Lincoln Trail Homestead State Memorial facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial |
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 Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial
Location in Illinois
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| Location | Macon County, Illinois, USA |
| Nearest city | Harristown, Illinois |
| Area | 162 acres (66 ha) |
| Established | 1938 |
| Governing body | Illinois Department of Natural Resources |
The Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial is a 162-acre state park. It is located on the Sangamon River in Macon County. The park is near Harristown, Illinois, in the United States.
Contents
Abraham Lincoln's First Illinois Home
This state park is believed to be where the family of Thomas Lincoln lived. They had a "homestead," which is a family farm and home. Thomas was the father of Abraham Lincoln. About 12 family members, including young Abraham, lived here. They stayed from March 1830 to March 1831.
The Lincolns moved here from Indiana in March 1830. This spot was west of Decatur, Illinois. They built an 18-by-18-foot log cabin using local logs. It was here that Abraham split logs to make fences for his father's 10-acre field. He also worked for other farmers, splitting logs for their fences. This work earned him the nickname Rail Splitter later in his life. These Split-rail fences helped farmers keep their animals in or out of crop fields.
Challenges for the Lincoln Family
Life at this homestead was very hard. The family's corn crop did not grow well. This was partly because they planted it directly into the tough grass of the tallgrass prairie. Many family members also got very sick with malaria. This illness was common in the wet areas of Illinois.
Then came the winter of 1830–1831, which pioneers called the Winter of the Deep Snow. It was a very harsh winter. Temperatures stayed below zero for long periods. The snow piled up to about 6 feet deep. The Lincoln family faced serious hunger during this time. One story says that Abraham rode to nearby homes to find food for his family.
Why the Lincolns Moved Again
The difficult winter and bad living conditions caused the Lincoln family to split up. In March 1831, Thomas Lincoln and his wife, Sarah Bush Lincoln, moved. Sarah was Abraham's stepmother. They moved southeast to Coles County. They later built a new farm at what is now the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. This site is near Charleston, Illinois.
Young Abraham found a job as a flatboatman on the Sangamon River. He then found a new home for himself in New Salem, Illinois. You can learn more about this time in Abraham Lincoln's early life and career.
What Happened Next at the Homestead Site
The Lincoln cabin was left behind. It was later used as a schoolhouse and a farm building. People did not pay much attention to it until 1865. Then, it was taken apart and moved for public display. It traveled to Chicago, then to Boston Common, and finally to a private museum in New York City. This museum was run by the famous showman P. T. Barnum. After that, the cabin was lost, and no one knows what happened to it.
The abandoned Lincoln farm was later settled by the Whitley family. They lived there for many years. The Whiteleys built a dam across the Sangamon River. This dam powered a small flour mill.
The Park Today
The state memorial was created in 1938 on the old Whitley site. Today, it is a park and picnic area for people in the Decatur, Illinois area. The park has many large, old trees, including black walnut trees. You can also find the Whitley family's pioneer cemetery there. The remains of their flour mill and dam on the Sangamon River are still visible. The park was officially opened in 1957.
Even today, archeologists are still looking for the exact spot of the Lincoln family's cabin from 1830–1831. The cabin might have been inside or just outside the park's current boundaries.
Abraham Lincoln's Own Words
Abraham Lincoln himself described his life at this homestead. He wrote about it in 1860 for a campaign biography. This was a book about his life, written to help him get elected. Here is what he said:
On March 1, 1830, Abraham had just turned 21 years old. His father and family, along with his stepmother's two daughters and their husbands, left their old home in Indiana. They came to Illinois. They traveled in wagons pulled by ox-teams, and Abraham drove one of the teams. They arrived in Macon County that same month. His father and family settled a new place on the north side of the Sangamon River. It was where the forest met the prairie, about ten miles (16 km) west of Decatur. Here they built a log cabin. They moved into it and made enough rails to fence ten acres of land. They fenced and prepared the ground, and grew a crop of corn that same year. These are, or are thought to be, the rails that people are talking so much about now. But these were not the first or only rails Abraham ever made.
