Description:

Thomas Lincoln
Coles County, IL, ca. 1839
Abraham Lincoln's Father Owns 80 Acres Land, Original 1839 List in Coles County, Illinois
MD

[THOMAS LINCOLN.] Manuscript Document, List of Taxable Lands in Southwest District of Coles County, Illinois, 1839. 10 pp., 7.75" x 12.25". Pages attached with ribbon at top; soiling on verso of outer sheet; general toning. Ex-King V. Hostick.

This 1839 listing of all taxable lands in the South West district of Coles County, Illinois, records the name of the owner, the section, township, and range of each parcel, and its size in acres. The listing includes two successive entries for Thomas Lincoln: the SE quarter of the NE quarter of Section 16 in Township 11N, Range 8E (40 acres), and the adjacent NE quarter of the SE quarter of Section 16 in Township 11N, Range 8E (40 acres).

The listing also includes an entry for Lincoln's stepbrother John D. Johnston (1810-1854), who owned the NW quarter of the SW quarter of Section 10 in Township 11N, Range 8E (40 acres).

Historical Background
Like other parts of the Northwest Territory, surveyors divided land in Illinois into 36-square-mile townships that were located west of the 2nd Principal Meridian or east or west of the 3rd or 4th Principal Meridian. Townships were also located either north or south of baselines that served as latitudinal reference points for each longitudinal meridian.

Townships in Coles County were generally those 11-14 North of the Centralia baseline and ranges 7-10 East of the 3rd Principal Meridian. Thomas Lincoln's property was in Township 11N, Range 8E.

Thomas Lincoln first moved to Coles County in 1831. He and his second wife lived on four separate farmsteads in Coles County. In 1831, they settled in Buck Grove, Illinois, near some of her relatives in Section 5 of Township 11N, Range 8E, where they remained for three years. They then moved from Section 5 to Section 10 of the same township, to "Walker's Place," where Lincoln purchased forty acres and built a cabin, about three-quarters of a mile south of the modern village of Lerna. In November 1834, Thomas Lincoln purchased 80 acres of land in section 16 called "Plummer's Place." This parcel is likely the two forty-acre taxable lands that appear in this 1839 list.

In March 1840, Thomas Lincoln purchased two 40-acre tracts on Goose Nest Prairie for $400. In December 1840, Thomas Lincoln purchased an adjoining 40 acres from his stepson John D. Johnston for which he paid $50. Less than a year later, Thomas Lincoln was in financial difficulty, and he appealed to his son Abraham Lincoln for assistance. In October 1841, Abraham Lincoln paid his father $200 for the eastern 40 acres and leased it to his father for $1. Thomas Lincoln died there in January 1851, and his widow Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln died there in 1869.

Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851) was born in Virginia and in May 1786 witnessed the murder of his father by Native Americans. His brother Mordecai killed a Native American who was going to capture or kill Thomas. Their widowed mother afterward moved the family to Kentucky. Thomas Lincoln served in the state militia at the age of 19 and in 1802, moved to Hardin County, Kentucky, where he purchased a farm. In June 1806, he married Nancy Hanks (1784-1818), with whom he had two children, including future president Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Thomas Lincoln bought successive farms in Kentucky before moving his family to Indiana in December 1816 to avoid slavery and Kentucky's convoluted land titles. Lincoln purchased land in Indiana and settled in the Little Pigeon Creek community. After his first wife died in October 1818, he married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow from Kentucky, in December 1819. By 1827, he owned 100 acres of land in Indiana. In 1830, he moved his family to Illinois, settling in Coles County in eastern Illinois in 1831, where he remained for the rest of his life.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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