R. C. Keyes to Mr. Lucas, Jan. 19, 1943

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Springfield, Ills.
Jany 19, 1943

Dear Mr. Lucas:

Your letter of the 18 was recieved this AM and sure[?] very glad to hear from you and will try to do my best to relate what I know of our immortal Lincoln.

I was born on July 15th, 1848 on my Father's Farm just 2 miles east of the Capital Building.  Now our Sangamon County Court House --- and when old enough to ride with my father on the highway, in our farm wagon we met Mr. Lincoln on his horse Bobin many times, and often stop, and he father call out, Hi Abe or vice versa.  Gershom[?] and I made up my mind those 2 men were very close friends and they were [?] They would talk farm work or sometimes law.  As Mr. Lincoln was called the Circuit Rider he would pass our farm, several times a week often to try cases in law Decatur [?], Vandalia, Edinburg, Mt. Pulaski, so you see I lived all this time on the farm until I was 21, which would take July 15, 1869 to become of age of 21 to look out for my self.   We had a large family 5 boys and 5 girls.  I was the third we had a home of 7 rooms all on ground floor with 8 out-side doors.  Our 10 children and raised 2 boys until they were old enough to go out into the