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Surnames: HANKS, LINCOLN, RIFE, TRIMMER
Classification: Obituary
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ci.2ADE/5900.1
Message Board Post:
THE BLOOMFIELD NEWS, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, Thursday June 22, 1939, Volume
LXIII, Number 34, Page 1, Column 5, “Has Gun Which Was Used Several Times By Abraham
Lincoln.” [Transcribed on March 29, 2005 by RLJ from microfilm of the original newspaper
on file in the Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library.]
William F. TRIMMER, well known farmer of Highland Township, was in Bloomfield yesterday.
Mr. TRIMMER owns an old-flint-lock muzzle loading shotgun which he says was used many
times by Abraham LINCOLN on hunting trips.
Mr. TRIMMER’S grandfather, Joseph RIFE, came from Perry County, Pennsylvania, in 1839, to
Macon County, Illinois. He was thirty-nine years old at that time. Johnnie HANKS, a
first cousin of Abraham Lincoln, lived across the road from the RIFE’s. Lincoln lived at
Springfield, Illinois, at that time in his practice of law rode horseback over the country
and often visited Macon County and his cousin, Johnnie HANKS. RIFE and LINCOLN went on
hunting trips together, and many times, so the story goes, LINCOLN used this gun now owned
by Mr. TRIMMER.
Mr. TRIMMER is very proud of this historical firearm and is preserving it for future
generations.
—
NOTES—RLJ: 1880 US CENSUS OF MACON COUNTY, ILLINOIS, Hickory Point, Roll T9-0229, Page
451C: RIF, Joseph (78, m, w, m, Farmer, PA, PA, PA), Elizabeth (80, wife, m, w, f, Keeping
house, PA, PA, PA), Andrew TRIMMER (39, Son-in-law, m, w, m, Farmer, PA, PA, PA),
Elizabeth (36, dau, m, w, f, Keeping house, PA, PA, PA), Mary (17, g-dau, s, w, f, At
home, IL, PA, PA), Grant (15, g-son, s, w, m, At home, IL, PA, PA), Lidia (12, g-dau, s,
w, f, At home, IL, PA, PA), William (11, g-son, s, w, m, At home, IL, PA, PA), Ida (8,
g-dau, s, w, f, At home, IL, PA, PA), Charles (5, g-son, s, w, m, IL, PA, PA), Louie (3,
g-son, s, w, m, IL, PA, PA), Gracie (4mo, s, w, f, IL, PA, PA).