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IndianaOct 27, 2007
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Oct 27 51580 8:12
We are headed for Indiana and more of Lincoln's boyhood homes. As we across the Ohio River into Indiana at Rockport on the beautiful new bridge the reactor is belching smoke and a huge coal barge is tied up along shore.
Our highway taxes are at work here; a new highway is being built. Our new road just ran out and we have to detour back to the old road. My GPS had us out in a pasture.
We have traded the Kentucky hills for Indiana farmland. This country road is bumpy and goes up and down small hills.
Lincoln Boyhood Home National Memorial, Indiana. In 1816 Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln packed up everything in Kentucky and moved with their two children to the new frontier of southern Indiana. They settled on a 160-acre claim near the Little Pigeon Creek in December. Here they quickly built a small cabin and began carving out a new life in this "wild region".
In much of the work Abraham helped his father and as he grew older he increased his skill with the plow and especially the axe. He later recalled how he "was almost constantly handling that most useful instrument."
In the fall 1818 milk sickness struck many of their neighbors and Nancy helped nursed them. The White Snakeroot plant causes Milk Sickness. When cows eat the plant the poison is passed through the milk to humans. She too was taken ill and soon died. Abraham and his father fashioned the casket for her burial on the farm.
The next year Abe's father Thomas traveled back to Kentucky and married Sara Bush Johnston, a widow he had known for many years. She brought back to the household three children, furniture and several books.
Sarah was a kind and loving stepmother who continued to urge the children to learn and further their education in reading, writing and arithmetic. Abraham received little formal education, as he was needed on the farm.
As Abraham grew he honed his debating skills at the local store and began to earn money by splitting logs for the riverboats. In 1828 Abe piloted a flatboat down the Mississippi to New Orleans and while there he witnessed a slave auction which greatly disturbed him. This year his sister Sara died during childbirth.
In 1830 the family again moved to Illinois where Abe spent his next 30 years.
The Memorial building, constructed in the 1940's, represents as era when large edifices were a popular way to express reverence for national heroes and presidents.
The memorial has five bas-relief sculptures representing the different phases in Lincoln's life, his time in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Washington and his death. The site also contains a cabin site memorial, a cemetery where his mother and sister are buried and a restored living history homestead with costumed interpreters.
Observation: every 10 miles are so are large towers with sirens on them to warm of tornados. We are in the area where two years ago they had a devastating tornado, which killed 21 people around the 1st part of Nov.
We bite the bullet and got fuel $3.12 a gallon. At these prices we will be lucky to make it home without finding a job first.
Our part for this evening is a Passport America Park, $11.00 for full hookups and WiFi. We are just north of Vincennes, Indiana.
We get set up and then head into town to visit the George Rogers Clark Memorial.
George Rogers Clark was the older brother of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame but was also important in his own right.
Around 1776 settlers began arriving in the Ohio valley. The local Indian tribes with support from the British began raids against the settlers. In order to survive the settlers began adopting Indian warfare tactics and became formidable fighters.
Clark has been born in Virginia in 1752 and migrated to the Kentucky territory in 1772. By 1775 he had gained a position of leadership in this area.
As the Revolutionary War began and the British were holding Detroit and turning the local Indian tribes against the settlers, Clark devised a plan to keep the western region for the new nation.
He told his plan to Patrick Henry and requested 500 men to train to protect the western frontier. He was only able to gather 180 for his planned attack against the British. The training took place on Corn Island in the Ohio River, a site he had complete control of.
Finally in late 1778 he began to move his men to capture the towns of Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Fort Massac and Vincennes. After taking Cahokia he talked with the tribal leaders and his presentation was so convincing that the tribal leaders believed him and decided to ally themselves with the Americans.
The French also began to see that the Americans were not the fearsome enemy and joined the American forces. Together they took Vincennes and Kaskaskia. Fort Massac had already been abandoned.
Leaving a small force at Vincennes, Clark the remainder of the troops back to Cahokia. Meanwhile the British General Hamilton moved to Vincennes and with the little protection left there easily retook the town.
Clark then did the unthinkable and upon hearing that Hamilton had sent his Indian allies and the French militia to go home for the winter he began to move his troops toward Vincennes in February 1779. The normally narrow Wabash had overflowed his banks in the unseasonable warm winter weather and Clark and his men marched 180 miles through the prairies and flooded river valleys. It took them 18 days of wading through water that was chest high at times and bitter cold. The last week the men had no food, little chance to build a fire and dry out but their resolve held and all 180 of the men followed Clark to Vincennes.
The group finally reached dry land and was able to find food and build fires. They readied for the final battle. They moved on the fort when the British would least expect them. They caught the British unawares and with their expert marksmanship were able to disarm the cannons.
Hamilton finally realizes that further attempts were futile and surrendered to Clark. When Hamilton wanted to know where the rest of Clark's army was he reply was that "this is my army."
The memorial to Clark was dedicated by FDR in 1936. Built in classic Greek style, the granite exterior is encircled by 16 columns supporting a massive round roof. Inside a bronze statue of Clark stands on a marble pedestal. A circular skylight illuminates the interior of Indiana limestone and Tennessee marble. On the walls are 7 murals painted on Belgian Linen depicted the important events in the battle of 1779.
We then stopped by the statue of Lincoln where he crossed the Wabash into Illinois, the home of William Henry Harrison and the site of the second Fort Knox an 1812 fort.
