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Updated: June 22, 2025
They took up Offutt's challenge, and, against "Abe," set up, as their champion and "best man," one Jack Armstrong. All this was done without Lincoln's knowledge. He had no desire to get into a row with anyone least of all with the bullies who made up the Clary Grove Boys. "I won't do it," he said, when Offutt told him of the proposed wrestling match. "I never tussle and scuffle, and I will not.
Offutt, for he soon bought Cameron's mill at the historic dam, and made Abraham superintendent also of that branch of the business. It is to be surmised that Offutt never inspired his neighbors and customers with any deep regard for his solidity of character. One of them says of him with injurious pleonasm, that he "talked too much with his mouth."
This Jack Armstrong was held so high by Bill Clary, "father" of the Grove boys, that he bet with Offutt, over-loud in praise of his help, that Jack could beat Abe, "and your Abe has got to be initiated, anyway!"
He liked its politics, and was particularly delighted with its wit and humor, of which he had the keenest appreciation. At this era Lincoln was as famous for his skill in athletic sports as he was for his love of books. Mr. Offutt, who had a strong regard for him, according to Mr.
Offutt was what is called in the West a "hustler"; he had lots of "great ideas" and plans for making money; and, among his numerous enterprises, was one to open a country store and mill at New Salem the very same village on the Sangamon where, by his "patent invention," Lincoln had lifted the flat-boat off the snags. Mr.
Denton Offutt that he backed his Abraham Lincoln to beat their Jack Armstrong in a wrestling match. He did beat him; moreover, some charm in the way he bore himself made him thenceforth not hated but beloved of Clary's Grove in general, and the Armstrongs in particular.
His appearance did not invite insolence; his reputation for strength and activity was a greater protection to him than his inoffensive good-nature. But the loud admiration of Offutt gave them umbrage. It led to dispute, contradictions, and finally to a formal banter to a wrestling-match. Lincoln was greatly averse to all this "wooling and pulling," as he called it.
This was probably a task not requiring much pilot-craft, as the river was much swollen, and navigators had in most places two or three miles of channel to count upon. But Offutt and his goods arrived at last, and Lincoln and he got them immediately into position, and opened their doors to what commerce could be found in New Salem. There was clearly not enough to satisfy the volatile mind of Mr.
"During that winter Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flat-boat from Beardstown, Illinois, to New Orleans, and for that purpose were to join him Offutt at Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go off.
The only thing he accomplished was what he did every winter and every summer of his life: namely, he made many friends. When spring opened, Denton Offutt decided to send a cargo of merchandise down to New Orleans. Hearing that Lincoln, John Hanks, and John Johnston were "likely boys," he employed them to take charge of the enterprise.
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