326
The Green Bag
not because of vanity — for he was anything but vain — but because it was a simple source of pleasure to him. Mr. Morgan gives his story of the
finding of the log in a rather concise way, so that we have followed, largely, his own words in the transcription of it. "Richard Cochran and I were to gether when we found the log; it was in March, 1910. We were prying out some
large pieces of wood from a drift that had formed in the Sangamon, at a bend just north of Osbernville, when part of a tree about twelve feet long was released and rose to the surface of the river. I didn't think anything of that until Cochran exclaimed, ‘My God, look at this!’ We both stared at it. The part
bearing the inscription included the fork of the tree, so we sawed off the upper portion where the two limbs branched and then cut the log in two, several
inches below the inscription. “The point where we found the log was less than a mile, I should say, from the old Hanks farm, just over the line in Macon county, where Lincoln lived
for a time.
The part of the log that re
mained was perhaps four or five feet long.
The part having the inscription I took home, intending some time to take it to Springfield and place it in the hands of
someone where it could be kept for a while for people to see.” Morgan, who has lived near Osbem ville, where he was born in 1839, has
no doubt as to the genuineness of the inscription. He thinks the tree lay upon the ground and that Lincoln, who was engaged in cutting rails on the Hanks farm, probably sat upon it while
resting or eating his lunch, and on the day named, March 7, 1832, whiled away
a few moments while he was resting from his rail-splitting, in cutting this inscription. The style of the signature, "A. Lin
coln,’ was the form Lincoln invariably used, and is an indication of its genuine ness, at least. The letters are evenly carved, evidently with a sharp knife, as the letters, after all these years, are an eighth of an inch deep. Lincoln’s name is on the first line and the date a line below it. Robert Warnock, one of the oldest residents in Christian county -— Osbern ville is in Christian county—believes
fully in the genuineness of the inscrip tion. He knew Lincoln when he, War nock, was a lad of nine. Lincoln went to Macon county, to the Hanks farm,
only a few miles from where Osbemville now is, in 1831, and was twenty-three years old when he carved his name in the trunk of the old red-elm tree
now
in
the
Historical
Library at
Springfield.
Lincoln came to Springfield in 1837, five years after his engagement on the Hanks farm alluded to above, and entered upon the study of law and the marvelous
career that was to end in martyrdom. There are still a number of men living in Springfield who knew him even at this early period, and who knew him
intimately in later years. Among this number are John W. Bunn, Dr. Wil liam Jayne and Senator Shelby M. Cullom.
It is quite true, of course, that
Mr. Lincoln was unassuming and of an extremely amiable disposition, but it is utterly a mistaken notion that he
lacked dignity or was wanting in ambi tion. In a recent interview with Mr. Bunn touching this matter, he said: “Those who profess to have been familiar with Mr. Lincoln, and speak of calling him
‘Abe,’ are presuming on ignorance. The people of Springfield knew him only as
‘Mr. Lincoln.’ He was a young law student when he came here in the spring
