I have taken the liberty of utilizing an original chronology prepared by James T. Hickey, the Curator of the Lincoln Collection, of the Illinois State Historical Library. It was published in 1990 by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield, Ill. You may read the Hickey chronology on the Internet Archive on this link. I have simply combined it with my own chronological notes on John Brown's first thirty-five years. I have made no modifications or changes to Hickey's Lincoln material. --LD
JOHN BROWN ABRAHAM LINCOLN
1800
May 9. “John was born May 9th 1800, at Torrington.
Litchfield
Co, Connecticut. . . .” John Brown’s autobiographical
sketch, July-Aug. 1857
1805
July 7. Brown arrives in Hudson, Ohio, on
Connecticut’s
Western Reserve lands, having
departed
Connecticut on June 9.
1808
Dec. 9. John’s mother, Ruth Mills Brown, dies
in
childbirth. “At Eight years old John was
left
a Motherless boy.” There are five
children
in the family, including an adopted
son
named Levi Blakeslee.
Feb. 12. "I
was born Feb. 12, 1809 in then Hardin
County
Kentucky." The birthplace farm is
about
three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Nov. 8. Owen Brown,
John’s widowed father,
marries Sally Root.
No census
data available for the Browns in Ohio.
The
census for Hardin County lists the family of
Thomas
Lincoln as a male between 25 and 45
years of
age with wife between 26 and 45,
boy
(Abraham) under ten, and girl (Sarah) under ten.
1811
Spring. Thomas
Lincoln and family move from the
birthplace farm to a 230-acre
farm on Knob Creek,
ten miles north and six miles
east of Hodgenville.
1812
July. War of 1812
begins. Owen, John’s father,
provides beef and horses to U.S.
soldiers on the
frontier. Sometime between 1812-14, John has
traumatic experience, observing
the abuse of
an enslaved/ indentured “negro
boy” by a brutal
master. Owen Brown’s autobiography, ca. 1850, and
John Brown’s autobiographical sketch,
July-Aug. 1857
_____. A
younger brother of Abraham, named
Thomas,
is born this year and dies in infancy.
1815
_____. One
academic year of instruction at
the Tallmadge Academy, Tallmadge,
Ohio, under
the Rev. Simeon Woodruff.
Autumn. For a few weeks in
the fall of 1815 Abraham
and his
sister Sarah attend a school taught
by
Zachariah Riney. The following year the
school
is taught by Caleb Hazel.
1816
Mar. 6. John examined and admitted to
membership in the First
Congregational Church
of Hudson, Ohio.
Summer. John, his brother Salmon, and Orson
Oviatt travel to Canton, Conn., to
study under
the Rev. Jeremiah Hallock. They later transfer to
an academy at Plainfield, Conn.,
led by the
Rev. Moses Hallock. John and
Salmon remain
until 1817. John quits school due to chronic
eye inflammation and economic
hardship.
“Fire from the Midst of You”: A Religious Life of John
Brown, pp. 61-64
December. During
the first of this month
Thomas
Lincoln moves his family from
Kentucky
to what is now Spencer
County,
Ind. (then Perry County).
1817
Oct. 15. Thomas
Lincoln goes to the
government
land office at Vincennes
and
enters the farm he has settled on.
1818
Oct.
5. Nancy
Hanks Lincoln, mother
of Abraham, dies of milk
sickness.
Dec.
2. Thomas
Lincoln, father of
Abraham, marries Mrs. Sarah Bush
Johnston in Elizabethtown, Ky.
1820
Jun. 21.
John marries Dianthe Lusk (b. 1801)
in
Hudson, Ohio. Builds a cabin and
operates
a
tannery on Hind’s Hill Road in Hudson.
1821
Jul. 25.
John Brown Jr. is born in Hudson,
Ohio. (d. May 2, 1895)
1823
Jan. 19. Jason Brown
is born in Hudson,
Ohio. (d. Dec. 24, 1912)
June
7.
Thomas Lincoln becomes member
of the Pigeon Creek
Baptist Church.
1824
Nov. 4. Owen Brown
is born in Hudson,
Ohio. (d. Jan. 10, 1889)
1826
Spring? John Brown
relocates his family to
Randolph
Township, Crawford County, in the
area
of Meadville, Penn. Establishes tannery
and
partnership with Seth Thompson of
Hartford,
Ohio.
1827
Jan. 9. Frederick
Brown (1) is born in Randolph
Township, Crawford County, Pa. (d. Mar. 31, 1831)
1828
Jan.
20.
Lincoln's sister Sarah, who married
Aaron Grigsby on Aug. 2, 1826, dies in
childbirth.
During this year Abraham and Allen Gentry
take
a flatboat loaded with cargo to New Orleans
for Allen's father James Gentry.
January. John Brown appointed
postmaster
of Randolph Township, Crawford
County, Pa.
by the administration of Pres.
John Quincy Adams.
Randolph Township is later
renamed Richmond
1829
Feb. 18. Ruth Brown
is born in Randolph Township,
Crawford County, Pa. (d. Jan. 18, 1904)
1830
Mar. 1. Thomas Lincoln's family and the
families
of his two
stepsons-in-law start for Illinois.
Abraham, one of the
thirteen in the party,
drives one of the three
wagons.
Mar 15. The Lincoln family locates ten
miles
southwest of Decatur, on the
north bank
of the Sangamon River
(now Lincoln
Trail Homestead State
Park).
Jun.
12. In a
letter to his father, John Brown reveals
that he has had conflicts with certain Masons in
Meadville, Pa., due to his apostasy from the
Lodge and
his anti-Masonic stance. “I have discovered that my
movements are narrowly watched by some of the
worthy brotherhood.”
1831
March.
Lincoln, his cousin John Hanks, and
stepbrother
John D. Johnston leave home.
At
Springfield Denton Offutt hires them to
help
build a flatboat at Sangamon Town,
seven
miles northwest of Springfield.
April-July. Lincoln
pilots the flatboat to New
Orleans
for Offutt and return to New Salem,
eighteen
miles northwest of Springfield.
Aug. 1. Lincoln
casts his first vote at John
Carmon's
house in New Salem,
the voting
place of Clary's Grove
Precinct
which includes New Salem.
September. Lincoln
begins clerking
in Denton Offutt's new store at New Salem.
Dec. 31. Frederick Brown (2) is born in Randolph
(Richmond) Township, Crawford County, Penn.
(d. Aug. 30, 1856, at Osawatomie, Kansas Territory)
1832
January. John Brown establishes a
Congregational Church in Richmond Township,
Crawford County, Pa.
Mar. 9. Lincoln
becomes a candidate for the
legislature
on a platform favoring improvement of
navigation
on the Sangamon River, changes in
the
usury laws, and universal education.
Apr.
7.
Lincoln is elected a captain in
the 31st Regiment,
Illinois Militia.
Apr. 21. New
Salem neighborhood volunteers
for the
Black Hawk War form a
company
and elect Lincoln captain.
May 27. Captain
Lincoln's company is
mustered
out of service at Fort Johnson,
Ottawa.
He then enlists in Capt. Elijah Iles'
regiment
for twenty days.
June 16. Lincoln
re-enlists in Capt. Jacob M. Early's
independent
spy company at Fort Wilbourn.
July 10. The
mustering-out roll of Capt. Early's
company,
written by Lincoln, is certified by
Lt. Robert
Anderson (who was to be
command
at Fort Sumter in 1861).
Aug. 6.
Lincoln, a candidate for the first time,
is
defeated in his bid for a seat in
Illinois
legislature. He is eighth
in the
field of thirteen candidates.
Aug. 10. Dianthe
Brown dies after bearing a son
on
Aug 7. The baby preceded her in death on
Aug.
9. John is left with five children.
1833
January. Brown
appointed trustee for state
road maintenance, Crawford
County, Pa.
Jan. 15. Lincoln
and William F. Berry purchase
from
William Greene for $750 the store in
New
Salem formerly owned by Reuben Radford.
May 7.
President Jackson appoints Lincoln
postmaster
at New Salem. He serves
until
May 30, 1836, when the office
is
discontinued.
July 11. John Brown marries Mary Ann Day (Apr. 15,
1816-Feb. 29, 1894), a local woman, in a house
wedding ceremony.
Oct.
26. Brown
informs his brother Frederick of the
death of their brother, Salmon Brown, a
journalist
residing in New Orleans.
1834
Jan. 6.
Lincoln, as deputy surveyor of
Sangamon
County, makes his first known
survey
for Reason Shipley. He continues
surveying
for three years.
Mar.
1. In a letter to
his relative and business partner,
Seth Thompson, Brown laments the scarcity of
cash and
bemoans the closing of National Bank by Pres.
Andrew
Jackson as “General Jackson darkness.”
May 11. Sarah (1) Brown is born in Richmond
Township, Crawford County, Pa. (d. Sept. 23, 1843)
Aug. 4. Lincoln, in his second try for
public office,
is elected to the
Illinois House of Representatives
as a representative for
Sangamon County.
Sept. 30. Lincoln surveys the town of New Boston
on the Mississippi River,
now in Mercer County.
Dec. 1. Lincoln takes his seat in the
fifty-five-member
Illinois House of
Representatives at Vandalia.
Nov. 21. John Brown
writes to his brother
Frederick
(1807-77) about possibly establishing
a
school for black youths and even purchasing a
young black youth from slavery, “a favorite
theme
of reflection for year.”
1835
May. John Brown leaves Pennsylvania, relocating
his family to Franklin Mills [today, Kent], Ohio,
in order to pursue a tannery partnership with
Zenas Kent, as well as other entrepreneurial
pursuits.
______. At some point in the year, perhaps
December, Brown purchases a 100-acre-plus farm
from Frederick Haymaker, in the area of Franklin
Mills, Ohio, with monies from other investors. Sharing
the common anticipation that Franklin Mills is
going to
expand rapidly, his intention is to profit from the
boom in Real Estate by parceling out and selling
the farmland at a profit.
Aug. 25. Ann
Rutledge, legendary sweetheart
of
Lincoln, dies at the Rutledge farm
seven
miles northwest of New Salem.
Oct. 7. Watson Brown is born in Franklin Mills,
Ohio (d. Oct. 19, 1859 at Harper’s Ferry, Va.)
Dec. 7. Lincoln is present for the
opening of
a special session of
Illinois legislature at Vandalia.
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