Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Part I: The Wilderness Years
Thomas Lincoln, Father of the President
Nancy Hanks, Mother of Lincoln
Birth of Abraham Lincoln
Kentucky Childhood
Part II: Lincoln's Indiana Years
Indiana Uncle and Cousins
Lincoln's Poverty
Boyhood Associates
Manners and Customs of Hoosier Pioneers
Lincoln, A Hoosier
One Fourth of Lincoln's Life Spent in Indiana
The Every-Day Life of Lincoln
Lincoln's Honesty and Truthfulness
Lincoln's Freedom from Bad Habits
Church and Religion
Young Lincoln on the Stump
Lincoln's Ambition to Become a River Pilot
"Now He Belongs to the Ages"
Leaving the Indiana Wilderness
Death and Burial of Nancy Hanks Lincoln
Part III: Albert Beveridge Correspondence
Appendix: Murr Informants
Bibliography

About the Author

The Rev. J. Edward Murr (1868–1960) was an early researcher and writer of Abraham Lincoln's youth. Born in Corydon, Indiana, Murr grew up with Lincoln's cousins. He spent two years studying law but ultimately entered DePauw University in 1897 to study theology. Murr served various churches in and around Lincoln's boyhood home in Spencer County, Indiana, and later served as superintendent of the Methodist Church district in that region. He became intimately acquainted with many who had been neighbors and boyhood associates of the future president.

Joshua Claybourn is an attorney and author or editor of several books, including Abe's Youth and Our American Story. He serves on the board of directors of both the Abraham Lincoln Association and Abraham Lincoln Institute and is host of the Lincoln Log podcast. Claybourn frequently serves as a featured speaker on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. He lives in Evansville, Indiana.

Reviews

Claybourn has made Murr's essays into a handy new primary source for Lincoln studies—indeed, for all of early Indiana life. This book places Murr on par with Ida Tarbell, Jesse Weik, Walter Stevens, and Harvey Smith of that invaluable generation who collected original testimony that Herndon and others had missed. The liveliness of the recollections of the settlers Murr found will sustain our interest on each page, and for a long time to come. Bravo to Joshua Claybourn for resurrecting this information. - James M. Cornelius, Editor, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association