Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) was born in a meager, one~room cabin about 20 miles south of Bardstown in Hodgenville, Kentucky. It had a dirt floor, one window, and a stick~clay chimney. Lincoln's father, Tom, had paid $200 for the cabin and 300 acres of discouraging land. It wasn't much, but it was a home and the young family's only chance for a decent life. After four years of fighting mosquitoes, heat and hardscrabble land, the Lincolns had to pack up and leave. There was a defect in the title. A trial was held at the Courthouse in Bardstown around 1812. The family stayed here at the Tavern. Abraham was quoted as being clad in a "one piece long linsey shirt.”
