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 ENNIS F. HANKS. One of the well-known and familiar names of Coles County is that of Dennis Hanks. He is noted, like many other men are and have been, on account of his connections with the noblest character of his generation, Abraham Lincoln. The two passed their boyhood together, sleeping in the same bed and engaging in the same labors and sport. One arose from the humble position in which they both lived to the most exalted station in the Nation, while the other grew up only to be a respected farmer in the community in which he has lived for a half century, and to admire his companion and to know that any trust reposed in him would never be betrayed. The Hankses and Lincolns were considerably mixed up in their family relations. They came from Indiana together, lived in the same house, and Dennis Hanks married the daughter, Sallie Johnston, of the second wife of Thomas Lincoln. Dennis Hanks was born in Kentucky and lived, prior to his removal to Indiana, in Hardin County. In speaking of his removal to the latter-named State, he says, “At that time Indiana was a desperately sickly place. Miasma poisoned the atmosphere. There was no doctor near. We were there in the year 1825, when Jackson and Adams ran for President. I was then but nineteen years of age, yet I acted as Clerk of Election and actually voted for Jackson, therefore I have voted for him three times. There was a school in the neighborhood. Sallie and Abe went to school. I first taught him to spell and read and write. I made the first pen that he ever had. I killed a buzzard and took his wing feathers for pens, as there were no geese in the settlement. We either used buzzard or wild turkey feathers. Abe’s first pen was made of a buzzard’s quill. Afterward he went one quarter to a subscription school kept by Josiah Crawford, from Kentucky, who lived about a mile away and taught a school. He was a pretty good scholar. Dennis Hanks became a pioneer of this county at an early day, and has been an honest, hard-working man for these many years, and now, in the sunset period of life, he looks back with the pleasantest recollections, and well he may, to the days when the man this Nation will always love to honor was his constant companion. We take pleasure in presenting the portrait of this friend of our martyred President in this volume. He is a worthy and highly respected citizen of the county and one whose features the generations to follow will be glad to look upon. |
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