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The first time I ever saw or heard of Abraham Lincoln was in 1832. I had stopped over night at Jack Armstrong’s, who lived on a farm five miles northwest of New Salem. I there saw a young man whom I had never met before, and asked him who he was, and he said his name was Abe Lincoln, and that he was working for his father. He was tall and slender, and was dressed in common homemade jeans, about the same kind of goods that the majority of the young men wore at that time—about the same as I wore myself. The next time I saw Lincoln, to become acquainted with him, was at the log tavern at New Salem, kept by James Rutledge. I was carrying the mail from Lewistown to Springfield, and put up with the Rutledge tavern where Mr.

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Lincoln was boarding. He was at that time a clerk in the store of Samuel Hill, a merchant of New Salem. Mr. Lincoln had been to New Orleans with a flat-boat load of produce, and Mr. Hill had sent by him 100 barrels of flour that was ground at the water mill at New Salem. Mr. Lincoln sold the flour at a god price, and was so prompt in paying the money, and gave such good satisfaction, that on his return Mr. Hill made him a clerk in his store. Mr. Hill had the largest stock of goods in New Salem, and also kept the postoffice. Mr. Lincoln, I observed, was always very attentive to business, and was kind and obliging to the customers of the store, always having pleasant things to say to them; and they had so much confidence in his honesty that they preferred to trade with him rather than with Mr. Hill or the other clerks. I noticed that this was particularly true of women customers; they would often say that they liked to trade with Mr. Lincoln, for they believed that he was honest and would tell them the truth about the goods.

I went into the store one day to buy a pair of buckskin gloves and asked him if he had a pair that would fit me. He threw a pair on the counter. "There is a pair of dogskin gloves that I think will fit you, and you can have them for seventy-five cents." When he called them dogskin gloves I was surprised, as I had never heard of such a thing before. At that time no factory-made gloves had ever been brought into the country, and all the gloves and mittens that were worn were made by hand and by the women of the neighborhood, and were made from tanned deer skins, and the Indians usually did the tanning. A large buckskin, Indian dressed, could be bought at that time for from fifty to seventy-five cents. So I said to Mr. Lincoln, "How do you know they are dogskin gloves?" I believe that he thought my question was a little impudent, and it rasped him somewhat that I had the audacity to question his word. "Well, sir," said he, "I will tell you how I know they are dogskin gloves. Jack Clery’s dog killed Tom Watkin’s sheep, and Tom Watkin’s boy killed the dog, and old John Mounts tanned the dogskin, and Sally Spears made the gloves, and that is how I know they are dogskin gloves." So I asked no more questions about the gloves, but paid the six bits and took them; and I can truly say that I have worn buckskin and

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dogskin gloves from time to time for sixty years since then, and have never found a pair that did me the service that those did I got of Mr. Lincoln.

I have understood that Mr. Lincoln got $20 a month for clerking in Mr. Hill’s store, which was considered good wages at that time, although he had to pay $2 a week for his board.

While Mr. Lincoln was clerking in the store for $20 a month, Mr. Hill gave him the privilege of going out to work in the time of harvest, where he could earn from $1 - $1.25 a day and his board; and when the harvest was over he would take him back in the store again.

In the fall of 1835 my brother Lewis was a student in the Jacksonville college. I had to take him back to college after the vacation, and there met many of the boys who had returned after their two months’ rest. Among these was Richard Yates, afterwards the great "war governor" of Illinois. Most of these boys had been at work during the vacation—most of them on their father’s farm, while some of them had taught school, and others clerked in the stores. Among them was a young man named William Green, who said he had been at home helping his father with the harvest. While there a young man named Abe Lincoln had come out from New Salem to help with the harvest. He said Lincoln could pitch more hay than any man his father had. When Lincoln found out that young Green had been to college he asked him if he had brought his books home with him. He said he had never had the advantage of an education, and said he would like to study grammar and arithmetic, and asked if Green would assist him, and he told him that he would. Mr. Lincoln said that the county surveyor at Springfield, Mr. Calhoun, had been talking of appointing him deputy surveyor if he would qualify himself for the place. He was very anxious to get the position, as there was a good deal of surveying to be done around New Salem. So Lincoln would get up early in the morning and feed the horses, and then with the help of Green would go at the grammar and arithmetic until breakfast was ready. At night they would again resume their studies. After

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Lincoln returned to the store in New Salem, Green would take his books when he went to town, and they would study together under the shade of the trees. Green said he never saw another person who could learn as fast as Lincoln did. It is a fact that Mr. Lincoln did qualify himself and was appointed deputy surveyor; and he was one of the best surveyors they ever had in that part of the country.

This William Green in 1875 moved to Warren county, Illinois, some five miles from Avon, and for several years was president of the Avon Agricultural Society. Not long after I visited him, and he told me that he had gone to Washington to see Lincoln while he was president. He said Lincoln was glad to see him, throwing his arms about his neck and showing him many marks of kindness while he remained in the city. Before he came away Mr. Lincoln introduced him to some of his cabinet officers, telling them that he was the young man who taught him grammar and arithmetic in his father’s barn.

I have not heard from Mr. Green in eighteen years; but if he is still living he can tell more of the early life of Abraham Lincoln than can be found in any of the papers, magazines or histories.

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