In Abraham Lincoln's Shadow

We also walked in Abraham Lincoln's family shadow when we visited the site of his great-great grandfather Mordecai Lincoln's house in Exeter Township, PA.  I remember as an elementary school student studying PA history and going past this house and wishing that it would be restored.  At that time it lay in ruins.  Happily it was restored in 1987-1988 but alas, since then has fallen back into disrepair.


 Joel and Amelia outside the house surrounded by invasive vegetation.

Sadly, in need of another restoration.

Another sight to behold!

 Mordecai Lincoln died in 1736, about three years after building the house pictured above.  Although not a Quaker, it is believed, curiously, that he was buried in an unmarked grave at the cemetery at the Exeter Friends Meeting.


We also visited Gettysburg during out time in PA.  Here Joel and Amelia pose with Mr. Lincoln himself outside the Visitor's Center.  Amelia says that Lincoln is her favorite president.

There is a plaster mask of Mr. Lincoln in an exhibit in the visitor's center.

This is the site of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, four and a half months after the Union Army defeated the Confederates at Gettysburg.  This year marks the 150th anniversary of the speech and will be remembered with special events, including a new speech by President Obama.  However, it is unlikely that the current president's speech will be remembered as fondly as Lincoln's 272 words, some of the most famous in the history of oration.

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