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

IS THE CABIN AUTHENTIC? 1

163

tended pictures of the Lincoln Cabin, they easily indicate
what it probably was but the actual cabin was a decayed ruin
long before my father's election as President.
"The structure now enshrined in a great marble building
in Kentucky is a fraud when represented as the actual
house." 59
Although Congress in 1916 accepted the Lincoln homestead and cabin without satisfactory investigation of the chain
of title, or research on the authenticity of the cabin, the National Park Service began the authentication of the farm in
1939. By means of county records, it was determined that,
in fact, the present park includes approximately one hundred
and ten acres of more than three hundred acres Thomas
Lincoln held in 1809.60 Concerning the authenticity of the
cabin, the National Park Service was presumably unable to
do more than gloss over its questionable origin.
The writer has no desire to be an iconoclast, yet it is essential that the truth about this cabin be known. The National Park Service has never deceived the people about its
authenticity, but neither has it told the whole story. Although the cabin is merely legendary, still it is symbolic of
Lincoln's humble origin, and to know the facts about it need
not detract from the pleasure of those who visit the beautiful
park where it is enshrined.
As for Alfred W. Dennett-the unwitting originator of the
cabin legend, unsuccessful midway entrepreneur, and first
promoter of the Lincoln birthplace memorial-he is entirely
forgotten. He is buried in a single-grave lot in Rural Cemetery at Stockton, California. No one visits his grave, and the
superintendent of the cemetery has no recollection of anyone
ever inquiring about it.
19 The Collector: A M1agazine for Autograph and Historical Collectors, Vol. LIV,
No. 6, April, 1940, p. 63.
o Abraham Lincoln National Historical Park, pp. 8-9.