Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln and their little girl, Sarah, had barely settled in their new log-cabin home in Kentucky when Abraham was born. It was February 12, 1809.
Thomas Jefferson was president, and America was expanding. The frontier kept moving west, and so did the Lincolns.
When Abe was only seven years old, he and his father cut away forest and built a new log cabin for the Lincoln family in the Indiana wilderness. It was backbreaking work, and it made Abe strong. He grew tall, too. By the time he was a teenager, he had reached his full height of six feet, four inches.
There was little 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. Among his favorites were the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Crusoe, The Arabian Nights, and books on U.S. history, especially a biography of George Washington with details about the Revolutionary War.
Abe’s path from humble country boy to president of the United States was a long and winding one. Along the way he met with nearly as many failures as successes—and learned from both.
