All historians and biographers of Abraham Lincoln have long been baffled by the problem of just where Thomas Lincoln and family crossed the Ohio River on their way from Kentucky into Indiana. Most writers have taken it for granted that this crossing was effected at Troy, basing such assumption on the longstanding story of Thomas Lincoln having made his own first trip to Indiana by boat down Salt River and the Ohio River as far as Troy, then the county seat of Perry county and including the Little Pigeon tract of land on which he settled, now in Spencer county. Within a year past some claims have been brought forward by citizens of Grandview and vicinity alleging the mouth of Big Sandy Creek to have been the scene of the crossing, since there was an early Kentucky settlement at the mouth of Blackford Creek nearly opposite. These claims, however interesting, appear wholly traditional, handed down by word of mouth, and lack substantiation by the “documentary evidence” which the modern school of historians consider indispensable. A bill as been recently introduced by a Kentucky Representative in the Congress at Washington, proposing to mark suitably the route from Kentucky through Indiana into Illinois which the Lincolns followed, calling it informally “the Barefoot Trail,” or “The Cradle to the Grave.” With this project attracting popular attention, it was a highly fortunate coincidence that during the last week a holograph document more than sixty years old was found by Judge Oscar C. Minor of the 70th Judicial Circuit, bound in an official record book at the Court House in Cannelton, throwing entirely new light on the situation and possibly offering a completely satisfactory solution. This valuable discovery, written in blue ink on heavy legal-cap paper, is here reproduced as follows, verbatim as to orthography, punctuation, etc.: (Insert bound at page 9-10 of Original Deed Book “A” of Perry county, Indiana, in Recorder’s Office at Court House in Cannelton.) “Sealed Aug. 20, 1866
“Memory of Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. at this writing seventy-one years of age from 1866 back to 1816 the year Indiana became a state. Abraham Lincoln to whom I am referring to this day and age was one of the greatest landmarks of America. My father Jacob Weatherholt Sr. ferried Thomas Lincoln and family Wife Nancy Daughter Sarah and son Abraham age eight years from the hills of Kentucky to Indiana consisting of a yoke of oxen a cow a cart and some camping outfit by canoe and raft of logs from what is Clover creek, Ky to Indiana and landed on land and camped over night on land I now own and hold deed for Refference and next day made his way down the Indiana Banks of the Ohio by Indian trails and paths and camped the second night at what is known as Rock Island where General LaFayette was recked in 1825, and then made his way to his New Indiana Home where he had taken up a Federal land claim at Vincennes and from this on not all dates can I give. In fall of 1818 Thomas Lincoln wife died from one of the World greatest Dread at that time milk sickness and for Funeral services no Preecher could be had as Preechers was scarce a letter was sent back to the old Kentucky Home and to the best of my recall His name was John Attwood. In spring of 1819 he came and preached Nancy funeral, In Fall of 1819 Thomas Lincoln returned to his Old Kentucky Home by same Trail and Brought Back with him his second Wife By the Name of Sarah Bush whom had been married to a man name Johnson. In about 1827 Abraham Lincoln made a flat boat trip South and came back a Slave-holder Hater and made the remark If I only had a chance By the Eternal Gods I would Fre the Negroes. In about 1830 Thomas Lincoln sold his Indiana Home and moved to Illinois and then a few years I have no recall But in 1844 Abraham Lincoln returned Back to Indiana making speeches for Henry Clay Candidate for President. In about 1851 Thomas Lincoln Died. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was Elected President of the United States and Stered Wheel of the Mighty Wars of the Sixtys between the North and the South, and lived to see the day to make his word good By the Eternal Gods did Free the Negroes In 1864 Was Relected President 1865 was assinated by William Booth & this being 1866 just Fifty years Back 1816 since I first new Abraham Lincoln whom I am Referring to I Jacob Weatherholt Jr writing a few lines and attaching on Indiana Deed Record A-Page 9 & 10 also on deed I now hold for Refference. “Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. ‘at this writing W.P. Drumb Recorder “Aug. 20-1866-attached Thomas de la Hunt, secretary of the South western Indiana Historical Society, laid the facts of this discovery before the quarterly meeting of the society, Friday, June 1, at Gentryville, where it was pronounced one of the most important discoveries that has been made in The Pocket touching “the Lincoln Inquiry” initiated by Hon. John E. Iglehart, founder and President-Emeritus of the organization a discovery that will attract wide attention among the Indiana Lincoln Union’s Reference and Research Committee whose chairman is Mrs. Calder D. Ehrman of Rockport, also President of the Southwestern.
Judge Minor pronounces the document indisputable evidence; testimony of such nature as would stand in any court of law. A duplicate of this bound document is in the possession of Clarence C. Leaf of Tobinsport, through his mother, Mrs. Arad Leaf (Elizabeth Weatherholt), a grandson of Jacob Weatherholt, Jr. and a greatgrandson of Jacob Weatherholt, Sr. a veteran of the American Revolution, who about 1807-8 had entered the land referred to. Mr. Leaf, (whose young grandson, Arnie Leaf, Jr.,is sixth in direct descent from the Revolutionary ‘patriot.’) now operates the ferry between Tobinsport and Cloverport where his ancestor ferried the Lincolns across and hopes to see the point appropriately designated in the near future as well as location of the remainder of the route past Rock Island and “Lafayette Spring” through Cannelton, Tell City and Troy to Anderson Creek, where a modest sign has already been placed by the Perry and Spencer county historical societies telling that Abraham Lincoln himself there plied a ferryman’s car in the employ of James Taylor more than a century ago. Clarence C. Leaf of Tobinsport, who made the recent interesting discovery regarding Thomas Lincoln’s family having crossed the Ohio river at that point instead of elsewhere, as long supposed, is a grand-nephew to the Jacob Weatherholt, Jr., who penned the document copied in this week’s News. Jacob Weatherholt, Jr., was a bachelor brother to George and James Weatherholt, the latter of whom was Mr. Leafs grandfather by his marriage to Deborah Anne Hyde. They were the parents of Annie Elizabeth Weatherholt, born 1848 now Mrs. Arad Leaf.
The land which Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., transferred to his son, Jacob, Jr., on August 20,1816, exactly fifty years before the memoir in question was written and recorded, lies some few hundred yards up the river from the present ferry landing and is owned by Mrs. Weatherholt-Leaf. It is just opposite the mouth of Clover Creek and was for many years the favored site for passage across the river. Clarence Leaf gives the changes of hands through which the ferry franchise has passed in the following order:-1. Jacob Weatherholt, Sr., 2. Jacob Weatherholt, Jr.; 3. Zalmon Tousey; 4. Robert Batt; 5. Robert Tobin and Q. K. Groves; 6 Woodford Weatherholt; 7. Walter Weatherholt, (one half interest;) 8. J.W. Pate; 9. Thomas J. Lyons; 10. Edmund Tinsley, (one-half interest;) 11. Clarence C. Leaf, (half interest of Lyons heirs;) the present owners and operators being Messrs. Tinsley and Leaf. Breckenridge county citizens have been aroused to warm interest in the new discovery and Judge Henry De Haven Moorman of Hardinsburg, now at home from the national House of Representatives, proposes to bring the matter officially before the Congress at the earliest possible opportunity, considering it a matter of utmost importance. It will also have speedy investigation by the Reference and Research Committee of the Indiana Lincoln Union, of which Thomas James de la Hunt is a member from Perry County.