father and, in fact, nearly the whole
family left at home suffered so much from malaria that they were
thoroughly discouraged. The interior of their little cabin was a sorry
sight--Thomas and his wife were both afflicted at once, and one married
daughter was almost as ill. They were all so sick that Thomas Lincoln
registered a shaky but vehement resolve that as soon as they could
travel they would "git out o' thar!" He had been so determined to move
to Illinois that no persuasion could induce him to give up the project,
therefore his disappointment was the more keen and bitter.

The first winter the Lincolns spent in Illinois was memorable for its
severity. It is still spoken of in that region as "the winter of the big
snow." Cattle and sheep froze to death or died of exposure and
starvation.

BUILDING THE FLATBOAT

Early in the spring after "the big snow," John Hanks, Lincoln and John
Johnston met Denton Offutt, a man who was to wield an influence on the
life of young Lincoln. Offutt engaged the three to take a load of
produce and other merchandise to New Orleans to sell. John Hanks, the
most reliable member of the Hanks family, gave the following account of
the way he managed to bring Abe and his stepbrother into the
transaction: "He wanted me to go badly but I waited before answering. I
hunted up Abe, and I introduced him and John Johnston, his stepbrother,
to Offutt. After some talk we at last made an engagement with Offutt at
fifty cents a day and sixty dollars to make the trip to New Orleans. Abe
and I came down the Sangamon River in a canoe in March, 1831, and landed
at what is now called Jamestown, five miles east of Springfield."

Denton Offutt spent so much time drinking in a tavern at the village of
Springfield that the flatboat was not ready when the trio arrived to
take it and its cargo down the river. Their employer met them on their
arrival with profuse apologies, and the three men were engaged to build
the boat and load it up for the journey.

During the four weeks required to build the raft, the men of that
neighborhood became acquainted with young Lincoln. A man named John Roll
has given this description of Abe's appearance at that time:

"He was a tall, gaunt young man, dressed in a suit of blue homespun,
consisting of a roundabout jacket, waistcoat, and breeches which came to
within about three inches of his feet. The latter were encased in
rawhide boots, into the tops of which, most of the