Abraham Lincoln biography (continues...)

Life in Indiana was harder than in Kentucky. Young Abe helped his father cut trees, clear fields, build a cabin, and plant the crops. Though he was only a child, he was tall and strong for his age and especially good with an axe. He would later refer to it affectionately as "that most useful instrument."

The first year in Indiana, Lincoln's mother died of what pioneers called "milk sickness" - probably from drinking contaminated cow's milk. Life on the farm became sad and dreary, with the two children working even harder, taking on the chores that had been their mother's. The following year Lincoln's father brought a new wife to the farm - a cheerful, compassionate woman named Sarah Johnston, who had three children of her own. Sarah adored Abe. She encouraged his interest in education, nurtured him, and gamefully filled the vacuum so tragically left by the death of his real mother. Even as an adult, Lincoln called her "my angel mother."

In Indiana, as in Kentucky, Lincoln scraped by with whatever education he could muster from borrowed books. He made his own arithmetic textbook and sometimes scratched out his problems on wooden boards, erasing them with a penknife.  He described his early education this way:

"There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher, beyond `readin, writin, and cipherin,' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition or education."  Yet internally something clearly excited Abe Lincoln. He never had more than about one year of formal education, yet he was one of the most eloquent and literate writers and speakers to ever hold the Presidency.

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