a few years before, had died in childbirth.
The emigrating family consisted of the Lincolns, John Johnston, Mrs.
Lincoln's son, and her daughters, Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Hanks, with their
husbands.

Two weeks of weary tramping over forest roads and muddy prairie, and
the dangerous fording of streams swollen by the February thaws,
brought the party to John Hanks's place near Decatur. He met them with
a frank and energetic welcome. He had already selected a piece of
ground for them a few miles from his own, and had the logs ready for
their house. They numbered men enough to build without calling in
their neighbors, and immediately put up a cabin on the north fork of
the Sangamon River. The family thus housed and sheltered, one more bit
of filial work remained for Abraham before assuming his virile
independence. With the assistance of John Hanks he plowed fifteen
acres, and split, from the tall walnut-trees of the primeval forest,
enough rails to surround them with a fence. Little did either dream,
while engaged in this work, that the day would come when the
appearance of John Hanks in a public meeting, with two of these rails
on his shoulder, would electrify a State convention, and kindle
throughout the country a contagious and passionate enthusiasm, whose
results would reach to endless generations.




CHAPTER III

ILLINOIS IN 1830