LINCOLN THE INVENTOR

A Mississippi River Flatboat

(From Abraham Lincoln: His Youth and Early Manhood by Noah Brooks

Lincoln began his transformation from backwoodsman to statesman in a small town on the Sangamon River. Lincoln arrived in New Salem when he was in his early twenties, and you might say that he made a smashing entry. He was navigating a flatboat down the Sangamon River to New Orleans when he ran aground on John Rutledge's dam. The dam powered a water wheel which drove a mill. The old mill is long gone, but they have erected a replica on the site of the old mill.

Replica of Rutledge's Mill on the Sangamon River

Lincoln and his fellow boatmen could not get the boat over the dam, or even off the dam. The boat began taking on water, and it looked like they were stymied. Then Lincoln had a brainstorm. He got his mates to help him offload enough cargo to get the boat riding higher in the water, and went to the local cooper's shop to borrow an auger. I had to look up cooper in the dictionary to figure out what a cooper was. A cooper is a barrel maker. If you're wondering what a cooper would be doing with an auger, barrels have bung holes, and coopers need augers to drill the bung holes. The cooper shop of Henry Onstot is the only surviving building of New Salem.

Me in Front of Henry Onstot's Cooper Shop

Lincoln took the auger and bored a hole in the bottom of the boat. The boat was lightened enough for them to get it high in the water and let the water drain out of the boat's interior. Lincoln plugged the hole, and they were able to lift the lightened flatboat over the dam.  Cooper's son T.G. Onstot still had the auger in 1902, when he published a picture of it in a book entitled Lincolnian Picturettes.

Lincoln's Auger

 

 

Lincoln never forgot his troubles as a flatboatman on the Mississippi River system. When he went to Washington as a Congressman, he patented an invention of his which he had designed to lift boats over shallows and sandbars in the river system. A model of it is on display today in the Smithsonian.

 

 

Model of Lincoln's Invention

(Photograph from Life of Lincoln by John S. Abbott)



Diagram Submitted with Lincoln's Patent Application

(Illustration from The Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay

DUFF ARMSTRONG'S GRAVE

It was Sunday, and most places were closed, so I decided to try to find the scene of the killing which resulted in Duff Armstrong's prosecution for murder. I knew two things about the scene: (1) It was somewhere near Salt Creek, and (2) it was in a place called either Walnut Grove, Walker's Grove, or Virgin's Grove. I had been told the approximate location of the place by one of the locals, and I felt I could find it. I was wrong. I found Salt Creek, which we in North Florida would call a river, but when I got to the place where Walnut Grove was supposed to be, all I found was a cornfield and a cemetery, and it was nowhere near Salt Creek. It was something of an Oddysey.

Salt Creek

Lane was very patient with me as I drove aimlessly through cornfields and small villages looking for Walnut Grove. It was something like going into a time warp back to the 1950's. We could have been in early twentieth century rural North Florida except that Florida corn cannot hold a candle to Illinois corn. Comparing the corn on the farm where I grew up to Illinois corn would be like comparing wild quail to farm-raised quail. Finally, I decided to give up and go back to the hotel. We needed gas, so I stopped at a gas station in a small town.

When I got out to put my credit card into the gas pump, I found further evidence that we had gone into a time warp back to the 1950's. There was no slot for a credit card. A quick check of the price displayed on the pump reassured me that we were still in the twenty first century, so I went inside the store to prepay. "Oh, you don't have to prepay," said the lady behind the counter, "Just pump the gas and come back and tell me how much it was." I did so. As I was paying, I asked her if she knew where Walnut Grove was. She didn't know, but she knew where I could go to find out. She directed me to a neighboring village and told me to check at the bar on the main street there.

We drove through more cornfields until we came to the small town, and then couldn't find the sign for the bar. I guess the locals knew where the bar was, so there was no sense in spending money on useless extravagances like signs. Using my finely honed detective skills, I deduced that the bar was the only building on the street which had cars parked in front of it. I pulled up and parked and asked Lane if she wanted to come in with me. She didn't.

The inside of the bar looked like the typical inside of a rural bar. I've visited many bars just like it, but when I visited most of those bars, it was in connection with a criminal investigation. I bellied up to the bar next to one of the patrons and the barmaid came over and asked me what I wanted. I told her, and she asked one of the patrons if he knew where Walnut Grove was. They told me that Duff Armstrong was buried in the Walnut Grove Cemetery and they knew where it was. Receiving my directions, I exited the bar, got back into the truck, and we were off to find Walnut Grove.

We found the cemetery, and there were some trees in the distance which could have been Walnut Grove, but there was mostly cornfields.

Walnut Grove (?) Cemetery

I put the question mark in the caption above because I'm not certain that the cemetery had anything to do with Walnut Grove. It did have Duff Armstrong's grave, though.

Duff Armstrong's Grave

The picture above doesn't do justice to the lush fields of corn surrounding the cemetery. Duff's grave marker did not bear his date of birth or date of death. It did give the military unit he served in during the Civil War.

WM. ARMSTRONG

CO.C.

85 ILL.INF.

By all the evidence I have been able to muster, Duff died a pauper. The headstone is  a generic headstone given to Civil War veterans. We tried to take a rubbing of the tombstone, but didn't have the proper equipment. Beside the headstone is plastic plaque which is somewhat more legible.

 

WILLIAM DUFF ARMSTRONG

Accused Slayer Of

Preston Metzker

May 7, 1858

Freed By Lincoln In

Almanac Trial

Before we left, we found another headstone that I thought was worthy of a photograph. The gentleman buried beneath this headstone certainly had a nice sense of humor.

PARDON ME FOR NOT STANDING UP