The Lincolns Move from Kentucky - Hardon Co. Museum, Elizabethtown KY
N 37° 41.647 W 085° 51.575
16S E 600541 N 4172489
This interpretive sign on the Lincoln Family's departure from KY is located outside of the Hardin County Museum in downtown Elizabethtown Kentucky
Waymark Code: WM15VTP
Location: Kentucky, United States
Date Posted: 03/04/2022
Views: 5
The Hardin County Museum occupies the old US Post Office building, about a block west of the Hardin County Courthouse in downtown Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
This is one of several artifacts and historical interpretive signs at the Hardin County Museum grounds that are available 24/7 without needing to go inside or pay an admission fee.
The sign reads as follows:
"THE LINCOLNS MOVE FROM KENTUCKY
[L side column]
KENTUCKY LINCOLN HERITAGE TRAIL
1809 Abraham Lincoln born at sinking Spring Farm, and present day Larue County, Kentucky
1816 Lincoln family moved from Kentucky.
1841 Abraham Lincoln visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington, the Speed family plantation, in Louisville, Kentucky
1842 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, of Lexington Kentucky.
1847 the Lincoln family visited Lexington, Kentucky, en route to Abraham’s only term in Congress.
1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States in November
1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated at Ford’s theater in Washington, D. C.
[Middle]
In 1916, the Lincoln family moved from present-day Larue County, Kentucky, to present day Spencer County, Indiana. Abraham Lincoln, future president of the United States, recounted the reason for this move north of the Ohio River in a short autobiographical sketch to the Chicago Times editor John Locke Scripps, stating:
“from this place [Knob Creek] he removed to what is now Spencer County Indiana, in the autumn of 1816, A[braham] then being in his [eighth] year. This removal was partly on account of slavery; but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in Ky.”
Challenges to land titles were regular occurrence in the early years of Kentucky, and the experience of Thomas Lincoln was no exception. The departure of the Lincoln family from Kentucky was not uncommon as many more Kentucky families continued westward to the newly organized states of Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818). The approximate route the Lincolns traveled is marked by Kentucky Historical Highway Markers in present-day Harden, Breckenridge, and Hancock counties.
[R side]
[Photo]
An example of the Kentucky Historical Highway Markers that follow the Lincoln route from Kentucky to Indiana
[map]
The map to the right, created by Lincoln scholar R. Gerald McMurtry in 1937, shows the approximate route traveled by the Lincolns from their Knob Creek Farm to present-day Spencer County, Indiana, in 1816.
Courtesy of the Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, IN (Ref.#989)"
Location Type: Historic Marker
Property Type: Public
Date of Event: 1816
Location Notes:
This is one of several artifacts and historical interpretive signs at the Hardin County Museum grounds that are available 24/7 without needing to go inside or pay an admission fee.
URL for Additional Information: [Web Link]
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