The biographies at my elementary school stressed his birthplace – a log cabin.
When you pause and think about the year of his birth – 1809 – you can imagine lots of log cabins occupied by farm families. After all, a scattering a log barns and houses where a log room or two had been covered with plaster on the inside and siding on the outside existed during my childhood a century and a half later.
However, it magnifies that he did not come from a rich family. His parents were not wealthy merchants or landowners. And if you wanted young readers to believe they could become anything — even President of the United States — it made a great, true story.
Yes, today’s presidential spotlight is on Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe. Railsplitter. Prairie lawyer.
