Abraham Lincoln quarterly. [Vol. 5, no. 3]

IS THE CABIN AUTHENTIC?

149

during the [Centennial] Exposition in that city in 1897." 89
Luna Park, Thompson's and Dundy's most grandiose venture, opened May 2, 1903, and on page two of the pamphlet
announcing this event, among "39 Supreme, Stupendous,
Spectacular, Sensational Shows," was listed "Log Cabin
where Lincoln was Born" and "Jefferson Davis's Humble
Birthplace." 40
This announcement with reference to the two cabins may
have been premature, as we have not been able to determine
that the cabins were shown at Luna Park in 1903, although
the logs were probably there. There was good reason for
them not to be shown, as the Trustee in Bankruptcy was
diligently searching for assets of Alfred W. Dennett. Most
of this bloodhound activity centered in New York City,
since the Trustee had retained Edward S. Hatch of the firm
of Hatch and Wickes, 100oo Broadway, to contest the transfer
of the Lincoln farm to David Crear. This law firm represented the majority of Dennett's clamoring creditors.
Nothing further was heard of the cabins until early in
1904, when the New York Sun published, on February 16,
a lengthy article to the effect that Crear was the owner of
the Lincoln birthplace farm and the birthplace cabin. This
article reported that Crear had refused a Chicago offer of
$25,000 for them and that he stated a bill then pending in
the Kentucky Legislature to buy them for $1o,ooo would be
futile. The Sun considered it news that the logs of the cabin
were then stored in a building on Long Island, and that
Crear would sell them when the "right man comes along."
The legal contest in which Crear sought to retain title to
the farm was rapidly shaping up. The Trustee hired Pinker89 Quoted by E. D. Southgate, Confederate Veteran, February, 1908, p. 74. Files
of the Kentucky New Era for 1903 are missing, according to a letter written by
Mr. Dudley H. Taylor, the Managing Editor, to the author, September 14, 1946.
40 A copy of this pamphlet is in the library of The Long Island Historical Society,
Brooklyn, New York.