Interviews with Lincoln's family Saturday at Lincoln Log Cabin

[October 08, 2009]  LERNA -- Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site will stage a recital of Lincoln family interviews on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the site's Visitor Center auditorium. The recital is based on interviews conducted in 1865 by Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon. The performances are free and open to the public.

After Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Herndon decided to write a biography of Lincoln. Over the next 25 years Herndon interviewed and corresponded with many who knew Lincoln. During the summer and fall of 1865 Herndon corresponded with and interviewed Lincoln's Coles County family, including his cousin Dennis Hanks, stepsister Matilda Moore and his beloved stepmother, Sarah Lincoln. Lincoln Log Cabin will bring will bring these family stories of young Abraham Lincoln to life during the performances on Saturday.

Although Herndon ultimately failed to write the book he intended, his collection of letters and interviews would eventually be used as the source material for "The Real Lincoln," published in 1922 by Jessie Weik, a friend and collaborator on Herndon's project.

Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, was the 1840s home of Abraham Lincoln's father and stepmother, Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln. It is located eight miles south of Charleston, 14 miles southwest of Mattoon. For more information concerning this and other events at the site, contact Lincoln Log Cabin at 217-345-1845 or visit www.lincolnlogcabin.org.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]