The Physical Lincoln: Jacob Brother

From Lincolnwiki

• Lived in cabin where Lincoln born.

My name is Jacob S. Brother. My father's name was Henry, but he was generally known as 'Harry.' I was born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, March 8, 1819.

In the year 1827, when I was eight years old, my father purchased the old farm on which Abraham Lincoln was born, in Kentucky. He purchased it of Henry Thomas. We lived in the house in which Lincoln was born. After some years, my father built another house almost like the first house. The old house was torn down, and, to my knowledge, the logs were burned for fire-wood. Later he built a hewed log house, and the second old house was used as a hatter-shop. My father followed the trade of making hats all his life. The pictures we often see of the house in which Lincoln was born are pictures of the first house built by my father. He died in the hewed log house, and my youngest brother, Joseph, was born in the same house three weeks after father's death. Some time after father's death, mother, I, and the other children moved to near St. Joe, Missouri.

The brother born on the Lincoln farm enlisted in the Southern army, and was captured at Lookout Mountain, and taken to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, as a prisoner. My oldest brother, George, who was a surgeon in the Union army, went to Washington City to see President Lincoln, in order to get a reprieve for his brother. Among other things, he told the President that his brother and he (the President) were born on the same farm. I do not know how much weight this had with the President, but my brother was reprieved. I left Missouri to avoid going into the Confederate army, and came to Rockport, Indiana, in 1863, where I have ever since resided.