Chapter 1: Abe’s Childhood Days

1809–1830

Abe is born in 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, is a farmer, and his more outgoing mother is Nancy Hanks. He is the second of three children, after his older sister, Sarah, who lives to 21, and a younger brother who dies in childbirth.

In 1812 the family moves to southern Indiana where Nancy succumbs to the “milk sickness” when Lincoln is nine years old. Thomas then marries Sarah Bush, who embraces Abe and teaches him to read, to do his numbers, and also to memorize long passages from Shakespeare, the Bible and Aesop’s Fables.

Sarah lives until 1869 and remains close to Lincoln all of her life. But Abe quarrels constantly with his father and at age 22 leaves home for good.