SIDENT LINCOLN,
DIED OCTOBER 5, A.D. 1818.
AGED THIRTY-FIVE YEARS.
_Erected by a friend of her martyred son_.

Lincoln always held the memory of his mother in the deepest reverence
and affection. Says Dr. J.G. Holland: "Long after her sensitive heart
and weary hands had crumbled into dust, and had climbed to life again in
forest flowers, he said to a friend, with tears in his eyes, 'All that I
am or ever hope to be I owe to my sainted mother.'"

The vacant place of wife and mother was sadly felt in the Lincoln cabin,
but before the year 1819 had closed it was filled by a woman who nobly
performed the duties of her trying position. Thomas Lincoln had known
Mrs. Sarah Johnston when both were young and living in Elizabethtown,
Kentucky. They had married in the same year; and now, being alike
bereaved, he persuaded her to unite their broken households into one.

By this union, a son and two daughters, John, Sarah, and Matilda, were
added to the Lincoln family. All dwelt together in perfect harmony, the
mother showing no difference in the treatment of her own children and
the two now committed to her charge. She exhibited a special fondness
for the little Abraham, whose precocious talents and enduring qualities
she was quick to apprehend. Though he never forgot the "angel mother"
sleeping on the forest-covered hill-top, the boy rewarded with a
profound and lasting affection the devoted care of her who proved a
faithful friend and helper during the rest of his childhood and youth.
In her later life the step-mother spoke of him always with the tenderest
feeling. On one occasion she said: "He never gave me a cross word or
look, and never refused, in fact or appearance, to do anything I
requested of him."

The child had enjoyed a little irregular schooling while living in
Kentucky, getting what instruction was possible of one Zachariah Birney,
a Catholic, who taught for a time close by his father's house. He also
attended, as convenience permitted, a school kept by Caleb Hazel, nearly
four miles away, walking the distance back and forth with his sister.
Soon after coming under the care of his step-mother, the lad was
afforded some similar opportunities for learning. His first master in
Indiana was Azel Dorsey. The sort of education dispensed by him, and the
circumstances under which it was given, are described by Mr. Ward H.
Lamon, at one time Lincoln's law-partner at Springfield, Illinois. "Azel
Dorsey presided