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Back in December of 1816, 7-year-old Abraham Lincoln and his close relatives traveled over the very site of present-day Hawesville on their way to cross the river about five miles further downstream to the northwest. At that crossing point, the Ohio's flow bent sharply back toward the southwest. The Tom Lincoln family was moving from Elizabethtown, KY, to a farm near Gentryville, IN, which is less than 20 miles from Hawesville as the crow flies. Abe's Kentucky birthplace of Hodgenville was not far away to the southeast of Hawesville. The future President crossed the river many times in this area. Shortly after Hawesville was incorporated, the Lincolns moved away to Illinois. A projection of Kentucky outlined by the coursing waters appears as a wedge pointing into Indiana at the same spot where the Lincoln family first crossed over the Ohio River. And just over the river on the northeastern side, Anderson's Creek spills into the Ohio near Troy, IL. Starting about 1826, the year JOHN TAYLOR was born, the youthful and exceptionally strong Abraham Lincoln worked for a farmer named James Taylor, operating a ferryboat from Thompson's Landing where Taylor's house was located near the mouth of Anderson's Creek. The adolescent Lincoln was described by a neighbor as being capable of driving an ax bit deeper into wood than any man he had ever seen; but the powerful youngster usually made sure he didn't overwork himself and burn out. Abe declared: "My father taught me to work, but he didn't teach me to love it." By the next year the young Lincoln would stand 6' 4" tall. Abe was pulling down around $6 a month, with room and board thrown in at no charge. In his spare time, the young man built a small scow for himself. In early 1827, a couple years before Hawesville was founded, two salesmen rushed down to the Ohio River bank near the mouth of Anderson's Creek, requesting a ride to a steamboat awaiting in midstream. 18-year-old Lincoln took them in his little watercraft and rowed to the steamer which was just getting underway. The pair of travelers hurried aboard the riverboat and Lincoln tossed their carpetbag luggage up after them. In return, each leaned back over the rail and pitched a silver half-dollar down to him. One of the coins landed in his boat while the other succeeded in reaching the very bottom of the Ohio River. Because the Dill brothers had accused him of infringing upon their local ferry rights, in the spring of 1827 young Abe was compelled to defend himself in a Kentucky court at Squire Samuel C. Pate's house at Little Yellow Banks across the river from Troy and near the future site of Hawesville. Lincoln won the case of The Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Abraham Lincoln, arguing he did not transport anyone across the river in the incident but that he merely took his passengers to the middle of the Ohio so they could board the steamboat. Justice of the Peace Samuel Pate dismissed the Commonwealth's charge against the teenager who later became President of JOHN and MARY's adopted country. The state boundary of Kentucky extends across to the riverbank on the Indiana side, however, and the Ohio River actually belongs to Kentucky along that stretch. But this seemingly critical factor apparently was not brought up. In the months to follow, Lincoln would return to observe court proceedings at Squire Pate's house. |
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