Flatboat commemorating Lincoln journey visits Osceola

A replica of a 19th century flatboat stopped by Osceola on its way to New Orleans as part of Lincoln's Journey of Remembrance. A crew from Spencer County, Indiana where Lincoln spent his youth is retracing the trip the 19 year old future president made in 1828 to commemorate Lincoln's upcoming 200th birthday. (Democrat Photo/Mark Randall)

OSCEOLA - In 1828, a tall, lanky 19 year-old boy from the back woods of Indiana set off on a pioneer flatboat from Rockport down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River bound for New Orleans.

It was his first long journey away from home.

What he saw on the docks in New Orleans would stay with him the rest of his life and play a major role in shaping the history of the United States.

The boy was Abraham Lincoln. And what he saw for the first time were slaves being sold on the auction block.

"Historians believe that it was on this trip that he probably developed his point of view about slavery," said John Cooper, designer of the 60 foot replica flatboat which is re-tracing Lincoln's journey to commemorate his upcoming 200th birthday.

"Even though he knew about slavery and perhaps had even seen a slave pass by, up in the woods of Indiana he never saw slaves on the block where they were chained together and families ripped apart."

Cooper is part of group of goodwill ambassadors from Spencer County, Ind., where the future president spent 14 years of his youth, who are recreating the voyage to bring attention to Lincoln's Indiana roots.

The 26-day "Journey of Remembrance" stopped over in Osceola on Sept. 21 to let the public get a look at the flatboat.

"We wanted the world to know that Lincoln is part of our heritage and to show people that Lincoln did these kinds of things," Cooper said. "Most people think of him as president with a stove pipe hat. But he was more like Davy Crockett."

Lincoln was born in Kentucky in 1809 but lived in Indiana from ages 7 to 21 before moving to Illinois.

Cooper said it was on the Indiana frontier where his sense of honesty, pursuit of learning and respect for hard work was forged.

"The family was so poor when they go to Indiana," cooper said. "They had nothing. They grubbed it out of the woods. So he was a guy who was used to hard work. And he liked the river."

James Gentry, the richest man in the county, took notice of Lincoln and hired him to accompany his son Allen to New Orleans. Lincoln was paid $24 and was guaranteed return passage to Indiana on a steamboat.

Cooper said the boat Lincoln traveled on was slightly bigger than the replica and didn't have an engine on it or modern conveniences like electricity and a microwave.

"He would have furs and candles ad leather and whiskey and corn and apples, things that came out of the Indiana woods," Cooper said.

Cooper said he tried to float the boat once without the use of the engines like Lincoln did, but the task proved to be too difficult. The lesson gave him a greater appreciation of life in those days.

"You can't do it," Cooper said. "It's almost impossible. I have a picture of us trying to row it with two people on either end of the oar and two people on the rudder, and we could hardly move it. And remember, there were only two of them. People back in those days were a lot stronger. I wouldn't want to try and whoop one of them."`

The 43,000 pound boat boat, made from Indiana poplar wood, is owned by Ron Drake, a Washington, D.C. attorney and former Indiana state legislator who had the vessel built in 2006 so that he could re-trace the journey his ancestors took down the Little Miami and Ohio Rivers to the Mississippi River in 1810.

Cooper said the river looks pretty much the way it did in Lincoln's day.

"If you look out at the riverbank, it was like that then," Cooper said. "This river hasn't changed."

Cooper said he has learned a lot about Lincoln from people he has met along the way.

"It's been exciting for me to meet people," Cooper said.