Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln and their little girl, Sarah, had just moved into their new log-cabin home in Kentucky when Abraham was born. It was February 12, 1809.
Thomas Jefferson was president and America was growing. The frontier kept moving west. So did the Lincolns.
When Abe was only seven, he and his father cut away forest and built a new log cabin in the Indiana wilderness. The work made Abe strong. He grew tall, too. By his teens, he’d grown to his full height of six feet, four inches.
He didn’t have a lot of time for school. Abe later said that his schoolhouse learning “did not amount to one year.” But he read everything he could get his hands on. He really enjoyed the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Crusoe, and The Arabian Nights. He also loved books on U.S. history. One of his favorites was about George Washington and the Revolutionary War.
Abe’s path from country boy to president was long and winding. Along the way he had almost as many failures as wins. But he learned from them all.