Arguably the most transformative and effectual president in American history was born right here amid the rolling green hills of Kentucky on February 12th, 1809. 

Thomas & Nancy Lincoln were living on 300 acre Sinking Spring Farm just south of what would soon become Hodgenville (1818) when Abraham Lincoln was born. 

The icy cold stream itself, just a few hundred feet from the exact spot where President Lincoln was born. This is the water little Abe drank in his first 2.5 years of life. 

Spot where our nation’s 16th President and savior for a divided nation was birthed. 

This is an original cabin from 1840 erected on the site where the Lincoln’s cabin had stood. 

That cabin and location of Lincoln’s birth now stands within this elegant structure, built in 1909.

Driving through downtown Hodgenville, one finds a serene landscape from a decades earlier era. 

My mom even met young Abe. 

However, little Abe’s first memories were of the Knob Creek Place, about seven miles north of his birthplace–on outskirts of Hodgenville near Athertonville. 

From about 2.5-7.5 years of age, the Lincoln family lived in a cabin that stood somewhere between where this sign stands and the trees across the street. 

President Lincoln’s earliest recollection included his planting of pumpkin seeds in between rows of corn within this field, never developed by anyone since. His pumpkin seeds washed away during hard rain. 

The Lincoln family’s closest neighbors lived in this home, which although restored, is also original. It has been moved slightly and now resides on the Lincoln farm. 

Another earliest memory was when Lincoln nearly drowned at this spot in Knob Creek in the rushing waters of a flood. His friend and neighbor Austin Gollaher extended a tree branch to him, thus saving his life and the life of an entire nation.