In 1831, Abraham Lincoln and a couple of companions floated down the Sangamon River in a flatboat on their way to New Orleans. In mid-April, they neared New Salem, Illinois, a small village founded two years earlier by James Rutledge and John M. Camron.

The people of New Salem first noticed Lincoln shortly after he arrived, when his flatboat became stranded on the nearby milldam. Under Lincoln’s direction, the crew unloaded the cargo and got the boat over the dam.

Denton Offutt, who had hired Lincoln to man the flatboat, was impressed with Lincoln’s handling of the incident, and offered him a clerkship in his store. However, when Lincoln returned from New Orleans, the store was not yet open. Instead, Lincoln took a variety of other jobs, including helping to pilot a steamboat down the Sangamon River to Beardstown on the Illinois River.

In April 1832, Chief Black Hawk, leader of the Sac and Fox tribes, along with several hundred well-armed Indians, crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, intent on planting corn. Their arrival caused panic among the Illinois frontier communities, and Governor Reynolds called for volunteers to drive the Indians out.

Lincoln was still employed by Offutt when the governor’s call came, but he saw that the store was about to fail, so he enlisted at Richland for 30-days service beginning on April 21, 1832.

Each company elected its own captain. The men in Lincoln’s company were friends and neighbors from the New Salem area, and they elected him Captain by a huge majority. His term of service expired on May 27, 1832, but Lincoln re-enlisted twice more for a total service of 51 days.

Lincoln saw no fighting during this time, but he did help bury five men who had been killed and scalped at Kellogg’s Grove. Lincoln was mustered out of federal service on July 10, 1832, at White River, Wisconsin Territory; he walked back to New Salem.

He would always treat this service lightly, but it did provide him with a knowledge of soldiers and their lifestyles – and a small land grant in Iowa.

Lincoln returned to New Salem just two weeks before the August 1832 election, and immediately returned to his campaign for the state Legislature, which had been interrupted by the Black Hawk War. He made very few speeches, but at Pappsville, a town just west of Springfield, a large crowd asked him to speak.

According to A. Y. Ellis, a New Salem merchant, Lincoln responded with the following remarks:

“Fellow citizens, I presume you all know who I am – I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the legislature. My policies are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a National Bank, I am in favor of the Internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected I shall be thankful; and if not, it will be all the same.”

Lincoln lost the election of 1832, but he gained an enthusiasm for politics that would always remain with him. There were 13 candidates in this election, and out of a total of 8,315 ballots cast, Lincoln received 657 votes. Of the 300 votes cast at New Salem, Lincoln received 277.

With the election over and with no job, Lincoln looked for other opportunities. He soon found himself a merchant in his own right. In January 1833, he entered into a partnership with William F. Berry to purchase a small store. This venture didn’t last long. According to Lincoln, this business simply put him deeper in debt. In April of 1833, he sold his interest in the store to Berry.

Lincoln received an appointment as postmaster of New Salem on May 7, 1833. He retained this position until the post office was relocated to Petersburg on May 30, 1836. How Lincoln got this job is not known for certain.

Near the end of 1833, Lincoln became a deputy to John Calhoun, the county surveyor.

When William Berry, Lincoln’s former business partner, died on January 10, 1835, Lincoln was saddled with the debts of the partnership. (Only in 1848 was Lincoln finally able to pay off what he called “the national debt.”)

His formal education prior to his New Salem years was limited, but Lincoln seemed to have an early interest in legal matters. When still a young man in Indiana, he borrowed and read a copy of the Revised Statutes of Indiana. In 1833, he purchased a book of legal forms, and drew up mortgages, deeds, and other legal documents for his friends at no charge, and even argued minor cases.

It was at New Salem, though, that he began studying the law in earnest, with the encouragement and advice of John T. Stuart. Lincoln traveled 20 miles to Springfield to borrow books from Stuart’s law office. On September 9, 1836, Lincoln was granted a license to practice law. On March 1, 1837, the Illinois Supreme Court awarded him a certificate of admission to the bar. He had begun the career that he would follow for the remainder of his life; he was no longer “a floating piece of driftwood,” as he once referred to himself.

After the Illinois legislature adjourned on March 6, 1837, Lincoln returned to the fading village of New Salem. He saw no future there for legal work or wider political opportunities. Springfield, on the other hand, offered both. He was well known there, and he enjoyed increasing popularity because of his efforts to move the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield. On April 15, 1837, on a borrowed horse, with everything he owned in two saddlebags, Lincoln moved to Springfield, the place he would call home for the next 24 years of his life.

Adapted from the National Park Service. Used with permission.