Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/308

 248 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS in Virginia and take his family to share with him the risks and hardships of life in the new territory. The families of Boone and Lincoln had been closely allied for many years. Several marriages had taken place between them, and their names occur in each other s wills as friends and executors. The pioneer Lincoln, who took with him what for the time and place was a sufficient provision in money, the result of the sale of his property in Vir ginia, acquired by means of cash and land- warrants a large estate in Kentucky, as is shown by the records of Jefferson and Campbell Counties. About 1784 he was killed by Indians while working with his three sons Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas in clearing the forest. His widow removed after his death to Washington County, and there brought up her family. The two elder sons became repu table citizens, and the two daughters married in a decent condition of life. Thomas, the youngest son, seems to have been below the average of the family in enterprise and other qualities that command suc cess. He learned the trade of a carpenter, and mar ried, June 12, 1806, Nancy Hanks, a niece of the man with whom he learned his trade. She is repre sented, by those who knew her at the time of her marriage, as a handsome young woman of twenty- three, of appearance and intellect superior to her lowly fortunes. The young couple began house keeping with little means. Three children were