Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky on his family farm, but due to land title challenges, his father lost everything he had worked for. In 1816, when Abraham was age seven, his family moved to southern Indiana, settling at the Little Pigeon Creek Community west of present day Santa Claus, Indiana. It is here that they built a log cabin and created a new family farm. It was not an easy life. Two years after moving from Kentucky, Lincoln’s mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of milk sickness. It is a disease caused by eating dairy products from cows that ate the white snakeroot plant that has the toxin temetrol. She was buried on a hill south of the farm along with other settlers, including her aunt and uncle who died from the disease. The cemetery is now called Pioneer Cemetery.
The farm and the area around it is now a National Memorial. Visitors can explore a replica of the farm where young Lincoln grew up. Not far away is the cemetery where his mother is buried. Laying the the foot of her headstone are hundreds of pennies that people have left. I rarely keep coins in my pockets but I happened to have a penny with me and I also left one in memory of her and her son.
P.S. If you are wondering. Yes, Tom Hanks is a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln.
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