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

IS THE CABIN AUTHENTIC?

159

V
Three months after the purchase of the logs, The Lincoln
Farm Association began an investigation in Larue County
to determine if their cabin was authentic. The law firm of
Handley and Williams, investigators for the Association,
took twelve affidavits from residents of Larue County. Four
of these affidavits relate to the authenticity of the cabin. The
remainder related to the fact that local tradition indicated
Abraham Lincoln was born on the Rock Spring farm.53
The first affidavit on the Lincoln cabin was taken by
Handley and Williams on May 28, 19o6, the affiant being
Judge John C. Creal. Judge Creal swore that he was born in
what is now Larue County in 1836 and had been County
Judge for the past sixteen years. He further affirmed that
"the house made of logs which was removed by the Rev. J. W.
Bigham from the farm, is that it was a comparatively new
house when I first remember anything about it. The stairway
in this house and the upper floor were placed in there by my
Uncle, J. B. Cates, when I was about ten years of age. Sometime in April, 1893, the question was raised about these logs
since removed by Mr. Bigham being the logs in the original
Lincoln cabin. My mother, at that time about seventy years
old, told me that these logs, afterwards removed from the
place, had no connection whatever with the logs in the original cabin, that a man by the name of Jackson had built this
cabin from the logs that were removed.... One of my
earliest recollections is that an old cabin stood about ten or
53 The only evidence that the records of Hardin and Larue Counties were consulted in this investigation consists of a certified copy of the contract of purchase
by Thomas Lincoln of a farm on Mill Creek. This farm, twenty miles northwest
of Hodgenville, bought from Dr. John T. Stater in September, 1803, was in no
way connected,with the birthplace.
There is also a one dollar bill of sale, from Robert J. Collier, in this bundle of
papers, in which he sells to The Lincoln Farm Association the "log cabin called
the Abraham Lincoln log cabin, and which has been and now is exhibited as
such, and which was sold to me... and said to be the log cabin or part of the
same in which Abraham Lincoln was born."