McClures Magazine, January, 1896, Vol. VI. No. 2 | Page 2

rough farm work in the neighborhood until March of 1831, when he
went to Sangamon town, near Springfield, to build a flatboat. In April
he started on this flatboat for New Orleans, which he reached in May.
After a month in that city, he returned, in June, to Illinois, where he
made a short visit at his parents' home, now in Coles County, and in
July went to New Salem, to take charge of a store and mill owned by
Denton Offutt, who had employed him on the flatboat.[A] The goods
for the new store had not arrived when Lincoln reached New Salem.
Obliged to turn his hand to something, he piloted down the Sangamon
and Illinois rivers, as far as Beardstown, a flatboat bearing the family
and goods of a pioneer bound for Texas. At Beardstown he found
Offutt's goods waiting to be taken to New Salem. As he footed his way
home he met two men with a wagon and ox-team going for the goods.
Offutt had expected Lincoln to wait at Beardstown until the ox-team
arrived, and the teamsters, not having any credentials, asked Lincoln to
give them an order for the goods. This, sitting down by the roadside, he
wrote out; and one of the men used to relate that it contained a
misspelled word, which he corrected.
IN CHARGE OF DENTON OFFUTT'S STORE.
The precise date of the opening of Denton Offutt's store is not known.

We only know that on July 8, 1831, the County Commissioners' Court
of Sangamon County granted Offutt a license to retail merchandise at
New Salem; for which he paid five dollars, a fee which supposed him
to have one thousand dollars' worth of goods in stock. When the oxen
and their drivers returned with the goods, the store was opened in a
little log house on the brink of the hill, almost over the river.
[Illustration: THE KIRKHAM'S GRAMMAR USED BY LINCOLN
AT NEW SALEM.--NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.]
The copy of Kirkham's Grammar studied by Lincoln belonged to a man
named Vaner. Some of the biographers say Lincoln borrowed [it,] but it
appears that he became the owner of the book, either by purchase or
through the generosity of Vaner, for it was never returned to the latter.
It is said that Lincoln learned this grammar practically by heart.
"Sometimes," says Herndon, "he would stretch out at full length on the
counter, his head propped up on a stack of calico prints, studying it; or
he would steal away to the shade of some inviting tree, and there spend
hours at a time in a determined effort to fix in his mind the arbitrary
rule that 'adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.'" He
presented the book to Ann Rutledge [the story of Ann Rutledge will
appear in a future number of the Magazine], and it has since been one
of the treasures of the Rutledge family. After the death of Ann it was
studied by her brother, Robert, and is now owned by his widow, who
resides at Casselton, North Dakota. The title page of the book appears
above. The words, "Ann M. Rutledge is now learning grammar," were
written by Lincoln. The order on James Rutledge to pay David P.
Nelson thirty dollars and signed "A. Lincoln, for D. Offutt," which is
shown above, was pasted upon the front cover of the book by Robert
Rutledge. From a photograph made especially for MCCLURE'S
MAGAZINE.--_J. McCan Davis_.]
The frontier store filled a unique place. Usually it was a "general store,"
and on its shelves were found most of the articles needed in a
community of pioneers. But to be a place for the sale of dry goods and
groceries was not its only function; it was a kind of intellectual and
social centre. It was the common meeting-place of the farmers, the
happy refuge of the village loungers. No subject was unknown there.
The _habitués_ of the place were equally at home in talking politics,
religion, or sport. Stories were told, jokes were cracked and laughed at,

and the news contained in the latest newspaper finding its way into the
wilderness was discussed. Such a store was that of Denton Offutt.
Lincoln could hardly have chosen surroundings more favorable to the
highest development of the art of story-telling, and he had not been
there long before his reputation for drollery was established.
THE CLARY'S GROVE BOYS.
But he gained popularity and respect in other ways. There was near the
village a settlement called Clary's Grove. The most conspicuous part of
the population was an organization known as the "Clary's Grove Boys."
They exercised a veritable terror over the neighborhood, and yet they
were not a bad set of fellows. Mr. Herndon, who had a cousin living in
New Salem at the