It is the day of Lincoln’s Presidential Inauguration, and a rough-hewn, craggy, care-worn man asks a guard if he can stand to the side where he won’t be in the way, and watch the proceedings. But before he can get an answer, an aide to the President comes to escort the visitor to the platform as a very special guest of honor.
The man is Mentor Graham, born near Greensburg, Kentucky (in fact, just a few miles from where we live — JE). He attended a one room school when he was very young and in 1812 enrolled in his uncle’s Bush Creek Academy. After a few years Graham was employed as headmaster of Greensburg School. In 1825 Graham moved north to Illinois. Graham is credited with giving Abraham Lincoln whatever higher education he received, including surveying.
Here’s the little known story of Mentor Graham, a country schoolmaster not much older than Lincoln himself, who was one of the most influential figures in young Abraham Lincoln’s life.
I am currently reading Mentor Graham: The Man Who Taught Lincoln by: Kunigunde Duncan and D.F. Nickols. I am homeschooling my 12 yr old son and we are about to embark on Kentucky history and family history. Mentor Graham is cousin to us. I am finally reading the book handed down in our family before I reread it to my son. I am so excited.
Who are you and where are you? Don’t you just love the internet. We are living on my family farm. My grandma was Clara Graham and my grandfather was Thomas Graham. We live in Jefferson County Kentucky very close to Bullit County.
I would be happy to hear from you,
Mindy