A portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Image credit: The Library of Congress)
Abraham Lincoln was asked to provide information about his life in 1859. The following is part of his short autobiographical statement. And just so you’ll look really smart, Indiana became a state December 11, 1816!
Please note: The material quoted in this section is presented exactly as Lincoln wrote it. Thus there are spelling, grammar and capitalization errors.
My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, litterally without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached out new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was every required of a teacher, beyond “readin, writin, and cipherin,” to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.
I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty two. At twenty one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Illinois—Macon county.
— Credit for this material goes to “There I Grew Up:” Remembering Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana Youth by William E. Bartelt, pages 1 and 3.
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