Sarah Lincoln was buried with Thomas in Shiloh Cemetery. Sarah Bush Lincoln lived in the Goosenest Prairie cabin until her death in 1869. This was to be their last visit Lincoln never returned to Illinois alive. Sarah was fond of her stepson and had always believed he would be successful. They also visited Thomas Lincoln's grave at nearby Shiloh Cemetery. Their meeting occurred at the middle-class frame house of prominent Farmington citizen (Sarah's son-in-law and Abraham's step-brother-in-law) Reuben Moore. As a lawyer, he was in Charleston, site of the Coles County courthouse, quite frequently, but only visited 'every year or two.' Though he remembered his stepmother fondly, Lincoln was not very close to his father he did not visit even when Thomas Lincoln was terminally ill in 1851.Īt the end of January 1861, Abraham Lincoln, the president-elect, traveled by newly laid railroad tracks from Springfield to Farmington, a few miles north of the cabin, to visit his widowed stepmother (Farmington is now the unincorporated hamlet of Campbell, Illinois and not to be confused with Farmington, Illinois). Abraham Lincoln, now a rising state legislator and lawyer, provided financial help to his parents but did not visit them as often as he could. By 1845, the cabin was home to as many as 18 members of the Lincoln and Johnston families, living together in an extended-family arrangement common in Appalachian Southern culture. After living unsuccessfully on three separate farmsteads within the county, Thomas bought a small plot near the Embarras River in 1840, part of what was then called Goosenest Prairie, now within Pleasant Grove Township on the southern edge of Coles County.Īt some point soon after that purchase, Thomas and Sarah built what was to be their final home, a saddlebag style log cabin with two main rooms and additional sleeping and storage space in a loft or attic accessed by a ladder.

Wandering generally southeastward, Thomas and Sarah eventually settled in Coles County. Īfter a wretched winter in 1830–1831 at a campsite west of Decatur, young Abraham left the family to start his own homestead and seek his fortune in Sangamon County. In 1830, Thomas and Sarah followed their daughter and son-in-law and other family members as they migrated west from Indiana into Central Illinois Abraham, though now a legal adult, opted to follow his step-mother and father. In 1819, Lincoln's father Thomas Lincoln married the widowed Sarah Johnston of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The farmstead is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.Ībraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died in 1818 while the family lived in a log cabin in the Little Pigeon Creek Community in southern Indiana. Abraham Lincoln never lived here and only occasionally visited, but he provided financial help to the household and, after Thomas died in 1851, Abraham owned and maintained the farm for his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln. The centerpiece is a replica of the log cabin built and occupied by Thomas Lincoln, father of U.S. The Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site is an 86-acre (0.3 km²) history park located eight miles (13 km) south of Charleston, Illinois, U.S., near the town of Lerna. Souvenirs may be purchased in the all-volunteer run gift shop. The site also features abundant and convenient picnicking areas with electricity-supplied pavilions, grills, restrooms, playground equipment and water fountains, as well as natural areas and trails for walks, fishing and bird-watching. Be sure to visit the Center on your returns to the site as new exhibits are introduced regularly. Volunteers staff the visitor center and can assist you in your visit to the site as well as your stay in Central Illinois. This film will prepare you for your visit to the farms. While in our Visitor Center, enjoy the exhibit galleries highlighting the Lincolns and Sargents as well as a 14-minute film about the Lincolns, Sargents, 1840s life, and the site's living history program. Make the Visitor Center your first stop as you prepare to travel back to the nineteenth century.

Lincoln log cabin restaurant