A wooden trestle connected both mills with the steep bank. On the sides, and stood on the west bank. The saw mill, with its old-fashioned upright saw, had a roof, but was open The grist mill was enclosed and set out over the stream. The dam completed, a combination saw and grist mill, of solid frame construction, was erected beside it.
Its construction was begun at once, farmers from the surrounding country furnishing oxen and horses to haul rocks with which to fill the wooden bins that had been placed in the stream. On January 22, 1829, the Legislature granted them permis|sion to build the dam. There they were assured of a steady flow, so they applied to the State Legislature for permission to build a dam.Īnticipating favorable action, they left Concord Creek, probably in the fall of 1828, built new homes on the bluff above the river, and moved in before cold weather came. But the volume of water in the creek was insufficient, and after an extensive search for a suitable site, on July 19, 1828, Camron entered a tract of land on the Sangamon River. There they entered land and planned to build a mill. In 1825 or 1826, Rutledge and Camron moved again, this time to Concord Creek, in Sangamon County, about seven miles north of the site of New Salem. A man of great physical strength, a millwright by trade, Cam|ron was an ordained Cumberland Presbyterian preacher as well. He accompanied his uncle on his migration from Georgia to White County. Cam|ron, a native of Georgia, ten years younger than Rutledge, was a nephew of Rutledge's wife.
He was a man of medium height, quiet, dignified, sincerely religious, and fairly well educated. In 1813, he and his family moved to White County, Illinois. There Rutledge married and had several children, among them a daughter, Ann.
From there they moved to Tennessee, thence to Kentucky. Early in his life his family moved to Georgia. The former was born in South Carolina in 1781. The village of New Salem-Lincoln's home from 1831 to 1837-was founded in 1829, by James Rutledge and John M. He came to New Salem an aimless pioneer youth he left with an aroused ambition and he took with him an abiding understanding of the thoughts and feelings of the common man. There he made his first venture into politics, formed his first enduring friendships, and won-and lost through death-his first love. He learned surveying, acquired the elements of law, improved his knowledge of grammar, mathematics and lit|erature, and made his first formal efforts at speech-making and debate. While there he had his one brief expe|rience as a soldier, and held his first state and first Federal office. There he served his apprenticeship in business, made his first venture into business on his own account, and es|tablished the reputation for square dealing that stuck to him through life. In New Salem Lincoln made his reputation for physical prowess and began the development of his talents of leader|ship. No one seeing Lincoln at New Salem, would have pre|dicted for him the high place he was to reach in public life and world esteem yet at New Salem many of the char|acteristics which were to make him great were in process of development, while others were present in rudimentary form. "How slowly, and yet by happily prepared steps, he came to his place," said Emerson. Neither a born genius nor a man of mediocre talents suddenly endowed with wis|dom to guide the nation through the trials of civil war, he developed gradually, absorbing from his environment that which was useful and good, growing in character and mind. THE outstanding feature of Lincoln's life was his ca|pacity for development. Page Page PART ONE: NEW SALEM Page NEW SALEM