726

623. Dennis F. Hanks (Jesse W. Weik Interview).

Charleston, Illinois, Oct. 28, 1886

"They told me the Lincolns had a baby at thur house," he related to the writer at Charleston, Illinois, Oct. 28, 1886, "and so I jest run all the way down thar. I guess I was on hand purty early, fur I rickolect when I held the little feller in my arms his mother said, ’Be keerful with him, Dennis, fur you air the fust boy he's ever seen.' I sort o' swung him back and forth; a little to peart, I reckon, fur with the talkin' and the shakin' he soon begun to cry and then I handed him over to my Aunt Polly who wuz standin' close by. ’Aunt,' sez I, ’take him; he'll never come to much,' fur I'll tell you he wuz the puniest, cryin'est little younster I ever saw."

Weik, 44

nts

Notes.

1. Apparently Mary Hanks, who married Jesse Friend.