Reaching the Ohio River and crossing to the Indiana shore, Thomas
Lincoln hired a wagon which carried his family and their
belongings the remaining sixteen miles through the forest to the
spot he had chosen--a piece of heavily wooded land, one and a
half miles east of what has since become the village of
Gentryville in Spencer County. The lateness of the autumn made it
necessary to put up a shelter as quickly as possible, and he
built what was known on the frontier as a half-faced camp, about
fourteen feet square. This differed from a cabin in that it was
closed on only three sides, being quite open to the weather on
the fourth. A fire was usually made in front of the open side,
and thus the necessity for having a chimney was done away with.
Thomas Lincoln doubtless intended this only for a temporary
shelter, and as such it would have done well enough in pleasant
summer weather; but it was a rude provision against the storms
and winds of an Indiana winter. It shows his want of energy that
the family remained housed in this poor camp for nearly a whole
year; but, after all, he must not be too hastily blamed. He was
far from idle. A cabin was doubtless begun, and there was the
very heavy work of clearing away the timber--cutting down large
trees, chopping them into suitable lengths, and rolling them
together into great heaps to be burned, or of splitting them into
rails to fence the small field upon which he managed to raise a
patch of corn and other things during the following summer.
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