Abraham Lincoln's 1816 Out-of-Kentucky Path Through Breckinridge County

Falls of the Rough River. Many Indian relics have been found here from several different tribes.

“I was hunting along Rough River in Breckinridge County and came across a few overhangs and decided to scratch around. I started digging and came across several rocks that appeared burnt. Then I found a few pieces of flint that appeared to have been worked on.”

BRECKINRIDGE COUNTY. Prehistoric grave in Cloverport. Mentioned by Collins.

Abraham Lincoln's 1816 Out-of-Kentucky Path Through Breckinridge County

Thomas Lincoln moved out of the Knob Creek Farm, his last Kentucky home, a few days after November 11, 1816.<ref name=Gregory>Gregory, Edward. (1938). “At the End of the Trail: The Story of the Journey of Thomas Lincoln and His Family Through Hardin and Breckinridge Counties, Kentucky, to Indiana in 1816.” Retrieved on November 27, 2014 from https://archive.org/details/atendoftrailstor00brec.</ref> Thomas Lincoln took his wife, son, and daughter from the Knob Creek Farm (Abraham Lincoln's birthplace; in present-day Hodgenville) down the trail of the old Springfield Pike to Elizabethtown.<ref name=McMurty>McMurtry, R. Gerald. (1937, December). The Lincoln Migration from Kentucky to Indiana. Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 33, Issue 4, pg. 385-421. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/7003/7719</ref> After a short visit with the Brumfield family, the Lincolns traveled directly west, approximately twelve miles, passing within the first mile, the First Regular Baptist Church of Mill Creek. The Lincoln Family continued on the old pioneer trail (established in 1802) through Vine Grove (Viney Grove) and after crossing Otter Creek, they traveled through what is now known as the community of Flaherty to the town of Big Spring.<ref name=Gregory></ref> The trail from Flaherty followed by way of the Woolfork brick house at Jackey's Grove, then on to Big Spring. Big Spring is located in Kentucky where the boundaries of Hardin, Meade (established 1823), and Breckinridge counties meet. After Big Springs, the Lincoln Family voyaged on to Hopkins Otey Wale's farm, who was settled the area between Harned and Garfield in Breckinridge County, which at the time, and until the Civil War, was known as the Prince of Wales.<ref name=Gregory></ref> Mr. Wales owned about 2,000 acres of land on both sides of U. S. Highway 60, and was centered about where “Dead Man’s Curve” is now. Thomas Lincoln, at the time, was almost destitute. They spent the night at the Inn for which Mr. Lincoln paid his way by splitting wood. At this time, little Abe was only 7 or 8 years old. There was not room for him at the supper table, so he was sent to the kitchen to eat with the slaves, but not so, since the slaves would not sit with that “poor white trash,” so Abe was obliged to sit in a corner alone.<ref name=Gregory></ref>

The Lincolns followed the trace of the old pioneer Salt Lick Trail through Vine Grove, Flaherty, and Big Spring to US 60 near Harned's Station. The Lincolns followed the most direct route by way of the Lost Run Road to Harned, and from Harned, the Lincoln Family pursued a straight course over what is now Federal Highway 60 to the town of Hardinsburg. Colonel David R. Murray was the first person in Breckinridge County who came in contact with Thomas Lincoln's family as they migrated westward in their ox-cart. Colonel Murray talked to the Lincolns in person, and being well informed concerning the surrounding country, he directed them to a vacant log cabin, where they might secure rest and shelter.<ref name=McMurty></ref> Murray's old colored female servant, Minerva, after seeing the condition of the children, went back into the house, and came back immediately with a plate heaped with slices of homemade bread covered with butter, a pitcher of milk, and some cups. She seated the children on the steps of Murray's house and fed the Lincoln children.<ref name=McMurty></ref>

For two or three weeks, Thomas Lincoln's family stayed in Hardinsburg, where they stayed in a cabin near the southern edge of the town. They occupied a small cabin near what is now the Kentucky FFA Leadership Training Camp in Hardinsburg. Local residents gave them food and a cow for milk.

From Hardinsburg, the Lincoln family took the Yellow Banks Road to Cloversport. In Cloversport (then Joesville, named after Joe Huston), Thomas Lincoln's family, where Thomas Lincoln, Nancy, Sarah, and, 7 or 8 year old Abraham Lincoln where they spent one night in the home of Mrs. Kittie Monroe's father.<ref name=McMurty></ref> Mrs. Kittie Monroe, the wife of James Monroe, lived in Cloverport above Clover Creek, and was 16 years old as the time.

The Lincoln Family was ferried from above the mouth of Clover Creek by Jacob Weatherholt Sr.<ref name=McMurty></ref> through Thompson's Ferry<ref name=Gregory></ref>, which operated on the Ohio in the vicinity of the mouth of Anderson Creek to Tobinsport, Indiana. The next day, the Lincoln family made their way down to Rock Island, and camped at “Lafayette Springs”, because that's where General LaFayette wrecked in 1825. The next day (December 1816), the Lincoln family stopped at Troy, and then moved on toward their new home to take up a Federal Land Claim near Little Pigeon Creek in what was then Perry County and is now Spencer County, Indiana.<ref name=Gregory></ref><ref name=McMurty></ref>

Kentucky Days for the Linkhorns

May 1786. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President's grandfather, who has the same name (also, sometimes spelled like “Linkhorn” which suggests German ancestry) was killed by Shawnee Indians in present-day Louisville in 1786 on his own land, laboring to open a farm in the forest, while Thomas Lincoln just watched.

Mordecai killed the Shawnee and saved baby Thomas Lincoln's life, who just stood there, watching everything, and just shat his pants. Josiah ran to the nearest Fort to go get help, and Tom Lincoln just stood out there, in the field, as a native American approached him, and shat his pants.

While Abraham Lincoln and his three boys, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas, were planting a cornfield on their new property, Indians attacked them. Abraham was killed instantly. Mordecai, at fifteen the oldest son, sent Josiah running to the settlement half a mile away for help while he raced to a nearby cabin. Peering out of a crack between logs, he saw an Indian sneaking out of the forest toward his eight-year-old brother, Thomas, who was still sitting in the field beside their father's body. Mordecai picked up a rifle, aimed for a silver pendant on the Indian's chest, and killed him before he reached the boy.

Between September 1786 and 1788, Bathsheba moved the family to Beech Fork in Nelson County, Kentucky, now Washington County, Kentucky (near Springfield). A replica of the cabin is located at the Lincoln Homestead State Park.

As the oldest son, and in accordance with Virginian law at the time, Mordecai inherited his father's estate and of the three boys seems to have inherited more than his share of talent and wit.

Josiah and Thomas were forced to make their own way, with little economic or personal capability. From 1795 to 1802, Thomas held a variety of ill-paying jobs in several locations.

Thomas was the fourth child born to Abraham Lincoln (1744–1786) and Bathsheba Herring (c. 1742 – 1836), having been born in Rockingham County, Virginia. Abraham had been given 210 acres of prime Virginian land from his father, John Lincoln, and later sold the land to move in the 1780s to western Virginia, now Kentucky. He amassed an estate of 5,544 acres of prime Kentucky land, realizing the bounty as advised by Daniel Boone, a relative of the Lincoln family.

Lincolns were the victims of defective land laws, unscruplous land owners, land agents and land lawyers. At a very early period in the nation's history, large portions of land in Kentucky were obtained under Virginia land warrants, in the names of many prominent and wealthy Americans. As the land was not settled or assigned by them, the ownership of certain tracts was lost sight of by pioneers looking for farms and homes, with the result that much of the territory of Kentucky was claimed by several different parties. Pioneer settlers sometimes bought their land three and four times, to effect a clear title. Others, in depsair and disappointment, abandoned their estates and moved to other states or territories where they could get "Congress Land" (government surveyed land), the title of which was indisputable. There were likely no people in America so cursed with land litigation as the pioneer Kentuckians, because of the lack of adequate land regulations pertaining to priority of ownership.12 Such unfavorable and disgusting conditions caused the Lincolns to lose considerable money in Kentucky, and were responsible in a large measure for their migration to Indiana.

The father of the President, from the year 1803 to 1816, purchased three farms. The first was sold with a loss of thirty-eight acres, which represented a loss of eighteen English pounds. The second farm he bought by a cash payment and the assumption of a small obligation, but he eventually lost the down payment for the property, plus court costs. His third farm was lost through an ejectment suit.

After being ejected from his 3^rd Kentucky farm, Thomas Lincoln became wandering shiftless and uneducated laborer. A rover and drifter, he kept floating about from one place to another, taking any kind of job he could get when hunger drove him to it. He worked on roads, cut brush, trapped bear, cleared land, plowed corn, built log cabins, etc.

The zero stone of the Kentucky route will be set at the Lincoln birthday place.

“The road leads thence to Hodgenville, then to Knob Creek farm, where Thomas Lincoln moved two years after his son was born.”

Lincoln's own words regarding the migration are as follows:

“From this place [Knob Creek Farm] he [Thomas Lincoln] removed to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in the Autumn of 1816, Abraham then being in his eighth year. This removal was partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles.” http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/7003/7719

The Severn's Valley Creek home (Elizabethtown), the home on the South Fork of Nolin River (birthplace farm), and the Knob Creek home were all located in Kentucky within a radius of fifteen miles.

Thomas Lincoln's family was in Hodgenville, then they went to Elizabethtown. From there the road will follow as closely as practicable the trail of the old Springfield Pike to Elizabethtown.

1802. Thomas Lincoln moved to Hardin County, Kentucky in 1802 and bought a 238-acre (1.0 km2) farm the following year for 118 pounds. It was located seven miles north of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. When he lived in Hardin County, he was a jury member, a petitioner for a road, and as a guard for county prisoners.

In 1805, Thomas constructed most of the woodwork, including mantels and stairways, for the Hardin Thomas house, now restored and called the Lincoln Heritage House at Freeman Lake Park in Elizabethtown.

Thomas was active in community and church affairs in Cumberland and Hardin Counties. He served in the state militia at the age of 19, and became a Cumberland County constable at 24.

The route there veers to the north over the Shepherdsville Road. The first Lincoln reminder of this stretch of the route is the original farm owned by Thomas Lincoln, and upon which Abraham's sister, Sarah Lincoln, was born.

November 11, 1816. Documentary evidence, in the form of an endorsement filed in the Lincoln Knob Creek Farm ejectment suit, affirms that “the Lincolns moved off the place in the fall of 1816.” As a result of the discovery of a document in the files of the Nelson County (Kentucky) Court, there is evidence that Thomas Lincoln was still in Kentucky on November 11, 1816, when he appeared before a justice of the peace and made oath to a bill in connection with his land litigation. This is the latest evidence known of the residence of the Lincoln family in Kentucky.

Thomas Lincoln moved a few days after November 11, in order to escape bad traveling conditions which would probably result from the usually bad winters of pioneer Kentucky. In a newspaper clipping (identity unknown) which was incorporated into a scrap-book, the statement is made that the weather during the early winter of 1817 had been very cold and stormy with frost and ice nearly every month, but that the first half of December was the most pleasant season of the entire winter.

In 1816, Thomas Lincoln listed for taxes four head of horses, therefore the dual oxen led cart (two-wheeled wagon) is in dispute.

After the termination of their short visit with the Brumfield family, the Lincolns traveled directly west, approximately twelve miles, passing within the first mile, the First Regular Baptist Church of Mill Creek, and the church cemetery, which the mother, sister and relatives of Thomas were to eventually find their last resting places. They followed the old pioneer trail (established in 1802) through Vine Grove (Viney Grove) and after crossing Otter Creek, they traveled through what is now known as the community of Flaherty to the town of Big Spring. The trail from Flaherty followed by way of the Woolfork brick house at Jackey's Grove, then on to Big Spring. At Big Springs, emigrating pioneers usually camped, repaired their equipment and stocked up with provisions for the remainder of their journey. Big Spring is located in Kentucky where the boundaries of Hardin, Meade (established 1823) and Breckinridge counties meet.

There were several roads leading from Big Spring to Hardinsburg. The Lincolns followed the most direct route by way of the Lost Run Road to Harned. From this point they likely pursued a straight course over what is now Federal Highway 60 to the town of Hardinsburg.

1816. Thomas and Abe Lincoln came into Breckinridge County in 1816, when Thomas was taking his son out of Kentucky, and into Indiana. Abe Lincoln was so poor and raggedly looking, none of the Black slaves would sit near him.

Mr. Hopkins Otey Wale, settled the area between Harned and Garfield in Breckinridge County, which at the time, and until the Civil War, was known as the Prince of Wales. Mr. Wales owned about 2,000 acres of land on both sides of U. S. Highway 60, and was centered about where “Dead Man’s Curve” is now.

As early as 1816, Mr. Wale operated a stage coach station there, and it was still in operation at the time of the Civil War. Mr. Wales, who was the fourth generation grandfather of Louise Moorman Hook, brought with him to this section, several slaves. These slaves of Mr. Wales’ were of superior quality.

In 1816, when Mr. Thomas Lincoln and his family were on their trek from Hodginsville to Indiana, night overtook them at the Prince of Wales. Mr. Lincoln, at the time, was almost destitute.

They spent the night at the Inn for which Mr. Lincoln paid his way by splitting wood. At this time Little Abe was only 7 years old. There was not room for him at the supper table, so he was sent to the kitchen to eat with the slaves, but not so, the slaves would not sit with that “poor white trash,” so Abe was obliged to sit in a corner alone.

Mr. Tom Lincoln spent another night in this Inn when he came back to Kentucky to get his second wife, Mrs. Sarah Bush Johnson, who had been reared in the Fort at Hardinsburg and later married and moved to Hardin County.

Colonel David R. Murray moved to Hardinsburg after the War of 1812, and set up a store in a small log building.

Logan Murray, a New York banker and native of Hardinsburg, says that Colonel David R. Murray conversed with the Lincoln family while they stopped in the road in front of his house at Hardinsburg, and that his colored servant, Minerva, gave young Abraham milk at his doorstep.

Colonel Murray was the first person in Breckinridge County who came in contact with Thomas Lincoln's family as they migrated westward in their ox-cart. Colonel Murray talked to the Lincolns in person, and being well informed concerning the surrounding country, he directed them to a vacant log cabin, where they might secure rest and shelter.

Mr. Murray's old Colored woman gave the Lincoln children something to eat. 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 heaped with slices of home-made 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.

For two or three weeks, Thomas Lincoln's family stayed in Hardinsburg, where they stopped in a cabin near the southern edge of the town. They occupied a small cabin near what is now the Kentucky FFA Leadership Training Camp in Hardinsburg. Local residents gave them food and a cow for milk.

Leaving Hardinsburg, the party turned to the left, after passing Fort Hardin, and followed the Yellow Banks Road in order to effect a direct route to their destination. This ridge road avoided deep fords and continued westward to the Ohio River, where they were to find, after crossing the river, an established road in Indiana. It is not believed the migrating party would deviate from their course at this point to follow a road along the banks of the Ohio River because in the territory of what is now Hancock county, the Ohio bottoms vary in width from one to seven miles. As it is thought the Ohio was swollen by the fall rains in 1816, the Lincolns took a high ridge road away from the tributaries of the large and sinuous water course.

There is ample information to be found in the order books of the Breckinridge County Court regarding the road from Hardinsburg to Yellow Banks which was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century (1801). This old wagon road was an important artery of travel and was used by early Kentuckians in their migration to Indiana, Illinois and other territories or states. In traveling from Hardin and neighboring counties to Indiana and Illinois, this trail was usually selected as an established route of migration. It is to be supposed that many of the emigrant families, that the Lincoln party encountered while en route to Indiana, were traveling toward Shawneetown as their first point of destination in the Illinois country.

In Cloversport (then Joesville, named after Joe Huston), Thomas Lincoln's family, where Thomas Lincoln, Nancy, Sarah, and, 7 or 8 year old Abraham Lincoln where they spent one night in the home of Mrs. Kittie Monroe's father. Mrs. Kittie Monroe, the wife of James Monroe, lived in Cloverport above Clover Creek, and was 16 years old as the time.

My father was living in Hardinsburg, being in the merchandise business. Lincoln was driving two large oxen hitched to a cart or wagon, and a cow was hitched to the hind end of the wagon. 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. Young Abe walked in the road in front of the wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, and carried a long-stocked rifle on his shoulder, and that someone in the wagon drove the oxen.

They used a canoe and a raft to get across the Ohio River into Indiana. The moving party consisted of the family, an ox-cart, a pair of large oxen, a cow used for milk, who looked about dry, and some household furnishings such as bedding and cooking utensils.

When 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.

Tom Lincoln's family built a raft of logs and set the two-wheeled ox-cart and family on the raft. The oxen and cow had to swim across the Ohio River themselves. The Lincoln Family was ferried from above the mouth of Clover Creek by Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. to Tobinsport (1816).

The next day they made their way down to Rock Island, and camped at “Lafayette Springs”, because that's where General LaFayette wrecked in 1825.

The next day, the Lincoln family moved on toward their new home to take up a Federal Land Claim near Vincennes, Indiana.

The Lincoln party is believed to have approached the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, opposite or nearly opposite the mouth of Anderson Creek, a stream which flows into the Ohio from the Indiana side. The nearest village across from the Kentucky bank was Troy, and there can be no doubt that their objective on the Indiana side was this part of southern Indiana. Troy was settled in 1811 and was the capital of Perry County. Considerable river traffic was carried on this town, and here was located the nearest settlement to the Indiana Lincoln land.

Thompson's Ferry, which was operated on the Ohio in the vicinity of the mouth of Anderson Creek, as the location of the crossing of the Lincolns. Later biographers have adhered to the same conclusion. Records filed in the Breckinridge County Court house in Hardinsburg, Kentucky, reveal that a ferry was operated in the year 1816 on the Ohio River near the mouth of Anderson Creek called Thompson's Ferry. Other roads mention the appointment of an overseer of a road from Thompson's Ferry towards Hardinsburg. One document dated January 16, 1815, suggests a change, in a road so as to strike the Ohio River at Thompson's Ferry. On the committee selected to consider the change of route, the name of Hugh Thompson appears, which would suggest that he was the owner of the ferry. The date of this Breckinridge County Court record reveals that Thompson's Ferry was operated approximately two years before the 1816 migration,78 a fact of which Thomas Lincoln no doubt was cognizant.

In December 1816, the Lincolns settled near Little Pigeon Creek in what was then Perry County and is now Spencer County, Indiana. There Thomas and Abraham set to work carving a home from the Indiana wilderness. Father and son worked side by side to clear the land, plant the crops and build a home. Thomas also found that his skills as a carpenter were in demand as the community grew.

During Lincoln's youth, and particularly after the death of his mother, Abraham's relationship with his father changed. Due to his failing eyesight and likely poor health, Thomas relied on Abraham to perform the work needed to run the farm. He also sent Abraham to work for neighbors, generating money for Thomas. Michael Burlingame, in his book The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, said that Abraham “Lincoln was like a slave to his father.”

Thomas Lincoln forced Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, to work as a slave for his neighbors in Indiana to pay off Thomas Lincoln's debt to them. Abraham never spoke highly of his father.

xxxxx

“Sacajawea. Sacajawea was kidnapped by the Pawnee, taken to Cloverport, and kept there. Some Frenchman married her, and took her with Lewis and Clark, where she made history helping them as a guide through the Wild West.”

“Sacajawea, member of Shoshoni Tribe of Western Indians. Captured by Pawnees who maintained a trading post near site of Cloverport.” 1803. Sacajawea was sold to Toussaint Charboneau, a member of Stephensport surveying crew. After Toussaint owned Sacajawea for awhile, they married later.

Captured as a girl, and sold to a French Canadian trader, was brought to trading village, in the region of Cloverport. Her master Charbonneau... the “bird woman”.

Xxx

Sacagawea was born into an Agaidika (Salmon Eater) tribe of Lemhi Shoshone between Kenney Creek and Agency Creek about twenty minutes away from present-day Salmon in Lemhi County, Idaho.

In 1800, when she was about twelve, she and several other girls were kidnapped by a Hidatsa raiding party (also known as Minnetarees) in a battle that resulted in the death of four Shoshone men, four women and several boys. She was taken to one of the villages near where Lewis and Clark were encamped. Sacagawea was taken as a captive to a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.

At about thirteen years of age, Sacagawea was taken as a wife by Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebecois trapper living in the village. He had also taken another young Shoshone named Otter Woman as a wife. These two captive Shoshone Indian girls were Toussaint's slaves/wives. Both had been captured by a Hidatsa war party about 1800, and sold as slaves to Toussaint.

Charbonneau was reported to have purchased both wives from the Hidatsa, or won Sacagawea while gambling. One wife was Sacagawea, approximately 16 years old in 1804. Charbonneau could speak Hidatsa imperfectly and English not at all

Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea. Nearby were five Mandan and Hidatsa Indian villages. Sacagawea was a Shoshone (or Snake) Indian born near Salmon in Lemhi County in Central Idaho, bordering on Montana.

The Missouri is joined by the Knife River, on which the three villages of the Manitaries are built. The

largest, which is the furthest from the Missouri, is called Eláh-Sá (the village of the great willows); the middle one, Awatichay (the little village), where Charbonneau, the interpreter, lives with the Manitaries, by the help of the old interpreter, Charbonneau, who had lived thirty-seven years in the villages of the latter people, near this place.

While working for the North West Company, he encountered the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, who were living on the upper Missouri River near present-day Bismark, North Dakota.

By 1797, Charbonneau was living among them, which would remain his home for the rest of his life. He then became a free-agent, trapping for several different fur companies operating in the region. He also sometimes worked as a laborer and an interpreter of the Hidatsa language. During this time, he took two wives – both Shoshone women who had been captured by Hidatsa tribe in about 1800. The Hidatsa sold the pair – Sacagawea and another named Otter Woman, to Toussaint.

Sacagawea's husband was a very strange fellow. He spoke very little English, bought Indian captives and made them his wives, was temperamental and had a proclivity for teenage Indian girls.

MacDonell wrote on May 30, 1795: "Tousst. Charbonneau was stabbed at the Manitou-a-banc end of the Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in the act of committing a Rape upon her Daughter by an old Saultierwoman with a Canoe Awl—a fate he highly deserved for his brutality— It was with difficulty he could walk back over the portage."

But? his culinary skill in preparing boudin blanc - a white pudding of chopped buffalo meat and kidneys stuffed into an intestine - was much appreciated.

In October, 1804, when the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the upper Missouri River villages, Sacagawea, who was about 16 years-old at the time was pregnant with their first child.

Toussaint then took a job with Manuel Lisa's Missouri Fur Company, and was stationed at Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post in South Dakota. Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, who they named Lizette. While Charbonneau was on an expedition,Sacagawea died on December 22, 1812 at Fort Manuel, of a disease called "putrid fever.” She was only about 24 years-old. However, oral traditions of the Shoshone, say that Sacagawea rejoined the Shoshone on their Wind River reservation where she lived a long life, dying in 1884.

xxx

Wikipedia entry:

When Thomas Lincoln moved out of the [[Knob Creek Farm]], his last Kentucky home, a few days after November 11, 1816, he traveled through Breckinridge County, staying in various places, working odd jobs, for several weeks.<ref name=Gregory>Gregory, Edward. (1938). “At the End of the Trail: The Story of the Journey of Thomas Lincoln and His Family Through Hardin and Breckinridge Counties, Kentucky, to Indiana in 1816.” Retrieved on November 27, 2014 from https://archive.org/details/atendoftrailstor00brec.</ref> Thomas Lincoln took his wife, son, and daughter from the Knob Creek Farm (Abraham Lincoln's birthplace; in present-day [[Hodgenville, Kentucky|Hodgenville]]) down the trail of the old Springfield Pike to [[Elizabethtown, Kentucky|Elizabethtown]].<ref name=McMurty>McMurtry, R. Gerald. (1937, December). The Lincoln Migration from Kentucky to Indiana. Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 33, Issue 4, pg. 385-421. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/7003/7719</ref> After a short visit with the Brumfield family, the Lincolns traveled directly west, approximately twelve miles, passing within the first mile, the First Regular Baptist Church of Mill Creek. The Lincoln Family continued on the old pioneer trail (established in 1802) through [[Vine Grove, Kentucky|Vine Grove]] (Viney Grove) and after crossing Otter Creek, they traveled through what is now known as the community of [[Flaherty, Kentucky|Flaherty]] (Breckinridge County) to the town of [[Big Spring, Kentucky|Big Spring]].<ref name=Gregory></ref> The trail from Flaherty followed by way of the Woolfork brick house at Jackey's Grove, then on to Big Spring. Big Spring is located in Kentucky where the boundaries of Hardin, Meade (established 1823), and Breckinridge counties meet. After Big Springs, the Lincoln Family voyaged on to Hopkins Otey Wale's farm, who was settled the area between Harned and [[Garfield, Kentucky|Garfield]] in Breckinridge County, which at the time, and until the Civil War, was known as the Prince of Wales.<ref name=Gregory></ref> Mr. Wales owned about 2,000 acres of land on both sides of U. S. Highway 60, and was centered about where “Dead Man’s Curve” is now. Thomas Lincoln, at the time, was almost destitute. They spent the night at the Inn for which Mr. Lincoln paid his way by splitting wood. At this time, little Abe was only 7 or 8 years old. There was not room for him at the supper table, so he was sent to the kitchen to eat with the slaves, but not so, since the slaves would not sit with that “poor white trash,” so Abe was obliged to sit in a corner alone.<ref name=Gregory></ref>

The Lincolns followed the trace of the old pioneer Salt Lick Trail through Vine Grove, Flaherty, and Big Spring to [[U.S. Route 60]] near [[Harned, Kentucky|Harned's Station]]. The Lincolns followed the most direct route by way of the Lost Run Road to Harned, and from Harned, the Lincoln Family pursued a straight course over what is now Federal Highway 60 to the town of [[Hardinsburg, Kentucky|Hardinsburg]]. Colonel David R. Murray was the first person in Breckinridge County who came in contact with Thomas Lincoln's family as they migrated westward in their ox-cart. Colonel Murray talked to the Lincolns in person, and being well informed concerning the surrounding country, he directed them to a vacant log cabin, where they might secure rest and shelter.<ref name=McMurty></ref> Murray's old colored female servant, Minerva, after seeing the condition of the children, went back into the house, and came back immediately with a plate heaped with slices of homemade bread covered with butter, a pitcher of milk, and some cups. She seated the children on the steps of Murray's house and fed the Lincoln children.<ref name=McMurty></ref>

[[Thomas Lincoln]] and his family spent two or three weeks in Hardinsburg and occupied a small cabin near the southern edge of town, what is now the Kentucky FFA Leadership Training Camp in Hardinsburg.<ref>Kentucky Historical Marker No. 1003.</ref> Local residents gave them food and a cow for milk.<ref>Kentucky Historical Marker No. 1003, Thompson, William, ''History and Legend of Breckinridge County, Kentucky.''</ref> From Hardinsburg, the Lincoln family took the Yellow Banks Road to Cloversport. In Cloversport (then Joesville, named after Joe Huston), Thomas Lincoln, Nancy, Sarah, and, 7 or 8 year old Abraham Lincoln spent one night in the home of Mrs. Kittie Monroe's father in Cloverport above Clover Creek.<ref name=McMurty></ref> Mrs. Kittie Monroe was the wife of [[James Monroe]].

The Lincolns left Kentucky by crossing the [[Ohio River]] at [[Cloverport, Kentucky|Cloverport]]<ref>Kentucky Historical Marker No. 73.</ref> on a log ferry operated by Jacob Weatherholt<ref>Affidavits in support of Kentucky Historical Marker No. 1003, on file with the [[Kentucky Historical Society]]</ref>, from above the mouth of Clover Creek,<ref name=McMurty></ref> through Thompson's Ferry<ref name=Gregory></ref>, which operated on the Ohio River in the vicinity of the mouth of Anderson Creek, to Tobinsport, Indiana. The next day, the Lincoln family made their way down to Rock Island (Indiana), and camped at “Lafayette Springs”, named so because that's where the "Mechanic", the steamboat [[Marquis de Lafayette]] was on, [[Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States|wrecked on May 8-9, 1825]]. The next day (December 1816), the Lincoln family stopped at [[Troy, Indiana|Troy]], and then moved on toward [[Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial|their new home]] to take up a Federal Land Claim near Little Pigeon Creek in what was then Perry County and is now Spencer County, Indiana.<ref name=Gregory></ref><ref name=McMurty></ref>