"On the SITE OF THE KNOB CREEK FARM (open), 57 m., where the
Lincoln family lived between Abraham's fourth and eighth years, is a
REPRODUCTION OF LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE; the original log cabin is
now at Lincoln Memorial National Park.
In 1813 Thomas Lincoln and his family moved from the barren
Sinking Spring farm to this region, where fish and game were plentiful and the soil unusually fertile. In a letter written in 1860 to Samuel Haycraft, Abraham Lincoln said: "My earliest recollections are of the Knob Creek place." For approximately three months of the sojourn here Abraham Lincoln trudged to school with his sister, Sarah, but his teachers were inadequately qualified and the schooling was of little practical value. At other times the boy helped his father with the farming (sometimes carrying corn seven miles to Hodgen's mill to be ground), hunted rabbits, fished, and climbed the rugged hillsides with his companions."
--Kentucky; a guide to the Bluegrass state, 1939
-----
Knob Creek Farm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
--
Knob Creek Farm has been a noncontinuous section of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park since 2001; prior to that date it was privately owned. From 1811 to 1816 it was the home of the future President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, who said it was his "earliest recollection".[2] The site consists of four buildings, two of which are historical in nature.[3]
The total acreage of Knob Creek Farm is 228 acres (92 ha), of which the Lincolns lived on 30 acres (12 ha). Lincoln's father Thomas Lincoln did not actually own the farm; he leased the land by the Old Cumberland Trail (now U.S. 31E) in hopes of regaining the Sinking Spring Farm, where Lincoln was born.[4] It was on this site that Lincoln had a baby brother, Thomas, born and died. Lincoln himself almost died at the farm as well, nearly drowning at the adjacent Knob Creek until neighbor and friend Austin Gollaher extended a branch to rescue him from the swollen creek.[2] The cabin the Lincolns lived in was destroyed in the 19th century.[5][6]
The two historical buildings at the location are the Lincoln Tavern and the Gollaher Cabin. The Tavern was built in 1933 at the cost of $4,200; the 1.5 floor structure was constructed of logs and concrete in an asymmetrical plan. The Gollaher Cabin was built around the year 1800, and moved to its present location to reflect what the Lincoln cabin would look like. It is the very cabin Austin Gollaher's family lived in during Lincoln's stay at Knob Creek Farm.[7] The tavern was built to cash in on the booming tourist trade that came to LaRue County to see sites connected with Lincoln, much as the Nancy Lincoln Inn was. It was originally a dance hall that served liquor, but when LaRue County became "dry" it was converted to a museum and gift shop, as it remains to the present day. During the 1980s 20,000 annually visited the complex.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 16, 1988, due to its role in tourism in Larue County, Kentucky, and for its connections with Abraham Lincoln.[9]
(
visit link)