Abraham Lincoln: Amazing Wrestler This week we're running a
series of posts by Matt Soniak about Abraham Lincoln's foray
into forensic meteorology. If you missed the first installment
yesterday, check it out. In the summer of 1831, 22-year-old
Abraham Lincoln arrived in New Salem, a small town along the
Sangamon River in Menard County, Illinois. He had come there to
work as a clerk for a man named Offut, a local store owner.
Offut liked Lincoln and tended to brag about the new clerk to
his customers, claiming Lincoln could outrun or outfight any man
in the county. Bill Clary, whose family was the namesake of a
settlement southwest of town called Clary's Grove, was skeptical
of Offut’s boasts. Clary’s Grove was known for a group of young
toughs led by Jack Armstrong. Historian Benjamin Thomas called
the Clary’s Grove Boys a “rough and boisterous, happy-go-lucky
crowd” that “came to New Salem to drink, gossip, trade and play.
Physical strength and courage were their ideals. In individual
and free-for-all fights