5 page series on Abraham Lincoln Page 1

Report on Abraham Lincoln By Madison Nef

When it comes to Abraham Lincoln, I don’t know where to start. He was such a great man, and did such wonderful things for our country. But even the greatest leaders start as children, so I suppose I’ll start there. He was born on February 12^th of 1809, on the floor of a one room log cabin. His father was Thomas Lincoln, and his mother was Nancy Lincoln.

Nancy brought young Abe and his older sister Sara up until Abe was 9. She died of milk sickness in 1818. After this, his older sister took care of him until his father remarried in 1819. His father remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston, who had 3 children of her own.  Lincoln warmed up to her very quickly, and was very close with her. He called her mother.

As Lincoln got into his pre-teens, he became lazy, and hated the thought of any frontier work at all. As he became a teenager however, he changed his personality and looked for jobs to do continuously. He gained respect for brawn after defeating the leader of a renowned street gang, The Clarys Grove boys in a wrestling match.

As Lincoln’s family was poor, he self taught himself a lot of things. He learned to read, and soon began reading everything and loving it. He loved learning new things, and experimenting. In 1830, an outbreak of milk sickness once again struck the Ohio River, and The Lincoln family packed up bags and moved to Illinois, another slave-free state.

Once he reached Illinois, Lincoln decided it was time to have a life of his own, and set out canoeing down Sangamon River. Lincoln soon arrived in New Salem, where he got a job as a river salesman. He traveled all over selling goods until he got to New Orleans and witnessed slavery in process. He then turned tail and walked all the way home to Illinois.

Abraham’s first love died of typhoid fever shortly after he moved to New Salem. Soon after her death he met Mary Owens, a lady from Kentucky who was visiting her sister. They began dating, but then Mary moved away. Abe agreed to marry her, should she ever return to New Salem. She soon sent him a letter, saying that she no longer wished to date him.

Soon after, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, a lady of wealthy background. The marriage was called off by Lincoln, who was not comfortable. They met again at a party later in the year and were married.  By then, Lincoln was already elected president. The couple had 4 children together: Willie, Tad, Edward, and Robert. Robert, the eldest, was the only one who survived into adulthood.

The Lincoln’s were very loose parents. They let their kids do whatever they wanted. Once, Lincoln was holding a very important meeting, and one of his kids ran in, saying that one of their dolls needed to be officially killed and that they needed the president’s signature. Lincoln let them write out a death sentence on official White House paper, and then signed it himself, all in the middle of a business meeting.