Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home: Knob Creek Farm

During a conversation in the White House, President Lincoln once remarked, “I remember the old home very well. Our farm was composed of three fields, which lay in a valley surrounded by high hills and deep gorges.”

The Lincolns moved to Knob Creek in 1811. Their one room log cabin at Knob Creek was near the Bardstown and Green River Turnpike. It was common for people traveling along the turnpike to spend the night at the Lincolns, and young Abraham would probably listen attentively to their stories of the world beyond Knob Creek. He might have seen merchants taking their goods to market, soldiers coming home from the War of 1812, and slaves being taken to auction. Today, we know the Bardstown and Green River Turnpike as 31E.

Figure 1. Bardstown and Green River Turnpike
Lincoln saw the outside world pass by his front door along this route.

Abraham may have played with John and Isaac Hodgen. Their father, Robert Hodgen, owned the mill where people would take their corn to be ground. Each year, the neighbors would gather at the Hodgen’s for a feast. Because Robert Hodgen was such a strong supporter of the community, when it came time to name the town, they named it Hodgenville out of appreciation for his civic contributions.

Figure 2. Nolin Creek and the site of Hodgen’s Mill
Lincoln may have played near here with John and Isaac Hodgen.

While living at Knob Creek, the children were sent to the A.B.C. School, taught by Zachariah Riney and Caleb Hazel. Some people called these “blab schools” because the students did their lessons out loud. Abraham Lincoln later stated that his formal education was less than one year.

Figure 3. Austin Gollaher’s home with a modern addition.
The back part of the house is just as it was when the Lincoln’s lived at Knob Creek Farm.

Legends say that while living at Knob Creek, young Abraham Lincoln found a dog with a broken leg. He made a splint and took care of the dog, naming it “Honey.” According to his childhood friend Austin Gollaher, Abraham also had a pet crow, adopted a raccoon, and was given a goat named, “Billy.”

Misfortune seems to have followed the Lincolns from the Sinking Spring Farm, however, for on December 27, 1815, they were served with an eviction notice from the Knob Creek Farm. Thomas Lincoln and his neighbors countered with their own legal action. Now Thomas Lincoln was involved in two lawsuits: the Sinking Spring Farm he had bought and the Knob Creek Farm he was currently leasing! On September 12, 1816 the Hardin Circuit Court ruled against Thomas Lincoln, and he lost his claim to the Sinking Spring Farm. When he was served with an eviction notice to leave the Knob Creek Farm, Thomas decided to move his family to Indiana.

Thomas Lincoln moved his family to Perry (now Spencer) County, Indiana in December 1816. Thomas Lincoln’s brother, Josiah, had already moved to Harrison County, Indiana. Thomas Lincoln and his family were living in Indiana when the suit against the Knob Creek families was settled in their favor. Eventually the $200 dollars Thomas and Nancy paid for the Sinking Spring Farm was returned.

Knob Creek Farm becomes a unit of the National Park Service

Figure 4. Knob Creek Tavern and Cabin
Knob Creek as it appeared in the early 1930’s.

In 1928 the Howard family purchased the Kentucky boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln and dedicated themselves to preserving the memory of Lincoln’s time spent on this farm. Possession and management of this property remained in the family until November 2001, when the Howard family sold the site to the Preservation of Lincoln’s Kentucky Heritage, who donated it to the National Park Service, to be administrated by the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. Today, visitors can walk the same fields the Lincolns plowed, view an historic garden and follow a hiking trail to an overlook of the Knob Creek valley.

Figure 5. Knob Creek Farm being readied for planting.
The park is using heirloom seeds and planting a garden in the back field where the Lincoln’s would have grown corn, pumpkins, and herbs.

Sources consulted:

1. Published works:
2. Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
3. Herndon, William H. and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln, 3 vols. (Springfield, 1921), vol. I, 3-5.
4. Pitcaithley, Dwight P. “Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace Cabin: The Making of an American Icon,” in Myth, Memory, and the Making of the American Landscape. University Press of Florida, 2001.
5. Tarbell, Ida M. In the Footsteps of the Lincolns. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1924.
6. Gore, J. Rogers. The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln. Indianapolis: The Bobs-Merrill Company Publishers, 1921

Journal Articles:

Sculle, Keith A., The Howard Family Legacy at the Knob Creek Farm. Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 26.2 (2005) 11 Jul. 2006

Pamphlets:

Warren, Louis A. The Shipley Ancestry of Lincoln’s Mother. Indiana Magazine of History, 1984. (Copy found in the Filson Club of Louisville, KY).

Unpublished works:

1. Blythe, Robert W. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study. National Park Service, Cultural Resources Stewardship, 2001.
2. Cultural Resource Division, SERO. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building:
   Historical Structure Report. National Park Service, 2001.
3. Masterson-Brown, Kent. Report on the Title of Thomas Lincoln To, and the History of, The Lincoln Boyhood Home Along Knob Creek in LaRue County, Kentucky.
4. Peterson, Gloria. An Administrative History of Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National
   Historic Site: Hodgenville, Kentucky. National Park Service, Division of History, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, 1968.
5. Howard, Brooks. Family photos from a private collection.