Cloverport, KY

A few years ago I visited the tiny river town of Cloverport, Kentucky, located on the banks of the Ohio River.  It was here that Abraham Lincoln’s family crossed the Ohio River on their move to Indiana in December of 1816.

I’m not kidding when I say this is a tiny town.  It’s so small that people noticed us as being out of place immediately, and some asked if they could help us with directions.  I suppose that the only strangers that come this way are either dedicated Lincoln fans or motorists who have gotten lost.  Cloverport isn’t even on the Lincoln Heritage Trail, the designated series of highways in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois that link towns associated with Lincoln’s pre-presidential history.   Look Cloverport up on Google maps and you’ll see what I mean about it being off the beaten path.

I wasn’t there to see the place of the Lincoln family crossing, but rather to track down the roots of my own family, the Hustons and the Murrays.   Although there isn’t much happening around Cloverport these days, back in the very early 1800’s it was an important shipping point.  From here, local goods were put on flatboats and taken down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans.  They were sold there, along with the flatboats, and the men returned on foot by way of the Natchez Trace.  My 5 G grandfather Joseph Huston was an early settler and operated this settlement’s first ferry across the Ohio.  In fact, in the early days the town was called Joesville in honor of Joe Huston.

Our first stop was just north of town to find the Murray family graveyard.  As we peered into the deep thicket on the side of the road where I thought the graveyard might be located, a local stopped to ask what we were doing.  I explained our search and he pointed us to the place where he thought it was located but warned that it was pretty much overgrown.  He was right and we had to push our way through the thick overgrowth and sticker bushes to find the gravestones scattered across a deeply eroded hillside.  Most of the stones were difficult to read but eventually I found the grave of my GGGG grandfather David R. Murray. 

David Murray (1790-1871) was born in Kentucky and trained as a wheelwright but later he and his brother John gave up their trade to become merchants.  It is said that when they first began to sell goods they had to travel to Philadelphia on horseback to make their purchases, which were then brought by wagon to Pittsburgh and from there sent down the Ohio on flatboats.  David Murray first married Joe Huston’s daughter, Eliza and her grave was also located in this old gave yard.  She died at the age of 28.    

Our next stop was to walk along the riverbank just below the main part of town where local history signs had been placed along a “Cloverport History Path.”  I was surprised to read on one sign that the Lincoln family had actually met and stayed overnight with the Murray family before they made their crossing.  Other references to this are sparse, but I did find, in an old book entitled Kentucky, A Guide to the Bluegrass State, published in 1939, the following:

“In 1816 when the Lincoln family, consisting of Thomas, his wife, Nancy, their son and daughter, moved from Hodgenville to Indiana, they were ferried across the Ohio River here (Cloverport).  Lincoln was driving a yoke of oxen hitched to a cart, to which a cow was tied.  Several decades later Col. David R. Murray, who had been a boy living here when the Lincolns passed through, gave the description of the event: “On account of the unusual size of the oxen, a crowd soon gathered to find out who these people were and where they were going.... Old Minerva, a colored slave, who had been attracted to the scene, seeing the condition of the children, went back into the house and came back immediately with a plate heaping with slices of homemade bread covered with butter, a pitcher of milk, and some cups.  She seated the children on the steps of my father’s house and fed them.  When they left Hardinsburg, they drove to Cloverport to get across the river.  In those days there were no ferry boats and passengers, whenever any came along, were set across in a canoe.  Then the Lincolns reached the ferry, a raft was made, with the assistance of several people, and the wagon placed upon it.  With one man in the canoe to pull and one man on the rear of the raft to push with a long pole (the river was low at the time), the Lincolns were ferried across to the Indiana shore and landed.  Then they came back, and the two oxen and the cow were made to swim over.”

What about Joe Huston’s ferry?  Couldn’t the Lincolns have taken that across?  Maybe it was no longer operating by then.  Joe Huston had died in 1813.  Obviously some of the details are foggy at best but I’d like to assume that there was some contact between the Murrays and the Lincolns.

My ancestor is David and Eliza Murray’s daughter Jane who married into the Fairleigh family.  But, it is interesting that one of David Murray’s sons, Eli Huston Murray, obtained the rank of General, fighting for the Union Army in the Civil War.  Then, in 1868 Eli Murray was appointed as U. S. Marshal for Kentucky.  After that, he served as the governor of Utah from 1880 to 1886.  David Murray’s son, John Allen Murray, became a judge and another son David Jr., became a lawyer, state senator and later adjutant general of Kentucky.  There seemed to be great opportunities, even for these men growing up in tiny Cloverport.  I wondered if the town's current young people could envision such grand prospects for themselves.

By the time we had completed our tour of the Cloverport sights, it was lunchtime and we were hungry.  We asked a man on the street where we could get a good bite to eat and he directed us to a little café on the south side of town near the railroad tracks.  I think it was called Becky’s.  Of course there were lots of curious looks when we entered the old fashioned little place as again we were recognized as outsiders.  I had a grilled cheese on white bread, a Coke, side of chips and a slice of dill pickle.  It was that kind of menu, that kind of place, and it was good.   

-Mary

Downtown Cloverport, KY

Col. David R. Murray's Gravestone in Cloverport, KY.  

Some Things Never Change- Sound Bites In The 1860’s

Researching genealogy often reveals the forgotten details of history.  And, the more I encounter these smaller stories of our past the more I realize that our modern times are not as different as we are led to believe.  Perhaps some things never really change.

This is a continuation of last week’s story about a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to Samuel Haycraft Jr., of Elizabethtown, KY.   Samuel Haycraft Jr., received several letters from Abraham Lincoln.  The first letter, and the topic of last week’s blog, was dated May 28, 1860, soon after Lincoln secured the nomination of the Republican Party.  In this first letter, Lincoln was responding to Haycraft’s apparent inquiry about Lincoln’s family history and place of birth.  Haycraft wasn’t just being nosey; he had a lifelong interest in history and later wrote a comprehensive history of Elizabethtown.   The fact is that he likely remembered the Lincoln name from several encounters between the Haycraft and Lincoln families.  You see, in 1796, before Abraham’s birth, Thomas Lincoln (Abraham’s father) was employed for a time by Samuel Haycraft Sr. to work on a mill near Elizabethtown.  And later, during the several years that the Thomas Lincoln family lived near Elizabethtown, Thomas Lincoln was involved in several land suits.  These suits would have caused him to become acquainted with Samuel Haycraft Jr., then a young clerk of the county court.  As you know, Lincoln responded to Mr. Haycraft’s letter with a brief explanation of his family and knowledge of the clerks that had served Hardin County, Kentucky.     

On May 31, 1860,  Haycraft again wrote to Lincoln suggesting that perhaps he might enjoy visiting the place of his birth and early childhood.  Lincoln jokingly responded to Haycraft with the question, “Would not the people lynch me?”  Remember that this was an election year, and Kentucky was a slave state.  But, just as in today’s time, politicians must be especially careful what they say.  Yes, you may have thought, like I, that we live uniquely in a time of the media sound bite and that in the past politicians didn’t have to be as careful about every utterance.  But no, as you will see, even in Lincoln’s time things could easily be misconstrued and taken out of context.  

It appears that Lincoln related his exchanges with Haycraft to others there in Springfield, Illinois.  I can just picture him telling his pals about his clever and “funny” response to Haycraft, about being lynched if he were to travel to Kentucky to visit the place of his birth.  Now, about the time of this correspondence between these two men, a reporter from the New York Herald was hanging around Springfield, Illinois, to gather some material for a story on Lincoln.  The reporter either overheard Lincoln relate the tale of the clever quip to Haycraft or was told the story by some other person.  Later, Lincoln had no recollection of talking to the reporter about his correspondence with Haycraft.  

The result was, that, in early August of 1860 the following appeared in the New York Herald:

“He (Lincoln) had, he said, on an occasion been invited to go into Kentucky and revisit some of the scenes with whose history his father in his lifetime had been identified.  On asking by letter whether “Judge Lynch” would be present he received no response and he therefore came to the conclusion that the invitation was a trap laid by some designing person to inveigle him into a slave state for the purpose of doing violence to his person.”

This was just the type of press a presidential candidate did NOT need.  A few days after the publication of the article, Lincoln wrote to Samuel Haycraft, embarrassed no doubt,  He explained that the New York Herald  reporter had misconstrued his words.  Lincoln wrote:

“This is wholly a mistake.  I said no such thing.  I do not remember, but I did possibly mention my correspondence with you, but very certainly I was not guilty of stating or intimating a suspicion of any intended violence, deception, or any other wrong against me by you or any other Kentuckian.”

Lincoln was so eager to set the record straight that he also wrote to a leader of the Republican National Committee asking for assistance in getting the newspaper to issue a correction.  Later the paper did publish a correction in which they stated that their reporter had been mistaken in representing Lincoln as having been suspicious of those in Kentucky.

Samuel Haycraft seems to have had little concern for the issue and wrote back to Lincoln: 

“The remark about the Lynching no man of sense would have understood it in any other way than a little playfulness & pleasantry on your part -- I at least so understood it, and was about to reply to it in the same humor, that a visit here would subject you to a good many assaults-- But they would be for office under you, as it was regarded as a foregone conclusion that you would be the next Prest. …”

These were private letters and it is obvious that Haycraft could appreciate the humor of a comment made in jest.  There were no hard feelings and perhaps Lincoln had learned the hard political lesson that anything you say, could appear in the headlines the next day.  And, that what you do say, might be altered for effect and removed from context.  Haycraft and Lincoln exchanged several more letters and after Lincoln won the presidential election, Haycraft wrote to Lincoln, expressing his support for the country’s new leader:

“I have an abiding confidence, and that our Southern fire-eaters will find (if they give you time to show your hand) that you are conservative Cheif of the Nation in a national point of view that is the President of the United States and not a sectional ruler -- Altho Kentucky gave you but a small vote, you will find her clinging on to the Union, and honestly aiding you in the very arduous duties that lie before you. It will no doubt require all your wisdom and skill to conduct the Ship of State through the breakers, and it should be our duty, and I hope will be the pleasure of all good and true men to stand by you in the conflict -- and I hope that all may be well and the unity of the States preserved—“

Let’s face it; the media has a history of valuing shock and controversy over accuracy.  Of course Lincoln only had the newspapers to worry about.

-Mary

More cousins and a letter from Abraham Lincoln

As I have said before, much of my enjoyment in tracing family roots comes from the opportunities it gives me to connect with distant cousins and fellow researchers.  Often I track down someone that I’ve concluded is a distant cousin.  My approach is to send a polite letter explaining why I think we might be related and an offer to share family information.  More often than not I do receive a reply and my newly found cousins seem pleased that I took the effort to find them.

Two sisters, Kitty and Penny, who live in North Carolina, were recently added to my list of cousin connections.  They are my mother’s second cousins, although, I don’t think that they ever met my mother.  You may recall my recent story about the Louisville lawyer, David Fairleigh.  Well, Kitty and Penny, like me, are some of his descendants.

This week Kitty sent me a copy of an old letter that had been passed down in her family.  Her copy is not an original, but is a very old photocopy.  The letter, from Abraham Lincoln, was written to Samuel Haycraft on May 28, 1860.  This was right after Lincoln had secured the nomination of the Republican Party for the upcoming presidential election.

Here is a transcription of the letter:

Springfield, Ills. May 28. 1860

Dear Sir:

Your recent letter, without date, is received. Also the copy of your speech on the contemplated Daniel Boone monument, which I have not yet had time to read. In the main you are right about my history. My father was Thomas Lincoln, and Mr s Sally Johnston, was his second wife-- You are mistaken about my mother -- her maiden name was Nancy Hanks-- I was no[t] born at Elizabethtown; but my mother's first child, a daughter, two years older than myself, and now long since deceased, was-- I was born Feb. 12. 1809, near where Hogginsville now is, then in Hardin County-- I do not think I ever saw you, though I very well know who you are -- so well that I recognized your hand-writing, on opening your letter, before I saw the signature. My recollection is that Ben. Helm was first Clerk, that you succeeded him, that Jack Thomas and William Farleigh graduated in the same office, and that your handwritings were all very similar-- Am I right?

My father has been dead near ten years; but my step-mother (Mrs Johnson) is still living--

I am really very glad of your letter, and shall be pleased to receive another at any time--

Yours very truly

A. Lincoln

Lincoln’s mention of William Fairleigh is of course why the Fairleigh family saved a copy of this letter.  William, born in Elizabethtown, KY in 1797, was the grandfather of the previously mentioned David Fairleigh.  When still a young man William Fairleigh worked in the Hardin County clerk’s office under the instruction of Benjamin Helm, the Clerk of the Courts, and William’s companions were Samuel Haycraft Jr., and Jack Thomas.  William was sworn in as a Deputy Court Clerk of Hardin County in January of 1817, at the age of 19.  A few years later, in 1823, Meade County was formed from parts of Hardin and Breckinridge counties, and he was appointed as the new county’s first court clerk.  William Fairleigh served at the Clerk of the Circuit and County Courts of Meade County for 35 years. 

It is most interesting that Abraham Lincoln, apparently never having met any of these men (the Lincoln family moved to Indiana when Abraham was only seven years old), knew that their hand writings were similar.  But we must remember that in Kentucky, county clerks were responsible for the recording of many legal functions including the recording of deeds and mortgages, legal documents, marriage licenses, wills, property taxes and elections.  All these were, of course, written out in longhand and I suppose that, as a young trainee, good penmanship was important.  It’s not surprising that handwriting styles might have been somewhat similar between the young assistant clerks and their mentor.  And we might suppose that Lincoln had seen a number of documents, written by these men, in amongst his father’s legal papers.  You might remember that one of the reasons the Lincolns left Kentucky was because of problems establishing legal land claims, a common problem in Kentucky.  It is also possible that Lincoln encountered legal documents written by these clerks during his years as a lawyer in Illinois.

Hardin County has had 17 County Clerks since becoming a county in 1793.  Samuel Haycraft, Jr., the man to whom Lincoln’s letter was addressed, served longer than any other clerk, from 1817 to 1851.  The Lincoln letter was a prized family heirloom of the Haycraft family for many years.  Apparently this letter was sold to a New York dealer, by Samuel Haycrafts great-grandson, in 1920 for about $500 ($5000 in today’s dollars).  The letter later became the property of a New York collector.  It was highly valued because it is apparently the only letter of Lincoln’s to state, in his own handwriting, the date and place of his birth and the names of his father, mother and stepmother.  I don’t know who owns the letter now but an image of the letter is included in the Library of Congress’s Abraham Lincoln Papers collection, so perhaps it is now in their possession.  There are several other letters written from Lincoln to Mr. Haycraft, which I discovered in researching this letter.  I’ll talk about them next week.

The images below are documents written in the hand of Samuel Haycraft Jr., Benjamin Helm and William Fairleigh.  Do you think their handwriting is similar? Click on the images for a larger view.

-Mary

Benjamin Helm Document

Samuel Haycraft Jr. Document

William Fairleigh Document