Dear Sir: May 28. 1860
Your recent letter, without date, is received. Also the copy of your speech on the contemplated Daniel Boone monument, which I have not yet had time to read. In the main you are right about my history. My father was Thomas Lincoln, and Mrs. Sally Johnston, was his second wife. You are mistaken about my mother---her maiden name was Nancy Hanks.2Open page I was not born at Elizabethtown; but my mother's first child, a daughter, two years older than myself, and now long since deceased, was. I was born Feb. 12. 1809, near where Hogginsville [Hodgenville] now is, then in Hardin county. I do not think I ever saw you, though I very well know who you are---so well that I recognized your hand-writing, on opening your letter, before I saw the signature. My recollection is that Ben. Helm was first Clerk, that you succeeded him, that Jack Thomas and William Farleigh3Open page graduated in the same office, and that your handwritings were all very similar. Am I right?
My father has been dead near ten years; but my step-mother, (Mrs. Johnson) is still living.
I am really very glad of your letter, and shall be pleased to receive another at any time. Yours very truly
A. LINCOLN