ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Today is Abe's birthday - and my dad's (r.i.p.), too.  Lincoln was born in 1809 in Hodgenville, KY.   That city is now the county seat of LaRue County.  The city covers less than two square miles and the current population is just over 3,000.  Drive south on I-64 from Louisville and keep your eyes open -  you might find it.

Lincoln lived until age seven in a log cabin on the land his parents leased from Knob Creek Farm. His brother, Thomas, died on that farm and Abe almost drowned in Knob Creek.  (Beam distillers now markets a high class bourbon named Knob Creek.)

The Lincolns moved across the Ohio River to Indiana in 1816 - Indiana was a non-slaveholding territory.  In 1830, they moved on to Illinois to elude a milk sickness outbreak along the Ohio River.
Abe's mother had died of milk sickness when he was nine and his big sister, Sarah, took charge of the motherly duties of the household.

He was totally self-educated or home-schooled including his mastery of the law.  He was able to pass the Illinois bar with no formal education.

It is from this background that our most famous and significant President rose. He took great risk upon himself and his political future in holding strong to his principles - taking our country into the Civil War.

Lincoln became president with a widely split vote - the heavily populated North, Northeast and West, with strong anti-slavery sentiments, voted solidly for him - the South did not.   Just six weeks after the election, Southern States began to secede from the Union.  Four months later, the Civil War began.

We are in another instance today of a widely split country.  May we come out of it as well.
😓