*Family of German decent
*Entered Land Patent 1808
*Tax List for June ~ July 1815
*Sat on first Court Jury 1815
*Had a licensed ferry above the mouth of Clover Creek.
*Ferried Lincoln Family 1816
*On Early Voting List 3 Aug 1818
*Accepted in State of Kentucky, 1933 to have ferried the Lincoln Family from Cloverport (Then Joeville) KY to Tobinsport in the year 1816 on his ferry.
* October 1958 - The sesquicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln will be observed in 1959 throughout the United States. The Lincoln Trek Celebration Committee plans to commemorate the trip of the Lincoln family from their home near Hodgenville to their new home in Indiana by re-enacting the trip on October 22-24
Re-enactment of the Lincoln family's trek from Kentucky to Indiana calls attention to 150th anniversary of the 16th President's birth.
The trek sponsored jointly by the Kentucky and Indiana Lincoln Sesquicentennial commissions.
*On Friday Oct' 24, 1958 " The Lincolns (re-enactors) crossed the Ohio River from Cloverport to Tobinsport, arriving on the Indiana side of the river, who were welcomed to Indiana by Roy Combs, state auditor and chairman of the Indiana Lincoln Sesqui-Centennial Commission.
*Historical Marker # 73 at Cloverport denotes the site where the Lincoln family crossed the Ohio River on their journey to Indiana.
*Wikipedia ~ "Breckinridge County, Kentucky
In 1816, when future United States President Abraham Lincoln was seven years old, his father, Thomas Lincoln and his family spent a few weeks in Hardinsburg and 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. The Lincolns left Kentucky by crossing the Ohio River at Cloverport, on a log ferry operated by Jacob Weatherholt"
Cloverport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky
"The town was once known as Joesville after its founder, Joe Huston. Established around 1798 (or possibly 1808[4]), the town was the site of the ferry where, in 1816, Jacob Weatherholt piloted the family of Abraham Lincoln, then seven, across the Ohio River on its way to a newly acquired farm in Spencer County, Indiana."
*Family Marker at Tobinsport Ferry denotes Lincoln's crossing on ferry owned by Jacob Weatherholt in 1816 into Indiana.
Jacob Weatherholt - 1758 - April 23, 1837. Served as a private in the Ninth and Thirteenth Regiments, Western Department of the Virginia Contential Troops. under Col John Gibson and Captain Thomas Moore. He received a Land Bounty warrant No. 2886, and a pension approved 1818, at $96 per year. He is buried Tobinsport Cemetery (Lamb Cemetery). Jacob was born in Lehigh Co., PA and was the son of John Jacob and Susanna Weatherholt. The father and his brother, John Nicolas, came to America in 1754 from Germany and immediately on arrival became connected with the military establishment of the colony and had a prominent and distinctive part in the affairs of Colonial Pennsylvania. He (John Jacob) was fatally wounded while participating in a campaign against the Indians and died October 9, 1763. In 1766 the widow remarried and subsequently removed to Monongalia Co., VA, now West Virginia with her second husband, Michael Kerns. The Revolutionary services of Jacob, the Indiana pioneer, are authenticated by Saffell's "Records of the Revolution" by records held in the family and documents on file in the State Archives Office of Kentucky at Frankford. Honourably discharged March 1, 1780. Jacob re-enlisted in 1781. He was honorabley discharged after the last three yeas of service, April 5, 1784. Files of Wallace Weatherholt
Listed in the 'Society of Indiana Pioneers' - Jacob Weatherholt: b Pensylvannia, 1758. to Perry Co. from
Kentucky, 1807. (In Revolutionary War)
Perry County, A History, by Thomas de la Hunt, 1916
Jacob Weatherholt, while not a pensioner, was a Tobin Township pioneer whose military service is authenticated by W. T. R. Saffell's "Records of the Revolutionary War" (pp. 280-281). Born 1758 in Virginia, he enlisted in the Western Department, and March 1, 1780, was honourably discharged from the Detachment of Colonel John Gibson, who served from January 1, 1780, until December 6, 1781, when he surrendered his command to Brigadier-General William Irvine.
Jacob Weatherholt died April 23, 1837, and was buried in the "Upper Cemetery" at Tobinsport, beside his wife, Sarah. (s/b Catherine)
Jacob Weatherholt, one of Indiana's earliest settlers, was born July 27, 1760, in Lynn Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Captain Johann Jacob and Susanna Christina Wetterhold. At the age of three, his father was killed in an Indian attack on the inn where he and his company were staying, near Bethlehem, Pennyslvania.
In 1778, Jacob followed the family's military tradition and enlisted in the army. He served at Fort Pitt as a Private int he Ninth and Thirteenth Virginia Regiments under Colonel John Gibson and Captain Thomas Moore. Jacob was honorably discharged March 1, 1780. He re-enlisted in 1781 because of Indiana uprisings in the area.
While in the army, Jacob was married to Catherine Boesher, the daughter of Jacob Boesher. Catherine, born in 1764, was from Hanover Township which was at that time Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Thru research it may be found that Jacob and Catherine (Boesher) Weatherholt were the parents of the following children:
Jacob 1784-1828 h/o Rebecca Tobin
John 1786-1865 h/o Rebecca Hayden
Susanne ca 1787-?? w/o Robert Wilson
William 1792-1849 h/o Sarah Wagner
Sarah 1794-1830 w/o Uriah Avery Winchel
Henry 1795-1872 h/o Mary Sims
Mildred 1799-1842 w/o Uriah Winchel
Betty 1802-1820 never married died in Breckinridge Co., KY
After Catherine (Boeshor) Weatherholt died Jacob married for a second time to Sarah Jane Short Miller (1770-1866) of Breckinridge Co., Kentucky. Jacob and Sarah Jane (Short-Miller) Weatherholt were the parents of one daughter:
Mildred Jane 1817-1914 w/o William L. Pate
The Tell City News, June 8, 1928
IMPORTANT LINCOLN DISCOVERY
Documentary Evidence That Thomas Lincoln
and His Family Crossed the Ohio River at
"Tobin's Point"
All historians and biographers of Abraham Lincoln have long
been baffled by the problem of just where Thomas Lincoln and family crossed the Ohio river on their way from Kentucky into Indiana. Most writers have taken it for granted that this crossing was effected at Troy, basing such assumption on the longstanding story of Thomas Lincoln having made his own first trip to Indiana by boat
down Salt River and the Ohio River as far as Troy, then the county seat of Perry county and including the Little Pigeon tract of land on which he settled, now in Spencer county. Within a year past some claims have been brought forward by citizens of Grandview and vicinity alleging the mouth of Big Sandy Creek to have been the scene of the crossing, since there was an early Kentucky settlement
at the mouth of Blackford Creek nearly opposite. These claims, however interesting, appear wholly traditional, handed down by word of mouth, and lack substantiation by the "documentary evidence" which the modern school of historians consider indispensable.
A bill as been recently introduced by a Kentucky Representative in the Congress at Washington, proposing to mark suitably the route from Kentucky through Indiana into Illinois which the Lincolns followed, calling it informally "the Barefoot Trail," or "The Cradle to the Grave." With this project attracting popular attention, it was a highly fortunate coincidence that during the last week a holograph document more than sixty years old was found by Judge Oscar C. Minor of the 70th Judicial Circuit, bound in an official record book at the Court House in Cannelton, throwing entirely new light on the
situation and possibly offering a completely satisfactory solution.
This valuable discovery, written in blue ink on heavy legal-cap paper, is here reproduced as follows, verbatim as to orthography, punctuation, etc.:
(Insert bound at page 9-10 of Original Deed Book "A" of Perry county, Indiana, in Recorder's Office at Court House in Cannelton.)
"Sealed Aug. 20, 1866
"Memory of Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. at this writing seventy-one years of age from 1866 back to 1816 the year Indiana became a state. Abraham Lincoln to whom I am ref fering to thi s day and age was one of the greatest landmarks of America. My father Jacob Weatherholt Sr. ferried Thomas Lincoln and family Wife Nancy Daughter Sarah and son Abraham age eight years from the hills of Kentucky to
Indiana consisting of a yoke of oxen a cow a cart and some camping outfit by canoe and raft of logs from what is Clover creek, Ky to Indiana and landed on land and camped over night on land I now own and hold deed for Refference and next day made his way down the Indiana Banks of the Ohio by Indian trails and paths and camped the second night at what is known as Rock Island where General
LaFayette was recked in 1825, and then made his way to his New Indiana Home where he had taken up a Federal land claim at Vincennes and from this on not all dates can I give. In fall of 1818 Thomas Lincoln wife died from one of the World greatest Dread at that time much sickness and for Funeral services no Preecher could be had as Preechers was scarce a letter was sent back to the old Kentucky Home and to the best of my recall His name was John Attwood. In spring of 1819 he came and preached Nancy funeral. In Fall of 1819 Thomas Lincoln returned to his Old Kentucky Home
by same Trail and Brought Back with him his second Wife By the Name of Sarah Bush whom had been married to a man name
Johnson. In about 1827 Abraham Lincoln made a flat boat trip South and came back a Slave-holder Hater and made the remark If I only had a chance By the Eternal Gods I would Fre the Negroes. In about 1830 Thomas Lincoln sold his Indiana Home and moved to Illinois and then a few years I have no recall But in 1844 Abraham Lincoln returned Back to Indiana making speeches for Henry Clay Candidate for President. In about 1851 Thomas Lincoln Died. In 1860
Abraham Lincoln was Elected President of the United States and Stered Wheel of the Mighty Wars of the Sixtys between the North and the South, and lived to see the day to make his word good By the Eternal Gods did Free the Negroes In 1864 Was Relected President 1865 was assinated by William Booth & this being 1866 just Fifty years Back 1816 since I first new Abraham Lincoln whom I am Referring to I Jacob Weatherholt Jr writing a few lines and attaching on Indiana Deed Record A-Page 9 & 10 also on deed I now hold for Refference.
"Jacob Weatherholt, Jr.
'at this writing W.P. Drumb Recorder" Aug. 20-1866-attached
Thomas de la Hunt, secretary of the South western Indiana Historical Society, laid the facts of this discovery before the quarterly meeting of the society, Friday, June 1, at Gentryville, where it was pronounced one of the most important discoveries that has been made in The Pocket touching "the Lincoln Inquiry" initiated by Hon. John E. Iglehart, founder and President-Emeritus of the organization a discovery that will attract wide attention among the Indiana Lincoln Union's Reference and Research Committee whose chairman is Mrs. Calder D. Ehrman of Rockport, also President of the Southwestern.
Judge Minor pronounces the document indisputable 'prima
fake' evidence; testimony of such nature as would stand in any court of law. A duplicate of this bound document is in the possession of Clarence C. Leaf of Tobinsport, through his mother, Mrs. Arad Leaf(Elizabeth Weatherholt), a grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. and a greatgrandson of Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. a veteran of the American Revolution, who about 1807-8 had entered the land referred to. Mr. Leaf, (whose young grandson, Arnie Leaf, Jr.,is sixth in direct descent from the Revolutionary 'patriot.') now operates the ferry between Tobinsport and Cloverport where his ancestor ferried the Lincolns across and hopes to see the point appropriately designated in the near future as well as location of the remainder of the route past Rock Island and "Lafayette Spring" through Cannelton, Tell City and Troy to Anderson Creek, where a modest sign has already been placed by the Perry and Spencer county historical societies telling that Abraham Lincoln himself there plied a ferryman's car in the employ of James Taylor more than a century ago.
Clarence C. Leaf of Tobinsport, who made the recent interesting discovery regarding Thomas Lincoln's family having crossed the Ohio river at that point instead of elsewhere, as long supposed, is a grand-nephew to the Jacob Weatherholt, Jr., who penned the document copied in this week's News. Jacob Weatherholt, Jr., was a
bachelor brother to George and James Weatherholt, the latter of whom was Mr. Leafs grandfather by his marriage to Deborah Anne Hyde. They were the parents of Annie Elizabeth Weatherholt, born 1848 now Mrs. Arad Leaf.
The land which Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., transferred to his son, Jacob, Jr., on August 20,1816, exactly fifty years before the memoir in question was written and recorded, lies some few hundred yards up the river from the present ferry landing and is owned by Mrs. Weatherholt-Leaf. It is just opposite the mouth of Clover Creek and was for many years the favored site for passage across the river.
Clarence Leaf gives the changes of hands through which the ferry franchise has passed in the following order:-1. Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., 2. Jacob Weatherholt, Jr.; 3. Zalmon Tousey; 4. Robert Batt; 5. Robert Tobin and Q. K. Groves; 6 Woodford Weatherholt; 7. Walter Weatherholt, (one half interest;) 8. J.W. Pate; 9. Thomas J. Lyons;
10. Edmund Tinsley, (one-half interest;) 11. Clarence C. Leaf, (halfinterest of Lyons heirs;) the present owners and operators being Messrs. Tinsley and Leaf.
Breckenridge county citizens have been aroused to warm interest in the new discovery and Judge Henry De Haven Moorman of Hardinsburg, now at home from the national House of Representatives, proposes to bring the matter officially before the Congress at the earliest possible opportunity, considering it a matter of utmost importance. It will also have speedy investigation by the Reference
and Research Committee of the Indiana Lincoln Union, of which Thomas James de la Hunt is a member from Perry County.
BRECKINRIDGE— PERRY COUNTY LINCOLN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION
D. D. DOWELL, President
E. D. JONES, Vice President
J. C. NOLTE, Treasurer
EDWARD GREGORY, Secretary
AT THE END OF THE TRAIL
The story of the journey of Thomas
Lincoln and his family through Har-
din and Breckinridge counties, Ky.,
to Indiana in 1816.
In the Breckinridge county Records, Volume I, there is recorded a petition presented by Joseph Houston at the June term of court in 1801, "praying" the court to establish a road from above the mouth of Clover Creek (at Cloverport) to the county court house at Hardinsburg. At the August term of court this petition was granted, and Joseph Houston was appointed overseer of the road from
the mouth of Clover Creek to Hites Run, and William Kelso was appointed overseer of the road from Hites Run to the county court house at Hardinsburg. On page 27 of the above cited volume, there is recorded a court order given at the March term of court in 1801 as followes:
"That the road that leads from the County Court House at Hardinsburg to the County Court House at Elizabethtown be kept in a good, passable condition at all times." This order indicated that this road was in existence prior
to 1801, and antedated the road from Joeville to Hardinsburg. This may be accounted for by the fact that Hardinsburg was an earlier settlement than that at Joeville, and that the older road was used for communication between Fort Hardin and Fort Hines, now known as Hardinsburg and Elizabethtown respectively. The above mentioned records clearly prove that by 1802 there was a road leading from Elizabethtown to a ferry at Joeville, now Cloverport, on the Ohio River.
After establishing the above facts, the committee investigated the records of Perry county in Indiana to determine whether or not there was a road leading from the ferry at Joeville westward through Indiana. In the Perry
county records at Cannelton, Indiana, the committee found a petition that had been filed at Troy, the early county seat of Perry, asking for a road to be made from Troy to the Beula Lamb Ferry to connect with the road that led from Joeville to Hardinsburg. This petition was presented and granted at the spring term of the Perry County Court in 1815. The petition was signed by thirty-one settlers who had taken up land in the section later known as Tobin's Bottom, the present site of Tobinsport, Indiana, which is located directly across the Ohio River from Cloverport, Kentucky. Among the signers were Charles Polk, Israel and John Lamb, Thomas Tobin, George and Joseph Drinkwater, Smith, Uriah Winchell and Thomas Polk, all of whom have descendants who have lived in Tobinsport in recent years. The location of the Beula Lamb Ferry was on section four of the Jacob Weatherholt, , Sr, tract of land. there is evidence to show that Buela Lamb was the daughter of Jacob Weatherholt, and upon her marriage to Dorastas Lamb she was given the upper section of the Weatherholt tract which included the ferry site. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lamb, being left with a large family to rear, placed her ferry intrests in the hands of her father and brother, Jacob Jr.
Thus the committe was able to establish the following facts concerning the exsistance of a ferry at Cloverport and the roads leading to and from the ferry prior to 1816, the year the Lincolns migrated to Indiana. In 1801, there was a road already in exsistance between Elizabethtown and Hardinsburg, and this road was worked on every spring and fall by the old-time method of "warning out" hands along the road keeping it in condition. In 1801, this road was extended to Joeville, the present site of Cloverport. In 1802, a ferry was licensened at Joeville. In 1815, a road was built from the Beula Lamb ferry, which was across the Ohio River from Joeville, to Troy, Indiana. It is reasonable to conclude that Thomas Lincoln followed the shortest route, which was the one above traced, for his journey to his new home.
The commitee then attempted to trace the journey of the little caravan, Indiana bound in 1816. The first clue came through the descendants of Col. David R. Murray, who came to Hardinsburg after the war of 1812, and set up a store in a small log building. Colonel Murray was the first person in Breckinridge County who was known to have come in contact with the Lincoln 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. Furthermore, he told them that they would be able to cross the Ohio River at Joeville, where they would find a licensed ferry. Later, when Abraham Lincoln had become President, it is said that he would relate the story of this trip, and that his account of the journey corrobrated the story of Colonel Murray. Lincoln is said to have told of passing through Hardinsburg on the way to Joeville, where they were ferried across the Ohio by Jacob Weatherholt, who built a raft of logs to carry the cart, while the cow and oxen were made to swim.
Colonel Murray related th story to his friends and to his children, who in turned passed it on to their descendants as a cherished memory of a worthy anscestor. The story was told by Col. Logan Murray, president of the United States National Bank; by Gen. Eli Murray, Utah's first governor; by Thomas Crittenden Murray, governor of of Missouri; by Judge J.A. Murray, and by David R. Murray Jr., all of whom remembered the story related to them by their father.
Edward Gregory, secretary of the Lincol Memorial Highway Association, was fortunate to meet Col. Logan Murray and to hear him tell the story of his father's experience with the Lincoln family. The following affidavit made by Mr. Gregory as to the story told him by Colonel Murray.
AFFIDAVIT OF EDWARD GREGORY
The affiant, Edward Gregory, now sixty-five years old, was born and reared in Cloverport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and is a grandson of John Gregory, a vetran of the War of 1812, who was among the early settlers of Cloverport where he lived until his death, being sworn and says:
That in the summer of 1920, Col. Logan Murray, who at the time was president of the United States National Bank of New York, was on a visit to his old home in Cloverport, where he was born and reared, and when I met him one afternoon as I was coming out of my front yard, and that he asked me to go with him to the old family graveyard a little more than a square from where I lived. On our way we took the middle of the street, and he and I were discussing an article which I had written about the early settlement of Cloverport, and which had appeared in the Breckinridge News the previous year. When we got past the corner where Henry Solbrig now lives, Col. Murray stopped and said: "Did you know, Ed, that when Thomas Lincoln and family moved to Indiana,ferried across the Ohio River here at Cloverport, Kentucky?" He then told me the following story and said that his father, Col. David R. Murray, had often told it to him and the rest of the family. Colonel Murray said: "When the Lincoln family moved from Hodgenville, they came through Hardinsburg on their way to their land-grant in Indiana. 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 ac-
count of the unusual size of the oxen, a crowd soon gathered to find out who these people were and where they were going. The outfit consisted of Thomas Lincoln with his family, his wife, a daughter, and a small boy about seven years old; some household furnishings such as bedding and cooking utensils; a cow he was taking along for milk, but looked as if she was about dry, and the team of oxen. 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.
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. 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.
Then they came back, and the two oxen and the cow were made to swim over."
Turning from the position in which he stood while telling me this story. Colonel Murray faced the river and pointed across the Ohio to the old Jacob Weatherholt, sr., farm, which fronts the river. He then pointed out to me a house farther back, where a few years later the old Jacob
Weatherholt, jr., document, which is described below, was found.
The attached picture shows the affiant standing at the place in this street where the foregoing conversation was held. He is standing on the same spot and pointing in the same direction that Colonel Murray pointed, indicating where Lincoln crossed the Ohio River at Cloverport.
Signed— EDWARD GREGORY.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 26th day of March, 1930.
C. W. HAM MAN, Notary Public
Breckinridge County.
My commission expires June 10, 1931
The committee submits the following affidavit of Mrs. Aliene Murray Ferry, who is a daughter of Col. David R. Murray, Jr., a brother of Logan Murray, proving that this story of the meeting between Col. David R. Murray and Thomas Lincoln has been handed down from father to
child.
AFFIDAVIT OF ALIENE MURRAY FERRY
Cloverport, Ky.
December 30, 1931.
This is to certify that I have read the statement of Mr. Edward Gregory regarding a conversation between him and Logan C. Murray about Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham Lincoln, having crossed the Ohio River at Cloverport, Ky. I have heard my father, David R. Murray,
and Uncle Logan Murray tell the same story, and will testify that Mr. Gregory's statement is the same that I have always heard. I will add this, that my father told me that one day his father, David R. Murray, Sr., called Minerva,
(.the Colored woman), into the dining room and said: "Minerva, do you remember the family that came through Hardinsburg, when we lived there, in an ox-wagon, and you gave the children bread and milk?" She said, "Yes
sir!" He then asked her boy's name, and she replied: "Abe Linkhorn." He then told her it was Abraham Lincoln, and that he was being inaugurated as President of the United States.
Signed— ALIENE M FERRY
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge, Set.
Subscribed and sworn to before me as a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid by Aliene Murray Ferry (Mrs. Fred D. Ferry), who is personally known to me and to be the granddaughter of David R. Murray,
Sr., and the daughter of David R. Murray, Jr.
C. W. HAMMAN.
Notary Pubhc, Breckinridge Co., Kentucky.
My commission expires January 10, 193-1.
The committee submits the following statement made by Matthias Miller, whose story corroborates that told by the Murrays. Mr. Miller, whose death occurred only a few years ago, was one of Breckinridge county's oldest and most outstanding citizens. Up to the time of his death
his memory remained clear and he was able to recall many stories told to him by his older relatives and old settlers in Hardinsburg.
Affidavit of Honorable Matthias Miller, in Re :
Lincoln Party at Hardinsburg, Kentucky,
The affiant, Matthias Miller, now; president of The Farmers Bank & Trust Company, Hardinsburg, Ky., states that he was born near Hardinsburg, Ky., on August 26, 1836, and has continuously resided here since then, and
is now ninety-four years old.
That in 1859, when the news reached
Breckinridge county that Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States, he was riding to Hardinsburg in company with his uncle, John DeHaven, then an elderly man. They were discussing the election when his uncle stopped his horse in the road near the branch, or creek, of Bush Run, at the south edge of Hardinsburg. He pointed to a small cabin in the valley to the east of the road, and said: "There is where the Lincolns spent two or three weeks, as Thomas Lincoln, with young Abraham, moved to Indiana." He went on to tell that one of the Lincoln party was ill, and that they remained in the cabin until health returned, in the meanwhile receiving charity from the settlers in Hardinsburg. My uncle further stated that he remembered particularly that when the Lincoln party started from Hardinsburg. that 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.
The affiant also states that it is his reliable information that his great-uncle, Joe Houston, bought and owned quite a lot of land about the mouth of Clover Creek, and that he built, or caused to be built, several small houses on this land. This settlement was given the name of Joeville. Mr. Miller also states that he was definitely and reliably informed that the Lincoln party was ferried across the Ohio River at Joeville by a man of the name of Weatherholt.
Signed— MATTHLAS MILLER
Subscribed and sworn to before me by Judge Matthias Miller, this the 29th day of January, 1930.
ERNIE BATES, Clerk, Breckinridge County Court by W.C. Pate, Deputy Clerk.
The above affidavits attest to the fact that the Lincoln family passed through Hardinsburg on their way to Joeville, now Cloverport, where they crossed the Ohio River.
Judge Miller states that the ferry-man was a man named Weatherholt. To definitely identify this man who ferried the Lincolns across the river, the following affidavits are submitted.
Mildred J. Pate was a daughter of Jacob Weatherholt, sr., who ferried the Lincoln party across the Ohio at Joeville in 1816. Mrs. Pate, who survived her father by many years, was perhaps more familiar with the details of the
actual crossing than any other person who was still living in recent years. The following is her story as she told it to her great-grandson, Walter H. Hawkins.
AFFIDAVIT OF WALTER H. HAWKINS
Cloverport, Kentucky
January 7, 1931
I, Walter H. Hawkins of this city, am a direct descendant of Jacob Weatherholt, sr. His only child by his second marriage was my great grandmother, Mildred Pate, who lived to be ninety-seven years old. and who had a remark-
able memory and could tell many happenings of by-gone days. She was the mother of Nobe Pate of Hardinsburg and of my grandfather, the late C. B. Pate of this city.
One night at my grandfather's home, where great-grandmother Mildred and I made our home. I was getting up a history lesson (I was attending school at this time), and the subject of Abe Lincoln came up. Great-grandmother said, "I will give you a bit of history about Abe
Lincoln that probably your book doesn't give. Back in 1816, my father ferried Abe Lincoln, his father, mother, and sister across the river here from a point near where the Tile Plant now stands to a place on the other side of the river just above the present ferry landing. This land
was owned by my father. They built a raft of logs and set the two-wheeled ox-cart and family over on the raft, but they made the cattle swim across. Their cart was drawn by two large oxen and they were leading a cow for milk. The Lincolns came here from Hodgenville by way of
Hardinsburg."
My great-grandmother also stated that Mr. Murray's old Colored woman gave the Lincoln children something to eat. She said that the Lincolns camped on her father's farm on the Indiana side the first night after crossing the
river. This is the true story told to me by my great-grandmother, Mildred J. Pate.
Signed— WALTER H. HAWKINS
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge.
Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid, by Walter H. Hawkins, who is personally known to me, and to be the
great-great-grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, sr., this the seventh day of January, 1931
C. W. HAMMAN.
My commission expires January 10, 1934.
The following statement was made by George Tobin Weatherholt, who was the grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, jr., who wrote his memoirs and had the document recorded in Deed Book A, on pages 8-9, at Cannelton,
"I ferried Thomas Lincoln, his wife, Nancy, and daughter, and his son, Albraham. from the hills of Kentucky to Indiana, on a raft made out of logs, from above the mouth of Clover Creek at Cloverport, Ky., in 1816. — Jacob Weatherholt, sr.".
Recorded in Deed Book August 20, 1866, at Cannelton, Ind.
This document tells the story of the Lincolns being- ferried across the Ohio River by Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. The account of the finding the original document will be told later in this article.
After Thomas Lincoln and his family passed through Hardinsburg on their way to their home in Indiana, he talked to Col. David R. Murray, and was told by Col. Murray, "Take this road to Joeville, I own the ferry and my man, Jacob Weatherholt, will get you across the Ohio River there." Col. Murray saw the beginning of the steamboat days, and he then moved to Joeville, building this 8-room Log House Tavern, the first and only Tavern on the Ohio River on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. The steamboats then operating were the Constitution, Washington, Franklin, Etna, and the Comnet. .
AFFIDAVIT OF GEORGE T. WEATHERHOLT
The affiant, George Tobin Weatherholt, being duly sworn, states that he is more than seventy-seven years of age, and that now he resides in Cloverport, Kentucky, but that he was born and reared in Tobinsport, Tobin Township Perry county, Indiana. He states that he is a son
of James Weatherholt, whose father was the Jacob Weatherholt, jr., who wrote his memoirs and recorded the document in Deed Book A, on pages 8-9, in Cannelton, Indiana, the county seat of Perry county, and that Jacob
Weatherholt, sr., as is mentioned in the document, was the man who ferried Thomas Lincoln across the Ohio River at Cloverport, then known as Joeville, in the year 1816,
and was the great grandfather of the affiant. George Weatherholt. He further states that his grandfather, Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was the father of six children, as follows: George Weatherholt, James Weatherholt (father
of the affiant), Catherine Weatherholt (who was named for her grandmother, wife of Jacob Weatherholt, sr., who was born in Pennsylvania), Ruth Weatherholt, Joseph
Weatherholt (who was named for Joseph Tobin, father of Jacob Weatherholt Jr's., wife,) and Jacob Weatherholt, the Third.
He further states, that of the six children, only one was married and that he was James Weatherholt, father of the affiant. He also says that the family records were destroyed by fire, but that he believes that his grandfather, Jacob Weatherholt, jr., died in 1868.
Signed— GEORGE TOBIN WEATHERHOLT
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge.
Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid by George Tobin Weatherholt, who is personally known to me and to be related as he has stated, this the twenty-first day of March, 1931.
C. W. HAMMAN.
My commission expires January 10, 1934.
Members of the Hanks family, who have lived in or near Cloverport, have always claimed that Thomas Lincoln and his family crossed the Ohio River at Cloverport. Another fact in the life of President Lincoln which has been over looked by historians, is that he and his mother returned
in later years to visit relatives near Hodgenville. The Hanks descendants claim that mother and son, riding one horse, did return, and stayed two days at the Martin Whale place, where Nancy Hanks Lincoln spun yarn to help pay their way. On their return trip they stopped at Joeville,
where they again crossed the Ohio River. Evidence has been found that proves that this story is correct. The following affidavit of John Hanks is submitted as further proof that Thomas Lincoln and his family crossed the Ohio River at Joeville, now Cloverport, in 1816.
AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN HANKS
I, John Hanks, being of sound mind and in possession of all my mental faculties, do hereby state, that I am a veteran of the Civil War, and was eighty-four years of age on May 18, 1929, being born May 18, 1845, and that I am
the son of William Hanks, who died at Stephensport, Ky., in the year 1899, and who, at the time of his death was ninety-six years of age. I have often heard my father say,
that Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy Hanks Lincoln, as he called them, as they moved to Indiana, went to Joeville, now Cloverport, Kentucky, and crossed the Ohio River on a raft made of logs.
Signed— JOHN HANKS
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge.
Subscribed and sworn to me by John W. Hanks, who is personally known to me, and said by him to be true in every particular, this fourth day of February, 1930.
C. W. HAMMAN, Notary Public
The affidavit submitted below is that of Clarence E. Keith, whose mother was a LaHeist. The families of George and Samuel LaHeist were earlv settlers of Joeville, coming to that place about 1820. Naturally, they had often heard the older settlers talk about the Lincoln family
crossing the Ohio River at Joeville.
AFFIDAVIT OF CLARENCE E. KEITH
I, C. E. Keith, after being duly sworn, make the following statement. That at this time I am a resident of Elizabethtown, in Hardin county, Kentucky, but I was born and reared in Cloverport, Breckinridge county, Kentucky
and am a son of John E. Keith and Elizabeth LaHeist Keith, both now deceased. My mother was a daughter of Samuel LaHeist, who was among the first settlers of Cloverport, and who was the first postmaster of that town, and this office was held by members of his family for sixty years. My mother knew Mrs. Kittie Monroe, who was the wife of James Monroe, who lived in Cloverport above Clover Creek, and who claimed to be of Indian descent, and who was a root and herb doctor and a mid-wife. I have heard my mother say many times that she had heard Mrs. Monroe say that she remembered when the Lincoln family stayed one night in her father's home as they were on their way to Indiana, and that she was about sixteen years of age at that time, and that after Abraham Lincoln was elected President, she loved to tell about entertaining a President.
Signed— C. E. KEITH.
State of Kentucky,
County of Hardin, Set.
Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid by C. E. Keith, who is personally known to me, this the sixteenth day of January. 1931.
STILES M. JENKINS. Notary Pubic.
The story of the finding of the original document
mentioned in the affidavit of George T. Weatherholt, is both interesting and informative. In the statement made by Edward Gregory, the reader will recall that Colonel Murray is said to have pointed out a small house situated on the Jacob Weatherholt farm in Tobinsport. Indiana.
It was in this house that the document, which is the most conclusive evidence on record in Indiana, was found.
Mr. Leaf, the present owner of the house, was searching through an old trunk, which had been purchased at the sale of the property of Jacob Weatherholt, jr. deceased, when he found a bundle of old land grants that had belonged to
Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. Among these old papers. Mr. Leaf found a document written by Jacob Weatherholt long after the death of his father. This document was dated August 20, 1866, and had been recorded in Deed Book A. pages 8-9, at Cannelton, Indiana. Jacob Weatherholt, jr., had drawn up and recorded the document with the evident purpose of leaving undeniable proof to his posterity that his father, Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., had ferried Thomas Lincoln and his family across the Ohio River in 1816.
In this document, Jacob jr., writes: "My father's friend, Thomas Lincoln, his wife Nancy, daughter Sarah, and son, Abraham, the latter eight years of age, came from the hills of Kentucky to Indiana by canoe and a raft. The moving party consisted of the family, an ox-cart, a pair of oxen, a cow, and some camping necessities, and they were ferried from above the mouth of Clover Creek, camping on the land I own . The next day they made their way down to Rock Island and camped at what is known as Lafayette Springs, and the next day moved on toward their new home to take up a claim near Vincennes, Indiana."
No piece of evidence has been fought harder or more consistently than that presented by the above quoted document. A most vicious attempt was made by some of the contestants to prove that Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was
not living in 1866, the date of the document. In order to estabish their claim a page was stolen from the Tax Book at Cannelton, Indiana, and an attempt was made by a man and woman to destroy all signs of some unmarked graves
in the Lamb burial ground in Tobinsport, Indiana. In spite of such criminal actions, all the evidence points to the fact that Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was alive in 1866, and that the document written and recorded by him is authentic.
When Colonel David R. Murray, sr., moved from Hardinsburg to Joeville, he retained Jacob Weatherholt, sr., to operate the ferry, which he (Colonel Murray) had inherited through his wife Eliza, the daughter of Joseph Houston. After the death of his father, Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was retained as ferryman by Colonel Murray.
The following item copied verbatim from the Cloverport Journal published in 1865, proves conclusively that Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was alive and operating the ferry at that time.
"On last Thursday, two white men with a family of Negroes, eight in number came into this town on the Bowling Green road and crossed the river here. They passed through the town without exciting any particular suspicion as they were supposed to be movers, going up the river road. Mr. Weatherholt, the ferryman, somewhat doubted the propriety of setting them across, but as he knew they had passed through town, he came to the conclusion he ought to do so. About the time however he had gotten over, his suspicions were thoroughly aroused that there was something wrong, and he came back and reported that the men had told him. they were moving to Missouri. He knew that any sensible man would know better than to transport slaves across Indiana and with a number of our citizens started in pursuit and came up to them at midnight encamped about six miles back. The white men had left them."
The exact date of the death of Jacob Weatherholt. jr., is not denitely known, but in the affidavit of his grandson, George T. Weatherholt the statement is made that it
is the belief of the affiant that his grandfather died in 1868.
The above cited document, regularly recorded in the Perry county records, together with the affidavits above submitted, establish beyond any reasonable doubt, the exact trail followed by the Lincoln family through Breckinridge county, Kentucky, and through Perry county, Indiana. The, Lincolns, coming from 'Elizabethtown,
passed through Hardinsburg, where they stopped in a cabin near the southern edge of the town. Two or three weeks later, they moved on to Joeville, where they spent one night in the home of Mrs. Kittie Monroe's father. The next day they were ferried across the Ohio River by Jacob Weatherholt, sr., on whose land they camped that night. The following day they moved on to Lafayette Springs, and from there to their new home near Vincennes, Ind.
A few years ago. Governor Sampson of Kentucky appointed a commission to investigate all claims, and to determine the route followed by the Lincolns through the State of Kentucky. This coimmission spent three years hearing all claims and examining all documents presented by the various contestants, and, finally, on July 8, 1933, at Brandenburg, Kentucky, they adopted the following route as that over which the Lincoln Memorial Highway should be built.
ROUTE AS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
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. From there the road will follow as closely as practicable the trail of the old Springfield Pike to Elizabethtown.
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. Six miles farther is the old Brumfield farm, on which
Abraham's aunt, Nancy Ann Lincoln Brumfield, and his grandmother, Bersheba Lincoln, lived more than thirty years.
C. W. HAMMAN.
ROAD VEERS WESTWARD
The route here veers westward. A mile on, is the old cemetery of the first regular Baptist church of Mill Creek, in which five members of the original Lincoln family are buried. Sixteen direct descendants of Nancy Ann Lincoln Brumfield now live in the Mill Creek community, and the family names of Nancy and Abraham still predominate.
Continuing west the road follows the trace of the old pioneer Salt Lick Trail through Vine Grove. Flaherty, and Big Spring to U. S. 6O near Harned's Station.
The route then lies over U. S. 6O through Hardinsburg, and thence to Cloverport to the Ohio River crossing, where it connects with the Indiana Unit of the Memorial Highway.
A few days after the meeting at Brandenburg, the Fiscal Court of Breckinridge county officially accepted the route adopted by the commission.
THE ACCEPTANCE
In the matter of the Lincoln Memorial Highway, the Fiscal Court of Breckinridge county has before it the report of the Kentucky Commission of the Lincoln Highway Association of its findings made at Brandenburg. Saturday, July 8, 1933, which report designates in a general way the route of this road through Breckinridge
county.
We, the members of the Breckinridge County Fiscal Court, hereby approve of the findings of said commission and will. render any service that we can in procuring the construction of said Lincoln Memorial Highway. And order that a copy of this order be presented to the meet-
ing of the Lincoln Memorial Highway Association to be held at Elizabethtown, Tuesday, July 25, 1933.
ERNIE BATES, Clerk, Breckinridge County Court.
The meeting of the Lincoln Memorial Highway Association was held at Elizabethtown on Tuesday, July 25, 1933. In addition to representatives from Breckinridge,
PRINTED BY: THE BRECKENRIDGE NEWS, Cloverport, Kentucky
FEBRUARY, 1933
*Family of German decent
*Entered Land Patent 1808
*Tax List for June ~ July 1815
*Sat on first Court Jury 1815
*Had a licensed ferry above the mouth of Clover Creek.
*Ferried Lincoln Family 1816
*On Early Voting List 3 Aug 1818
*Accepted in State of Kentucky, 1933 to have ferried the Lincoln Family from Cloverport (Then Joeville) KY to Tobinsport in the year 1816 on his ferry.
* October 1958 - The sesquicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln will be observed in 1959 throughout the United States. The Lincoln Trek Celebration Committee plans to commemorate the trip of the Lincoln family from their home near Hodgenville to their new home in Indiana by re-enacting the trip on October 22-24
Re-enactment of the Lincoln family's trek from Kentucky to Indiana calls attention to 150th anniversary of the 16th President's birth.
The trek sponsored jointly by the Kentucky and Indiana Lincoln Sesquicentennial commissions.
*On Friday Oct' 24, 1958 " The Lincolns (re-enactors) crossed the Ohio River from Cloverport to Tobinsport, arriving on the Indiana side of the river, who were welcomed to Indiana by Roy Combs, state auditor and chairman of the Indiana Lincoln Sesqui-Centennial Commission.
*Historical Marker # 73 at Cloverport denotes the site where the Lincoln family crossed the Ohio River on their journey to Indiana.
*Wikipedia ~ "Breckinridge County, Kentucky
In 1816, when future United States President Abraham Lincoln was seven years old, his father, Thomas Lincoln and his family spent a few weeks in Hardinsburg and 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. The Lincolns left Kentucky by crossing the Ohio River at Cloverport, on a log ferry operated by Jacob Weatherholt"
Cloverport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky
"The town was once known as Joesville after its founder, Joe Huston. Established around 1798 (or possibly 1808[4]), the town was the site of the ferry where, in 1816, Jacob Weatherholt piloted the family of Abraham Lincoln, then seven, across the Ohio River on its way to a newly acquired farm in Spencer County, Indiana."
*Family Marker at Tobinsport Ferry denotes Lincoln's crossing on ferry owned by Jacob Weatherholt in 1816 into Indiana.
Jacob Weatherholt - 1758 - April 23, 1837. Served as a private in the Ninth and Thirteenth Regiments, Western Department of the Virginia Contential Troops. under Col John Gibson and Captain Thomas Moore. He received a Land Bounty warrant No. 2886, and a pension approved 1818, at $96 per year. He is buried Tobinsport Cemetery (Lamb Cemetery). Jacob was born in Lehigh Co., PA and was the son of John Jacob and Susanna Weatherholt. The father and his brother, John Nicolas, came to America in 1754 from Germany and immediately on arrival became connected with the military establishment of the colony and had a prominent and distinctive part in the affairs of Colonial Pennsylvania. He (John Jacob) was fatally wounded while participating in a campaign against the Indians and died October 9, 1763. In 1766 the widow remarried and subsequently removed to Monongalia Co., VA, now West Virginia with her second husband, Michael Kerns. The Revolutionary services of Jacob, the Indiana pioneer, are authenticated by Saffell's "Records of the Revolution" by records held in the family and documents on file in the State Archives Office of Kentucky at Frankford. Honourably discharged March 1, 1780. Jacob re-enlisted in 1781. He was honorabley discharged after the last three yeas of service, April 5, 1784. Files of Wallace Weatherholt
Listed in the 'Society of Indiana Pioneers' - Jacob Weatherholt: b Pensylvannia, 1758. to Perry Co. from
Kentucky, 1807. (In Revolutionary War)
Perry County, A History, by Thomas de la Hunt, 1916
Jacob Weatherholt, while not a pensioner, was a Tobin Township pioneer whose military service is authenticated by W. T. R. Saffell's "Records of the Revolutionary War" (pp. 280-281). Born 1758 in Virginia, he enlisted in the Western Department, and March 1, 1780, was honourably discharged from the Detachment of Colonel John Gibson, who served from January 1, 1780, until December 6, 1781, when he surrendered his command to Brigadier-General William Irvine.
Jacob Weatherholt died April 23, 1837, and was buried in the "Upper Cemetery" at Tobinsport, beside his wife, Sarah. (s/b Catherine)
Jacob Weatherholt, one of Indiana's earliest settlers, was born July 27, 1760, in Lynn Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Captain Johann Jacob and Susanna Christina Wetterhold. At the age of three, his father was killed in an Indian attack on the inn where he and his company were staying, near Bethlehem, Pennyslvania.
In 1778, Jacob followed the family's military tradition and enlisted in the army. He served at Fort Pitt as a Private int he Ninth and Thirteenth Virginia Regiments under Colonel John Gibson and Captain Thomas Moore. Jacob was honorably discharged March 1, 1780. He re-enlisted in 1781 because of Indiana uprisings in the area.
While in the army, Jacob was married to Catherine Boesher, the daughter of Jacob Boesher. Catherine, born in 1764, was from Hanover Township which was at that time Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Thru research it may be found that Jacob and Catherine (Boesher) Weatherholt were the parents of the following children:
Jacob 1784-1828 h/o Rebecca Tobin
John 1786-1865 h/o Rebecca Hayden
Susanne ca 1787-?? w/o Robert Wilson
William 1792-1849 h/o Sarah Wagner
Sarah 1794-1830 w/o Uriah Avery Winchel
Henry 1795-1872 h/o Mary Sims
Mildred 1799-1842 w/o Uriah Winchel
Betty 1802-1820 never married died in Breckinridge Co., KY
After Catherine (Boeshor) Weatherholt died Jacob married for a second time to Sarah Jane Short Miller (1770-1866) of Breckinridge Co., Kentucky. Jacob and Sarah Jane (Short-Miller) Weatherholt were the parents of one daughter:
Mildred Jane 1817-1914 w/o William L. Pate
The Tell City News, June 8, 1928
IMPORTANT LINCOLN DISCOVERY
Documentary Evidence That Thomas Lincoln
and His Family Crossed the Ohio River at
"Tobin's Point"
All historians and biographers of Abraham Lincoln have long
been baffled by the problem of just where Thomas Lincoln and family crossed the Ohio river on their way from Kentucky into Indiana. Most writers have taken it for granted that this crossing was effected at Troy, basing such assumption on the longstanding story of Thomas Lincoln having made his own first trip to Indiana by boat
down Salt River and the Ohio River as far as Troy, then the county seat of Perry county and including the Little Pigeon tract of land on which he settled, now in Spencer county. Within a year past some claims have been brought forward by citizens of Grandview and vicinity alleging the mouth of Big Sandy Creek to have been the scene of the crossing, since there was an early Kentucky settlement
at the mouth of Blackford Creek nearly opposite. These claims, however interesting, appear wholly traditional, handed down by word of mouth, and lack substantiation by the "documentary evidence" which the modern school of historians consider indispensable.
A bill as been recently introduced by a Kentucky Representative in the Congress at Washington, proposing to mark suitably the route from Kentucky through Indiana into Illinois which the Lincolns followed, calling it informally "the Barefoot Trail," or "The Cradle to the Grave." With this project attracting popular attention, it was a highly fortunate coincidence that during the last week a holograph document more than sixty years old was found by Judge Oscar C. Minor of the 70th Judicial Circuit, bound in an official record book at the Court House in Cannelton, throwing entirely new light on the
situation and possibly offering a completely satisfactory solution.
This valuable discovery, written in blue ink on heavy legal-cap paper, is here reproduced as follows, verbatim as to orthography, punctuation, etc.:
(Insert bound at page 9-10 of Original Deed Book "A" of Perry county, Indiana, in Recorder's Office at Court House in Cannelton.)
"Sealed Aug. 20, 1866
"Memory of Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. at this writing seventy-one years of age from 1866 back to 1816 the year Indiana became a state. Abraham Lincoln to whom I am ref fering to thi s day and age was one of the greatest landmarks of America. My father Jacob Weatherholt Sr. ferried Thomas Lincoln and family Wife Nancy Daughter Sarah and son Abraham age eight years from the hills of Kentucky to
Indiana consisting of a yoke of oxen a cow a cart and some camping outfit by canoe and raft of logs from what is Clover creek, Ky to Indiana and landed on land and camped over night on land I now own and hold deed for Refference and next day made his way down the Indiana Banks of the Ohio by Indian trails and paths and camped the second night at what is known as Rock Island where General
LaFayette was recked in 1825, and then made his way to his New Indiana Home where he had taken up a Federal land claim at Vincennes and from this on not all dates can I give. In fall of 1818 Thomas Lincoln wife died from one of the World greatest Dread at that time much sickness and for Funeral services no Preecher could be had as Preechers was scarce a letter was sent back to the old Kentucky Home and to the best of my recall His name was John Attwood. In spring of 1819 he came and preached Nancy funeral. In Fall of 1819 Thomas Lincoln returned to his Old Kentucky Home
by same Trail and Brought Back with him his second Wife By the Name of Sarah Bush whom had been married to a man name
Johnson. In about 1827 Abraham Lincoln made a flat boat trip South and came back a Slave-holder Hater and made the remark If I only had a chance By the Eternal Gods I would Fre the Negroes. In about 1830 Thomas Lincoln sold his Indiana Home and moved to Illinois and then a few years I have no recall But in 1844 Abraham Lincoln returned Back to Indiana making speeches for Henry Clay Candidate for President. In about 1851 Thomas Lincoln Died. In 1860
Abraham Lincoln was Elected President of the United States and Stered Wheel of the Mighty Wars of the Sixtys between the North and the South, and lived to see the day to make his word good By the Eternal Gods did Free the Negroes In 1864 Was Relected President 1865 was assinated by William Booth & this being 1866 just Fifty years Back 1816 since I first new Abraham Lincoln whom I am Referring to I Jacob Weatherholt Jr writing a few lines and attaching on Indiana Deed Record A-Page 9 & 10 also on deed I now hold for Refference.
"Jacob Weatherholt, Jr.
'at this writing W.P. Drumb Recorder" Aug. 20-1866-attached
Thomas de la Hunt, secretary of the South western Indiana Historical Society, laid the facts of this discovery before the quarterly meeting of the society, Friday, June 1, at Gentryville, where it was pronounced one of the most important discoveries that has been made in The Pocket touching "the Lincoln Inquiry" initiated by Hon. John E. Iglehart, founder and President-Emeritus of the organization a discovery that will attract wide attention among the Indiana Lincoln Union's Reference and Research Committee whose chairman is Mrs. Calder D. Ehrman of Rockport, also President of the Southwestern.
Judge Minor pronounces the document indisputable 'prima
fake' evidence; testimony of such nature as would stand in any court of law. A duplicate of this bound document is in the possession of Clarence C. Leaf of Tobinsport, through his mother, Mrs. Arad Leaf(Elizabeth Weatherholt), a grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. and a greatgrandson of Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. a veteran of the American Revolution, who about 1807-8 had entered the land referred to. Mr. Leaf, (whose young grandson, Arnie Leaf, Jr.,is sixth in direct descent from the Revolutionary 'patriot.') now operates the ferry between Tobinsport and Cloverport where his ancestor ferried the Lincolns across and hopes to see the point appropriately designated in the near future as well as location of the remainder of the route past Rock Island and "Lafayette Spring" through Cannelton, Tell City and Troy to Anderson Creek, where a modest sign has already been placed by the Perry and Spencer county historical societies telling that Abraham Lincoln himself there plied a ferryman's car in the employ of James Taylor more than a century ago.
Clarence C. Leaf of Tobinsport, who made the recent interesting discovery regarding Thomas Lincoln's family having crossed the Ohio river at that point instead of elsewhere, as long supposed, is a grand-nephew to the Jacob Weatherholt, Jr., who penned the document copied in this week's News. Jacob Weatherholt, Jr., was a
bachelor brother to George and James Weatherholt, the latter of whom was Mr. Leafs grandfather by his marriage to Deborah Anne Hyde. They were the parents of Annie Elizabeth Weatherholt, born 1848 now Mrs. Arad Leaf.
The land which Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., transferred to his son, Jacob, Jr., on August 20,1816, exactly fifty years before the memoir in question was written and recorded, lies some few hundred yards up the river from the present ferry landing and is owned by Mrs. Weatherholt-Leaf. It is just opposite the mouth of Clover Creek and was for many years the favored site for passage across the river.
Clarence Leaf gives the changes of hands through which the ferry franchise has passed in the following order:-1. Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., 2. Jacob Weatherholt, Jr.; 3. Zalmon Tousey; 4. Robert Batt; 5. Robert Tobin and Q. K. Groves; 6 Woodford Weatherholt; 7. Walter Weatherholt, (one half interest;) 8. J.W. Pate; 9. Thomas J. Lyons;
10. Edmund Tinsley, (one-half interest;) 11. Clarence C. Leaf, (halfinterest of Lyons heirs;) the present owners and operators being Messrs. Tinsley and Leaf.
Breckenridge county citizens have been aroused to warm interest in the new discovery and Judge Henry De Haven Moorman of Hardinsburg, now at home from the national House of Representatives, proposes to bring the matter officially before the Congress at the earliest possible opportunity, considering it a matter of utmost importance. It will also have speedy investigation by the Reference
and Research Committee of the Indiana Lincoln Union, of which Thomas James de la Hunt is a member from Perry County.
BRECKINRIDGE— PERRY COUNTY LINCOLN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION
D. D. DOWELL, President
E. D. JONES, Vice President
J. C. NOLTE, Treasurer
EDWARD GREGORY, Secretary
AT THE END OF THE TRAIL
The story of the journey of Thomas
Lincoln and his family through Har-
din and Breckinridge counties, Ky.,
to Indiana in 1816.
In the Breckinridge county Records, Volume I, there is recorded a petition presented by Joseph Houston at the June term of court in 1801, "praying" the court to establish a road from above the mouth of Clover Creek (at Cloverport) to the county court house at Hardinsburg. At the August term of court this petition was granted, and Joseph Houston was appointed overseer of the road from
the mouth of Clover Creek to Hites Run, and William Kelso was appointed overseer of the road from Hites Run to the county court house at Hardinsburg. On page 27 of the above cited volume, there is recorded a court order given at the March term of court in 1801 as followes:
"That the road that leads from the County Court House at Hardinsburg to the County Court House at Elizabethtown be kept in a good, passable condition at all times." This order indicated that this road was in existence prior
to 1801, and antedated the road from Joeville to Hardinsburg. This may be accounted for by the fact that Hardinsburg was an earlier settlement than that at Joeville, and that the older road was used for communication between Fort Hardin and Fort Hines, now known as Hardinsburg and Elizabethtown respectively. The above mentioned records clearly prove that by 1802 there was a road leading from Elizabethtown to a ferry at Joeville, now Cloverport, on the Ohio River.
After establishing the above facts, the committee investigated the records of Perry county in Indiana to determine whether or not there was a road leading from the ferry at Joeville westward through Indiana. In the Perry
county records at Cannelton, Indiana, the committee found a petition that had been filed at Troy, the early county seat of Perry, asking for a road to be made from Troy to the Beula Lamb Ferry to connect with the road that led from Joeville to Hardinsburg. This petition was presented and granted at the spring term of the Perry County Court in 1815. The petition was signed by thirty-one settlers who had taken up land in the section later known as Tobin's Bottom, the present site of Tobinsport, Indiana, which is located directly across the Ohio River from Cloverport, Kentucky. Among the signers were Charles Polk, Israel and John Lamb, Thomas Tobin, George and Joseph Drinkwater, Smith, Uriah Winchell and Thomas Polk, all of whom have descendants who have lived in Tobinsport in recent years. The location of the Beula Lamb Ferry was on section four of the Jacob Weatherholt, , Sr, tract of land. there is evidence to show that Buela Lamb was the daughter of Jacob Weatherholt, and upon her marriage to Dorastas Lamb she was given the upper section of the Weatherholt tract which included the ferry site. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lamb, being left with a large family to rear, placed her ferry intrests in the hands of her father and brother, Jacob Jr.
Thus the committe was able to establish the following facts concerning the exsistance of a ferry at Cloverport and the roads leading to and from the ferry prior to 1816, the year the Lincolns migrated to Indiana. In 1801, there was a road already in exsistance between Elizabethtown and Hardinsburg, and this road was worked on every spring and fall by the old-time method of "warning out" hands along the road keeping it in condition. In 1801, this road was extended to Joeville, the present site of Cloverport. In 1802, a ferry was licensened at Joeville. In 1815, a road was built from the Beula Lamb ferry, which was across the Ohio River from Joeville, to Troy, Indiana. It is reasonable to conclude that Thomas Lincoln followed the shortest route, which was the one above traced, for his journey to his new home.
The commitee then attempted to trace the journey of the little caravan, Indiana bound in 1816. The first clue came through the descendants of Col. David R. Murray, who came to Hardinsburg after the war of 1812, and set up a store in a small log building. Colonel Murray was the first person in Breckinridge County who was known to have come in contact with the Lincoln 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. Furthermore, he told them that they would be able to cross the Ohio River at Joeville, where they would find a licensed ferry. Later, when Abraham Lincoln had become President, it is said that he would relate the story of this trip, and that his account of the journey corrobrated the story of Colonel Murray. Lincoln is said to have told of passing through Hardinsburg on the way to Joeville, where they were ferried across the Ohio by Jacob Weatherholt, who built a raft of logs to carry the cart, while the cow and oxen were made to swim.
Colonel Murray related th story to his friends and to his children, who in turned passed it on to their descendants as a cherished memory of a worthy anscestor. The story was told by Col. Logan Murray, president of the United States National Bank; by Gen. Eli Murray, Utah's first governor; by Thomas Crittenden Murray, governor of of Missouri; by Judge J.A. Murray, and by David R. Murray Jr., all of whom remembered the story related to them by their father.
Edward Gregory, secretary of the Lincol Memorial Highway Association, was fortunate to meet Col. Logan Murray and to hear him tell the story of his father's experience with the Lincoln family. The following affidavit made by Mr. Gregory as to the story told him by Colonel Murray.
AFFIDAVIT OF EDWARD GREGORY
The affiant, Edward Gregory, now sixty-five years old, was born and reared in Cloverport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and is a grandson of John Gregory, a vetran of the War of 1812, who was among the early settlers of Cloverport where he lived until his death, being sworn and says:
That in the summer of 1920, Col. Logan Murray, who at the time was president of the United States National Bank of New York, was on a visit to his old home in Cloverport, where he was born and reared, and when I met him one afternoon as I was coming out of my front yard, and that he asked me to go with him to the old family graveyard a little more than a square from where I lived. On our way we took the middle of the street, and he and I were discussing an article which I had written about the early settlement of Cloverport, and which had appeared in the Breckinridge News the previous year. When we got past the corner where Henry Solbrig now lives, Col. Murray stopped and said: "Did you know, Ed, that when Thomas Lincoln and family moved to Indiana,ferried across the Ohio River here at Cloverport, Kentucky?" He then told me the following story and said that his father, Col. David R. Murray, had often told it to him and the rest of the family. Colonel Murray said: "When the Lincoln family moved from Hodgenville, they came through Hardinsburg on their way to their land-grant in Indiana. 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 ac-
count of the unusual size of the oxen, a crowd soon gathered to find out who these people were and where they were going. The outfit consisted of Thomas Lincoln with his family, his wife, a daughter, and a small boy about seven years old; some household furnishings such as bedding and cooking utensils; a cow he was taking along for milk, but looked as if she was about dry, and the team of oxen. 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.
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. 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.
Then they came back, and the two oxen and the cow were made to swim over."
Turning from the position in which he stood while telling me this story. Colonel Murray faced the river and pointed across the Ohio to the old Jacob Weatherholt, sr., farm, which fronts the river. He then pointed out to me a house farther back, where a few years later the old Jacob
Weatherholt, jr., document, which is described below, was found.
The attached picture shows the affiant standing at the place in this street where the foregoing conversation was held. He is standing on the same spot and pointing in the same direction that Colonel Murray pointed, indicating where Lincoln crossed the Ohio River at Cloverport.
Signed— EDWARD GREGORY.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 26th day of March, 1930.
C. W. HAM MAN, Notary Public
Breckinridge County.
My commission expires June 10, 1931
The committee submits the following affidavit of Mrs. Aliene Murray Ferry, who is a daughter of Col. David R. Murray, Jr., a brother of Logan Murray, proving that this story of the meeting between Col. David R. Murray and Thomas Lincoln has been handed down from father to
child.
AFFIDAVIT OF ALIENE MURRAY FERRY
Cloverport, Ky.
December 30, 1931.
This is to certify that I have read the statement of Mr. Edward Gregory regarding a conversation between him and Logan C. Murray about Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham Lincoln, having crossed the Ohio River at Cloverport, Ky. I have heard my father, David R. Murray,
and Uncle Logan Murray tell the same story, and will testify that Mr. Gregory's statement is the same that I have always heard. I will add this, that my father told me that one day his father, David R. Murray, Sr., called Minerva,
(.the Colored woman), into the dining room and said: "Minerva, do you remember the family that came through Hardinsburg, when we lived there, in an ox-wagon, and you gave the children bread and milk?" She said, "Yes
sir!" He then asked her boy's name, and she replied: "Abe Linkhorn." He then told her it was Abraham Lincoln, and that he was being inaugurated as President of the United States.
Signed— ALIENE M FERRY
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge, Set.
Subscribed and sworn to before me as a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid by Aliene Murray Ferry (Mrs. Fred D. Ferry), who is personally known to me and to be the granddaughter of David R. Murray,
Sr., and the daughter of David R. Murray, Jr.
C. W. HAMMAN.
Notary Pubhc, Breckinridge Co., Kentucky.
My commission expires January 10, 193-1.
The committee submits the following statement made by Matthias Miller, whose story corroborates that told by the Murrays. Mr. Miller, whose death occurred only a few years ago, was one of Breckinridge county's oldest and most outstanding citizens. Up to the time of his death
his memory remained clear and he was able to recall many stories told to him by his older relatives and old settlers in Hardinsburg.
Affidavit of Honorable Matthias Miller, in Re :
Lincoln Party at Hardinsburg, Kentucky,
The affiant, Matthias Miller, now; president of The Farmers Bank & Trust Company, Hardinsburg, Ky., states that he was born near Hardinsburg, Ky., on August 26, 1836, and has continuously resided here since then, and
is now ninety-four years old.
That in 1859, when the news reached
Breckinridge county that Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States, he was riding to Hardinsburg in company with his uncle, John DeHaven, then an elderly man. They were discussing the election when his uncle stopped his horse in the road near the branch, or creek, of Bush Run, at the south edge of Hardinsburg. He pointed to a small cabin in the valley to the east of the road, and said: "There is where the Lincolns spent two or three weeks, as Thomas Lincoln, with young Abraham, moved to Indiana." He went on to tell that one of the Lincoln party was ill, and that they remained in the cabin until health returned, in the meanwhile receiving charity from the settlers in Hardinsburg. My uncle further stated that he remembered particularly that when the Lincoln party started from Hardinsburg. that 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.
The affiant also states that it is his reliable information that his great-uncle, Joe Houston, bought and owned quite a lot of land about the mouth of Clover Creek, and that he built, or caused to be built, several small houses on this land. This settlement was given the name of Joeville. Mr. Miller also states that he was definitely and reliably informed that the Lincoln party was ferried across the Ohio River at Joeville by a man of the name of Weatherholt.
Signed— MATTHLAS MILLER
Subscribed and sworn to before me by Judge Matthias Miller, this the 29th day of January, 1930.
ERNIE BATES, Clerk, Breckinridge County Court by W.C. Pate, Deputy Clerk.
The above affidavits attest to the fact that the Lincoln family passed through Hardinsburg on their way to Joeville, now Cloverport, where they crossed the Ohio River.
Judge Miller states that the ferry-man was a man named Weatherholt. To definitely identify this man who ferried the Lincolns across the river, the following affidavits are submitted.
Mildred J. Pate was a daughter of Jacob Weatherholt, sr., who ferried the Lincoln party across the Ohio at Joeville in 1816. Mrs. Pate, who survived her father by many years, was perhaps more familiar with the details of the
actual crossing than any other person who was still living in recent years. The following is her story as she told it to her great-grandson, Walter H. Hawkins.
AFFIDAVIT OF WALTER H. HAWKINS
Cloverport, Kentucky
January 7, 1931
I, Walter H. Hawkins of this city, am a direct descendant of Jacob Weatherholt, sr. His only child by his second marriage was my great grandmother, Mildred Pate, who lived to be ninety-seven years old. and who had a remark-
able memory and could tell many happenings of by-gone days. She was the mother of Nobe Pate of Hardinsburg and of my grandfather, the late C. B. Pate of this city.
One night at my grandfather's home, where great-grandmother Mildred and I made our home. I was getting up a history lesson (I was attending school at this time), and the subject of Abe Lincoln came up. Great-grandmother said, "I will give you a bit of history about Abe
Lincoln that probably your book doesn't give. Back in 1816, my father ferried Abe Lincoln, his father, mother, and sister across the river here from a point near where the Tile Plant now stands to a place on the other side of the river just above the present ferry landing. This land
was owned by my father. They built a raft of logs and set the two-wheeled ox-cart and family over on the raft, but they made the cattle swim across. Their cart was drawn by two large oxen and they were leading a cow for milk. The Lincolns came here from Hodgenville by way of
Hardinsburg."
My great-grandmother also stated that Mr. Murray's old Colored woman gave the Lincoln children something to eat. She said that the Lincolns camped on her father's farm on the Indiana side the first night after crossing the
river. This is the true story told to me by my great-grandmother, Mildred J. Pate.
Signed— WALTER H. HAWKINS
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge.
Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid, by Walter H. Hawkins, who is personally known to me, and to be the
great-great-grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, sr., this the seventh day of January, 1931
C. W. HAMMAN.
My commission expires January 10, 1934.
The following statement was made by George Tobin Weatherholt, who was the grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, jr., who wrote his memoirs and had the document recorded in Deed Book A, on pages 8-9, at Cannelton,
"I ferried Thomas Lincoln, his wife, Nancy, and daughter, and his son, Albraham. from the hills of Kentucky to Indiana, on a raft made out of logs, from above the mouth of Clover Creek at Cloverport, Ky., in 1816. — Jacob Weatherholt, sr.".
Recorded in Deed Book August 20, 1866, at Cannelton, Ind.
This document tells the story of the Lincolns being- ferried across the Ohio River by Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. The account of the finding the original document will be told later in this article.
After Thomas Lincoln and his family passed through Hardinsburg on their way to their home in Indiana, he talked to Col. David R. Murray, and was told by Col. Murray, "Take this road to Joeville, I own the ferry and my man, Jacob Weatherholt, will get you across the Ohio River there." Col. Murray saw the beginning of the steamboat days, and he then moved to Joeville, building this 8-room Log House Tavern, the first and only Tavern on the Ohio River on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. The steamboats then operating were the Constitution, Washington, Franklin, Etna, and the Comnet. .
AFFIDAVIT OF GEORGE T. WEATHERHOLT
The affiant, George Tobin Weatherholt, being duly sworn, states that he is more than seventy-seven years of age, and that now he resides in Cloverport, Kentucky, but that he was born and reared in Tobinsport, Tobin Township Perry county, Indiana. He states that he is a son
of James Weatherholt, whose father was the Jacob Weatherholt, jr., who wrote his memoirs and recorded the document in Deed Book A, on pages 8-9, in Cannelton, Indiana, the county seat of Perry county, and that Jacob
Weatherholt, sr., as is mentioned in the document, was the man who ferried Thomas Lincoln across the Ohio River at Cloverport, then known as Joeville, in the year 1816,
and was the great grandfather of the affiant. George Weatherholt. He further states that his grandfather, Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was the father of six children, as follows: George Weatherholt, James Weatherholt (father
of the affiant), Catherine Weatherholt (who was named for her grandmother, wife of Jacob Weatherholt, sr., who was born in Pennsylvania), Ruth Weatherholt, Joseph
Weatherholt (who was named for Joseph Tobin, father of Jacob Weatherholt Jr's., wife,) and Jacob Weatherholt, the Third.
He further states, that of the six children, only one was married and that he was James Weatherholt, father of the affiant. He also says that the family records were destroyed by fire, but that he believes that his grandfather, Jacob Weatherholt, jr., died in 1868.
Signed— GEORGE TOBIN WEATHERHOLT
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge.
Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid by George Tobin Weatherholt, who is personally known to me and to be related as he has stated, this the twenty-first day of March, 1931.
C. W. HAMMAN.
My commission expires January 10, 1934.
Members of the Hanks family, who have lived in or near Cloverport, have always claimed that Thomas Lincoln and his family crossed the Ohio River at Cloverport. Another fact in the life of President Lincoln which has been over looked by historians, is that he and his mother returned
in later years to visit relatives near Hodgenville. The Hanks descendants claim that mother and son, riding one horse, did return, and stayed two days at the Martin Whale place, where Nancy Hanks Lincoln spun yarn to help pay their way. On their return trip they stopped at Joeville,
where they again crossed the Ohio River. Evidence has been found that proves that this story is correct. The following affidavit of John Hanks is submitted as further proof that Thomas Lincoln and his family crossed the Ohio River at Joeville, now Cloverport, in 1816.
AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN HANKS
I, John Hanks, being of sound mind and in possession of all my mental faculties, do hereby state, that I am a veteran of the Civil War, and was eighty-four years of age on May 18, 1929, being born May 18, 1845, and that I am
the son of William Hanks, who died at Stephensport, Ky., in the year 1899, and who, at the time of his death was ninety-six years of age. I have often heard my father say,
that Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy Hanks Lincoln, as he called them, as they moved to Indiana, went to Joeville, now Cloverport, Kentucky, and crossed the Ohio River on a raft made of logs.
Signed— JOHN HANKS
State of Kentucky,
County of Breckinridge.
Subscribed and sworn to me by John W. Hanks, who is personally known to me, and said by him to be true in every particular, this fourth day of February, 1930.
C. W. HAMMAN, Notary Public
The affidavit submitted below is that of Clarence E. Keith, whose mother was a LaHeist. The families of George and Samuel LaHeist were earlv settlers of Joeville, coming to that place about 1820. Naturally, they had often heard the older settlers talk about the Lincoln family
crossing the Ohio River at Joeville.
AFFIDAVIT OF CLARENCE E. KEITH
I, C. E. Keith, after being duly sworn, make the following statement. That at this time I am a resident of Elizabethtown, in Hardin county, Kentucky, but I was born and reared in Cloverport, Breckinridge county, Kentucky
and am a son of John E. Keith and Elizabeth LaHeist Keith, both now deceased. My mother was a daughter of Samuel LaHeist, who was among the first settlers of Cloverport, and who was the first postmaster of that town, and this office was held by members of his family for sixty years. My mother knew Mrs. Kittie Monroe, who was the wife of James Monroe, who lived in Cloverport above Clover Creek, and who claimed to be of Indian descent, and who was a root and herb doctor and a mid-wife. I have heard my mother say many times that she had heard Mrs. Monroe say that she remembered when the Lincoln family stayed one night in her father's home as they were on their way to Indiana, and that she was about sixteen years of age at that time, and that after Abraham Lincoln was elected President, she loved to tell about entertaining a President.
Signed— C. E. KEITH.
State of Kentucky,
County of Hardin, Set.
Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public for and in the County and State aforesaid by C. E. Keith, who is personally known to me, this the sixteenth day of January. 1931.
STILES M. JENKINS. Notary Pubic.
The story of the finding of the original document
mentioned in the affidavit of George T. Weatherholt, is both interesting and informative. In the statement made by Edward Gregory, the reader will recall that Colonel Murray is said to have pointed out a small house situated on the Jacob Weatherholt farm in Tobinsport. Indiana.
It was in this house that the document, which is the most conclusive evidence on record in Indiana, was found.
Mr. Leaf, the present owner of the house, was searching through an old trunk, which had been purchased at the sale of the property of Jacob Weatherholt, jr. deceased, when he found a bundle of old land grants that had belonged to
Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. Among these old papers. Mr. Leaf found a document written by Jacob Weatherholt long after the death of his father. This document was dated August 20, 1866, and had been recorded in Deed Book A. pages 8-9, at Cannelton, Indiana. Jacob Weatherholt, jr., had drawn up and recorded the document with the evident purpose of leaving undeniable proof to his posterity that his father, Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., had ferried Thomas Lincoln and his family across the Ohio River in 1816.
In this document, Jacob jr., writes: "My father's friend, Thomas Lincoln, his wife Nancy, daughter Sarah, and son, Abraham, the latter eight years of age, came from the hills of Kentucky to Indiana by canoe and a raft. The moving party consisted of the family, an ox-cart, a pair of oxen, a cow, and some camping necessities, and they were ferried from above the mouth of Clover Creek, camping on the land I own . The next day they made their way down to Rock Island and camped at what is known as Lafayette Springs, and the next day moved on toward their new home to take up a claim near Vincennes, Indiana."
No piece of evidence has been fought harder or more consistently than that presented by the above quoted document. A most vicious attempt was made by some of the contestants to prove that Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was
not living in 1866, the date of the document. In order to estabish their claim a page was stolen from the Tax Book at Cannelton, Indiana, and an attempt was made by a man and woman to destroy all signs of some unmarked graves
in the Lamb burial ground in Tobinsport, Indiana. In spite of such criminal actions, all the evidence points to the fact that Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was alive in 1866, and that the document written and recorded by him is authentic.
When Colonel David R. Murray, sr., moved from Hardinsburg to Joeville, he retained Jacob Weatherholt, sr., to operate the ferry, which he (Colonel Murray) had inherited through his wife Eliza, the daughter of Joseph Houston. After the death of his father, Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was retained as ferryman by Colonel Murray.
The following item copied verbatim from the Cloverport Journal published in 1865, proves conclusively that Jacob Weatherholt, jr., was alive and operating the ferry at that time.
"On last Thursday, two white men with a family of Negroes, eight in number came into this town on the Bowling Green road and crossed the river here. They passed through the town without exciting any particular suspicion as they were supposed to be movers, going up the river road. Mr. Weatherholt, the ferryman, somewhat doubted the propriety of setting them across, but as he knew they had passed through town, he came to the conclusion he ought to do so. About the time however he had gotten over, his suspicions were thoroughly aroused that there was something wrong, and he came back and reported that the men had told him. they were moving to Missouri. He knew that any sensible man would know better than to transport slaves across Indiana and with a number of our citizens started in pursuit and came up to them at midnight encamped about six miles back. The white men had left them."
The exact date of the death of Jacob Weatherholt. jr., is not denitely known, but in the affidavit of his grandson, George T. Weatherholt the statement is made that it
is the belief of the affiant that his grandfather died in 1868.
The above cited document, regularly recorded in the Perry county records, together with the affidavits above submitted, establish beyond any reasonable doubt, the exact trail followed by the Lincoln family through Breckinridge county, Kentucky, and through Perry county, Indiana. The, Lincolns, coming from 'Elizabethtown,
passed through Hardinsburg, where they stopped in a cabin near the southern edge of the town. Two or three weeks later, they moved on to Joeville, where they spent one night in the home of Mrs. Kittie Monroe's father. The next day they were ferried across the Ohio River by Jacob Weatherholt, sr., on whose land they camped that night. The following day they moved on to Lafayette Springs, and from there to their new home near Vincennes, Ind.
A few years ago. Governor Sampson of Kentucky appointed a commission to investigate all claims, and to determine the route followed by the Lincolns through the State of Kentucky. This coimmission spent three years hearing all claims and examining all documents presented by the various contestants, and, finally, on July 8, 1933, at Brandenburg, Kentucky, they adopted the following route as that over which the Lincoln Memorial Highway should be built.
ROUTE AS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
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. From there the road will follow as closely as practicable the trail of the old Springfield Pike to Elizabethtown.
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. Six miles farther is the old Brumfield farm, on which
Abraham's aunt, Nancy Ann Lincoln Brumfield, and his grandmother, Bersheba Lincoln, lived more than thirty years.
C. W. HAMMAN.
ROAD VEERS WESTWARD
The route here veers westward. A mile on, is the old cemetery of the first regular Baptist church of Mill Creek, in which five members of the original Lincoln family are buried. Sixteen direct descendants of Nancy Ann Lincoln Brumfield now live in the Mill Creek community, and the family names of Nancy and Abraham still predominate.
Continuing west the road follows the trace of the old pioneer Salt Lick Trail through Vine Grove. Flaherty, and Big Spring to U. S. 6O near Harned's Station.
The route then lies over U. S. 6O through Hardinsburg, and thence to Cloverport to the Ohio River crossing, where it connects with the Indiana Unit of the Memorial Highway.
A few days after the meeting at Brandenburg, the Fiscal Court of Breckinridge county officially accepted the route adopted by the commission.
THE ACCEPTANCE
In the matter of the Lincoln Memorial Highway, the Fiscal Court of Breckinridge county has before it the report of the Kentucky Commission of the Lincoln Highway Association of its findings made at Brandenburg. Saturday, July 8, 1933, which report designates in a general way the route of this road through Breckinridge
county.
We, the members of the Breckinridge County Fiscal Court, hereby approve of the findings of said commission and will. render any service that we can in procuring the construction of said Lincoln Memorial Highway. And order that a copy of this order be presented to the meet-
ing of the Lincoln Memorial Highway Association to be held at Elizabethtown, Tuesday, July 25, 1933.
ERNIE BATES, Clerk, Breckinridge County Court.
The meeting of the Lincoln Memorial Highway Association was held at Elizabethtown on Tuesday, July 25, 1933. In addition to representatives from Breckinridge,
PRINTED BY: THE BRECKENRIDGE NEWS, Cloverport, Kentucky
FEBRUARY, 1933
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